The Month of June, Part V: Yerevan

Emilie and I spent our first day in Yerevan exploring the city, which really just meant boarding random city buses and finding ourselves lost over and over again. Mostly, we spent the day reveling in the fact that we were finally in Armenia. Just by chance, we ran into some LDS missionaries on the street and were invited to attend the 10-year anniversary celebration of LDS missionaries in Armenia and Georgia, which was taking place that afternoon. It turned out to be a very spiritual experience. We met some amazing local people, watched a few presentations on the history of the country and the Church, and ate lots of cake.

Almost every morning in Yerevan, I took a walk across the aging Victory Bridge over the Hrazdan River in the shadow of the city’s renowned Ararat cognac factory. Aside from a few rainy moments, the weather was awesome, and the bridge offered an unobstructed view of Mount Ararat on the horizon. The city of Yerevan has been rebuilt nicely over recent years and can be very charming in certain areas. But, of course, it was out in the countryside where we experienced the stunning beauty of Armenia.

The purpose of the Armenia trip was to do a story for LDS news outlets on LDS Charities’ clean water project in the region. The current project, once completed, will provide clean water to about 40,000 people in 14 villages. (I’ll post the article I wrote here as well.) During the week that Emilie and I spent in the country, I was able to spend three days with the Blotters (the LDS humanitarian missionaries overseeing the project) and Nshan (the chief engineer involved in the project, a local Armenian) out in the countryside visiting the various villages involved in the project, and meeting the mayors and people of the villages. It was such a fantastic experience, and to be able to interact in that way with these people living in the remote parts of the country made my stay in Armenia one of the definite highlights of the entire summer.

Plus, never, till this summer, did I know that I had never tasted a real apricot before. The difference between an Armenian apricot and the imposter fruit we get here in the States is like the difference between tiramisu and a twinkie.

One of the highlights of the Yerevan stay was our visit to the Armenian Genocide memorial. I had never learned much about the Armenian Genocide until I read Samantha Power’s A Problem From Hell a couple years ago. Between 1914 and 1918 at least 500,000, and possibly as many as 1.5 million, Armenians were killed by the Turks. The museum was very informative and the reverence of the memorial grounds was moving. The beautiful monument stands on a hill overlooking the city, a giant spike piercing the sky. In my mind it stood as an ominous warning of man’s inhumanity to man, a somber reminder that this vicious tendency towards malice and barbarity has played itself out on such a large scale time and time again, even in recent history.