Paper Mountains: An Armenian Diary (Expanded Edition)
London: Gomidas Institute, 2019,
214 pages, maps,
ISBN 978-1-909382-49-7, paperback,
Price: UK£16.00 / US$22.00
The current edition is an expansion of the earlier volume with a new cover.
When Jonathan Maiullo landed in Armenia, he had no idea what he was getting himself into. He couldn’t read the alphabet, he didn’t speak the language and he was none too confident in his ability to teach English as he’d been sent there to do. As Jonathan (or Jon jan) bumbles through lessons about hospitality, tan (carbonated buttermilk) and oghi (homemade fruit brandy) he comes to understand why his benevolent hosts are so fiercely proud of their country.
This diary offers the unique opportunity to experience a beautiful and culturally impressive country for the first time. Jonathan’s long walks carry the reader across mountainous Armenia from alpine Lake Sevan down into the biblical Ararat Plain, from a peaceful religious festival into the turbulent Nagorno-Karabagh conflict. Each new insight, each revalation in acculuration is celebrated with the reader in this direct account of life in an unfamiliar place that eventually became home.
Jonathan Maiullo served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Yeghegnadzor, Armenia from 2008-2010 teaching English as a Second Language. He has since lived and worked in Argentina, Paraguay and Thailand. He returned to Armenia to see friends and visit Nagorno-Karabakh in 2017. He currently lives with his wife and daughter in northern California.