Second Visit - Varsik’s House - Երկրորդ Այցը - Վարսիկի Տանը

The next visit I made during my final two weeks in Lehvaz was to Varsik’s house. Varsik is the woman who I’ve worked and taught with the most during my time in this country. She was my counterpart during my first year, so I worked with her every day in the classroom. During my second year, she was promoted to school director and my time became split between her and a new, younger English teacher named Lilit, but Varsik and I still taught together for some of the older grades. She’s experienced, sharp-witted, and has taught languages (German and then English) for some 30 years. While we’ve butted heads plenty during my service, she’s always had my back when it counted, and I’ll miss her for sure. I headed across the river and up the village hill toward the “verevi tagh,” (upper neighborhood) where she lives as evening was setting on. When I got there, she had already laid out a simple dinner of bread, cheese, greens, and eggplant and peppers stuffed with rice and ground meat. Delicious! I gave her a little parting gift, a Norton Anthology of American literature in the 20^th and 21^st centuries. A little on the dense side, yes,  and I was partly just trying to get rid of it because it’s too big and heavy to bring back home, sure, but I really do think she liked it and will enjoy it. Plus, I wrote a sappy note to her on the inside cover.

 During dinner, her husband, Martik and I sipped vodka while she stuck to some cherry liqueur that she makes herself. They toasted to my good luck in the future and thanked me for all I’d done over these two years. I toasted to them and to their success in their future endeavors, especially to Varsik’s as school director. Sipping coffee on their porch outside after dinner, we talked about all sorts of things. They asked me plenty of questions about my future plans, and at one point the conversation sort waxed a bit philosophical. Varsik out of the blue asked me a really blunt, difficult question, as Armenians tend to do. She wanted to know, after my two years of living in Armenia, what my opinion was of Armenians as a race. One opinion, for the whole race of people.  My initial response was something like “it’s really hard to describe an entire race of people in any specific way.” This of course wasn’t good enough for her, so I gave it a shot and went with a safe answer. I said I thought Armenians were the most hospitable group of people that I’d ever met. They welcome you into their homes without knowing who you are and open their hearts (and their kitchens) to you without thinking twice about it. This is common not just in the far southern region where I've lived, but all over the country, and probably all over the world wherever you come across them.  I said that a volunteer friend of mine the previous summer was reading this book called Xenophon (he reads strictly Greek classics), about a famous ancient Greek soldier and his travels. In a section of the book chronicling his wanderings in this part of the world, my friend showed me a passage that specifically mentioned “Armenians,” and how they were this incredibly friendly, welcoming group of people that welcomed Xenophon and his fellow troops into their simple homes, fed them, wanted them to stay longer, and were just generally really hospitable. This was some 2000 or more years ago, and while Armenians were definitely around then, it’s amazing to read an account like that, which makes it seem like they haven’t changed a bit in the ways of taking care of foreigners and welcoming others into their homes. After my present day experience with Armenians, I’d say pretty much the exact same thing as this soldier who was writing about them thousands of years ago, and that is truly impressive. My rant now over, Varsik seemed satisfied with my response and the conversation wandered off somewhere else. Once it was totally dark outside I decided to call it a night with them and head home. The second goodbye visit had been a nice one, too.