HELP WANTED

I saw two more help wanted signs this week. Before this year I had never seen one, so I think this is really a big thing. Businesses are growing so much they don't have enough friends and relatives to fill all the positions :-)

Last week I got an email from a non-Armenian, American couple who had some interest in moving to Armenia and had a lot of questions. They loved the answers, even the ones that would scare most Americans (shopping is not so easy here, English is not widely spoken, etc). It has been a real pleasure to exchange messages with such an open-minded couple who are considering a major move in life. I still have another 33 questions to answer, so lets see what they think in the end. It is a lot of work answering all those questions, so maybe I will post some of them on the message boards for others to share...

Tomorrow I head off to Tavush for a work trip, which will include a visit to Shamshadin. Absolutely beautiful landscapes, but I won't get to do any exploring. We will visit a small business incubator for women, a constitutional/human rights protection center and library, a cheese plant, Ijevan Economic Development project, the Peace Corps volunteers, a village water supply opening, and a slaughterhouse (yes, I will have the camera :-). These are not all USAID, but they all get US government assistance. If you are curious about these projects, let me know. It is my job to tell you about them :-)

In a week I will be moved across the street to my smaller apartment where I will have cable TV, which I miss. I think I already mentioned this, but it will be nice to have Euro MTV and VH1 to know what is going on in the music world, to have BBC and Discovery, to have some movie channels and a sitcom channel... I have really given Armenian broadcast television a fair chance, and it sucks! Even if I understood Russian, there would be the occasional movie I could enjoy, but thats it.