Bringing Armenia Home

Although we are not in Armenia right now, I, Kalem, continue to incorporate Armenian village life into our "county island" city life.  We have increased our chickens from 10 before Armenia to about 20 now.  Recently, we got a mother sheep with two baby girl lambs that were born on Easter.  This was in exchange for butchering services (of which I learned in Armenia) of this same mother's offspring from last year.  Actually, the son impregnated both the mother and the sister!  Our son Frank when explaining how we have a mother and babies with out a father, he gladly offers, "we ate the dad!"  This mother will probably also fall under my knife in about a month or two, once the lambs are properly weaned (let me know if anyone is interested in watching).  

There are a few of the older and fatter chicken that I think I would like to kill as well.  One especially the alpha hen of the group, manages to get into the neighbors yard but can't get back into ours.  Pretty much the list for being slaughter ready on our egg farm is as follows: 1. turning out to be a rooster (12 chickens died this way that we raised from chicks, in addition to the two quail we had), 2. segregation, not mixing with the other hens (2 this way) 3. being of age and not producing eggs. (same two) 4. Having some disease (3 this way, but we didn't eat these), and 5. For causing general problems in the chicken coup, having a bad attitude, or escaping regularly (the alpha chicken will die for this).  

We have also started composting with worms.  We take food garbage, minus meat and fat, plus napkins and paper towels, and mix it with shredded newspaper, and yard waste like straw leaves or grass clippings, and bury it.  I take a hand full of worms, from the established area (I mail ordered them originally from the worm dude), and mix the worms in with the compost, add a thin layer of dirt on top to keep the flies away, and then I put an old window screen on top to keep the chickens out, and I have a sprinkler that keeps the area moist.  The castings, dark, rich, fertilizer is then great natural organic fertilizer for our garden, lawn, trees and other plants.  The worm population will double every 2 to 3 months in ideal conditions, the worms also become a protein treat for the chickens. 

When we want to get rid of harmful bugs or do some light tilling around the garden plants we let the chickens in for natural pest control.  It is an age old cycle that we are glad to be incorporating into our lives.  Some times the animals get out and cause more harm than good, but we are learning to deal with this.  

Attitude of Gratitude Video

The "Kazarian's In Armenia 2008 - Attitude of Gratitude" video is now
available for viewing via YouTube. video.kazarian.net or you can go
direct at http://www.youtube.com/user/kazarianfamily, or the link to
the side of the page about the kids video.

SLIDESHOW TIME

Join us for light snacks and a video presentation of our trip to Armenia, including our special guest Gohar Palyan direct from Armenia. She will share about her work with Armenian Habitat, and the Fuller Center. We will have a question and answer time following the presentation. We hope you can make it, to our house, Sunday, December 7, 3:30PM evite invitation: http://www.evite.com/pages/invite/viewInvite.jsp?inviteId=CYIBLIIZNASMXOIBOWCN#

Back in Our House

We have moved back into our home in Fresno, Kalem is looking for a
permanent job, while filling in with construction projects, and
Jonelle is continuing to homeschool the kids, and unpack boxes. We
missed our home, and are glad to be back. We continue to process the
experiences we had while in Armenia. Please continue to pray for us
as God puts it on your heart, some of the most difficult work
associated with this trip is being done right now, as we talk and pray
as a couple and seek Gods healing, provision, and direction. We will
announce a date for a dinner slideshow at Lilly's restaurant soon, for
now we are beginning to take invitations for dinner at your house to
share about the trip.

Back Home

We are back! Some highlights from the return trip: We left Armenia
on schedule, and enjoyed movies on British Airways flight operated by
BMI. In London, we made it to the proper terminal and gate with
plenty of time and settled into our seats on the plane, when after
about an hour of sweating in "the back of the bus" they unloaded all
of the passengers, to continue working on a faulty part of the
electrical system for the lighting and air conditioning. They fixed
the part and then it broke again, this is when they handed out $10
food vouchers to each passenger, so we ate and waited. Once on board
four hours later the kids fell asleep immediately, we ate dinner and
watched movies and slept, and 11 hours later we were in LA. Going
through customs one of Kalem's favorite parts is when the officer
says, "Welcome home." On the baggage belt things were going good
until the last bag could not be found. An employee said some bags
were left in London, but then the next morning we got a call from
another passenger that they mistakenly took our bag. Several hours
were wasted trying to connect directly with this family and ultimately
we just left, so now we are waiting for British Airlines to ship our
bag to us. We were quite surprised how neither customs nor the rental
car company, took very much interest in checking for illegal items,
and damages respectively. All that behind us we are extremely glad to
be home and are now fighting jet lag as we settle in. The kids are
actually kind of funny as they wake up in the middle of the night and
say that they are hungry.

Coming Home

We have begun our return trip home already, with a short transition in
Yerevan at a relatives house, for a couple of days, and then we will
travel home via British Airways through London. We have many stories
to tell and will continue to update the blog with some of our past
experiences, as well as some thoughts as we transition back to
American culture. We plan to lay low for a couple of weeks, as we
process the experience. We are trying to put together a book
compiling our past blogs, with some new an never posted blogs, to give
a fuller picture of our experiences in Armenia. More details to come.

Internet

Irony of all ironies is this, we have been living in this village for
four months now, without even the hope of an internet connection, and
two days before we are to leave our neighbor announced that they got
their internet to work! You know I tried everything that I could do
to get a connection for us, but some times it helps to know someone.
It took our neighbor's cousin who works at the phone company to
personally take their phone back, reprogram it and personally come set
it up. Today I was one of the first people to surf the net from this
village. Now this may not seem very impressive to you, but if you
think about the donkey "Eeawing" in the background, the burning dung,
the horse drawn cart, the dirt roads, and the mountains on every side
of this village, it is very impressive. As our neighbors put it "it's
a pity we didn't get the internet sooner," we do feel blessed to have
been here and to see God answer yet another one of our prayer
request. Although it is not always the way we would want or in our
timing, He is faithful.
On a side note just as I was coming into Gyumri to send this email,
and print the last batch of photos to leave in the village, I noticed
they had begun fixing the road entering Gyumri coming from
Lusaghbyur. This road is really a night mare, for about 1/2 a mile
and has been like that as long as I can remember. Add that to the
irony that as we are leaving the road that we use most is finally
getting fixed. Lusaghbyur is slowly becoming a more comfortable place
to live, especially for the four families that have remodeled homes
this year!