Spring Travels

It has been a while since our last blog.  With the arrival of Spring, we have gotten really busy with our Water Project.  We had all of the preliminary work finished before the weather changed and so the construction was able to begin with the warmer weather.  Armenia is a very mountainous country.  So, obviously, it doesn't get warm in all of the villages at the same time.  We are doing villages all over the country. We have already closed or completed some of the villages in the lower elevations and some of the higher elevations are just starting.  This year has had an unusual amount of rain.  Isn't that surprising, unusual weather.  We both feel that the Armenian children are among the most beautiful children that we have ever seen, so we take pictures of them whenever we can.

Isn't she beautiful!

Recess at a Village Kindergarten

 Part of our tasks as the Humanitarian Missionaries is to supervise the construction phase of the Water Projects.  We have to ensure that the trenches are dug deep enough, the connections are proper and the back fill is done right.  We also ensure that the pipes are the proper thickness.  We accompany N'shan our water engineer on the visits to the villages.  We typically go with him two or three days a week.  Once the construction is complete, including the installation of at least one fountain in the village, we hold a closing ceremony.  This includes a pretty young girl bringing us a loaf of bread with salt in the center.  We break off a piece of the bread and dip it into the salt and eat it.  This symbolizes life.  We then cut a ribbon on the fountain and the Mayor makes a short speech, and Elder Rich makes a really short speech.  We then share a refreshment of fruit, cake and fruit juice.  No vodka for our closings.

A well dug trench.

A very happy villager.  They have not seen water in the village for years.

A very poor village.  They don't care about the rain, only that they will have water.

Our next visit to Saralandj. One of the workers put on his suit for this visit.  He was unhappy because he was in his work clothes for the last picture.  See above.

 This is the Mayors office, it is in a box.

We are in the process of putting together a Major Vision Project.  The Church will provide some equipment and training to a group of local doctors. This is typically about a $75,000 project.  Our task was to find suitable candidates for the project and then host the Short Term Specialists when they came to Armenia to put the project together.  We had only found one candidate for the project up to three days before the arrival of the Short Term Specialists.  All of a sudden we had another three candidates.  We were able to visit all of them prior to Dr Fogg coming here.  He told us that the perfect candidate was a doctor that was qualified to use the equipment and a suitable clinic with a shortage of equipment.  One of the main problems is finding a qualified doctor.  There are a lot of doctors here in Armenia, but many lack the qualification to do surgery.  We were handed a newly refurbished clinic in Aparan.  This clinic is in the center of a Marz or state and will service about 200,000 people.  They have no equipment and the head Ophthalmologist is a woman by the name of Hasmik.  She specializes in children.  She has a staff of many other Eye Doctors and they do surgeries all over Armenia.  This is the perfect candidate.  We know that our prayers were answered and we were guided to the Aparan Clinic.  It is humbling to be a tool in the Lord's hand.

This was our pre-visit. N'shan told us about it and this is the chief surgeon of the clinic.

Dr Steve Fogg and Dr Gary Fogg at our apartment.

The Foggs and President Carter

Sunday dinner at our apartment.

Dr's Fogg and Dr Hasmik

We have to really admire Dr Fogg Senior.  He is a very prominent Ophthalmologist from Fresno.  He has been traveling all over the world for the last seven years putting together these Vision Projects.  What a great example he is of a true servant of the Lord.

Our projects have taken us all over Armenia.  We drove to Gyumri to check out an eye doctor.  The Church has a really nice chapel there.

Gyumri Chapel about two hours north west of Yerevan.

Lake Sevan. This picture only shows a small part of the lake.

On the way to Ijavan.

What do you do with old cars? Make a fence out of them.

The Aparan Bakery.

Baked in a hole in the floor.  The bread is wonderful.  You buy it straight from the oven.

We were able to take a day when the Foggs were here and see a couple of the local sites.  The first is Khor Virap.  This is a Church which has a pit in it that a famous Armenia, St Gregory was imprisoned in for many years.  This Church is right on the Turkish boarder.  It is really close to the most beautiful mountain in the world, Mt Ararat.  Unfortunately, the mountain  is usually hidden in the clouds.  We then went to Edjmiacin.  This is the headquarters of the Armenian Apostolic Church, or the Temple Square of Armenia.  We also visited the Genocide Monument.  It was starting to rain, so our touring was cut short.

Entrance to the pit at Khor Virap

The stairs in  the pit

Steve Fogg in  the pit

Khor Virap and Mt Ararat hiding behind the clouds.

Edjmiacin

Genocide Monument

We said Good-by to some really great Missionaries this month. We had a chance to teach with a few of them.  They are truly an example to all of us.  The Bluncks, from Santa Clara, UT really set the bar high on what Senior Missionaries should do.  We love them and look forward to seeing them when we come home next year.  Elders Pulsipher, Garner and Jonas were all AP's. What great young men.  We will really miss them.

Elder Garner

Elder Pulsipher

Elder Jonas

Elder and Sister Blunck

We love our Mission, we love Armenia and we love the Lord.