Update on village life

We have survived the first week in the village, and one of the next
families has already begun work on their house. The next couple
families will be soon to follow. The kids are cycling trough colds,
fevers, and various allergic reactions to the plants and food. It is
a very cold and wet environment and our house is even more humid from
all of the construction work. If you could please pray that we all
get and stay well, especially the kids who are particularly sensitive.
Things have been pretty busy settling in to the house, meeting our new
neighbors, and helping on their home construction. We hope to have
more blogs soon!

We've moved to the Village!

We have moved to the village. We have a flushing toilet a shower and
hot water, but as of yet no internet. You can call us via
international calling card (specific Armenia cards can be found at
armenian delis and grocery stores) 37425560308. We receive voice
messages on our Fresno phone number via our email. Our postal address
is Kalem Kazarian, Lusaghbyur Village, Lori Region, Armenia,
094652088. We hope to continue to update the blog site as we make
trips into town, and of course we love getting emails and comments
from you. Our email addresses are our (first name)@(our last
name).net and we hope to find a way to get internet here, until then
there will be delays between our blog posts and replies to emails. We
have plenty of new and even better stories so keep checking. We
welcome our first volunteer Linda Shekerjian who will be helping for
the month of June, and are expecting our family and friends for
touring and working in the middle of June.

Problem at the Zoo!

When we were leaving the zoo we actually saw a zoo employee. They
were yelling and screaming at us and pointing vigorously. We looked
around us to see if one of the children were missing but they were all
there or if one of the kids had picked something up and walked away
with it, but no they hadn't. We were totally confused but the man
kept pointing at Peter and Frank and then pointing back toward the
zoo. Kalem tried to calm him down so he could try and understand what
he was ranting and raving about in Armenian. Apparently he thought we
were trying to smuggle animals out of the zoo. Of course we did not
want to have the authorities brought in (you know how it is in Mexican
prisons? Well I don't and I didn't want to find out about Armenian
ones either!) Kalem pulled out his wallet to try and settle this the
good old fashion Armenian way, but the man persisted even though he
thought about the drams for a moment. NO! He insisted he must have
the animals...they were zoo property. So we had to obey. If you want
to see Peter and Frank, remember it only costs $1.00 for adults and
kids are free (although the airfare gets pricey in the summer!)
Having fun at everyone's expense! JONELLE: )

Zoo Pics

The Zoo

Yes, we went to the Yerevan Zoo, or Gazannanotz (Beast Place) today.
I must say it was quite an experience. We paid $2.00 entrance fee
(that was for Kalem and Me and the kids were free), and found our way
into the park. I half jokingly said to Kalem, "Where are the maps?"
when we glanced up and saw a beautiful 5' x 8' painting of the map of
the zoo with each animal in it's quadrant. We ambled our way up the
path and the first "Beasts" we saw were bears; they were blonde
bears...(perhaps Russians who didn't leave after the 1991 collapse?).
There were two of them, one relaxing with his back against the side
wall and the other pacing back and forth in front of the 6 foot
wide"stream" that flowed through their den. The bear seemed to be
quite interested in her reflection in the water or just a nervous
hadiff, I'm not sure which. We walked on and to the right, saw quite
a collection of the cannes family; foxes, wolves, jackals, hyaenas,
and dogs, yep just household or wild shoons! They all had grotesque
parts of dead animals to feast upon, but the section could be a leg or
ribcage or some unidentifiable mystery meat. On our left, which was
the center strip of the park landscape were deers, a small lake with a
single swan and other crane-type birds, two camels in desperate need
of a comb down and my favorite the elephant (of course the elephant
pen was sponsored by Grand Candy, the confett conglomerate of Armenia
selling everything from delicious chocolates, hard candy, flavored
coffee, ice cream, etc and the Grand Candy mascot is a huge pink
peegh...that's Armenian for elephant but sounds like pig!) There were
a number of equine exhibits, many big cats, and yes they did have a
household cat too...gadoo! Peter's favorite was, of course the lions,
2 males and one female and the vagker (tiger) unfortunately they were
all asleep! and Judi loved the peacock and peahens but would not
believe me when I told her the beautiful bird with the fanned out
plumage was a boy. She insisted that GRANDMA told her the beautiful
one was a Girl! I could not believe the gorgeous vultures, stately
eagles and colorful birds unknown to me before. This was quite a
unique place in so many ways. For instance, there was a nice "train"
that had two passenger cars and a man who drove paying customers
around the park. In reality there was no track, the driver; a 45 year
old, relatively tall man crammed behind the wheel, smoking a cigarette
(I mean that is a given) and doing about 25 MPH with toddlers and
grandmas holding on for dear life, honking as he drove through
pedestrians. Most parks and especially zoos have signs, restrictive
bars and park personnel to prohibit untoward activity with or near the
animals. Amazingly enough there were NO park attendants ANYWHERE.
The only people in the zoo were vendors selling food & carnival toys,
old women with their cupfuls of black unsalted sunflower seeds, and
the visitors to the park. And that was the problem. We learned that
the zoo is a place for small children with their whole family, lovers,
and groups of Neanderthal men trying to impress each other or show
off...not a good mix, but when you are in a beast place I suppose one
likes to act like a beast! There were groups of these smart guys
throwing rocks at the wolves, chunks of sweet bread to a ram and the
the worst of all was a dagha mart who threw his half drunk 24oz Coke
into the cage of an old baboon. He offered the primate a cigarette
first but then decided it would be more fun to poison the poor thing
with soda instead. Of course, the baboon took the bottle opened it,
poured it out and started lapping up the brown syrup. Kalem pulled me
away before I could intervene! Next there was Christmas music playing
in the park cafe in the middle of Spring and in ENGLISH. But probably
the most disconcerting and then slightly humorous thing was the rats.
Yes RATS. No they did not have a specific rat display or habitat, no
they just had a lot of...rats. The rats had burrowed holes in and out
of the rare bird section, dined on the porcupine carrots and cabbage,
ate the seeds and grains served to the peacocks. In a word they were
everywhere. Kalem said, "There are more rats in the place than
animals!" But the day was lovely, the weather beautiful, the ice
cream cold and creamy and time with Kalem and my three little beasts
was the best...rats, crazy drivers, foolish boys and all. Enjoy the
pictures and see if you can find the Rats! Jonelle; )

