Armenia Tree Project visit_Elise (Summer 2016)

YARP hello from Elise!!!

“Get ready girls! We’ll be leaving for the ATP soon!” That was my Mom. We were at the Best Western Paradise Hotel in Dilijan, in Armenia. And it really was a paradise hotel, let me tell you that. The Armenia Tree Project (ATP) is a foundation that plants trees in honor of people. Let’s say you give money for them to plant a tree in honor of ‘Stevie Parker’. The ATP would plant a tree and send you a certificate saying that there is now a tree planted for Stevie. Let’s say you want to plant a forest in honor of Stevie Parker for his birthday, you give more money and ATP plants a forest in honor of Stevie Parker. The Armenia Tree Project branch that we were visiting was in Margahovhit village, between Vanadzor and Dilijan. The ATP wasn’t far away from Dilijan, though we did buy some snacks and water for the ride.

The ATP building was beautiful. It serves as an ATP educational center and was  sponsored by Mrs. Ginny Ohanian, an Armenian from Boston, in honor of her husband Michael. The building was painted in various colors and cartoonic trees. There was a large garden in front of the building, and strange little yellow wood things with holes inside them. My mom (Mommy) led Isabelle and me inside the building. To my left, there was a wall sticker of dandelions, the puffy kind that you make wishes on, and butterflies. (Just a reminder that I was allergic to dandelions). To my right was a bookshelf holding not only books, but other things too, like sculptures and photos. There was a large picture of painted tree in front of the bookshelf, which made the shelves look like the branches of the painted tree. Behind the tree-bookshelf were two doors: one had a boy figure silhouetted and the other a girl. Of course, the bathrooms! There was also a staircase to the right of the tree bookshelf, leading upstairs. Here is the bookshelf below.

Our mom took us into a short hallway,  then asked a light brown haired woman in Armenian, “Are we interrupting, Alla?” She answered, “No, no. Come in. It’s lunch hour.” At the end of the short hallway was a large room, which I was guessing was the cafeteria. There were windows overlooking the mountains and the garden. Tables filled the room too. There were also three other things: a box with a picture of a bee on it, a tank with a turtle in it, and a tank with two goldfish in it. A black haired woman approached my mom and exclaimed, “Anna! It’s so good to see you again!” When she noticed us she said, “And who are these wonderful girls you brought with you?” I could tell it was our turn to speak. “I’m Elise, and she’s Isabelle.” Isabelle gave me a look as if she could speak for herself. I responded giving her a mischievous grin. The cook came out and placed two bowls of mushroom stew.

The black haired woman, her name was Arpine Matinyan, showed us around the room. She was the Principal of the Margahovit School. “Here we have a beehive.” She pointed at the box with the picture of a bee on it. “Look through that glass over there, do you see all those bees? Inside that box is where the bees make the honey, and also where the queen bee stays. She rarely comes out though.” There were dozens of bees buzzing inside the glass, coming into the box from outside, and going out of the box. The bees coming into the box had yellow beads of pollen stuck to their legs. It was a wonder! I had never seen the inside of a beehive before. Here is the picture of it.

And seeing all those bees was truly amazing. “Here we keep Tigran the turtle,” said Arpine. She was talking about the turtle I had seen earlier. It turned out the turtle is named after a boy who comes and takes care of him and loves him like a pet. We moved on to the fish. She didn’t explain much about them. Here is the picture of Tigran the Turtle.

We had now sat down to eat, and immediately, the conversation began. “How’s the school, Arpine?” My mom asked. “Is there anything I can do to help with the school?” Arpine responded, “Well the school gym floor could be better, and the school could use a smartboard.” A smartboard is a board that is connected to a computer and projects what’s on the computer screen onto the smartboard. Smartboard allows a teacher to show classroom full of kids what’s on her computer screen without the students crowding around her computer. Problem solved! But my mom on the other side, wanted to buy Kindles for the school instead, the reading kind without games, mind you. She argued that with Kindles, instead of buying a whole bookshelf of books and having trouble transporting them, Kindle lets one to buy a whole bookshelf of books, several more times as many as one could carry. A teacher can give each child a Kindle and have them read many books on it, instead of buying loads of books at a time. Plus, as my mom noted, Kindles save trees since books require cutting down of trees to be made, which is against ATP principles. Eventually, the smartboard idea won. Margahovit school will get the smartboard and ATP will get Kindles because many schoolchildren from the village visit ATP and can use the Kindles to read environmental materials.

A while later Alla Sahakyan, who is the education program manager at ATP, took us out to see the garden in front of the building. Don’t think it was a sunny day though, there was a slight drizzle which would turn into a downpour later on. First Alla showed us kinds of trees that ATP grew in the garden, and also other trees and plants that are in the Red Book. Alla also showed us  what the strange yellow thing with holes in it was. It was a “bug hotel”! There were holes in it so the bugs could get in, and it was painted yellow, since bugs are attracted to the color yellow. I had never seen anything like it, except in cartoons where there were literally bug hotels! It was surprising to know that things like this existed. Most people think that bugs are pesty little things that eat your plants, but these bugs eat the weeds and help the plants grow. I wonder if there are worm hotels, too. Here is the picture of the bug hotel.

Overall, the meaning of the ATP is to plant trees in Armenia, and what I think is amazing, is that ATP has already planted forests in Armenia.  Many trees have been cut down in the history of Armenia,  but the ATP helps plant them again. Going to the Armenia Tree Project was a wonderful experience, and I think everyone should pay a visit and learn the quality of trees on this planet. Without trees there would be no paper, no log cabins, no wooden bookshelves, no pencils, no firewood, you name it! Another wonderful thing about ATP is that there are many schools that contribute to the ATP, and students help plant trees too. You can go to sleep today, knowing there will be more trees in the world tomorrow.

Here is a link to Armenia Tree Project in case if you got inspired by this post and would like to donate to ATP and plant trees and forests in Armenia!

https://www.armeniatree.org/en/intro.asp