Village Trip

Well we finally made the trek to the village. By trek I mean, a
2-1/2 hour drive up hill (+3000 feet) through near blizzard conditions
for half of the trip, around the town of Aparan (these people are the
butt of many a joke here). With 6 people in our mini SUV, which
became more of a RV for Jonelle and the kids in the back since no one
had seat belts and the kids were up, down, forward, and backward.
Seat belt training is going to be a challenge when we get back to the
states. Only once did I loose control when a huge gust of wind blew
the car sideways across the slick icy road into a snow drift. I
quickly backed the car up and proceeded on. On the way back I
hydroplaned over a small lake that had formed in the middle of the
road. So now that we got all of that out of the way...

The village was covered in snow and soon our children were as well, as they were not accustomed to this much snow they jumped out of the car and into a huge field of fresh snow maybe thinking they walk across it, well they sunk to their short little waists.  And thus started the downward spiral of being wet, cold and uncomfortable. The crying soon followed, but not before we got a look inside the house.  The condition was a little worse than we thought, but not bad for no one living there for ten years.  There were some temporary wooden walls that divided the house into rooms, and beds in every space including the kitchen!  The only source of water was from a small sink in an enclosed portion of the porch, which was to be a future bathroom.
The homeowners mother, showed us around and told Jonelle not to worry about the present conditions and that her own daughter had lived there, and everything would be alright, and if she needed anything just to ask.  We came up with a rough plan with Habitat and hope to start work in a couple of weeks. We also had a look at a neighbors house who will be the next to have work done. There were about fifteen adults huddled around the wood stove in the middle of their living room, as Jonelle was already in the car with the kids and the heater on, needless to say it was absolutely freezing outside! I actually was thinking I might have had frost bite on my finger tips as I had them out while taking notes and drawing a floor plan. As we were leaving the neighbor two houses down approached us and verified that we were believers as if he had been expecting us, and invited us to the Bible study that mets in their home every week. What a blessing!  After a quick tour of the school we were off back to the warmer weather of Yerevan!