Living in a country smaller than the size of Maryland has its
perks. Despite the predominately mountainous terrain that gives the country a
wide range of climate zones and makes villages that should be only a stone's throw away from each
other actually close to a day's travel away, Armenia is still relatively
speaking a compact place. This also means that walking across the country, from
one border to the other, is not a totally out of the question, insane prospect. And for three weeks
this summer, myself and some fellow volunteers will be doing just that.
Border to Border is a project started up by volunteers in Armenia last summer, and is now being continued for a second year
running. Two teams of six volunteers, one from the Iranian border (that's my
team) and one from the Georgian border will walk across Armenia for three weeks
until we converge in the country's central town of Yeghegnadzor. Why, might you
ask, are we doing this? Well, for some pretty good reasons as a matter of fact:
For these three
weeks, we'll be walking for two very important causes in Armenia: children's
health and environmental awareness. Lack of responsibility for one's health and
for the local environment are two issues among Armenian youth (prevailing examples being garbage routinely dumped into local rivers and streams or the
majority of young boys picking up smoking by age 15). And these issues we hope
to address with a little leading by example, spreading of awareness, and
teaching. Each team will stop in 9 to 10 Armenian towns and villages along the
way to hold teaching sessions at local schools and cultural
centers. Armenians from different organizations such as FYCA (Federation of
Youth Clubs in Armenia) and YMCA of Armenia will be teaming up with us along
the way as well, teaching with us and even walking with us at times as well. At
the end of the journey, we hope to have taught in upwards of 18 communities,
passed through/had contact with countless other villages along the way, hiked
nearly 600 K, and given valuable lessons and lasting impressions to a whole lot
of children. Wish us luck. It's on!
Oh yes, and we
need donations too, so if you're in the position to do so, visit our donation portal here. Just few U.S. dollars go a long way in Armenia, trust me.
Good morning how are you?
ReplyDeleteMy name is Emilio, I am a Spanish boy and I live in a town near to Madrid. I am a very interested person in knowing things so different as the culture, the way of life of the inhabitants of our planet, the fauna, the flora, and the landscapes of all the countries of the world etc. in summary, I am a person that enjoys traveling, learning and respecting people's diversity from all over the world.
I would love to travel and meet in person all the aspects above mentioned, but unfortunately as this is very expensive and my purchasing power is quite small, so I devised a way to travel with the imagination in every corner of our planet. A few years ago I started a collection of used stamps because trough them, you can see pictures about fauna, flora, monuments, landscapes etc. from all the countries. As every day is more and more difficult to get stamps, some years ago I started a new collection in order to get traditional letters addressed to me in which my goal was to get at least 1 letter from each country in the world. This modest goal is feasible to reach in the most part of countries, but unfortunately it’s impossible to achieve in other various territories for several reasons, either because they are countries at war, either because they are countries with extreme poverty or because for whatever reason the postal system is not functioning properly.
For all this I would ask you one small favor:
Would you be so kind as to send me a letter by traditional mail from Armenia? I understand perfectly that you think that your blog is not the appropriate place to ask this, and even, is very probably that you ignore my letter, but I would call your attention to the difficulty involved in getting a letter from that country, and also I don’t know anyone neither where to write in Armenia in order to increase my collection. a letter for me is like a little souvenir, like if I have had visited that territory with my imagination and at same time, the arrival of the letters from a country is a sign of peace and normality and an original way to promote a country in the world. My postal address is the following one:
Emilio Fernandez Esteban
Calle Valencia,39
28903 Getafe (Madrid)
Spain
If you wish, you can visit my blog www.cartasenmibuzon.blogspot.com where you can see the pictures of all the letters that I have received from whole World.
Finally I would like to thank the attention given to this letter, and whether you can help me or not, I send my best wishes for peace, health and happiness for you, your family and all your dear beings.
Yours Sincerely
Emilio Fernandez