Yesterday was a marathon of rushing about... but great and enjoyable.
I headed off in the morning with Jack to finally visit the guy who did all the wood work in my house, a real miracle worker. He lives up in Vanadzor and although Yerevan was not bad weather, it was freezing near the mountain pass and snowing and descending down into Vanadzor helped a bit. His "factory" was good and we got to see some of Lena's new furniture. Looked great so far. From there we headed up north with his son and the fall colors were quite nice. I stopped to visit with the family I logged about a few weeks ago while Jack and company headed up to photograph Sanahin and Odzun. We chatted for about four hours and it was again quite a fascinating conversation and glimpse into village life. I don't know where to begin, so I will just share some of the more interesting bits...
The daughter, a polite girl who loves attention and makes funny comments (somthing in the neighborhood of 10 years old) announced when she got home that all the students have been told to bring firewood to school for the winter. The lady was saying how things have changed... she used to never be allowed into the living room when there were guests, and was too nervous to even eat a bite in the bedroom when she knew there were guests. When she was married she was only allowed to come out to serve guests and leave quickly. Now that she has no husband around and times are different she is finally free to spend time with any guests (like myself). What a change! She was also telling me how many Russian words which were ALWAYS used for certain objects, even when speaking Armenian have fallen out of use. Table, window, and other words were always spoken in Russian, and if you used the Armenian she said people would laugh at you. Now, many of these words are back in use. I can vouch for that because I do not know the Russian word for table or window, and I would have if they were used even 25% of the time here. I am not sure how this happened, but having western Armenians here who do not understand Russian certainly doesn't hurt. Oftentimes with locals we are forced to find the correct Armenian word for something so that I can understand. The woman was also talking about how she would be unable to live in the village when her father died, there would be no man to do the mens work for her. She idealized life in the city, but I pointed out many of the advantages village life had which she took for granted. She can always grow her own food, she never has her water cut off, etc. She started to think of more positives herself after that. Anyways, we talked for four hours so I will leave the summary at that, but it was quite nice visiting them again.
I was picked up and we headed back to Vanadzor to look at some final furniture samples and get going at 5pm, and on the outskirts of town I started to worry that by the time we got to Yerevan my final mission of the day, buying pumpkins, would be impossible due to the hour. So we asked a girl where the shuga was and headed back to check, joking that I would encounter an American buying the last pumpkin and have to pay double to get it from him. I had not seen and suitable pumpkins in Yerevan
and so I was not sure what to hope for. Not a thing in the front of the market, nothing inside, nothing on the side, finally, in the back I saw a BEAUTIFUL, perfect sized one, and a woman carrying away another one. I hurried over and asked her how much they cost and accepted her price of 80 drams a kilo. I told her I wanted a few including the perfect one and she said it was already sold! "A foreigner wanted it for some holiday they have"... well so did I. She had even drawn a face on it already because that was what they wanted. I went off to see the ones she had already returned to her storage, as she was in the process of packing up for the day and I had almost missed her by minutes. I took all four of her remaining pumpkins, two of which looked nice and two which were passable... telling her again I really liked the one outside. She told me I could have it if I wanted... if I traded for one of mine. Well I said I couldn't take someone elses pumpkin. She explained they had not seen it yet, they just said any pumpkin. Well I wasn't going to argue any more at that point and I happily snatched it up, paid the $3 for the 4 pumpkins and lugged my 20 kilos (45 pounds) of pumpkins to an astonished Jack. Anyone out there who ordered a jack-o-lantern in Vanadzor, sorry, but at least you should know that your pumpkin will be appreciated by many people tonight if that makes you feel better.
We got back at 7:45, three quarters of an hour late for the pumpkin carving party I was responsible to bring the pumpkins to. Believe me there was serious relief! We carved late into the night and ate pumpkin pie... tonight is the big halloween party and I still don't know what I will go as. Eh, I still have a few hours...
I headed off in the morning with Jack to finally visit the guy who did all the wood work in my house, a real miracle worker. He lives up in Vanadzor and although Yerevan was not bad weather, it was freezing near the mountain pass and snowing and descending down into Vanadzor helped a bit. His "factory" was good and we got to see some of Lena's new furniture. Looked great so far. From there we headed up north with his son and the fall colors were quite nice. I stopped to visit with the family I logged about a few weeks ago while Jack and company headed up to photograph Sanahin and Odzun. We chatted for about four hours and it was again quite a fascinating conversation and glimpse into village life. I don't know where to begin, so I will just share some of the more interesting bits...
The daughter, a polite girl who loves attention and makes funny comments (somthing in the neighborhood of 10 years old) announced when she got home that all the students have been told to bring firewood to school for the winter. The lady was saying how things have changed... she used to never be allowed into the living room when there were guests, and was too nervous to even eat a bite in the bedroom when she knew there were guests. When she was married she was only allowed to come out to serve guests and leave quickly. Now that she has no husband around and times are different she is finally free to spend time with any guests (like myself). What a change! She was also telling me how many Russian words which were ALWAYS used for certain objects, even when speaking Armenian have fallen out of use. Table, window, and other words were always spoken in Russian, and if you used the Armenian she said people would laugh at you. Now, many of these words are back in use. I can vouch for that because I do not know the Russian word for table or window, and I would have if they were used even 25% of the time here. I am not sure how this happened, but having western Armenians here who do not understand Russian certainly doesn't hurt. Oftentimes with locals we are forced to find the correct Armenian word for something so that I can understand. The woman was also talking about how she would be unable to live in the village when her father died, there would be no man to do the mens work for her. She idealized life in the city, but I pointed out many of the advantages village life had which she took for granted. She can always grow her own food, she never has her water cut off, etc. She started to think of more positives herself after that. Anyways, we talked for four hours so I will leave the summary at that, but it was quite nice visiting them again.
I was picked up and we headed back to Vanadzor to look at some final furniture samples and get going at 5pm, and on the outskirts of town I started to worry that by the time we got to Yerevan my final mission of the day, buying pumpkins, would be impossible due to the hour. So we asked a girl where the shuga was and headed back to check, joking that I would encounter an American buying the last pumpkin and have to pay double to get it from him. I had not seen and suitable pumpkins in Yerevan
and so I was not sure what to hope for. Not a thing in the front of the market, nothing inside, nothing on the side, finally, in the back I saw a BEAUTIFUL, perfect sized one, and a woman carrying away another one. I hurried over and asked her how much they cost and accepted her price of 80 drams a kilo. I told her I wanted a few including the perfect one and she said it was already sold! "A foreigner wanted it for some holiday they have"... well so did I. She had even drawn a face on it already because that was what they wanted. I went off to see the ones she had already returned to her storage, as she was in the process of packing up for the day and I had almost missed her by minutes. I took all four of her remaining pumpkins, two of which looked nice and two which were passable... telling her again I really liked the one outside. She told me I could have it if I wanted... if I traded for one of mine. Well I said I couldn't take someone elses pumpkin. She explained they had not seen it yet, they just said any pumpkin. Well I wasn't going to argue any more at that point and I happily snatched it up, paid the $3 for the 4 pumpkins and lugged my 20 kilos (45 pounds) of pumpkins to an astonished Jack. Anyone out there who ordered a jack-o-lantern in Vanadzor, sorry, but at least you should know that your pumpkin will be appreciated by many people tonight if that makes you feel better.
We got back at 7:45, three quarters of an hour late for the pumpkin carving party I was responsible to bring the pumpkins to. Believe me there was serious relief! We carved late into the night and ate pumpkin pie... tonight is the big halloween party and I still don't know what I will go as. Eh, I still have a few hours...
posted by Raffi K. at 3:36 PM
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