News

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Reality and Necessity

Our groups’ time in Gyumri is quickly coming to an end, and before we make our way to Shushi I want to reflect on the city of Gyumri and its current condition. Gyumri is Armenia’s second largest city and in a lot of ways it’s a microcosm of Armenia.
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We’ll Be Back Gyumri

I was walking to the school in Gyumri for the last time with the staff. I got high fives and hugs from all the kids who were waiting impatiently for the school gates to open. The staff and I lined up the kids, to get ready to sing our morning anthem. It was amazing to me how the first day while watching the kids sing, only a handful knew the words. On the last day, every single kid was singing with confidence and passion.
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Memory Lane

As kids, one of our only worries was who was going to make our cuts and scrapes feel better and go away. On the second to last day of our Gyumri Jambar, I took a trip down memory lane. During lunch time we had a little free time, so Sevana and I started racing with the kids. We had to run to the wall and back. Since there were many of us in a confined space, as I'm about to tap the wall, little Vazrik turned around and we clashed and both fell. The little trooper was up two minutes later tying his shoes. I have a scab on my left elbow to remember the blue-eyed, blonde-haired kid by.
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Getting Attached..and Letting Go

We have been here for about two weeks now. Every other day we get a nonchalant yet wrathful scolding from our group leader, Vache, to write a blog. Day by day, every one in my group has been sitting there writing their blogs, and yet, I had no idea what to write about. I just knew that I wanted to write in Armenian because aside from going to an Armenian school for ten years of my life and taking a college course Armenian class the semester before coming to Armenia, being here has linked me to my homeland more than I could have ever imagined.
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Through a Child’s Eyes

Every evening, Melanie, Margaret, Sevana and I sit down and plan what to do with our Advanced English students the next day. We had already talked about family, school and hygiene with them, and were starting to run out of ideas when Sevana suggested we ask the students what they would change and what they would keep the same if they were president of Armenia.
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Yelek Hayer

For the past three years every time I heard the song Yelek Hayer I would remember Patil Aslanian as my counselor at AYF Camp Big Pines going crazy, yelling and screaming for the blue color to remember the words to this simple song. From today on, the most striking memory of Yelek Hayer will forever remain from July 18, the seventh day of Jambar in Gyumri.

Then and Now.

After only spending a week in Yerevan and a couple nights in Stepanakert, my emotions and understand of my homeland have changed completely from my first visit to Armenia.
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