Many of us Youth Corps participants have pets at home, and most consider them as part of their family. It could be a dog, a cat, maybe a cow, or even a fish. Whatever it may be, these pets are usually very well taken care of and unconditionally loved. Unfortunately, this is not the case in Hayasdan. We’ve all seen a stray animal or two in the U.S., but none of us are used to seeing herds of dogs running around town.

Walking around Yerevan, we began to notice how many stray dogs were actually roaming the streets. Many were big and shaggy, referred to as “Chobani” dogs, which roughly translates to sheepdog. Unlike many of the dogs in the U.S. that are usually kept indoors, these dogs are left stranded outside, with no food or water provided, and are not even picked up and taken to shelters. Most of Armenia’s residents don’t even acknowledge these dogs, and are prone to kicking them if they even come near for some attention. Don’t get me wrong, they are pretty dirty and most probably covered in fleas, but if you take two seconds to look at their poor adorable faces, you’ll fall in love. You’ll feel an automatic need to take them in and provide them with the love and care they need. This brings us to Gago, aka Oreo.

As we strolled down the streets of Yerevan, we passed by many stray dogs that were just looking for scraps of food to eat, or scratching themselves non-stop due to their flea infested fur. Of these dogs, our group fell in love with a black and white mixed stray that had the cutest nose and most loving eyes. We realized that Oreo had been following us for about two blocks and did not leave our side. As soon as I (Knar) gave him a little bit of attention and used some loving terms towards this dog, such as “hokis” and “jeegar”, and after our group gave him a name which he responded to, he continued to follow us for the next 5 blocks to the Hrabarag, the town square. He would stop when we stopped, walked in any direction we went, and always responded when we called him if he strayed a little far from where we were. Gago was the most adorable dog, he almost became the Youth Corps mascot.

This brings us back to the huge dilemma of the increasing amount of stray dogs in Armenia. It came to our attention that once in a while, authorities will round up these stray dogs and kill them off because they don’t want them running around the city with their infections and what not. Although many people would argue that human needs are more necessary than those of dogs, it is still an act of inhumanity. We would love to see a group organize a shelter for these animals that only need to be cleaned and given shots or treatments for their conditions. After a little sprucing up, they can be adopted and become someone’s loving pet. A dog like Oreo proved to us that some of these dogs in Armenia have the qualities of being loyal and deserving of love and a good owner. We know that it will take a while for this type movement to take place and really become successful, but these dogs have the right to be taken care of.

Knar and Rita

Recently IANYANmag founder Liana Aghajanian rescued a stray dog in Yerevan and worked tirelessly to find it a home.  We’re happy to report that Lucky now has a home. You rock Liana!

As we wait in the Moscow International Airport munching on some snacks, we sit and reminisce about the last 24 hours of our journey, before we take our final flight to the motherland. As the last group is getting ready 6,000 miles away to depart from LAX, we wonder what similar obstacles they’ll encounter along the way…

Flashback 24 hours ago:

“Where are you going?”
Our response with excitement, “Armenia!”
To our utter disappointment, the ticket agent asked, “Is that a country?”

For the next twenty minutes, the three of us, our parents, siblings, and our Youth Corps coordinators, tried convincing this poor man that Armenia indeed is a country, and to his dismay, it was not located in Africa. Despite our efforts to Google Armenia on our iPad for him, he made a call to a higher authority on his handy dandy red phone, after which he was finally  convinced that Armenia was in fact a legit destination.

Flash forward to New York:

We landed and we were starving, we look to the left and look to the right. Our only options were poisonous  panini sandwiches, or a Turkish food stand with much needed Turkish (Armenian) blended coffee. Without a moment’s hesitation, we ran to the poisonous paninis. We get onto the plane, and encounter the next interesting character on our journey. As Nazeli is freaking out about the takeoff, we meet Ms. Jersey. Ms. Jersey is your typical hot Jersey Shore Russian version of a guidette. Again we get asked where we’re going…

Our response, Armenia. Her’s? “Why?? For what reason would you do that?!”

Again we go into our almost memorized dialogue at this point and the three of us simultaneously rant about Youth Corps and how great it is.

Flash forward to the now..

As we sit writing our thoughts in Moscow, we get stopped mid conversation by two cute little older ladies (Tantigs), who had just met each other and were looking for fellow Armenians. They asked us in English if we were Armenian, and as soon as we said yes, the conversation shifted into Armenian and they asked, “Where are you going, Armenia?” We said yes, and they asked why, but this time the response we received consisted of big smiles, rather than a confused stare. Excited to see three young Armenians traveling to the homeland, they asked what the purpose of our trip was. By this point we all simultaneously were able to recite the exact same things and explained the importance of the Youth Corps program, but this time in Armenian.

As we gather our food and get ready to board our flight, we say до свидания (“do svidaniya”) to Russia and բարեւ (parev) to Hayastan.

With love,
Knar, Carina, and Nazeli