The temperature today at noon was minus 3; the ice on the streets is just not melting! What a depressing day it started off ok but it got worse as the day progressed. I went this morning to pick up the Shalvars (pants for folk dance) that I had someone custom make for me as a gift for my brother. While I was waiting for the woman who had made them I had an interesting conversation with the people in the room. There was a woman called Sveta an elderly lady, a refugee from Baku and a man from Tblisi who had relocated to Armenia and has been living here for the past 7 years. They were both of the opinion that Soviet times had destroyed everything. Sveta had left all her belongings in Azerbaijan. The rest of her family are spread around Russia and she was saying how do you leave everything after having lived in one place for 50 years and was respected by everyone and now she has nothing and of course no income.

Then while I was having lunch, a man (whom I�ve met previously) came in and wanted me to translate 3 letters from English to Armenian for his daughter who�s sick in bed. He will take the translated letters to his daughter, have her reply, which I will translate back to English and send them to the States. This man told me that his daughter has been sick for the past 2 years; he has no money to have her treated in a hospital. As if that�s not bad enough he advised his children have not had any food for the past 3 days and of course no heating. What do you do? I�m so sick of hearing these stories and crying like a baby. What an awful day, not so much awful but emotional! I just hope that present day Armenians survive as we have in the past.