Build a home in Armenia

Soon, my sister, June, and her husband, John, will head to Armenia again. They’ll work there with an international volunteer team intent on building a home for a family in need. In the United States, we hear the persistent lament that more housing is necessary. Old factories, mills and schools sit vacant, waiting endlessly to be retrofitted into apartments, their previous uses long abandoned. Yet in Armenia, small armies, like the one the JJs have joined, march into the tiny republic, eager to dirty their hands to erect one house at a time.

Twenty years ago, June and I visited Armenia with a different agenda. We were on a church-sponsored sightseeing trip. At the time, John and my wife, Becky, weren’t up for the long flight from Boston yet. Being our first trip to Haiastan (Armenia), we were the only sibling couple traveling together on what our fellow bus riders thought was odd. We didn’t care. We wanted to experience Yerevan, visit ancient churches on the itinerary, and interact with Haiastan’s people on their own turf—or shall I say, concrete?