Busy Days - Feb / Mar 2011

As we move into Spring, we are getting fully into our work.  We thought we would share different pieces of what we do that keeps us so busy.  We had a Branch party in February.  There was talent and dancing and games.  We have two Elders, two Sister Missionaries and Elder and Sister Rich in the Branch.  The party included all of the young people, including the Primary.  The members really like to dance.  The style is a little different from what we are use to.

Sister Rich, Suzanna, Edgar and Sahak

The little girls enjoyed joining in.

We even got the Elders and Sisters to join in.

The next week we headed to the mountains to close an agriculture project.  We purchased some used farm equipment for the local people.  The village was about three hours north of Yerevan and we ran into snow on the way.  After we looked at the equipment, we went to a resort lodge in Stephanavan for the traditional BBQ.  We have done several projects with the farm group and their BBQ's are always wonderful.  We bought them the rake and mower shown in the picture.

It is great wearing a suit in the snow.

The front of the lodge.

This was a room at the back.  These are our two girls, Karmen and Suzi.

A first, a woman cooking BBQ.  This is normally a man's job.

The food was really good.  We only got stuck twice in the snow.

A few days later we went to a refugee village to look at a Kindergarten that we will help in refurbishing.  We do not do any construction, but we have two partners here that do.  We provide materials and they do the work.  We see Kindergartens, schools, hospitals that look like this all of the time.  They just break your heart.  We would like to do more, if only we had unlimited money.

Armine, Country Director for Counterpart, the Sis Mayor and the Kindergarten Directors.

Looks like the bathroom needs some work.

The kitchen is not too good either.

This is the village of Sis and we will show pictures of the renovation in a few months.  Counterpart will put up about $25,000 and LDSC about $5,000.

After looking in the village of Sis, it only makes sense to go to Masis.  Sis and Masis are the names of  the two mountain peaks on Mt Ararat.  In Masis, we looked at a hospital.  The Government pays the doctors salaries and if the patients are poor, the government pays for their care.  The doctors and the administrators are on their own for equipment and furnishings.  This is a 250 bed hospital and they need beds and bedding.  We met with the hospital administrator and we think we will be able to provide about 20 beds.  It isn't much, but it is a start.

The Director and one of his doctors. The bed isn't much.

Looks pretty bad.  They have a lot of them.

A patient room.

Sometimes we just sit and wait.

Waiting in the Mission Office.

We have gotten use to the money over here.  There are about 365 Dram per dollar.  We came across a 100,000 Dram note.

About $275

We had a wonderful Zone Conference.  This is a chance for us to get away from the rigors of the office and LDSC and get our spiritual batteries recharged. There were 10 Senior Missionaries at the conference.

We had BBQ for lunch.

Some of the finest young people we have ever known.

Our Zone.

We have started our Water Project, but that will be the subject of another blog.  Armenia celebrated Women  Day and the Branch had a party to celebrate it, along with Lia getting her Visa so that she can serve her Mission on Temple Square and we have had three babies in the Branch.  This was a combination party.  Armenians love parties and celebrations.

Three sets of presents for the three new babies.

Where there are Armenian women, there is great food.

Plaf - Hand molded rice topped with chicken, onions and carrots.

Our Branch Presidents wife, Laura and her Plaf and it was really good.

Donuts and sweets left over from our Mayors meeting.  We added them to the table.

We drove north to a village clinic.  They need some equipment.  They want a blood analyzer.  They have to do it under a microscope now.  This clinic takes care of about 5000 people at a rate of 100 per day.  They have very little.  The Missionaries are not allowed to enter any hospital, clinic or doctors office for fear of catching something.  We are in them routinely.

Karbi Clinic and their beloved microscope, which was purchased by the nurse.

Their ECG machine, provided by some other Humanitarian Organization.

This is what they have to treat the people with.

On the way back to Yerevan, we drove past this site.  We had to stop and take a picture.  You will recognize it, but it is not the real deal.

Did you see that?

Things are not always as they seem.  A knock-off.

Later that night we went to the Mission Home where Lia was set apart as a full time Missionary. She left for Salt Lake City  the next morning.  It has taken about six months for all of the paperwork and the Visa.

Lia and her father.

She had a lot of support that night.

A few days later we went out to the country to see about a cow project.  We will buy a few cows and they will take care of them and provide the dairy products to the poor and needy in the area.  It is a good project.  The farm had four generations living on it, which is typical for Armenian village living.

The farmer and his wife and their barn.

Typical multi generation farmhouse from the outside.

We love Armenian children and their papik.

On the same day we visited another village clinic. This one was really isolated.  They had a new building, but there was nothing in it.  The doctor wanted a mixer and analyzer.  We would like to give them some furniture also.

Nice building.

No furniture.

We received a package from home.  Now these are what we call chocolate chips.  We can really pack on the weight with Sister Rich's wonderful chocolate chip cookies.

Happy Missionaries.

These pictures were taken over about a four week period. In addition to what we have shown, we held a Mayors meeting to start construction on our new water project, visited two villages to inspect their work, and met with the government to look into doing both  a neonatal resuscitation project as well as a vision project. In addition, Elder Rich is the Young Men's President and Sister Rich is the Young Women's President.  We do stay busy.  We are really loving our Mission.  The Church is true and we are thankful to be able to serve here in Armenia.  We are also very  thankful for all of you that support us and make this all possible.

We love you.

Elder and Sister Rich

Bits and Pieces Jan/Feb 2011

As we start the new year.  We have gotten use to our new apartment.  We enjoy the 1 plus mile walk to work each day.  We ride the bus home a lot of the time because it is up hill.  We have learned to live in and really enjoy Armenia.  We discovered a little restaurant around the corner from the Mission Office, which we refer to as the "Around the Corner Cafe" not to be confused with our favorite Italian Restaurant, the "Corner Cafe", which is no longer on a corner since they moved, but that is another story.  The Around the Corner Cafe has really good Armenian food.  There are a couple of old guys that come in an play music each evening.  We showed them that it is okay to dance to their music.

