Travels in Vanadzor

 

        

            In August of 2015, I finished teaching my Creative Writing class at the teen summer program at the American University of Armenia in Yerevan. From there, I was sent to volunteer in the city of Vanadzor to the northeast, where I would be teaching English courses. I was there for two months, but it was the best two months of my whole stay in Armenia. They set me up with a host family and I stayed in a room in an apartment with a terrific view of the city. Everything I needed was within walking distance, and of course the cost of living in Armenia is much cheaper than the US so I could afford to eat at a restaurant nearly every day. By this time, I finally qualified for Birthright Armenia’s stipend, so my financial issues were solved too and I could finally do things. My students in Vanadzor were of varying ages, but they attended my classes because they really wanted to learn English, and that made it a much better experience than I'd had in Yerevan with a captive teen audience that didn't want to be there (and the less said about that experience the better).

In August, I was accompanied by many other volunteers with the Birthright Armenia program, but most of them left in September, either back to Yerevan or to their home countries, leaving me the only Birthright Armenia volunteer in the whole town. This left me feeling a bit neglected at times; at one point someone from the Peace Corps had their English class scheduled at the same time as mine because everyone forgot I was still around, another time I got locked out of the NGO office I volunteered at and everyone in charge was gone. Birthright Armenia does excursions each weekend, but I often missed them when I was in Vanadzor because I needed some way to get myself to Yerevan. So I was pretty much stranded there. I was set to leave Armenia on October the 1^st so there was little point in me volunteering anywhere else for those few weeks, so I just sort of lingered in Vanadzor. But I did fall in love with that city while I was there, touring the city on my time off, walking from one end to another, encountering a lot of post-Soviet urban decay. It definitely wasn’t all bad, and I was having a better time there than I did in Yerevan. Just before I left some of my students took me with them to Surp Hovhanness church near the village of Medz Parni, a very tiny building situated atop a hill and hosting a strangely huge collection of khatchkars, with a new one being installed the very day I was there. That was a fun trip.

            I thought I’d share a partial article I wrote up on the experience at the time. I never really finished writing it, for a few reasons (I fell into kind of a depression upon my return to the US and didn’t write anything for a few months, as is normal I think, and once I came out of it I wanted to focus on self-publishing my first novel, which I did the following May). I even interviewed a couple fellow volunteers too. I don’t think I’m ever going to finish the article at this point, five years later, so I’ll just post it on the blog.

 

Volunteering in Vanadzor

By Suren Oganessian

            Crossing over into the Lori province, the environment changes almost instantly; the land is blanketed in clouds that don’t seem to make it past the borders, temperatures drop to a soothing coolness, the mountainous landscape becomes ever more dramatic, and trees gradually become more abundant. As my driver drove me and my luggage from Yerevan, where I had just spent four months volunteering, to the city of Vanadzor, which I had only barely visited a couple times on excursions as we were passing through on our way to somewhere else, I was both nervous and excited. I was excited because the hustle and bustle of Yerevan’s vibrant city life had become a little bit exhausting and the boiling hot summer temperatures were only getting hotter, so I was eager for a change of scenery. But I was also nervous because I had little idea what to expect, when it came to my homestay and my jobsites, and the city in general. In many ways, the experience of moving to Vanadzor was like coming to Yerevan from the United States all over again; once more I was being taken away from all that had become familiar to me and placed in a new, very different environment.

            Suffice it to say though, I adapted quickly. Vanadzor is quieter than Yerevan, but more relaxing. The people are friendly. The air is fresh and clean. And for those like me who can’t stand heat, it’s like a small pocket of Armenia that summer never quite reaches, a sanctuary from the punishing summer sun. I volunteered as an English teacher at the NGO Center and at the Vanadzor Library’s American Corner, facilitating English clubs, film viewings and a Creative Writing class. The students in Vanadzor sincerely want to learn, are there because they want to be there, and are appreciative of their teachers. I’ve had nothing but positive experiences at my jobsites. On days off, such as Sundays, I often go for walks, exploring the parks and the city. Vanadzor gets progressively more fascinating the further you go; scenes of abandoned Soviet-era factories and buildings with trees growing out of them abound. The suburban and rural areas of Vanadzor are worth exploring as well, to give you a more authentic view of how Armenians live than you might get in Yerevan. And if you like to hike, you don’t have to go far. The city is surrounded by lush, tall green hills. I was overcome by their beauty when I first ventured into them.

