Honk Honk Honk and Water Day
June 29 - The weekend has been full. Yesterday after language class, we took a special trip to Echmiazeene. This is a very beautiful city that is also the root of the Armenian Orthodox religion. It is the place where this religion started. Father Aaron hails from Chicago and has been called by His Holiness to Armenia for a whole year and actually resides in Gavar. He will be here through November. He is friends with Peace Corps, and I have all ready had the pleasure of getting to know him a little bit. Anyhow, he gave us a very nice tour and explained a bit about the history of the religion in Armenia. Interesting facts: in 301 AD, Armenia was the first country to declare itself a Christian nation. A quarter of Jerusalem is Armenian. Several different ways of practicing the religion have evolved into daily customs during the 1900s due to communism (folks were not allowed to practice religion openly during these times). Such as in Gavar, people drive around the church and honk their horn three times to get married. And Christmas, a three day long celebration in January, takes place in the cemetery because in the 1900s they knew they wouldn't be reprimanded for celebrating there (whereas a church was a total giveaway).
We passed about 4 wedding processions while we were on the road yesterday. That was fun.
Last evening I did yoga in my room and enjoyed the company of my family's friends. I kept my bedroom door open to the out doors to let the room freshen, but that was a mistake... because...
This morning about 15 flies woke me up at 7:30 swarming around my space. Ahhh. I couldn't go back to sleep. So Mariam and I had a fly-kill party. We got them all with swatters in less than five minutes. Then we decided to go on a run down into the valley and back up... which leads me to the next thing about today...
It is Water Day. Water Day represents a holy day for Armenia, in which if you get sprayed by water, you become blessed. However, during Soviet reign, the people were completely suppressed and not allowed to practice religion. So during this time, Water Day evolved into children going out into the streets and dumping buckets of water and spraying hoses on every person who goes by. All day long. This is no exaggeration. It is crazy. So when Mariam and I got back to the top of the hill, the kids were waiting for us with buckets of water. I didn't make it inside, I was completely soaked and joined in on the fun. That lasted for about two hours, running back and forth down the street with buckets of water to throw on the neighborhood kids and spraying the hose on all cars that drove by. (And during all of this, I noticed that the water that came out of my family's hose was much cleaner than the water from our neighbors' hoses)
So after that, around two, I joined a few of the family members to another horovats (BBQ). I think the whole town was celebrating a day off today. As usual, we had our toasts, and we toasted my mother and my father (Mom and Dad, you have had several several toasts from the Armenian people! They love you!). I had some good Russian vodka and tried a little French cognac, although that is a bit more like whiskey and not as good in my opinion. We had kabobs (Armenians call them kabobs too), except that it was like a thin, long hamburger patty shaped around a metal pole. Their kabob sticks are more like swords. It was very good and I wish I had had ketchup to go with! Then the family whose house we were at brought out the BB gun. That was very fun. Within three shots, I hit the water bottle that was nailed to a tree across the yard. Then they brought out a little paper target attached to a wooden board. I made a couple of good shots on that too.
After this experience, I walked to my friend's house. His family was also having a horovats, and when I walked in, everybody was getting down to some wild beats, house music. Wow. A discotheque in the basement, and the grandfather had some really good moves. They really know how to move it. I joined in on the dance. They were playing a mix of Armenian music and remixes of songs like Another One Bites The Dust. That was great fun. It got pretty hot in there, so after a little more celebration, I walked home and took a shower. Now it is 9:15 PM and I have had a full weekend. Time to study. Tomorrow my group needs to work on our community project, then we will also prepare for our speaking competency exam (Thursday), and a Fourth of July celebration which we are putting on for our village this Friday.
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