We started off the day on our favorite bus and headed to our favorite unfinished
house. A couple of good laughs and some more pictures of Ararat along the way and
we arrived at the site.
We shuffled off of the bus and Leo kept David occupied by engaging him in some very "interesting" conversation about the local soccer teams. This was just a ploy, as inside there was a birthday cake and a suprise waiting for David T. Although his birthday was not until Wednesday, we wanted to suprise him and celebrate with the people on the site. "Happy Birthday" was sung and Tigran, the father, gave David a nice gift of an eagle statuette. Leo gave an excellent speech about being able and willing to celebrate your 16th birthday in another country, doing great work for great people.
After some delicious chocolate cake, it was back to work. Today we were tackling the jobs inside the house. We started off "scraping" the sandstone walls inside the house. The walls are rough to the touch and need to be smoothed out a little before the plaster is applied. The team got to work and we were done and dusty in no time.
After the scraping, the plaster was mixed and the team started applying it to the walls. I think there was a bit of a learning curve, but we soon found our groove and became fairly efficient applying the plaster smoothly,quickly and efficiently.
After a delicious lunch (kebabs, potatoes, salad, gata and leftover birthday cake), the group played a unique game of soccer/volley ball to clear out our dusty lungs. The evening before Matt had purchased a soccer ball for the local boys and we were able to break it in for hopefully a big game later in the week.
After building up a little sweat, we returned inside and continued to apply our plaster. By the end of the day, we had completed one bedroom and covered most of the other walls in the rooms and hallway with only the main sitting area left untouched. Towards the end of the day, we were lucky to be visited by Tigran and Sylvie's daughter, ten year old daughter Hasmik. She had not been able to visit us thus far and this was our first chance to sit and chat with her. Everyone fell in love with her and she fell in love with Hannah and Rachel. Nuneh was helpful in translating and we were able to hear about local life for a ten year old girl.
After some more work we took several minutes to clean our supplies and head back to
the bus for the drive home. No rest for the weary as we only had an hour after we
got home to shower up and get ready for dinner. Or at least the weary had to rest fast and on the trip back!
Dinner was at a local restaurant (Chardash) which Leo had forgotten that he had been to before. This was evident because we took a very circuitous route and
asking many locals for directions. After a long walk, we finally found the place and settled in for more food. After some appetizers, we were treated to our first taste of dolma in Armenia (actually, little 'sarmas' or meat wrapped in grapeleaves). This was the highlight of the meal although we had some beef as well.
After dinner we were ready for our long walk back as we exited the building. Leo
and many in the group were so confused by our walk to get there, that when we cut through an alley right outside the restaurant, we discovered we were only half a block from Republic Square. A short walk home and we're ready to rest for our sightseeing day off tomorrow.
By David Sayian
house. A couple of good laughs and some more pictures of Ararat along the way and
we arrived at the site.We shuffled off of the bus and Leo kept David occupied by engaging him in some very "interesting" conversation about the local soccer teams. This was just a ploy, as inside there was a birthday cake and a suprise waiting for David T. Although his birthday was not until Wednesday, we wanted to suprise him and celebrate with the people on the site. "Happy Birthday" was sung and Tigran, the father, gave David a nice gift of an eagle statuette. Leo gave an excellent speech about being able and willing to celebrate your 16th birthday in another country, doing great work for great people.
After some delicious chocolate cake, it was back to work. Today we were tackling the jobs inside the house. We started off "scraping" the sandstone walls inside the house. The walls are rough to the touch and need to be smoothed out a little before the plaster is applied. The team got to work and we were done and dusty in no time.
After the scraping, the plaster was mixed and the team started applying it to the walls. I think there was a bit of a learning curve, but we soon found our groove and became fairly efficient applying the plaster smoothly,quickly and efficiently.After a delicious lunch (kebabs, potatoes, salad, gata and leftover birthday cake), the group played a unique game of soccer/volley ball to clear out our dusty lungs. The evening before Matt had purchased a soccer ball for the local boys and we were able to break it in for hopefully a big game later in the week.
After building up a little sweat, we returned inside and continued to apply our plaster. By the end of the day, we had completed one bedroom and covered most of the other walls in the rooms and hallway with only the main sitting area left untouched. Towards the end of the day, we were lucky to be visited by Tigran and Sylvie's daughter, ten year old daughter Hasmik. She had not been able to visit us thus far and this was our first chance to sit and chat with her. Everyone fell in love with her and she fell in love with Hannah and Rachel. Nuneh was helpful in translating and we were able to hear about local life for a ten year old girl.After some more work we took several minutes to clean our supplies and head back to
the bus for the drive home. No rest for the weary as we only had an hour after we
got home to shower up and get ready for dinner. Or at least the weary had to rest fast and on the trip back!Dinner was at a local restaurant (Chardash) which Leo had forgotten that he had been to before. This was evident because we took a very circuitous route and
asking many locals for directions. After a long walk, we finally found the place and settled in for more food. After some appetizers, we were treated to our first taste of dolma in Armenia (actually, little 'sarmas' or meat wrapped in grapeleaves). This was the highlight of the meal although we had some beef as well.
After dinner we were ready for our long walk back as we exited the building. Leo
and many in the group were so confused by our walk to get there, that when we cut through an alley right outside the restaurant, we discovered we were only half a block from Republic Square. A short walk home and we're ready to rest for our sightseeing day off tomorrow.
By David Sayian
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