Living in Vanadzor enriched and enlightened my Birthright experience in ways staying in Yerevan would not have. Don’t just take my word for it; this is what some of the other volunteers in Vanadzor had to say.

            “There’s not to much to do, but I really like the weather,” says volunteer Arnaud Chahinian, “It can get quite cold and I like that. But because there are not so many things to do, I have the time to do what I want. There are not so many Birthrighters in the city, so you become more deeply immersed in local culture and community. You don’t spend so much time with other Disaspora Armenians. “

            Vanadzor gives volunteers an opportunity to see a more authentic Armenia, and with fewer volunteers than you would get in Yerevan, it can mean closer friendships. “With a smaller group of volunteers, you get better acquainted with the other volunteers in the city, rather than trying to meet with 50 other volunteers in Yerevan.” adds Arnaud.

            Yepo Sarkisian concurs, “I like Vanadzor people. To me, (Vanadzor) people are more welcoming and caring than Yerevan people. I would say that was my experience that village people were welcoming and loving. Yerevan is more dry and “do it yourself”, which at time for me that was good too.”

The volunteers that I interviewed universally enjoyed their jobsites.

             “I have three jobsites,” Arnaud explains, “With the French club I teach at NGO, I feel quite free to do what I want and it’s nice because I can make my class what I want it to be. But because it is free and voluntary students come and go, so it’s not very serious. My second jobsite is translating things into French for Birthright and writing an article of my hitchhiking trip. The main one is at Oran, are activities like poetry, sewing, arts and crafts. I started a French club there as well, it’s a good place to stay. With these three jobsites I work 6 hours a day.”

            Emily Varadian had this to say, “As for my Vanadzor job placements, I loved them. The children's hospital was a great learning environment where I observed speech therapy and exchanged ideas and methods with the professionals. And Oran was great too! The kids there were so friendly and willing to learn, in both my English classes and my speech therapy lessons. In Oran I was able to work directly with the kids doing speech therapy, which was challenging but made possible with the help of my translator. I made games like memory and bingo and we practiced speech sounds. It was a learning experience on both ends, I hopefully helped the kids learn how to articulate the target sounds and I also learned Armenian letters and sounds while working with them.”

           

Vanadzor in Pictures

            That was as far as I got with the article. I figured it’d be nice to show off some pictures I took while there, to give the reader a feel for the place.

        One of the first places I was taken by my host family was to this water fountain that gives carbonated mineral water. Locals often stop by to fill up bottles and jugs with the water. I can't say I ever saw anything like this in the US.

The further you get from downtown, the more badly paved the roads can get. But this is what a typical neighborhood looks like in Vanadzor. It feels more real here. 

            Atop the highest hill in town is the Kirovakan Hotel. Kirovakan was the Soviet name for Vanadzor.It's a bit of a hike getting to it, but the view is worth it.

        This building was hauntingly beautiful. I was told it used to be a hospital, but it was abandoned after the fall of the Soviet Union. Shame for such a nice building to go to waste. 

        The view that greeted me from my bedroom window.

        Here's one taken on a sunnier day from the apartment I stayed in.

This was on the outskirts of town, deep in the hills. I couldn't figure out what it used to be. A nice example of decaying Soviet architecture. 

I'm pretty sure someone wealthy lived here, maybe a city official. But I found it interesting whenever I passed it.

If you couldn't already tell, it was overcast a lot in Vanadzor. It just so happens I love that kind of weather. I loved the clouds in this photo.

        If I were ever to live in Armenia I think Vanadzor is where I'd like to be. The weather is great, and it's that perfect balance, not as busy and loud as Yerevan, but not too rural and remote.