Armenia- Part 3 Women's Day

And here we are, I've only been home for 6 weeks and I'm still working on getting my photos up...We started Women's day by walking with another woman from our workshop to show her where our friends Tatevik and Gohar live so she could interview them and take pictures of Tatevik's beautiful art. Their little Domik is hard to find so we enjoyed a bit of a long walk on a beautiful morning. Once we arrived we gave a brief introduction then left so they could do their interview. Near their home, there is a large crumbling dorm building that we had walked by countless times but never entered. We could see that a couple families were still living in it because some smoke from a wood stove was coming from the window. We decided to go in. The whole ground floor of this building is missing a significant amount of walls.

 

Photo Anna

Photo by Anna

Photo by Anna

 

So we just knocked on the door of a room that seemed to be occupied, and a wonderful family invited us in. We laughed with them, shared our family photos, shared stories, and they let us photograph them. 

These wonderful girls have been best friends since birth, they giggled, told secrets to each other in front of me, and even mentioned the boys they liked.

They don't need much to find happiness. Such a wonderful example to me. 

they were thinking I'm crazy at this point!

 We thanked them for their time and left them with some Dove chocolates.

We headed back to the hotel for our time to meet with John about our photos then we went to the little store for some lunch. This is how they sell their fresh bread. 

When we left our hotel there was a wedding starting at the church right next to us so we just decided to join. 

 Then, in the main square we saw this legitimate princess horse carriage. Then we found out that you can pay them to take a loop around the square. We had Siranush with us and Anna loved the idea of taking her to do this so she treated us to a carriage ride. It was so random and great!

photo by Anna

Photo by Anna....'s camera!

Photo by Anna's camera again!

Since it was International Women's day we wanted to do something special for the wonderful women we knew. We definitely wanted to go back to Tatevik and Gohar's house to see how the interview went and to wish them a Happy Women's day. We walked there again. We decided to gift tatevik some paints and we also purchased and were given fruit and flowers on our walk to their house so we were excited to share those with them as well. Tatevik was so grateful for the paints!

Gohar (the mom) had made some delicious flaky gata that we enjoyed during our visit. 

 I love that her easel is an old piano. Is that not beautiful?

 

Also, the painting that she is working on in this photo is one that she gave to me during our last visit with her before returning home and it now hangs in our dining room. 

Group Photo!

In the later afternoon, we went to a village a little ways out of Gyumri.  It seemed to be a party spot for many to celebrate Women's day because we ran into a lot of drunk men. There were families there celebrating too. We first visited a cold little soorp building. Soorp means "holy" and it is the word they use for shrine, and they are all over Armenia. Another indicator of Armenians faith and belief in God.

We then mingled with some of the families.  I focused on photographing the kids, Anna seemed to get in some great conversations with drunk men. Siranush may have been embarrassed by us (Anna). haha!

Eating Lavash

We walked a little way along the path where there were handkerchiefs tied on all the trees. Apparently they believed that if they brought a handkerchief of a sick loved one and tied it here then their loved one would be healed. 

Photo by Anna

Photo by Anna

There was a large rock with a whole in it, you are supposed to somehow go through it and it represents being born again with Christ or something like that. It was awkward and a little claustrophobic. I think I will just continue to go to church and take the Sacrament to show my devotion to Christ. 

Photo by Anna

After our trip to the village we went back to Gyumri and had dinner at another restaurant with Siranush and Allah, (and her daughter) Going out to eat was the best, we almost always spent less than $2 on a meal!

Photo by Anna

Photo by Anna

 Lama Jos!

We stayed until the sun set then walked back to the hotel.  It was a lovely International Women's day and it was great to be in a country that actually celebrates it. And Don't you worry, I still have almost a week left of my trip to blog about!