The journey to Sisian

Today we bid farewell to Shahumyan. Although there are many things about Sisian to which Sam and I are looking forward, we will miss the people who have been so kind to us here. I think that the family felt like this too- it's been difficult for them to have two extra people in there home for the past three months ( we kicked the children out of their bedroom, Alla cooks us breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and we make 8 people using 1 bathroom, for examples), so it will be nice for them to get back to normal- but I think that they will miss us a little when we're gone.

Ararat put on an amazing display for us as we left, coming out from behind its (these days) ever present veil of clouds to see us off. I took one last photo from the garden, right efore we left the house for the last time.

The family drove us and our luggage from the house to the mayor's office, and from there we loaded all of our luggage into a Peace Corps van. Our luggage seems to have expanded exponentially since we arrived in country, despite the fact that we really haven't acquired any more things, other than Peace Corps issued papers and books. The Peace Corps vans drove us from Shahumyan to the regional training center in Artashat. There, we unloaded all of our luggage and loaded it up again into a different Peace Corps van. It all seemed rather inefficient to me, but this is the federal government we're working for, so maybe I shouldn't be surprised. 

Once all of us and our luggage were finally loaded into the correct vans, we set out from Artashat to Sisian. The trip started through the familiar flat fields of Ararat Marz, where we have been living for the past quarter of a year. Soon, though, we left the flat Ararat valley behind us, and began to climb up into the mountains that make up most of Armenia's geography.

We continued to climb, higher and higher, until we broke the snowline and the roadsides became white with snow and crusted with ice. Still upwards we drove until finally we reached Syunik Gate- the massive structure on either side of the road marking out the highest point in Armenia you can drive to, and also the beginning of it's southern most region: Syunik. 

The views from this high up were fantastic. 

And then we were on our way back down through the mountains, passing small villages, filled with people who make their living herding sheep and cows on the high alpine fields in this region. At one point this was made abundantly clear when traffic stopped to share the road with a few of the area's primary residents.



We arrived in Sisian in early evening, and spent the rest of the day unpacking out things. It was nice to be settling into a home rather than preparing to move out of one, but at the same time, it felt daunting to have a whole new host family with whom to build relationships, far away from the familiar routines of Shahumyan.