A Rainy Saturday in Gyumri

I'm still in Gyumri, Armenia, visiting other volunteers, waiting for the weather to clear and enjoying the culture of this area. Gyumri is the 2nd largest city in Armenia. It was once a center for the arts and the architecture here is lovely. What is left of it that is. It was hit badly by the earthquake in 1988 and still is in a state of chaos. But what is left leads one to know that this was quite an elegant city once upon a time. 50,000 people in the region were killed in the earthquake, many left the area afterwards, and many more left when the Soviet Union collapsed. Yesterday we visited Marmashen, a beautful 1,000-year-old monastery on the outskirts of town.

Marmashen. Being here was a very moving experience.

Marmashen

Judy lighting candles inside the Marmashen Monastery

These old churches and monasteries are not active in the sense that we're familiar with in the US. The structure of their religion was broken during Soviet times. But the Spirit remains very much alive in individual hearts. People go to this places alone or in large family groups to ask for help, to pray, to offer thanks. They light candles and leave small icons. These are places of pilgrimage, not tourist attractions. The stones feel infused with 1,000 years of prayer. There is often a picnic area nearby where they can prepare horovats (like shish-kebob). This is a common practice at cemetaries also. It seems a good gathering place, actually, once I overcome the initial and instinctive reaction of my own cultural traditions.

We also visited an "art hotel" and an art museum in town.

The Gardens behind the Two Sisters Art Museum

Then we went for a walk around town.

A building destroyed by the 1988 earthquake

And there is also the human spirit, creating beauty out of the ashes . . . .

A building in the process of restoration

It's quite cold and rainy right now, off and on. Rain bordering on slush sometimes. The surrounding mountains are covered with snow - again. The very mountains I must pass through as I travel through Georgia - the lesser Caucasus they are called. The route from here to my next stop is around 100 miles and takes the marshrutka "5-10 hours". That's quite a span of time, which says that the road can be worse than awful. I'm sure the rain won't help. My intention is to leave Monday but the weather forecast isn't favorable until Wednesday so we'll see. Not much fun to visit old monasteries and fortresses, slogging through mud and freezing rain.

The internet connection is slow and sometimes not available.