Armenia- Part 2

And then it was Sunday! We started our day off by attending the Armenian Apostolic Church. We weren't able to visit their church services when we were missionaries so we were pleased to attend as tourist.

The church service was fascinating, there was a lot of chanting and singing, incense and candles. The woman had their heads covered and many would often kneel and kiss the floor.

And since my project had changed to Armenian children, I stopped a whole lot of children to take their picture. This isn't weird like it would be in America. Most people were just so excited that we spoke Armenian.

We then made our way to the Gyumri LDS ward. This was another highlight for me since we were returning to so many wonderful people who loved us dearly. We were so happy to see so many familiar faces and so many were excited to see us. It was Fast and Testimony meeting so Anna and I were bold enough to share our testimonies in Armenian.  it was amazing to see the growth and strength in the church. The bishop, who was a newly returned missionary when I was a missionary there, leads the church in righteousness and the members benefit from his faith and righteousness. Maybe it doesn't make much sense in the words here, but to see that he really cares about each individual, including our converts, really made us happy. 

Photo by Anna

And this little girl was obsessed with us.

Naturally I went to the Children's Primary class because I was photographing children and Siranush is the President.

We took a little break from church to visit a nearby neighbor hood, found some colorful beehives...

...and got invited in by a lovely lady who had juice, nuts, and candy on the table within five minutes. Armenian hospitality is the best!

Photo by Anna

The kind lady also took us to visit her neighbor, because that just seems to be what happens in Armenian, you become instant friends and they want you to meet all their friends. It's wonderful.

After church we went around with Allah, Siranush's sister in their neighborhood while we waited for her other sister Suzi, who was cooking us some pirashkis. (I realized we had Dolma the day before, not Pirashkis, I know this is a little detail but whatever, we were so happy that Siranush's family was willing to cook us some glorious Armenian meals.

So, we went around with Allah to visit the neighbors, I got a whole bunch of pictures with her daughter because she was just to photogenic, and spunky.

When we got back to Siranush's house her nephew was there too and those little cousins were just so great and fun together.

After a filling meal, we went to visit Mayranush and her mother. This was a fun family that we loved to visit as missionaries. They gave me a huge birthday party when I wasn't even expecting it. This was a wonderful part of our trip. We laughed so hard and had the best time just being normal people and friends.

Photo by Anna

Photo by Anna

Photo by Anna

Photo by Anna

Of course they put food out on the table for us.

Photo by Anna

Photo by Anna

Here is the photo we took 8.5 years ago on my birthday with Mayranush and her mom. 

So we of course did some comparative photos when we went back!

This was such a fun evening.

It was cold and blustery so we sat a taxi back to the hotel.

Sidenote but important detail that I just remembered. When we were driving up to Gyumri from Yerevan we couldn't help but notice the snow on the ground and the apparent bleakness of the spot we chose to "Vacation" I started having a mini panic attack that I could have gone someplace warm with my whole family for the price I paid for myself to go to Armenia and participate in this photo workshop. I was wondering how my husband was so okay with me just running off to Armenia and spending a bunch of money for a vacation for myself. Luckily once we met with Siranush all those worries vanished and I was so happy to be there, even if I did miss my family.

In the evening we went over our photos with John, even with it being so intimidating sometime, it was great to see the improvement of my photos and gain valuable information from each one-on-one meeting with him.
I think this was the night that the other Armenian woman that was helping with the workshop, Nazik, shared her photo story about the Survivors of the Armenian Genocide and a separate photostory about the transgender population in Yerevan. Both photostories had incredible photography and here is a link to Nazik's book about the Survivors of the Genocide. Survivors

And then we called it a night.

The next morning was Monday, we decided to go out to a village where a church member lived who had invited us out there. Once, we got there, we couldn't get a hold of the woman we were trying to visit and we had no idea where she lived. We decided to just go around and visit with the people we saw and we always got invited in for juice and snacks.

Also, it was a no-school day since it was the day before International Women's day, so I was able to take a lot of photos of children that were home.

And we see a whole lot of pigs out in the villages...

 

 We then started walking down the road and saw a house with a whole bunch of kids going inside. And Siranush is truly the best, she just went and knocked on the door and told them we were Americans that wanted to take pictures of Armenain Children and Armenian Life. And pretty much everytime, we were let in and fed with delicious juice and candy. 

These charming brothers didn't mind a little photo shoot.

He tried on a new shirt to show me and have me take his picture.

Photo by Anna

We then went down the street and asked a kind lady named Narine if she knew the woman we were looking for. She did, but of course, she invited us in for fruit and juice first. When we told her I was taking pictures of Armenian children, she went on and on about her wonderful 14 year old daughter, who was in the city with her grandparents for school. Since she wasn't there, I just took pictures of her things.

Photo by Anna

After some great snacking with Narine, she started taking us toward the home we were intending to go but then she told us about another family with children...so we visited them.

 

Photo by Anna

When we left this family, we were walking down the road and Anna had mentioned that she wanted to photograph some people making lavash. It just so happened that we were standing right next to a building where they were making lavash (Armenian flat bread) it is made in a small pit with a fire at the bottom, the bread dough is slapped on the side of the pit and cooks quickly, then is pulled out. We couldn't believe our luck! They were just so happy to have us there too! They were finishing up and handed us a bag full of lavash.

Then, we were directed to another family with kids who were about to start their "first lost tooth" party. We had never heard of such a thing but apparently a HUGE party is thrown when you lose your first tooth. The young girl that lost the tooth didn't seem too amused!

Like, it's a really big party!

And then...we finally found the home of the woman we were looking for originally. It was great going with the flow and meeting so many people in he process.

I didn't take any pictures of the woman (I feel awful I don't remember her name) but here is her son and her home.

After a fun little visit and giving them some American Dove chocolate, we left, she walked us to the marshutni stop to take us back into the city.

When we were back in Gyumri we decided to have a late lunch at kilikia grill. This is a favorite among missionaries and Siranush. I was taken there for lunch on my very first day in Armenia as a missionary so we felt it fitting to go back. Besides them forgetting to actually make our Shawrma, we had a great time, although I should have ordered it without pickles! Haha! 

Afterwards, we went back for a visit with Tatevik, it turned our that a woman from our photography workshop was doing a story on women Artist in Armenia and she was interested in meeting Tatevik. We stopped by their home to check if it would be okay for Suzy (the other photographer in the workshop) could come and interview her and take pictures. We planned with her but didn't stay long.

We found this precious little lady on the way back to the marshutni stop.

That's a a wrap for those days but don't you worry, there are still a whole lot of photos and stories coming and I will also share my final project once I finish tweaking it how I want it.


Also, pretty much every morning and night I was able to talk to my family. I called them when I woke up and they were getting ready for bed, and then I called them when I was coming in for the evening and they were waking up.

 

Sadly, a lot of the calls looked like this!