Last week was another extremely busy time at the WSC. Christine (my fellow intern) and I participated in an educational session that the WSC held with a partner organization where women from Yerevan gathered to learn more about DV, including dispelling myths about abuse, the psychology of trauma, the effects of domestic abuse on children, and the typical profile of an abuser. Together, we watched a testimony video the WSC had created featuring survivors’ stories and discussed our reactions to the video. The next day, a mother with a black eye came in with her young daughter, whom Christine and I played with as her mom gave testimony to the police in the next room. After the pair left the center, our coworkers told us gravely, “She’s going to go back to him [her abuser.]” When we asked how they knew this for sure, they responded, “We’ve done this enough times; we can tell. She will go back to him.” This conversation left me with a lot to sit with.

Last Friday, everyone in the Armenian Assembly program took a day trip to Geghart village to help a low-income family with the construction of their new house. Specifically, we helped with graveling, which insulates the roof to keep the house warm in the winter. I got to climb onto the roof as the others sent buckets of gravel up to me via a pulley system. It was exhausting work, but somehow extremely satisfying at the same time.

Finally, we took a day trip over the weekend to Syunik, Armenia’s southernmost and easternmost province, and probably the most beautiful place in the entire country. We spent a night in Goris, right next to the Azerbaijani border, and the closest I have ever been to Artsakh. Seeing the road signs giving directions to Stepanakert, Artsakh’s capital, while it being completely inaccessible due to the Azerbaijani occupation, was extremely emotional and made me feel acutely aware of the senseless nature of borders—to quote my cousin, "they truly are just violence and nothing else." Throughout this trip, we visited the Tatev monastery complex, which required a cable car trip on the Wings of Tatev, the longest non-stop cableway in the world. We also stopped by Shaki waterfall, Karahunj (Armenian stonehenge), Noravank monastery, and the Areni-1 cave (where the oldest preserved shoe in the world was discovered).

@Barnard College