Last week our new volunteer arrived! Sophie Vranian is ARK's first Birthright Armenia volunteer (and hopefully not the last!) She was in Gyumri for 2 and a half months before finding ARK and deciding to come to Kapan, and she will be here until 23 August.
Sophie and Armen with Khustup in the background!
Armen and Marina clearing areas around the fruit trees in the camp so making harvesting easier. Sophie is from Minneapolis, MN. Her background is in agriculture and she is also a yoga teacher, so when she found out about ARK's. While working with ARK, Sophie will be focusing mainly on maintaining the campsite; cutting grass and pulling weeds, cleaning up the strawberries and pumpkins, clearing paths, and general organizing. She is also helping with GPS mapping hiking trails.
On Sunday Armen, Sophie, Hasmik, and Serge climbed Khustup. They took a truck to the summit and hiked for 5 hours, going GPS coordinates along the way to make hiking maps for future hikers. Unfortunately they couldn't climb all the way to the top because the clouds were coming in, but they got pretty close. Everyone should spend some time on Khustup, the views are breath-taking, and like Armen says "I feel like I could fly here!"
View from Khustup.
Come by the campsite to say hi to Sophie!
