Vanadzor

Hello!

We are having a fabulous time in Armenia! Mom, no worries, I am safe and healthy.

We arrived here yesterday morning bright and early. Armenia is definitely not what I expected. After a wonderful stay in Poland, I thought Armenia would be very similar. Armenia looks more like the Middle East than I expected. It is extremely hot here but I am enjoying the sun after a chilly Seattle summer. Today we drove from Yeravan, Armenia's capitol, to Vanadzor. Vanadzor will be our home for the next 2 weeks. The drive to Vanadzor was beautiful. There are many green mountains which made the drive quite enjoyable.

Armenia has surprised me. This is a list of things I have observed thus far:
1. There was a lot of pollution in the city. Because of haziness, there is limited times in the day to see Mount Ararat. I guess this is like Seattle because I only get to see the mountains when it's sunny (which is not very often).
2. Mount Ararat is AWESOME.
3. There is a great amount of stalled construction projects. Dr. Grant told me many of these were abadoned after the fall of the Soviet Union.
4. There is less of a Soviet influence in Armenia than in Poland.
5. There are abadoned factories in Vanadzor. There is no industry here.
6. People are still displaced from an earthquake that happened 23 years ago. People really live in steel shipping containers. It's no good.
7. I have learned I am awful at Armenian and Polish. One of our drivers told me I have been saying thank you wrong this whole time. Apparently, I made up the phrase "tembacken" to say thank you. Apparently a simple "merci" while suffice.


Tomorrow we will begin our first day of work. After 5 days of travel, I am ready to start serving. Our group had orientation with the Fuller Center tonight. We learned that we will be serving two Armenian families during our time. We will be working to finish houses that are near completion. During our building days, we will be working along side the family that will be recieving the house. I think this will be such a neat experience. In 2006, I broke my back in a car accident. As a result, my building capabilities are limited. This was a concern of mine before the trip but the orientation was very ensuring. I am ready to work hard and bring my own unique strengths to the project.

Sorry if there are lots of typos in this post. My computer is in Armenia and says every word is misspelled.

-Kim Lammers