So my friend Paul from Sydney reminded me that I hadn�t logged in a while and he had no news from me so here I am. I�ll start from last Thursday the 20th September. I went to Etchmiadzin with the Armenian Bar Association group from the States. They had set up a meeting with (the Vehapar), Garegin II in his office to ask some questions in person. After the formalities, we were given a memento for the 1700th Anniversary of Christianity, which was all very nice. We stayed for a little while as the procession started from his residence towards the new gate, where the blessing of the oil would take place a couple of days later (the new gate was blessed on Thursday).

Friday the 21st was Independence Day and although there was no parade during the day, there were many concerts in the evening. So I started from the Republic Square with a couple of friends and headed up to the Opera to watch the festivities. Everyone in Yerevan was out on the streets, which was great to see. We ended up sitting at a caf� at the Opera and watched Charles Aznavour and Nune Yesseyan sing.

The following day, all the Volunteers from the Armenian Volunteer Corps got together with local Volunteers (15 in total) and we started cleaning a nominated street in the center. We had decided to clean from Amirian Street, all the way down to Tigran Metz collecting rubbish along the way. There were some interesting remarks made as we were cleaning and picking up cigarette butts with our rubber gloves and brooms. The locals were asking us why we were cleaning the streets, whether we were being paid for it, some said we were doing it for nothing, as the cleanliness would not last. On a positive note some locals thanked us for our efforts and said they felt ashamed that �foreigners� were cleaning �their streets�. The whole exercise was to create interest in locals, asking them to join us in our exercise and to advertise to keep the streets of Yerevan clean. Eventually we will come up with a logo on caps and T-shirts advertising our cause �our city, our home�.

Sunday was spent at the new Church in Yerevan, St Gregory the Illuminator where mass was held and again with huge crowds.

The 3 Aussies who were staying at my place left Tuesday morning at 3am, meanwhile I have another lot of guests staying at my place for 2 weeks. So on Wednesday night we went out to dinner to �Our Village� restaurant and on our way out we saw the Pope passing by Sayat Nova Street in his car, which was neat. Oh I forgot to mention, Tom Samuelian who translated the �St Grigor Narekatsi� from Armenian to English had his book published and was personally signing his books on Tuesday night at Armenia hotel. Ok so that�s it till next time!