Mary Beth Danielson – Live from Armenia

Journal Times Online, WI
July 24, 2006

By Mary Beth Danielson

My neighbors are Armenian. Well, actually, Jim is not, but Susan
sure is, and their children, like good kids everywhere, seem to be
mostly fun.

Susan Proctor and her teenage daughters, Kati and Lillian, have spent
most of July in Armenia. They joined a Habitat for Humanity work
crew from St. Mesrob in Racine. Thirteen folks from this congregation
traveled to Armenia to join in the construction and repair of houses
for folks there who are very poor.

Their Armenian volunteer coordinator, Tatevik, wrote this to them at
the end of their stint. "Your team worked with 4 families in Lori
Region and 5 families in Gavar, Gegharkunick region. You mixed and
carried 36 tons of concrete and 16 tons of sand. Huge work, isn’t
it?" I e-mailed Susan and the girls to ask about their adventure.

Kati, who just finished her first year at the University of Chicago,
wrote back to me.

"Landing in the airport in Yerevan is always an interesting
experience. Every time I hope that it will be better, but the Armenians
waiting in lines with us are as pushy and loud as ever. After we
finally get through, we leave the airport to drive through Yerevan,
the capital city of Armenia. It’s in a valley. A million people live
there, though there are no skyscrapers. Street lights are turned off
late at night, so it’s beautiful and you can see the stars. Also,
at night, there are cool breezes, so it isn’t as ridiculously hot as
it is in the day.

"The sun is rising as we drive north through the city and I am struck
by what’s around me. Not necessarily by its beauty, but its presence.
By all the changes since the last time we were here.

"We drove to Vanadzor, a city of about 100,000 about 3 hours north
of the airport. It’s beautiful. It’s surrounded by hilly, green
mountains that are a pleasure to wake up to every day, though not to
drive through! "We didn’t start work the first two days. We visited
old monasteries and churches. Armenia converted to Christianity ten
years before the Roman empire did, making it the first Christian
nation on Earth. So it has a lot of churches to visit.

"The third day we started working. Amazingly, the drizzle stopped long
enough for us to start on the first family’s home. It was a two-story
house that they hadn’t been able to finish back in the nineties. Since
then the family of five had been living in three small rooms. The
bathroom was an outhouse that I couldn’t imagine using once, much
less for eight years.

"We moved concrete all morning, pouring it on the roof of the
unfinished part until the rain started again and we had to break
for lunch.

"Once a little old lady showed up at the work site to thank us
profusely for our work. It should be noted she didn’t speak English
and we’re going on my limited Armenian (Kati studied Armenian this year
at college). I was standing closest to the road because I was filling
water buckets, so she started talking to me. She kept saying how happy
she was that we were doing this. Suddenly she asked if I was married,
then started talking about her wonderful grandson … It was amusing,
to say the least.

"One memorable day our lunch was a mixed blessing. It was lamb kebab,
which was quite good, except for the fact that most of us had seen the
lamb being butchered. Those with weaker stomachs and slight vegetarian
leanings decided against eating it. The sight of the lamb’s head
sitting on the stoop didn’t help much, either.

"There was a funny moment one evening when some of the guys ordered
hamburgers at a restaurant in the city. Hamburger type buns came,
but they had ham on them!" I asked about the spirit of the people,
the pace of life.

Susan wrote this: "My sister and I sponsor a girl, named Mane, in
Armenia. Last year we went through all the proper channels to arrange
a visit with her. This year I just e-mailed to the coordinator that
we were going to drop in on her on Sunday after church. He wrote back
with her address but said he couldn’t call because her family doesn’t
have phone.

"That afternoon our cab driver found the house after asking several
people for directions, which were cheerfully given. We finally pulled
up to a house with two women outside and told them we were looking
for Mane. They immediately invited us onto their porch, then made
phone calls to get Mane over to see us. I’m still not exactly sure
how they were related to her. Then they brought out Armenian coffee,
peaches picked off their garden tree, strawberries, dried apricots,
and candies. Even though their English was negligible and our Armenian
worse, we all talked for a half hour until Mane arrived with her
father. To our surprise, he pulled out homemade wine and was ready
to light up the grill to make us a meal! "The best part was that our
cab driver was part of the party, too. He sat down and had coffee,
joined in on the conversation! "The thing here that is so beautiful,
gracious and rich is the spirit of hospitality and friendliness of
the people of this country."