Water, Water Everywhere, and Easter

One of  LDS Charities main functions here in Armenia is helping the villages with their water problems.  There are 933 villages in Armenia. The water systems, pipes and valves, in 600 of these villages are owned by the government.  LDS C works with the other 333.  These are the drinking water systems.  In most of the villages that we work with, the pipes were installed 40 or 50 years ago and they have long since rusted out.  Many of these villages have had no water in their homes for 20 or 25 years.  We provide new pipe and money for the construction.  We run the pipe down the streets and the villagers make their own connections to get the water into their homes.  Prior to this they have to walk to some water source, fill up containers and carry them back home.  Needless to say, they do not have indoor plumbing.  The evaluations as to which villages we work on depend on the need.  A village with no water inside of the village will have a higher priority to one that does have some water.  Our water engineer, Nshan, is the chief engineer for the Congress and knows the water systems in every village in Armenia.  He has worked part time for LDS C for several years and is a valuable asset.

Leaky Water Pipe, this leads to contaminated water.

Walk a mile to fill your bucket from this dribble of water.

This year we selected 31 villages to work on with a cost of about $600,000.  The next step is for the water engineer to design the systems for each village.  After we get the project approved, we have a meeting with all of the Mayors.  We talk about the project and they sign their contracts.  They agree to provide a lot of the labor.  They have no problem with this because they are very happy to get the new pipes.

This was one of the two Mayors meetings that we held.

What would a meeting be without refreshments.

When spring arrives, we go to work, so do the villagers.  The entire county doesn't dry all at once.  We have some villages in the mountains and some in the flat farmlands.

Digging the trench.

Making a connection to get water to the house.

Nshan and Elder Rich checking the thickness of the pipe.

This is as far as we currently are on the 31 villages.  Some of the villages haven't started yet.  We will update the blog as the work continues.  This water project will consume the majority of our time for the next four or five months.

Missionaries, Baptism and Easter

We just finished a great and very memorable weekend.  It was Easter and Elder Rich's birthday. On Saturday, the 23d of April, Elder Rich's birthday, we normally would have gone out to the villages to inspect the progress on the water project.  As it turned out, Nshan cancelled the trip because of the weather.  This proved to be one of those Missionary Miracles.  The birthday was not a big deal, because Elder Rich has had so many of them, that he really doesn't care about them, but....  We got a call from Elders Garner and Zebley from our Branch.  The young man that Elder Rich had been serving with in Young Men's had received his Mission Call and would be opening it at the Mission Office on Saturday afternoon at 1:00 P.M.  They also said that there were two men being Baptized on Saturday night at 6:00 P.M.  Elder and Sister Rich had been able to participate in teaching both of these good men.  Normally, we would have been in the field on Saturday and would have missed both of these events.  We were able to attend both.  We felt like the Lord was really helping us.  Elder Rich was asked to confirm one of the men in Church on Sunday.

Sahak before he opened his call.  He is really excited.

Elders Garner and Zebley and Sahak being called to the California, Arcadia Mission.

Siren and Karen and the rest of us.

Easter

They grow live grass for their Easter decorations.

Our Easter Basket and lunch

Christinia and her daughters and YW gift to Primary.

Armenian Easter decoration.

 A new Missionary

We helped set apart Zara as a full time Missionary.  She is going to Temple Square.

 We love being Missionaries and we love Armenia.  We love all of you.
Elder and Sister Rich

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