From church to village

This morning, I was invited to an all Armenian church service by Ruzan's family. I didn't understand much until a missionary from South America came in and started speaking about the importance of forgiveness, and especially about forgiving the Turks and the other neighbouring nations. I was stricken that he had dared to speak about this topic after just a few words of introduction. The reaction in the audience was mixed as he said that we should, as Jesus ordered, be at the feet of our enemies. But in the end, there seemed to be a striking realization that the feelings of resentment which are held in the common memory are useless in building the world that we hope for and must be replaced by compassion. He encouraged the Armenians to walk to the country's borders and let God lay the table for the long awaited settlement of peace. After this great experience, I was invited for lunch at Ruzan's lovely aunt's place, and after that we drove with her two sons to her mother-in-law's village. I sat on a suitcase in the car, and for once the thought of putting my seatbelt on did not cross my mind (I am progressing you see...). The view was beautiful. I really like the landscapes of the Ararat plateau, flat lands surrounded by high snowy mountains which absence of trees reveals the smooth details of their shapes. And again, mount Ararat was attracting all of the attention and making all the other summits look ridiculously small... 

Media_httpelinyafiles_yhehg
Media_httpelinyafiles_zvgff
An old lady who I had a very deep conversation with in Armenian ;)

The village, which is called Abovian, has about 1000 inhabitants. The houses are divided by unpaved and bouncy streets, which made me understand why we took the four wheel drive to get there! Depending on the wind and the street, the fresh smell of nature alternates with the smell of chicken dung and what I guessed was nothing else than the villagers physiological waste. At first, I thought of how bad throwing waste water in the environment without treating it first must be, but then I thought of the impacts of our big industries and had to relativise this first thought.  

Media_httpelinyafiles_mrfsd

I met, again, extremely friendly people. As I did my best to say a few words in Armenian, people were surprised and started laughing and complimenting me, which really motivated me to get more serious with my lessons!