The Top 10 Things We Wish Were NOT in Armenia

10. Smog and relatively few clear days

9. Mafia (this lumps in everyone who gets away with NOT obeying the
law)

8. Corrupt Cops (they are not the norm but they give a bad name to
the clean ones)

7. Litterbugs (There is way too much trash in this BEAUTIFUL land
of ours...I am going on a crusade!)

6. Burning Trash (They might not use pesticides here but the air
filled with toxic burning plastic bottles can't be healthy!)

5. Potholes (sometimes it seems like more are added each night to
test pole position driving skills...NOT helpful)

4. Fully Tinted Car Windows (I mean ALL the windows, even the
WINDSHIELD, black as night.)

3. Armenian Rap (I guess once you stop laughing the music is almost
bearable)

2. Armenian Brandy Filled-Crucifixes (I mean this is in poor taste
and sacrilegious)

1. The Evil Eye (This is seen everywhere in Armenia a blue eyeball
set in gold or wood, etc. hanging on doorposts, rearview mirrors,
BABIES!!! Okay so if we rest on the fact that we are the 1st
Christian Nation then, why are we hanging on to superstitions?

Loving my homeland but saying it like it is! Jonelle; )

Waiting in Line

There are two main places we find ourselves waiting in line, the
grocery store and stoplights. The funny thing is that lines or
queue's don't really exist in Armenia, it is more of mob scene every
time. From what I have been told it is a repercussion of Soviet time
food lines, people weren't sure what line they were standing in so
they would just crowd towards the front to find out. On my first
trips to Armenia I was welcomed by this mob mentality in the airport,
and although with good position originally I found myself one of the
last to go through. Thanks to the terminal at the airport things are
much better now.
Driving here has introduced some other line waiting issues. The
winter snow and sand just about erase the painted lines leaving lanes
up to the drivers imagination. This is particularly intensified at
traffic lights due to several reasons. Left and right turn lanes are
often combined with the option to go straight, and cars waiting to
turn back up the cars trying to go straight. So extra lanes are
usually assumed as drivers pole for unhindered positions, the other
problem is the furthest right lane is often filled with parked cars
and sometimes double parked cars. Probably the worst and most
unpredictable are the mashutkas (public transportation vans), that
pull over and back into traffic so randomly, and are often stacked two
or even three deep into the road. The next problem is the impatient
drivers, usually new black BMW's and Mercedes with black windows, that
will pull out into on coming traffic to cut in front of all of the
cars waiting at the light. Let me just throw in the frequent
accidents, stalled cars, erratic police driving, and lets not forget
road construction and all of the potholes.
In grocery stores from small neighborhood shops to large chain
supermarkets, the "express lane" is missing, this is because every
lane is an express lane. If you want a pack of cigarets you can cut
in line, if you have just one item you can cut in line, if you act
like you are in a big hurry you can cut in line, if you are too cool
to wait in line, you can cut in line. After months of this behavior,
our sweet patient Jonelle had just about enough, and she snapped. We
had just filled our kiddy sized shopping cart with about thirty items
from the cramped downtown supermarket chain, and had them all loaded
on the checkout belt. Just before the checker started an older man
stepped in front of Jonelle and handed his item to the cashier.
Jonelle gave a hard look of frustration and rage that translated very
well into Armenian, and the man said in Armenian "I'm going ahead, if
your not getting too angry." The frustrated Jonelle, started out in
Armenian just let him have it in English. "I'm not ANGRY!" "I'm just
tiered of everyone always cutting in line!" By this time he had
already paid and was walking out the door, with nothing left to say.
I had a good laugh about the multilingual exchange and enjoyed seeing
my wife hold her own.
There was another time I tried to pick up a package at the post
office, and I learned that mail and packages are only about 1% of what
they did. This was the place where people received their social
security, pensions, and other governmental benefits, and it was also
the place where they paid their electricity, gas, and water bills.
The lady giving out the money was backed up about 10 deep (this is
really ten wide as everyone was crowding the counter), and in walks an
old grandmother, straight to the counter and even pushed a few of us
out of the way to get right in the face of the lady with the money.
There is no comment from anyone about the crowding, it is just
accepted. When I saw that I had lost my place as second in line and
was now something like 11th I decided to leave and come back later,
but before I did I saw most, if not all, of the government money get
recycled back through the other lady to pay utility bills. When I did
come back later they didn't even have the package there it was at a
central office, where there was more waiting for a special tag (kept
in a safe) to be filled out with my passport information, stamped and
signed twice, before the package was released!
All this to say three months in and there are still many things we
are still getting used to, and some that we might never understand...