Gyumri, northwest Armenia - Week 1

August 22, 2003

After almost 24 hours en route, I made it to Armenia . The flights were shorter than I expected (about 9 hours from Seattle to Amsterdam and 4 hours from Amsterdam to Yerevan), but that meant longer times hanging out at the airport!

Ani and Avik at a family dinner

I arrived in Yerevan about 8 p.m., and it was still light enough to catch a glimpse (but no photo, yet) of Mt. Ararat. Even this quick look was breathtaking. It is a legendary mountain (Noah's Ark docked there), 5,165 meters in elevation, and the symbol of Armenia. You see images of it everywhere. (Unfortunately, it is now part of Turkey...)

I managed to fend off the scads of taxi drivers offering me a ride, until Avetik Petrosyan found me at the airport. Avik, as he is known, is the one who organized this web design workshop. He works in the Public Affairs section of the American Embassy here. He picked me up with the embassy's driver and we left immediately for Gyumri, the first stop of this traveling web training road show. By the time we got here, it was after midnight.

Visitors from St. Petersburg with Ani's father and uncle

Avik is great to work with. I had one week's notice that I was coming to Armenia, and it was quite a crunch to get everything done in Portland (3 weeks worth of web work!) plus prepare for the class in Armenia and get ready for the trip. Well, Avik had to cope with the same amount of notice, but his job was even harder: he's arranging for classrooms, equipment, catering, class materials in 3 cities for 90 students! It makes my week from hell look like a walk in the park.

Avik's fiancee, Ani, is one of the participants in the class, though she is quite experienced in web design and much of what we do is not new for her. But it is great to have her there; while Avik is traveling to and fro between Yerevan, Gyumri and Vanadzor (our next stop), ironing out the details of our project as well as keeping up with his regular responsibilities at the embassy, Ani looks out for me. The first night in Gyumri we spent with Ani's family who were entertaining visiting relatives from St. Petersburg. All the traditional dishes--and of course the traditional spirits--were served and it was a wonderful evening. One little guy, Norayr, who is a year old, even got introduced to The Tessy & Tab Reading Club.

Go to Gyumri/Page 2

Getting your Armenian child "ready to read"!