The Landslide

Recently, maybe two weeks ago, Nicole and I heard about a “mudslide” that had happened just outside of our town. Some friends were telling us that the road headed into the capital had become temporarily impassable as a result. We had a trip to Yerevan scheduled for the upcoming weekend, so we waited to see how the whole thing played out. In a few days time we learned that the “mudslide” was really a major landslide that literally pickup a huge section of the road and carried it down into the river below. Fortunately, by this time, arrangements had been made for buses to take passengers out to the landslide where they could walk across a path to the other side and get on another bus that would continue the trip into Yerevan. We decided to give it a shot and here’s what we saw…

Here’s the spot where the buses let you off to begin your hike over the landslide. You can see that the road is completely covered by a huge amount of earth. The trees and bushes are all still alive and well. It’s like a huge piece of earth just moved down the mountain and decided to settle in a new spot just as it was before.


This is where the passengers begin their ascent over the landslide. You can see the little path that has formed from foot traffic.

Here are two pictures of the pieces of the road that were just picked up and sent down to the river.


As you walk along the path, you can see really large cracks in the earth that are quite deep. This is a picture of Nicole standing over one. Throughout the walk, all the passengers help each other to get over these cracks and the other more difficult parts of the path. The ledge where the whole thing just broke off from the mountain is behind Nicole to the left.

This last picture was taken from around the mid-point of the path. The other side of the landslide where the buses wait for passengers to continue the trip is off in the distance. Overall, it’s about a 10 minute hike from one side to the other. I suppose it’s a little longer for the older women carrying 20 kilos of potatoes.


Luckily, this was a nice day to take a walk. It was actually a fun experience. I’m sure we won’t be as excited when it’s pouring down rain and covered in mud. We were both pretty impressed with the sheer size of this thing. -Andy

The Thaw

Even though we’ve been told that it’s been a pretty mild winter, it has still seemed long and gloomy like we expected. Nevertheless, spring is finally here. Although I’ve been pretty inactive on the blog, Nicole and I have been very busy in terms of work in the community. February, March, and April were a far cry from months of hibernation.

I would like to overcome my habit of waiting 2 or 3 months in between blog posts and instead post smaller, more frequent entries that delve a little deeper into the intricacies of life in Armenia, but as always, I’m prone to procrastination and now I have a list of updates that I’d like to write about. So, in an effort to catch up, I’ve posted a bunch of pictures in this entry that are winter-related. I’ve also posted some other entries about a few interesting things that have happened recently.

We hope that everyone is staying healthy and enjoying life. Please send us an email, post some comments, or even try to catch us on Skype. The last few weeks have been a tough time for us and we appreciate all the support we’ve been getting. Nicole and I both agree that we have some of the best friends and family that one could ask for. We love you all. - Andy

First, the human sledding chain. It’s all fun and games until someone goes down head-first and hits their head off of the rusty metal track of an old sled. He was taken to the capital where he got at least a few stitches. I’ve heard this happens at least once or twice per year.

Next, we have the Armenian cure for the average cold…cognac, muraba (a kind of preserve), and tea. I was skeptical at first, but after a few doses, I began to see some improvement.


Here are some great pictures of our town taken from the area around my school, which is located on the opposite side of the valley from where we live.


These pictures deserve a brief explanation. The first is a picture of our gas-powered, tankless water heater. As long as the flow of water into the heater has the right pressure, it usually provides us with decent showers. However, during the months of January and February, we had significant problems with water availability. When it was available, the pressure was too low to activate the heater. We adjusted to this problem like most people do in Armenia, by collecting our water in large buckets during times when we had it and then heating it on the stove as needed. I’m describing all this mainly because the situation led to a month or two of bucket baths in an unheated bathroom that were some of the coldest experiences of my life…definitely spiritual. In the second picture, I’m cracking the layer of ice that regularly accumulated on our alternative source of water just outside our place, used mainly for flushing the toilet. Let me apologize in advance to those volunteers who have no water heater at all or even running water for that matter…I shouldn’t be complaining.


Here are some random pictures that don’t really need explanation. The first was taken on a hike during the early winter; the next two were taken around town; and the last is a picture of our host family’s dog wondering if we have any food scraps to give him. He is kind of like an all-natural garbage disposal.




The next two pictures were both taken recently. Nicole organized a trip to Yerevan for my birthday to see two hockey games…North Korea v. South Africa, and Armenia v. Mongolia. North Korea and South Africa played a really close game, but Armenia annihilated Mongolia. Armenia and North Korea played the following night for the Division III championship. We couldn’t stay for that game, but I heard North Korea won.


This last picture was taken very recently. It shows the typical rainy April weather that we’ve been getting lately. The streets are a muddy mess, but spring flowers and blossoming trees have been giving the gloominess a nice facelift. We’re not experiencing the full bloom of spring quite yet, but it’s right around the corner.