The "Band"

The "Entertainment"

Buying eggs is another adventure.  They are not refrigerated and they are sitting on flats with 30 eggs.  You tell the store keeper how many you want and they put them in a plastic bag. If the lady knows you, she will pick out the cleanest ones for you.  We do wash them when we get them home.  It is a good thing that the shells are much harder than the eggs at home.  We are still very careful with the bag.

A bag of eggs

 There is a young man in our Branch who decided that if a Church were to be true that it would have to be centered around Jesus Christ.  He did some internet research and found the LDS Church.  By the time the Missionaries got to him, he had read the Book of Mormon a couple of times and knew that it was true.  He is destined to be someone in the Church in Armenia.  He taught the lesson in  Young Men's his third Sunday in the Church. His Baptism was a very spiritual experience.

Edgar and the Elders

Edgars mother, grandmother and brother

We went out to Edjmiacin to look at some new projects.  This town is west of Yerevan and is the headquarters for the Armenian Apostolic Church, or the Temple Square of Armenia.  We went out to a farm and got acquainted with a few animals.  We then went to a Dental Clinic for lunch, which they prepared there.

Cute little critter

These will make great pork chops someday

This one wanted to know what was going on

Chickens scratching around

The farmer and the dentist that supports him

A way of cooking BBQ inside

It produced really good BBQ chicken

We like to drink Coke Light and since we are always walking, you don't get large quantities.  In fact most of Armenia shops on a daily basis.  We have found a small shop up the street from the office that stocks Coke Light.  All we have to do is show up and the guy comes out and gets the bottle of soda, puts it in a plastic bag and we pay him his 550 dram ( about $1.50 ).

The coolers are normally outside, because the shops are really small.

The coolers are kept locked and are not self serve

When we lived in Yarat Mas, it was lower that it is here on Komitas Street.  We would get rain there, but we get snow here.  We have awakened a couple of times to snow.  They don't do any snow removal here so it just stays on the ground.  We bought Yak Traks at REI before we came. They clamp to the bottom of our shoes and give us good traction in the snow.  There is a gas station across the street from our apartment and we were surprised to see what they did with the snow that was on the ground there.

We are definitley not in St George

Sis and Masis ( the peaks of Mt Ararat )

The night crew had too much time on their hands.

The young women were assigned to clean the Church.  This is Lia.  She has received her Mission Call for Temple Square.  She also holds 5 different callings including Young Woman's President in our Branch.  She is a real bundle of energy.

If you get to Temple Square, tell her hello, after she gets her Visa

The seniors all went out to a French Restaurant for Valentines dinner.  It was a lot of fun.We not only had most of the Seniors in Yerevan, but we also had President and Sister Carter and President and Sister Budd.  President Budd is in the military and assigned as the military attache to the US Embassy.  He and his family are a delight.  He also serves as a councilor in the Mission Presidency.

Fortunately Elder Jones reminded me to get a flower

Sister Rich agreed to be my valentine

Pres Budd sucking on a pixie stick.  He was really happy

This is a group of really fine people serving the Lord

We love Armenia and our Mission.  The time is really going by fast.  We don't know if we can live with out Armenian or Georgian bread on a daily basis. We want to thank all of you for your sustaining prayers and support.  We can feel the strength from all of those grandchildren praying for us.  We miss all of you and you are in our prayers each day.  We are glad that the Lord can understand our Armenian prayers.

We Have Been Transfered

A cold snowy day for our last day at Shengavits.

Ours is the second floor above Sister Rich. Blue door entrance to the right.

Our stairwell, this is really nice for Armenia.

Door to apartment.

House warming gift from landlady.  She doesn't know about our non-drinking.

Cloak closet.

View out the back.

View out the front.  This is Komitas street.

Elder Rich's work space.

Music corner.

We don't have chairs, we have thrones.

Seating for our court.

Snowy view in the evening out of the kitchen window.

Master bedroom.  We are getting some tables and lamps.

The clothes closet. Small balcony through the curtains.

Kitchen.

Landlady was really proud of the new toilet. We asked for the seat to be added.

Bathroom, toilet, washroom and shower. A real shower this time.

The china closet.  Most Armenian apartments have these.

Music corner, dining table and hot water heating system.

We can talk to people at the outside door and buzz them in.

Seniors normally do not get transferred, but our Mission President asked us to move closer to the office.  We were commuting about an hour each way, we can now walk it in about 20 minutes.  He also asked us to change branches. We were very comfortable in Shengavits and we really loved our Branch, even though no one spoke English.  But when your Church Leader asks you to do something, you just do it.  We are paying about 200 dollars more a month for the new apartment.  We are sure that we will like it.  It is really nice to be able to take a shower and not get cold and get water all over the floor.  We also like sitting at the kitchen table and looking out at the street.  There is a radiator right by the window and Sister Rich loves to sit by it.  She uses the kitchen table as her work space.

The advantage of being closer to the office is that we have more time to do other things.  We will go out with the Elders in our new Branch teaching tonight.  This will make the third time this week.  It is really great to be able to do "real" Missionary work, in addition to the LDSC work.  It is amazing the Blessing that you get when you do what your Church leaders ask you to do.

We really love our Mission and we love Armenia.  It took us a little time to adjust to things here.  We appreciate all of your prayers on our behalf.  We keep all of you in our prayers.  We are sure that the Lord understands the Armenglish that we use for our prayers.