Contributor - Lillian Avedian

I have been searching for Armenia my entire life.

I searched for Armenia in the Armenian school I attended for ten years in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles, where I learned Armenian history, poetry, and language.

I searched for Armenia in the stories my parents and grandparents tell of struggling to hold tightly on to their Armenian heritage as immigrants and diasporans.

I have finally discovered Armenia: in the village of Shvanidzor on the southern border near Iran where my parents grew up.

​I discover my homeland in playing with the energetic schoolchildren, in stargazing under the beautiful night sky while listening to Komitas, in visiting the houses of the villagers and seeing their gardens and collections of homemade pomegranate wine.

This is my first time visiting an Armenian village, and while it is entirely foreign it feels unexpectedly familiar. I am rediscovering something I have never known, and the sense that my roots are embedded in the soil here is tangible. 

I am constantly aware of my privilege in that I may travel here for two weeks and enjoy the loveliest the village has to offer without living the realities of the difficulties of village life. I delight in the breathtaking scenery, the joy of the children, the taste of the apricots and figs picked from the trees, and the hospitality of the villagers, and then I may freely return to the comforts of my home in the States. 

Yet this experience has given me the gift, however selfish, of connecting me to my homeland and of allowing me to reflect upon my identity on the soil where my ancestors lived and worked. I love this land, and cannot help but feel that I belong to it.

To my fellow Armenians in the diaspora: come to Armenia. Visit the villages. Play with the children. Dine with the villagers. For it is here that you will discover the homeland. 

Contributor - Sirarpi Topchyan

​​In the tiny kitchen, laughter rings out, as jokes and anecdotes are shared over cups of cardommon coffee and fresh aoiricot jam. It's through this humor, through moments spent together connecting, that we are able to strength ourselves, and get ourselves in the happy and positive mind space we need to be in to make the camp a happy place. There is never any shortage of laughter at this camp, there is an unlimited supply of smiles and teasing and poorly translated tshirts. 

Today, we were able to connect with our students in our Social Issues class, to get them talking about relationships and family and parents, something I thought would be incredible Difficult to do. It was difficult, at the start, to find a way to speak these children about issues in their lives, but after initial bumps, the flow of conversation was as uninterrupted as our laughter in the morning. 

Contributor - Victor Troiano

For me personally it is fantastic to be part of the HRI team this year. Unlike the rest of the camp leaders, I have actually already been living here in Shvanidzor for about a year and a half. I am here as a volunteer with the Peace Corps, working with the local English teacher in the village school. Last summer I happened to meet the HRI crew while they were here, but I was busy away from the village during most of their camp. So this year I was very excited to officially join the team and help to run the camp.

Getting to know this year’s group over these past few days has been a blast. It’s great to have other Americans to hang out with. Or as the locals might say, my own guests to host and show off the beauty of the village to. Already we have explored the village sights with the students and spent a rousing evening visiting my host-family here, complete with homemade wine.

In the camp, I am helping with the Environmental lessons. Today with the oldest students we ended up having a discussion about garbage disposal in the village. The students agreed that litter is a problem and that the ways it is typically disposed of – burning or dumping in the river – are not good solutions. They began to brainstorm the possibility of installing trash bins and having a truck come from town to remove the trash once a week. Projects like these are ones that I’ve wanted to focus some of my efforts on, but I never found an opportunity within my Peace Corps role in the school and village. So to see the students engaging in that conversation and coming up with their own solutions was very gratifying.

Thanks to the structure of HRI’s camps and the amazing bonds the whole team makes with the kids here, I have a wonderful opportunity to see the students engaging with topics such as these and others. This, for me, is the true value of HRI and the reason why I am so excited to be participating this year, and why I hope that the project continues for the years to come.