Building a Bathroom

Vahagn is a man who lives in Sisian and runs a pottery studio there. He makes amazing ceramic jewelry and dishes from clay he harvests himself from the surrounding countryside. He made our favorite mug (which was a New Year's gift from Sam's students). Vahagn wants to grow his ceramics business into a school and a tourist destination. But at the moment, his facilities don't really allow for that- namely: they lack a private bathroom space. Unfortunately, he doesn't have the funds to do a traditional renovation of his space.

But Vahagn's got an innovative plan to get around that: he's going to build an outhouse out of naturally available and recycled materials: rammed earth and plastic bottles.

Today we were able to work for a few hours with Vahagn, a few students from Sisian, and a fellow PCV from a nearby village to fill bottles for the projects.

It was a pretty awesome time, and ended with a party in which we were served coffee and sandwiches.

We've got a long way to go, but it was a solid start to the day.

Before we left, I snapped a few pictures of the amazing ceramic pieces Vahagn makes: