Was on another road trip to visit some of the sites that the US govt is funding, and this being my 3rd of 5 such trips we will have this summer, I am really beginning to see the very large number of people all over who are affected by the foreign aid coming here. Of course I know that 90 million dollars is a lot of money for a country this size, but to see what it can do firsthand is something else. More classrooms with computers/internet, more irrigation systems, domestic violence programs, earthquake housing and community development program, businesses, other programs that I am forgetting to mention, and plus we took a road trip down to see the ruins of Ani visible in todays Turkey from the Armenian side of the border. I had been there once before and had really forgotten just how magnificent it is, even from this side of the river. The road unfortunately was quite bad and the high clearance American/Japanese SUV's make me car sick in a way that Nivas (the little Russian 4x4s I always travel in) never have, and I tossed my cookies as they say on the way back from Ani to Gyumri. The rest of the trip and even until now I feel a little woozy, since I continued to be subjected to the bad roads in those cars. I hope I'll do better on the next two trips cuz I know those roads and they worry me. Aside from the US govt aid, you see the hand of the Lincy Foundation absolutely everywhere as well. I don't know how many massive buildings are going up in the earthquake zone, plus highways across the country are being completely rebuilt, sidewalks, museums, bridges, it is astounding. This is really giving Armenia a great opportunity, now it needs more investment in business, which will give it the ability to improve the schools and hospitals and all the other things which have suffered from a real lack of funding for so long...

Not too much else going on. My house is dagnu vra (upside down) and I don't feel like doing a thing about it. I will be moving to my apartment across the street in 10 days anyways, so I suppose it won't help much if I organize things now. (way to rationalize that one away, huh? :-) That place is smaller, and easier to keep clean, and easier to heat/cool.

Wow!! What a great day and what an intellectual rush I had tonight.

I had the honor to sit with some of Martuni�s old intellects to talk about past and present politics. We also touched on who is what and how they got to where they are. This is a really hot topic and something I feel everyone really needs to have a good understanding of so a common understanding can be found among the people in power and the people who are effected by what the people in power are doing.

Much of what I was hearing really gave me quite a bit of hope to what our future may be like and they convinced me that among the greater population here in the Martuni region, there are common bonds and a united understanding when it comes to the desire of law, order and fairness.

The intellects made it clear that they are in this for the long haul and it�s everyone�s responsibility to participate in making our country what it can and should be.

They paid me a compliment and told me that I am a real Communist. They say this is a compliment, as a Communist is viewed as being someone who believes in law, order and fairness.

Before tonight, I was under the impression that our people lacked an understanding of what right and wrong is, or believed that right and wrong no longer had a place in our society today. I was feeling that people had lost hope that things would get better, as I have been hearing the word �anarchy� being used over and over again when referring to the government and many of the �businessmen� who have privatized most everything the former system had built for us.

After tonight, I�ve come to realize that the people here understand that anarchy is wrong, right is right and wrong should no longer be tolerated. Someone recently mentioned to me that change can�t come from a powerful leader or force, change can only come from a powerful society that wants change.

I believe that I am living within that powerful society that really wants change and I�m predicting that just as the Artsakh movement to free ourselves from Azeri rule was started and carried out by many people from the Martnui region, this change that everyone is in need of will also start here and I hope infect the rest of Artsakh and also Armenia.

I am still alive and kicking although work has been a bit tense lately. I finally visited heaven!!! I have been trying for the past 3 summers to visit Ughtasar and I finally did it last weekend. This place is truly heaven on earth, petroglyphs on rocks, a great lake, an altitude of 3100 metres or something like that, and an amazing view from top. We drove down to Sissian on Friday night and spent the night in a hotel. The next day with an artist friend, Ashot Avakyan who paints these petroglyphs, we went up to Ughtasar, the journey takes just over 2 hours by car and the rest is on foot to reach the lake. I would strongly recommend visiting this place and Ashot�s studio, he�s a great guy.

Since I have been travelling for the past 4 weekends, some of them being pretty difficult off the beaten track roads, I have decided to take this weekend off and relax at home. I have 2 more places to visit on my agenda before the cold sets in, that are Kapan and Meghri and hiking up Mt Aragats. So far it�s been a great summer with plenty of visitors, meeting tons of new people with many more to come.

Today was a bit warmer than yesterday. It would have been great if my swimming pool was finished, but due to having so much work, I don�t have time to oversee any construction on the house right now.

Since Der Hova brought up the subject of a lack of public swimming pools, I wanted to share with you the desire that the school principal of the larger school here in Martuni told me when I was visiting the summer day-care program today.

He said that they have a swimming pool that was destroyed during the war that they would like to repair, asking me if I could find a sponsor?

We went to look at the pool that I honestly didn�t even know existed, since it is located to the far end of the school property and is surrounded by weeds. It�s very small in terms of what one would find in the states, but it is a pool and for not much money can be repaired.

I told him that he should put together a proposal without any prices and I would put it out to bid to get a real figure of what it will cost. I can tell you were not looking at much money (maybe $400, if that).

He said that we would have a plaque put up near the pool, so the kids would know that someone cared to do something for the community here.

He then went on to tell about how if I could find someone to do a real big renovation job on the school itself, he would rename it after the donor.

I put my foot down and said that a plaque is one thing, but to name a school after someone just because they have money, is a very sensitive subject, especially for the message it sends out to the people here.

I gave him the example of a school in Arshan that was named after a girl who was killed in a car accident in California back in 1994. Not to be disrespectful to her or her family, who happen to be old friends of my father�s family from the old country, but I saw the faces of the people present when they unveiled the bust of her in front of the school.

I looked among the villagers, who were truly grateful to the girls family for their help, but could only think about the young people they knew who were killed in the war, but since those victims parents could not afford to donate $35,000 towards the construction of a school, their child will not have the honor of having a school named after them. I mentioned this at the time to the mayor of Martuni, who was with me and all he said was that I�m very perceptive.

I went on to tell the school principal that if I�m involved with securing funds for his school, the donors will have to be happy with a nice plaque and a letter of thanks.

As for renaming schools, I feel that if a school here should be named after anyone, it should be someone whose name is found in Armenian history and was known for doing something positive for our nation, preferably in the field of education, science, the arts or religion.

So the principal is going to work on a proposal and I�m going to find a donor and maybe even I�ll find a local donor for this project, in my lessons of teaching the natives that they too can be of help to our community. Maybe this can even be a community effort where we get a bunch of people to each donate $1. I like that idea the best. I know 400 people that would give $1 without even thinking twice.

And while I�m on the subject of donation, I got my first donation for the extension of the summer day-care program. It came from the merchant I mentioned yesterday who was in Stepanagert. He is giving for sure 50,000 dram and said that if I find that people are not willing to help, he will increase it to 100,000, but stressed that this is a good opportunity to teach people here to give and to also see who on my list would risk not giving. BTW, this guy is in no need for this lesson, as he�s known for his giving free flour and other food items to many needy families in Martuni for at least the last 10 years. Personally I was not going to ask him, as I know how much he already gives, but with the former police chief gone and my knowing the former regional minister will say that if it was for his village, he would give, I went ahead and asked him.

Another good news item is that the wedding season is starting and business at the Sylva�s Beauty Salon is hopping. I guess this is also an indication of a good harvest, meaning that people now have money to spend. I guess it also does not hurt that we are the only salon in Martuni that has air-conditioning.

All kinds of tasty berries, cherries, apricots, watermelons, 40 degree Celsius temperatures, cafes, construction, late afternoon windstorms this is July in Yerevan. It's almost over and I'm curious to see what August is going to be like.

The weather has been beautiful. The few times that it has rained in the last couple of months have kept the city green. I'm still not used to the consistency in the weather though. Toronto weather is full of surprises; one day raining and gloomy, the next day all sunny and humid and hot as hell even in the shade. Here you can go out in 40-degree weather and still feel very comfortable.

Unfortunately, last week I was fooled by the comfortable heat and got a really bad case of sunburn after spending a hot afternoon by an outdoor pool. Two days later I could barely sleep because of the pain. The sun is dangerous here and I had to have this horrific experience to learn my lesson.

One thing I have to mention in this log is the lack of outdoor public pools. Most of the pools are located in hotels, which cost approximately $15 or more for an hour per person, and even Waterworld costs almost $10 US for a day pass, from what I've heard. You see kids swimming in these outdoor ponds that are completely green with algae, which is gross, but what other choice do they have?

I spent Vartavar in Dilijan this past weekend. Had a great time. As usual the weather and the greenery was beautiful. Soon the direct tunnel from Sevan to Dilijan will be completed and once I get an international driver's license I am hoping to visit more often. Yerevan is a little too crazy at times for me.

All is cool here. Yesterday LCO met AVC. Most ofthe talk was centeredabout volunteering in Armenia and some hints here and there about possibilities of repatration. Tom Samuelian (great great guy) asked a really important question: "Why aren't you moving to Armenia?"
I think this is a very important question every Armenian needs to ask themselves. Now that we have a free and independent Armenia, something we haven't had for the past 5 centuries, why then are we not more active in moving here, investing more money in terms of business,job creation and plain putting personal time and effort to improving the status of our country... OUR country. No one else is going to do it.

Last night it rained hard... thunder and lightning woke us up. Today we go to Lake Sevan with the LCO volunteers. They will leave tomorrow night... I will miss them!

Okay, now that I got the 5 nice happy logs out of the way, it�s now time to let off a little bit of steam.

Like I said, in the last 5 days, things have been quite nice and there seemed to be only a few social and economic issues that came up, but nothing really worth backtracking and writing about.

Today I ran into the assistant Martuni prosecutor, who told me he was on vacation and upon his return, he received my complaint about the fish farm and the illegal fishing that took place back in May.

I followed him to his office and we talked about what had happened.

He told me that I should not be too positive that the people involved will openly talk to him and agree to be witnesses. He said the people here don�t care too much for the law and in most cases will just act stupid and in the end, not provide anything of use.

We called my fish farm manager Slavik, who came right over and without too much asking, told everything that he could, which in itself was all the evidence we needed to prosecute the culprits.

Then we called Arthur, the guard that was involved with the stealing of the fish and allowed the fisherman to fish without checking with us first. He too said all that he had to and didn�t conceal what happened. He even admitted that he did steal, knowing it was wrong.

After Slavik and Arthur left, the assistant prosecutor sat back in his chair and told me that he was very impressed and was not expecting Slavik or Arthur to be so honest with him. He said that I was lucky to have Slavik working for me and it was clear that both Arthur and Slavik respected me, as what they did today was very uncommon here.

The assistant prosecutor went on to say that irregardless of what Nelson the fisherman says, he is looking at a very stiff punishment, as the law on hunting, when animals are multiplying is very strict and must be upheld at all costs.

Slavik and Arthur will return tomorrow to sign statements so that they can next call Nelson the fisherman to come an tell his side of the story.

As for my internet connection, it�s now working at 12,000 bps, but it�s constantly freezing up or getting cut off. This makes it hard to log or check e-mail. One good thing is that last night I was able to download all 259 messages from my KT e-mail account without being cut off. It only took 5 hours to do.

I feel pretty good today. It was a good day at work, although I seem to be bogged down with a ton of tiny little things, and can't get to the biggie that I want to work on, a revamped web site. It is such a contrast to my job in Orange which was mostly big projects, with a few little things here and there to keep me on my toes. Plus my old job was at a smaller software firm with absolutely no bureaucracy. Here I have a massive organization where the rule books are so thick you can get lost in them. Quite a different world.

Something interesting has come to my attention lately, which after being here this long does not surprise me, but it may surprise you. It is nearly impossible to find an very good English translator here. People here often complain to me about a lack of jobs, and/or a desire to go to America. I can tell you, if someone learns excellent English, they will without a doubt get an excellent job. If they learn Visual C++ programming language well, they will have no problem getting a job, if they learn design software well, they will have no problem getting a job. Too many students are studying the wrong things at school, or not studying hard enough.

Maybe the diaspora needs to start a student exchange program between diasporan kids and Armenia's kids for 14 year olds, so that they will be at the right age to pick up the language quickly. A year abroad would do both sets of kids a lot of good, and in a few years when they hit college and the job market, they would be in a much stronger position. The diaspora kids would benefit by gaining a whole other perspective on life too, and also learning language (while teaching some too, naturally) and forming ties. Alright, maybe it is too hard to send your 14 year old abroad for a year, but it is an idea with some merit that could be worked with.

Oh, I almost forgot. I had my stitches removed today. It was not too painful, and it feels good knowing that in another week or two my scabs should start to come off.

Today was another pleasant day in Martuni. Not too hot.

The harvest continues and it seems like it will be going for a while longer since there is a shortage of combines (these are the machines that cut the wheat).

I�ve learned that the city of Martuni has not one combine and that there are a good number of them which were brought in from Goris and Sisian to try to alleviate the demand.

Someone told me that a new Japanese made combine can be purchased in Armenia for $10,000 and compared to the old Soviet made ones, it uses less fuel and can cut and gather up to 80% more. Something for someone to think about maybe investing in. This would be a huge help to the people here and also make the investor some money. Any takers?

My dogs are growing fast and the dog that I�ve kept at my house I was bushing tonight and noticed that her collar that I purchased her when I was in Yerevan earlier this month, she has already outgrown. Since I separated the two dogs (taking one to the stone factory), the one I kept at home is eating like a pig and growing very fast.

This evening I went to Rosa Myrig�s house for dinner. During our meal, we watched a concert on the Russian channel on their little black and white t/v. Rosa Myrig was translating the songs for me and telling some of these artists have been around for ages. Hurant added that in the old days, when someone sang, they stood on stage with their hands to their side, but now, those same people are dancing all over the stage while they sing. Things have really changed from the way it use to be 25 years ago.

WATER WATER everywhere WATER!!!
Today is Vartivar. It is a big day in Armenia. Most Armenians know about this holiday. People throw water at one another� I forget the real meaning behind it all. Anyhow. My day started at 9 a.m. I met up with the LCO guys to send them off to Echmiadzin and Khor Virab. After they left, I went about doing some LCO business. On my way, I passed by the Hin Yerevan restaurant. About 15 20-some year olds were running around throwing water on the passers by. I made a point to cross the street� I guess they noticed me. The rest is all a blur. I was wet from head to toe. I decided not to take this lightly. I went to the store and bought myself a mini-bucket. I joined in on the fun. On my way to meet Lara and her parents, I met up with 2 very interesting characters. They were a couple� both poets. They recited some of their work. It was great. Their names are Gor and Arpine. Then I met up with Anna from the H1 station (public TV). Tomorrow at 9:30 a.m. Armenia time, some of our volunteers will appear on the morning show. I think this show is broadcast almost everywhere where there is an Armenian TV cable. Watch them!

I LOVE ARMENIA!!

Can life in Armenia get any better? Well it has plenty of room for improvement and let me tell you some improvements that have taken place today.

I got a call from Karabagh Telecom telling me that a team has come out to once again work on the main cable.

Tonight when I got home, my connection didn�t seem to be working, but after a couple of calls, they got it up and running and for the first time in 3 months (I think it�s been at least this long), I had a 12,000bps connection.

I was told that they are going to be working on the main cable tomorrow also and the problem should get resolved once and for all.

Unfortunately the connection is still not stable enough so I can download my e-mails from my KT e-mail account. It�s up to over 200 messages, most of which are Groong digests. I guess this will just have to wait a bit longer.

Today at summer day-care, I was talking to the director about life here then and now. After our conversation, he told me that I am truly a Communist. This was said in a complimenting way, as true Communists are very honest and law abiding.

We are now planning an outing for the kids and it looks like our destination is going to be Avo�s spring, where there is a swimming pool.

I think on Tuesday I�m going to meet with the regional minister, former police chief and one of the well to do business persons here in Martuni to see about them making that donation I was talking about the other day.

Well I�ll be up a little bit late tonight, as I�m doing laundry and since it�s summer (though the weather these last few days has been quite cool), I don�t want to forget to dry the laundry before mold sets in and then have to rewash it.

Oh, I was at the Mayor�s house tonight for a beer and we were watching an Armenian television show which is like Candid Camera (a hidden camera show) and this guy was asking people if they were for or against it (never telling the people he was asking what they were for or against) and guess who was one of the people being asked? Our very own Lena. She just ignored the guy and kept on walking. Lena, do you remember some older white-haired guy with a professional video camera under his arm asking you if you were for or against it?

So my hiking wounds are healing well, and my stitches should be out on Monday. I still have so many large scabs I am afraid to jump under the showerhead. Luckily I have those detachable european showerheads and can wash around my wounds. Now if I can just get my act together I will make a dentists appointment soon as well.

It is really nice that today is friday, and I am looking forward to a full weekend at home. No trips out to the regions, no hikes, no insect bites, no new injuries, no discomforts, just relaxation. In any case, after 4 years of travelling here, my list of monasteries to visit has grown quite short, so maybe I need to start pacing myself, and visiting neighboring countries as well. We have Armenian monasteries in all our neighboring countries as well after all :-) Tonight is Raffi Niziblian's daughters baptism at Saghmossavank. What a beautiful monastery to be baptised in. His older daughter was baptised in the plain church we worked on renovating together in the beautiful village of Karintak, Karabakh.

If you are in Armenia, you can actually see Mt. Ararat today, so get out there early since it won't last all day. They are burning whatever remains in the wheat fields after harvest, which fills the air with particles that obstruct the view.

As for Ara's jab at me, I prefer not to turn the logs into a discussion forum, but will say this much. Lack of bathrooms are without a doubt on the list of top 3 complaints tourists have of Armenia. Laugh if you like, but an older lady is not going to enjoy herself touring the country if she has to pee in the open. It is just not the same as it is for a younger guy. Girls also have other issues if Ara cares to remember. This is *actually* a serious issue and no, USAID will not be having a "toilets across Armenia" program anytime soon, but it does need to be taken care of. Along the main highways, businesses need to be taught that if they build toilets they can charge money and attract customers. Anyway, these are the sorts of developemental issues it is hard to imagine in America, but which Armenia, with extremely limited funds has to worry about.

Another tourism development problem (something I am well aware of) is lack of signs. I the governor of Lori to promise to put up any sign I think is necessary for $100. I am thinking of a couple I will probably sponsor, but if there are any others out there who want to contribute to such a fund, I can even let you choose which monastery in Lori you want to have signposted!

I just got an e-mail from one of our readers to tell me:

My wife told me that there was an advertisement for a TV program on Saturday and Sunday at 10.30pm on Channel Armenia. Apparently, it�s going to deal with the issue of children's homes in Armenia and the fact that most of the children are not orphans.

As Channel Armenia can be received by satellite in the Diaspora (and I think you get in Karabagh and therefore I assume, Martuni) you might want to advertise it in one of your logs.

BTW, this log is not part of my 5 logs to talk about the good stuff going on in Armenia, it�s just a FYI log so if you get Channel Armenia, you can watch this program.

Today I was stuck at home writing for the first half of the day and the second half was going to be spent cleaning my house, as for the next week I will be devoting my time to oversee the summer day-care program that our friends at the St. John�s Armenian church in San Francisco are sponsoring.

At 2:30 PM I got a call from my accountant telling me to come over to eat lunch with her father and the workers doing some remodeling on her house. I was to busy and told her it was not necessary. She insisted and I told her the soonest I could come would be in a half-hour.

As I left the house, my neighbor called me over to give me a bottle of strawberry preserves that a little old lady from the next street over had left for me the night before when I was not home.

When I got to my accountant�s house, lunch was over, but my share was kept warm and her father made me a salad and her mother we to the store to get me a cold beer.

During my lunch, her father talked with me of the old days here in Martuni and made sure I ate more than my stomach could hold.

I got a call to go to Stepanagert to meet with someone, but since this is one of my logs that is not to talk about the dark side of life here, I will not tell you anything about this subject.

I finished my lunch and headed to Stepanagert at 4 PM.

As I entered Aghdam, I was waved down by a friend who is from Martuni and is working for the summer in Aghdam, growing watermelons.

I stopped the car after passing him and as I backed up the car, he picked up a large watermelon and started to run towards my car.

He opened the passenger�s door, greeted me with the standard hello and placed the watermelon on the front seat, thanked me for my friendship and sent me on my way.

I got to Stepanagert and before going to my meeting, I went to a couple of butchers and purchased 16 kilos of beef bones for my dogs.

Then I went off to my meeting and after the meeting, I went to the Hayarpetyan/Thomasyan house for dinner, where I gave to them the watermelon I was gifted earlier in the day.

As we waited for dinner to be cooked, my friend (the one that the cops interrogated 2 Monday�s ago) and I went to a toy store to purchase some kick-balls and a couple of checker sets for the summer day-care program.

On our way back to his house, we drove passed the Mayor�s office and coming from the President�s building (the Mayor�s, President�s and Prime Minister�s building are next to each other) was a friend of mine who works at the President�s press office. I stopped the car to say hello and after him asking me if I got married yet and me telling him no, but he can be sure he will get an invitation and he telling me that at my wedding he would like to say a few good words about me, he invited my friend and I for dinner at his house. I apologized and told him that we were expected to dinner and it would have to be another time.

We returned to my friend�s house and had a great meal and conversation. After watermelon and a cup of tea, I headed back to Martuni, where I stopped off at the stone factory to drop of half the beef bones for one of my dogs.

I know this log must have sounded boring to some of you, but for the most part, my personal life here is filled with these kinds of stories. For that reason I like my life here and have no plans on trading this great life for life in some foreign country. The only thing I feel needs to be changed around here is the system so everyone enjoys life here as much as me and that�s what we are attempting to do now.

I think that it�s not at all silly or unfair to write long logs about people giving things for free and people going out of their way to do something nice for another person. Since I too believe we needed a break from the darker side of life in Armenia and to prevent Madlene from throwing herself off the Kevian Bridge (Arthur and Ozzie can thank me later), I�m committing the next 5 logs (not counting this one) to document the less talked about side of life here in Armenia. The side of life here that prevents me from packing my bags and moving to some other part of the world and dropping the �ian� from my name part of life.

For those wondering how to measure positive progress here in Armenia, here is one way.

This year the US H.R. 2800, FOREIGN OPERATIONS, EXPORTFINANCING AND RELATED PROGRAMS APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2004 will provide only $70 million in aid to Armenia (though President Bush and I had requested that it be $20.5 million less, but as always no one seems to be listening to what we have to say).

In past years US aid to Armenia has been much higher and by being higher, there was less of an incentive for Armenians to learn how to fish.

Our goal should be to eliminate this need from the US all together.

Though this does not directly relate to life in Armenia, I want to point out what aid our neighbors are to get from the US in 2004 to show how much worse off they are (though I�m a believer that we should never compare ourselves to others and only measure good and bad from what we know good and bad really are).

- $2.6 billion in military and economic assistance to Israel as well as $50 million to support the resettlement of Jewish refugees.

- $1.9 billion to Egypt and over $450 million to Jordan, both critical allies of the United States.

- $35 million for Lebanon to support the American educational institutions and the excellent USAID mission there (in an attempt to win over the people, though in my opinion this is a waste of good tax dollars that should be sent to Israel instead so they can drop more bombs in Lebanon in an attempt to try ascertain the same goal, though this too would fail).

So you see, in respect to US aid, Armenia is doing better than it was in the past and like I said, less is good in this case.

Now if we could get USAID to fund a program to build public toilets throughout the country, things will really be good!!! Maybe I should submit an unsolicited project to them and Raffi can be our cheerleader behind those thick tall walls to get it approved.

I forgot to tell y'all a funny story in my last log. So last Sunday on the military base, I took a big tub of red vines (red licorice) for the soldiers. My dad had brought it and I would have probably finished them all at home by myself if I did not get them out. So one of the soldiers who had not tasted it yet asked another guy what it was and he said "Sujukh" -- the sweet kind. That really cracked me up, since it is an excellent description, just like calling the roasted marshmellows "bbq ice-cream" on my 4th of July trip.

I agree with Madlene that there are some people who are way too negative about Armenia, when there is so much good around they ignore. It would be silly for me to write every example of people offering me stuff for free, or going way out of their way to help me, just as it would be silly to write about every single time a policeman pulls me over (no offense Ara :-). These things both happen all the time, and I am very happy to report that I get pulled over by the police MUCH less than before. So when people report on Armenia, they can talk about the lack of good restroom facilities in Tatev, or they can describe one of the most incredible unions of nature and architecture to grace the earth, or both. It all depends on the persons outlook and personality.

Well I had better get ready for the ol' office.

Today was a fabulous day!!! Though this was suppose to be one of the hottest days of the year, it was overcast and very pleasant.

The harvest is going well and it looks like this year and the years to follow will be good years for farmers. I�m also happy to see that this year, more of the common people took the risk to plant and for the most part came out making a profit.

I fully agree with what Madlene has written in her log about things one day getting better and that there are thousands of people who are working towards a better future. As positive as that may be, in order for us to really fix things so those dark days don�t revisit us, we have to recognize the good and bad in a very public way and not sweep anything under the carpet without reconciling. This is the only way I see we can really heal and make sure what we are seeing today will not happen again in the future.

Though I would like to see an economically rich Armenia, for me an Armenia without corruption and with good working laws would satisfy my expectations and something I�ve been devoting all my energy and resources towards realizing. I know this expectation of mine is possible, as I am often reminded of the Armenian saying that goes, �the apple does not fall far from the tree� and like Madlene and many people believe, �We will turn this into an amazing place and we will do it soon.� With such a positive outlook, how could we not realize our dream of a fair, free and independent Armenia!!!

So I bet you guys are all glued to the screen waiting to see how the PR meeting went. It went great, really really great. You will see big changes soon, of this you can be sure.

My tourists are in town and it is great to have them. There are just some tourists that make you smile... and the ones I have in town now... are those kind exactly.

There is construction everywhere you turn, there are people here dedicated to making a change... there are so many people here that understand what it means to not be extra weight in this world, but to make it a better place.

Many times we hear about the bad stuff, the crooks, the mafia, all those here eating money and ignoring the starving. Can I tell you how many amazing people I know here that are the opposite of that. I have many amazing business friends, many amazing non-profit friends, many amazing philanthropist friends, many amazing local people dedicated to making this place better.

Frankly I am getting a little sick of drowning ourselves in the negative. Every time I read the newspapers or even these logs I want to throw myself over Kievian Bridge. Yes there is negative and yes this country is not healthy... and it needs healing, time and energy to make it better. BUT there are little miracles, and rather large miracles happening every day. Not a lot of people get credit... and to name a few would be unfair, and to name too many would take too long.

THERE ARE THOUSANDS OF DEDICATED PEOPLE HERE MAKING A POSITIVE DIFFERENCE.
THERE ARE TENS AND THOUSANDS OF LOCALS WHO EMBRACE POSITIVE CHANGE AND MAKE THIS COUNTRY A BETTER PLACE.
THERE ARE MILLIONS OF PEOPLE HERE THAT WANT THE BEST FOR ARMENIA.

It has been a little over a decade. We have had an earthquake, a major war, a major energy blockade. I am not making excuses... i am giving you hope. Look where we have gotten.We will do better and we will overcome. We will turn this into an amazing place and we will do it soon. If we can just appreciate the good once in a while... and give it as much light (if not more) as we do the negative... we may just inspire enough people... and get where we want to go faster.

My husband has a song called three candles, which represents the three forces of hope, faith and love. In a country where the candles of love and faith have dimmed for too many, please dont dimm the light of hope. We desperately need it to carry on.

I am sorry for the emotional ranting and raving. However I feel we as a nation are going beyond constructive criticism. I am fearing that we as a nation are beginning to stagnate on the negative and that is not acceptable... especially for an old, impressive, SURVIVING nation such as ours.

Wednesday morning, and it has been a long week already. Sunday was quite interesting indeed, a little too interesting perhaps. We met a guy named Antranig who helped us find the border gates, which are not alway so easy to find. When we got to the military base, we could already see a huge Armenian church on the Turkish side of the border, it was so close you could reach out and touch it. From there the commander (who was Armenian, though maybe from Russia, I dunno) got in our car with his cute little girl and we drove off to the Armenian church on our side of the border. Well when we got there, we were in for a bit of a surprise, it was quite a hike to get to. I was not at all prepared, wearing slick soled sandals, but we had come so far, it seemed silly not to. So we hiked off with a different Russian commander who had met us there, and the Armenian guy and his daughter waited for us under the hot sun... nobody had thought we would want to hike when we saw the distance. It took an hour and a half to get down there, right on the edge of the river, and just on the other side was a Kurdish village, which we were not permitted to photograph. We could hear the kurds talking to each other, see them, their eshegs and the Turkish soldiers. Their architecture was so different it really surprised me. The flat roofed, hillside kind of village you see in pictures of western Armenia. Anyway, the church was tiny, but so beautifully sited and quaint that it was well worth the hike. On the way down, we washed our faces in the Akhurian/Arax to cool off, and ate some wild apricots from the riverbank.

This was another rounded, eight-sided church, but was in worse shape than the previous week's. The side facing Armenia had flat and smooth walls, while the side facing Turkey was completely full of bullet holes. They obviously just like to shoot at the church now and again. After taking lots of pictures of the church, we headed back, and towards the end of the hike decided to take a shortcut straight up a cliff of slick rocks (can you see where this story is going?). Well my slick sandals finally did their thing with not 5 minutes to go on the hike and I went down pretty hard. I was all scraped up and one gash was quite deep. So we headed back a bit worse for the wear to visit a hospital. I went to the one in Shengavit, near Garegin Njhde Metro since I know people there and it was very clean and pretty normal. So they cleaned out the worst wound and after assuring me it was absolutely necessary, stitched me up. Yekh. I hate needles and hospitals. I finally got home at around 10pm.

At 8:30 Monday morning we headed out to Lori on a two-day work visit. What sorts of things did we visit? All kinds. Computer/internet classrooms, a drinking water project, a handmade wool thread factory, some tv stations, a handicapped organization, a potato seed multiplication project, a journalism school, a medical clinic, a maternity hospital, a small cannery, some Peace Corps school projects, the breathtaking Kober Monastery and some government officials. It is quite nice to see the projects that the US govt is implementing first hand, and the people they help. The trips are long and hard though, and I got home last night again quite late and tired and had trouble sleeping. So now it is time to get ready for my day, and hopefully the week before my next trip allows me to catch up with everything...

I am about to go into a big meeting. The meeting is about Public Relations and I am nervous because I really want it to go well. I really want PR for this firm to soar because not enough people know about what Mr. Cafesjian is doing here in Armenia and it really is amazing. Beyond what he is doing for the Cafesjian Museum Foundation (www.cmf.am) he does soo much more... and the people need to have better access to that information.

It is really weird how they can not get the diasporan philanthropists and businessmen right here. they always mistake cafesjian for tufenkian or ernekian and most commonly say... oh yes you work for tufenkchian (i am assuming that is a hybrid of all three)... I

Revolutionizing PR would really help us out... and get everyone to understand that Mr. Cafesjian is the Cascade guy who is committed to building an international arts complex including the Gerard L. Cafesjian Museum of Contemporary Art... and we should be happy about it... because there are so many great things happening because of his great idea... including the renovation of the beautiful Cascade. (Please check out our website if you don't know what I am talking about yet).

Ozzie (my puppy) is coming home from boarding school in three days. I am so excited to have her home that I almost cannot wait. Every day I pick up the phone to call her trainer to beg for her to come home sooner... and every day I realize that she has to go through with the training before she comes home.

Our anniversary is a few days away... and I am thinking of treating myself to a car. I am not sure if I want one... because driving is sick around here... and I think it will lead to more anxiety, stress and annoyance than it is worth but I am also sick of asking Arthur for rides (which he does lovingly)... or running in the streets because I am late... or grabbing a smelly taxi that the driver is smoking in endlessly. we will see... it is a pretty tough decision. people drive poorly here, very very poorly. Not that I am the spokesperson for responsible driving but I can sure rise to the top in this crowd. If I get one, I want an SUV which I can throw Ozzie in and drive to open fields where we can play catch.

I am off to my PR meeting which I will have over French Toast and Art Bridge Hot Chocolate. Wish me luck!!!

Though I dislike writing about the dark side of life in Armenia and Artsakh, it seems that following the presidential and parliament elections, things are getting worse as those elected and appointed officials in power are abusing their authority in the worst possible ways.

When I was in Yerevan, I was talking to a friend who he and his brother had leased a stone mine from the forestry service in Yerevan and entered into a 10-year agreement to allow them to mine for stone.

He was telling me of all the equipment they had purchased worth tens of thousands of dollars and the countless hours they put in to their mining operation to had finally in the month of June started to excavate good quality stones.

The day following our meeting, I learned that my friend and his brother were contacted by someone in the Armenian army telling them they had 24 hours to vacate the stone mine, as the army, who has a military academy next to their mine, had privatized their land and were planning on expanding the academy.

Since we know generals at the ministry of defense and other government officials in high places, a few phone calls were made to find out how someone who has a legal agreement with the government could be given 24 hours notice to vacate land, years before their agreement expires?

It seems that someone from the department of defense went to see the mayor of Yerevan on the 23rd or 24th of June and requested to privatize the land in question and was given title to that land the following day (this in itself is legally impossible).

The mother of my friends had asked one of our friends in the ministry of defense for a meeting with the minister to discuss this issue and was told he was out of the country and was due back on July 7th.

On July 9th, we made a call to our contact at the ministry of defense to see what had become of our request to meet with the minister and were told that the minister does not want to meet with anyone in regards to this subject and that it has been decided that the academy will be expanded and the minister himself is in on this deal.

When asked what will come of the stone mine, we were told that the army will work it for their own use.

So here is just another example of Armenian democracy at work. Every government official out for themselves and their pockets at the price of someone trying to make an honest living in the homeland.

In all the Armenian history I�ve read, I can�t say that we have ever experience so many acts of treason and abuse of power by such a wide range of our leaders, leaders who I can clearly document are traders to our developing nation.

In the past 5 years I�ve been hearing people talk about the need for revolution, but in all these years have I never felt that revolution could take place here, not until recently.

When blood starts to flow in the recently renovated street of Yerevan (on a very small scale, it has already started), Armenians from all over will come to realize that the energy spent on getting the Armenian genocide recognized (as important as this is) should have been spent on preventing the recent self-inflicted Armenian genocide which it taking place right now in the motherland.

It�s still not to late to centralize our resources and for those that share my concerns, please e-mail me and let�s do something to prevent a real tragedy from hitting our homeland. Trust me, it can be done, but has to be done now.

where have i been is a pretty legitimate question that i believe deserves an answer.
my boss is in town from the usa, two of my closest friends are visiting... and one has brought home a new boyfriend that we must get to know. ozzie is in boarding school so she demands three hours of my day... and i had a big event that i had to plan. needless to say... i have been busy.

it being monday morning... and me being in the organizational mood i just replied to 30 email messages... clearing my inbox... writing this update is refreshing after all of that.

things here are hectic... and i have not seen many of my local friends, repat friends, or even arthur's family for a while. i am busy working and doing all my other life responsibilities. when i have a few moments i call my close friends in town (tourists) and i go to grab a bite, or even eat some ice cream with them.

today i will organize a bunch of things including a reception that my boss would like to throw for all the staff here at cmf (www.cmf.am) so that is going to be a fun thing to do.

i am planning a vacation and my one year anniversary (of my marriage) is only a week away. arthur and i still have to decide where we will have our vacation and europe is sounding nicer and nicer everyday.

i will write more sooner, and i will write more later. have a great day.

Today was a very relaxing day.

I was invited to a picnic at a village 7 kilometers outside of Stepanagert, where a private lake is found. The lake is about 20 smaller than my lake, but what makes it such a nice place is that it is surrounded by a forest.

I guess what also made the picnic fun was it was with a family who I am very close with and had written about the other night, telling you about my friend being hauled down to the police station, being accused of defacing a wall in the mayor of Stepanagert�s neighborhood.

So when we arrived to the lake, it was overcast and had started to sprinkle. Overcast or not, my friend, his brothers and I made our way out on a platform that has a water-gate at the end of it to see how deep the lake was.

Next thing I know, everyone was stripping down to their underwear and starting diving into the water.

When I dove in, the first meter of water was warm, but below that level was ice-cold.

I swam practically the length of the lake and one thing I noticed was I was floating on the face of the water, like you would in salt-water. It was great to swim, but from all the sporting activities I�ve done, this one takes the most energy.

We got out and joined the others at our resting area where a couple of rope-swings had been installed to keep us busy.

I won�t drag this log out with telling you about the food, but all I know is I have to have put away few kilos, before I laid down under a tree for a nice long nap (this of course after spraying myself with deep woods off).

So it seems that my friend�s mom, Larisa Hayapetyan went to the police station the day following last Monday�s interrogation to find out what they wanted from her?

She said that they immediately started to apologize and telling her that it was all a mistake and they were looking for another Larisa Hayapetyan, who happened to be from the same village she was from, but lives near the shoe factory.

As far as Larisa knows, she is the only Larisa Hayapetyan in her village and we can only guess that someone defaced a wall near the mayor�s house and the mayor was probably asked who could have done this and he suggested the Thomasyan/Hayapetyan family, as when they dragged in my friend, they started to ask him about letters to officials and so on. If course of that other Larisa who we know does not exist was also on the list to get a house, then maybe that�s why they asked my friends all those questions.

So now my friends mother is preparing another letter to the president and the mayor to see why they didn�t get a house since they were in first place on one of the lists and also to ask why her son was pulled down to the police station and they conducted an illegal search of their house.

I also what to know who that other Larisa is, as if she does not exist, you can be sure heads will roll. Does this mean I�m pissed? You bet and this time I�m going to make sure that someone ends up getting fired and someone does the right thing and resigns from his �elected� post. And to think, the mayor told me in our meeting that all he wants is law and order. Well now I'm going to make his wish come true.

The mayor should have done his homework as to who Larisa Hayapetyan is and knows before he pulled this latest stunt. Besides me being a close family friend, her daughter-in-law�s mother is a former judge and now a legal expert for the government in the department that reviews complaints of illegalities in the legal system (and was present during the illegal search and pointed out to the police that they don�t have a search order) and Larisa�s first-cousin is Artsakh�s minister of law (though they don�t refer to this office as a ministry, he is the head of overseeing the legal system). Ouch!!!

What Raffi N. wrote about in his last log about �orphanages� in Gyumri had to bother our readers a little bit. For those that were not too disturbed by Raffi�s findings, let me add some very relevant information.

According to Dennis Loze, Project Coordinator for Mission East's Mosaic Program in Armenia, 85% of children residing in Auxiliary Boarding Schools are falsely diagnosed with having mental or physical challenges.

Due to economic hardships at home, parents pay doctors to provide a false diagnosis, which enables them to enroll their children into residential institutions.

As for the new orphanage that will enable 30 children to live in the palace that Raffi saw, this could in fact be a new institution that is being established to help �vulnerable families� lighten their load and put their children at risk of being registered at some later date as �orphans� and then adopted by people in the West.

This would also be another orphanage that people like the Armenian facilitators Gagik Dumanian and Hasmik Hambarian would search for possible �orphans.�

Take in consideration what Jan Barlett, the woman who in June adopted a 6 year old girl from Gyumri told Jennifer Smith: �What I plan to do is take pictures of children at Gyumri who are adoptable. I know of people here in Iowa and Arkansas who are interested also. If you decide you want to see pictures just let me know. Of course I will be with Hasmik and Gagik, so they will be very aware of the children that are available.�

One other bit of information that Jan shared with Jennifer was that: �Mariam is 6 and in an defective child's home, although nothing is wrong with her.� And in another message said: �By the way there is nothing wrong with her [Mariam], many children are stuck in these types of orphanages with misdiagnosis. If they do not get adopted their future is bleak. For example in the blind school, there are children who can see just fine.�
These statements confirm Dennis Loze�s claim of 85% of children found in Auxiliary Boarding Schools are falsely diagnosed with having mental or physical challenges.

Another role that Hasmik and Garik played in Jan�s adoption of Mariam was to find Mariam�s mother and convince her to relinquish her parental rights so Mariam would be adoptable and have a more promising future in America with Jan and her husband Chris. Jan wrote to Jennifer: �So once the paper work is cleared up for Mariam and we choose her then the adoption is finalized.� In a later message Jan wrote: �As for Mariam, it is going great! Our paperwork went straight through and we had approval in a month. Our challenge was to get Mariam registered as an orphan so she could be adopted. H & G are tending to all of this now. The delay is that Armenia just had their presidential elections and there will be run offs on March 5. Apparently there have been citizen complaints and the courts are tied up. We had hoped for H & G to go to Gyumri, where Mariam lives, this week. Once the committee in Gyumri approves of her status then the papers come back to the government adoption committee for approval and then the president signs the adoption.�

On top of all this Jan believes and informs Jennifer that �H & G AREE VERY ETHICAL.�

When I take everything stated above and what Raffi said about the new orphanage and all the information I have, here is what I suspect could happen.

The �orphanage� that will house 30 normal children from vulnerable families will become a place where people from the West can find normal children to adopt.

When need be, people like Gagik and Hasmik will work to convince the parents who are living in deplorable condition to relinquish their parental rights. For the sake of their children and a promising future, the parents sign the papers so their child can then be sold to the highest bidder in the West.

For those readers who are still not convinced or effected by what Raffi and I have written, then you may want to check out this article I came across printed in the Armenian Weekly that confirms much of what we�ve said. It is titled �Suffer the Children.� (http://www.hairenik.com/armenianweekly/february_2003/society001.html)

By the way, I had not logged this, but a week before the article about adoptions was printed, I visited Gagik and Hasmik at their office on Victor Hambardzumian Street (which was very nicely furnished and very Western looking) to consult with them about doing a genealogical study of my roots. It was clear that they are educated (Jan said that they both have Ph.D.s) and were easy to talk to.

If I was looking for someone with communication skills to convince someone who would never consider relinquishing their parental rights, the people I would hire is Gagik and Hasmik and for that reason they are very dangerous to vulnerable families who are trying to keep their families together and improve their lives.

For those people and organizations interested in helping vulnerable families who are at risk of relinquishing their parental rights out of desperation, please e-mail me and let�s formulate a plan to help create an social and economic environment that can sustain the families and not the �orphanages.�

Ah, Saturday morning. I am quite tired, getting to bed late every night, and waking up naturally at my usual 6am. So where have I been? Well as you know, I was in Karabakh from Sunday to Tuesday for work. Then Wed/Thursday was again out of town to Vayots Dzor for work, and this Mon/Tues we will be in Lori. That is 8 days out of town for one day at the office. It is quite nice seeing all the projects that the US government sponsors, a lot of them are really making an impact on the economy and on the people. It would just be nice to have a bit of a breather in between trips is all. In any case I have a strong case for not logging these past few days :-) So much happened though during this time, I'll only be able to cover a little of it.

So the weather is quite hot, with occasional quick, strong rains. The usual late July weather. Going anywhere in Yerevan on the streets, it is hard not to bump into a few people you know. I have written about this before, and it is usually quite nice, but if you are already late for somewhere, or have forgotten the persons name, it is not so good :-) On my trip to Karabakh though, the same thing happened across Armenia. At the first stop, the row of food stalls near Yeghegnadzor, I ran into a group of folks from work, who were on an inner tubing trip. At the second stop, at the water fountain above Goris, we ran into the Armenian Assembly interns, who were returning from Karabakh. At our final stop, at a little kebab joint under the monoliths of Goris, I strike up a conversation with a mixed group of locals/tourists and find out that one of them is Shushan Avagyan's cousin (not Shushan who logs, but the one who did LCO with me), and they have been trying to call me to meet up with me. What a crazy coincidence! I had never met them and just happened to start talking.

I have had some success with some of the plants I brought, but no time to look for a dacha, or land of any sort. So in my kitchen I have giant white lima beans, sweet potatoes, purple potatoes, and at Davit's dacha in Garni I have a bunch more plants which I need to pick up sometime.

Tomorrow we will again go to the Turkish border to see some churches, and take some photos. It should be interesting. That's all I've got for you today... no energy to write more.

It was a very difficult day today. Not physically, but emotionally. I went with 2 delegates of the LCO to visit potential new sites for future LCO campaigns. The first place was in Yerevan. We visited the Rehabilitation center for children. This was a great place doing great things with very little means. There is a Kindergarten that focuses on integration of physically and mentally disabled kids within a "normal" environment so that they don't grow up with all the inhibitions that society imposes on them. The second location was another Kindergarten in the city of Taline. This building belongs to the Church and needs lots of work. We then drove off to see another location. This was the orphanage in Gumri (not Sister Arusyak�s). The kids here are sooooo cute. They have mostly been abandoned by their parents because they either have a physical deficiency or a mental illness. There are 90 kids that range between 5 days to 7 years old. The Director was very nice and a very determined lady to get the best for her kids. I truly admired the (mostly) women employees of this institution. They have nothing as far as resources and they are doing so much! You might be hearing some of the same things repeated, but I guess you have to see it to understand what I was going through today.
Anyhow, we continued our tour to visit a newly built orphanage. I must tell you, I was not very impressed with the concept. The place looked like a palace and had the state of the arts furniture. However, they only wanted to take 30 or less kids mostly from low income families� you heard right, I said families. This means they will not really take orphans. They will take kids away from their poor families and put them in this elitist palace and create, what I think, a gap between the kids and their families. They insisted that they did not want any physically or mentally disabled kids. As if they were not fit for care. Their explanation was that they get a lot of help from the government. In less than 2 breaths she said that the government run orphanages are worthless and not educational. The kids there are mistreated and not fed very well�
On our way back, we stopped in the village of Taline this time. We found a Pert (fortress) and a ruined church. It was the discovery of the day. I would like to return there and find out more at another time.

On another note, in the past few days I had a chance to visit the LCO group in Ayroum. They have started building the foundations of the fruit dryer. This weekend they will be going to Haghpat, Sanahin and Odzun churches. They will visit the Tumanian museum and play a volleyball game with the local team. From there I joined Lara and her parents at the Tufenkian hotel near Sevan Lake. What a nice place it was. Disappointing at first that it was not ON the shores of Sevan, but once inside, you could see what James was intending. The food at the restaurant was amazing and the service was PERFECT! A must do when in Armenia. It is a 2 hour drive and well worth it.

This is not a good sign. Five logs in a row from me. Where are the other loggers?

Today was a full day of work and a trip to Stepanagert.

One of my many tasks included a visit to the main Artsakh bank to find out why they are charging so much for wire-transfers?

I met with the assistant director and told him that ever since they switched German banks, the service fees rocketed and equated almost 8% on my last transfer, compared to the 1.5% I was being charged before.

The assistant director gave me an alternative way of transferring funds which charges a flat $7.50 plus .5%. Why I was not given this option before is beyond me and I�ll have to let our branch manager of the Martuni division of the bank know about it so others who are having money sent from abroad can enjoy this advantage.

I went to Rosa Myrig�s house for dinner and after a nice conversation and tea, I stepped out on the porch to leave and was greeted by a bunch of grass hoppers who were attracted by the porch light .

Rosa Myrig and Hurant started to stomp them saying that tomorrow they will feed the critters to their turkey. Though I�m not into stepping on insects of any kind, I felt that bad karma will not come to me since it�s not like we were killing for the sake of killing, we were doing it to feed the turkey.

As I walked home in the dark, I turned back a few times to watch the two of them running around the porch, smacking away.

In my e-mail today there was an announcement for a job opening that is right up my ally. The US Embassy is hiring a receptionist/security guard at the main gate.

I could picture myself greeting the visitors and doing my best to talk them out of leaving Armenia and encouraging then finding a reason to kick them off the compound.

One thing is for sure, whoever gets that job is going to be very busy, as according to some recent statistics released, the US Embassy has interviewed some 5 million people who applied for an exit visa from Armenia.

As for the math, it seems that there were quite a few people who were turned down and after the standard period of time, they once again applied.

As for the money spent for said interviews, that comes out to some $2.5 billion dollars of non-refundable service charges our people paid into that small embassy in Armenia.

Think about this one. By the US Embassy talking in $2.5 billion just on interviews, all the aid, loans and other services that the US government has �given us� were in fact paid for by our local population and the US tax-payers have in no way paid out anything to us. That also means that part of the Armenian Assembly�s work has been to get the US government to give back some of the money it has shaken down our people for over the last decade.

After all this, we still owe them over $1 billion for �loans" that the World Bank knowingly gave to corrupt officials that we, the people, the ones expected to pay back said loans most probably didn�t even benefit from.

Today I went to visit the school where the summer day-care program is and to tell the director that we have secured the funds to extend the program.

He was very happy, thanking me and the person who donated the money to realize this work.

I had gone to see him with the mayor and as we finished our meeting, the director asked who is going to tell the regional minister that the program will be extended and why?

The mayor said that he and I would go over right now to tell him.

The mayor called and told the regional minister that we request to meet with him and after telling him why, he told us to come right away.

It has been quite some time since I�ve last visited with the regional minister and if I recall the last time, it was not a friendly meeting to which I had made my traditional demands and a warning of ��if you can�t fulfill my request, don�t be mad at me later [for what I will do].�

Well the meeting was quite cordial and he thanks whoever made a generous contribution to our children.

During the meeting I asked the regional minister how his fields faired during the harvest?

He told me that it was a good harvest and went on to elaborate that one of his 40 hector fields had a yield of 600 tons of wheat and the other 40 hector field 960 tons. Some mention was made that the former chief of police had even a better harvest and the former regional minister faired even better.

I did the math in respects to the regional ministers 80 hectors of wheat and knowing what the going rate of planting and harvesting and the minimal selling price for wheat these days are, I figured that after paying his property tax (that is if he pays the full amount required), he should have seen an $11,000 profit from this harvest.

After our meeting it came to me that the above mentioned persons and one other very well to do business man here in Martuni, are doing quite well from harvesting the liberated lands surrounding the city of Varanda (former Fizuli) and are only able to do it because a good number of the fathers and mothers whose children are now attending the summer day-care program spilled their blood and lost their lives in the process of liberating said land.

So I have decided that after I deliver the money for the extension of the summer day-care program, I�m going to meet with the 4 people who had a great harvest and ask each one of them to donate 100,000 dram so we can once again extend the program an additional 10 days.

I�ll explain to them that this will be good for everyone and a chance to show everyone (here and in the Diaspora) that they are ready to share their good fortune and show their appreciation to the families who made the greatest sacrifice in the liberation struggle.

Do I smell a Disney ending to this story?

First and foremost I want to send out a big thanks to our reader who made a $517 donation for the summer day-care program. Your generous contribution is much appreciated and will really make a difference in the lives of 50 children of martyred persons and their families. It also sends out a message to everyone here that as hard as times are in the world, people in the Diaspora understand that the �Armenian liberation struggle� is a partnership that the Diaspora believes in and is always ready to participate in. Additionally, it sends the message that the people here have not been forgotten and the sacrifices they have made for said struggle are recognized in a positive way.

When I came home from the factory to do some work around the house, I got a call from the people at Karabagh Telecom informing me that they have resolved my phone-line problem and wanted me to try my internet to see how well it now works.

First thing I noticed before even trying the internet was the line quality sounded the same as it did a few weeks ago and I could now even hear cross-talk (something I have never had before).

Knowing that the speed and quality of my connection had not changed, I played along and tried my connection. I really was not impressed at the 9,600bps connection and immediately called back the person who felt that they had finally resolved the connection problem.

After talking to a few different people, including one woman who had the nerve to think that maybe it was my computer as being the problem and I should have a specialist look at it, my cup of patience ran over.

I called the head of the Martuni division of the phone company to inform him that we have a problem, as they worked once again on the main cable and felt that they had resolved the problem.

He gave me the number of the person in charge of the cable workers and said that at very least before I take this problem to the top, call him and give him one more chance.

I called Mr. Robert M. who in our conversation told me that before the phone company was privatized, he was the managing director.

I repeated for the 4th time today that I was not happy with the service that I had subscribed to and the quality I had a year ago no longer exists.

I reminded him that the company he works for is required to a very least maintain the existing phone system at the same level of quality it was when they took it over and only make improvements. In the case of the Martuni cable, this was clearly not being done.

He told me that it was not fair to say they have not made improvements in their service, as before, we didn�t have a cellular phone system. I snapped back at him and told him that the cellular phone system is an important addition, but the majority of the population can�t afford such service and it�s the land-line system which most people can afford to use and that is now in worse condition than it was before the phone service was privatized.

He told me that he would talk to his crew when they return to the office in Stepanagert and see what more they could do to improve the system.

He did say to me that all they could secure in any case was a connection for me of 9,600bps as they had made changes to system.

I asked him why such a slow connection, since the time I first subscribed to the service 2 years ago until last winter, I usually had a 24,000bps connection and that�s what I expect to have in the future since anything less would be a drop in the quality of service and a violation of their agreement they signed with our government.

I closed with a longwinded speech of if they don�t have the resources to fix the cable, then I would help them obtain the needed resources by calling their top person and also the appropriate people in government, informing them of their minimal obligation to us.

After getting off the phone with Robert M., I try to log on to post the above text and what happens? Well for one thing, my computer using the newly repaired line can�t even connect to Stepanagert. So I get back on the phone to call Stepanagert and also Martuni to see about getting me at least a connection of 9,600bps so I can work a bit.

After 5 hours, I finally get a connection that I was able to post this log with.

I�m now thinking along the line of maybe a petition we can circulate throughout the region to be signed by a few thousand people would get someone attention, as I know for sure I�m not the only one not happy with the service we have been getting.

Oh what a pain in the butt this kind of stuff is. I sometimes wish that issues like this would not cross my path, as when they do, I feel obliged to do something about them and by doing so, I spread myself out thinner and thinner. Either I need to start turning a blind-eye to such issues, or I need a staff so I can get faster and results. Oh what a pain that�s going to be managing so many people.

A little while ago I returned from Stepanagert, where I met up with Raffi, who is on a visit to Artsakh.

We went out for pizza and did a little catching up, since the last time I very briefly saw him was at Artbridge when I was in Yerevan.

After taking Raffi to his hotel, I called a friend to see how he was doing.

His sister answered the phone and told me to rush over right away, as my friend had earlier in the night been taken to the police station and interrogated. I rushed over to see my friend and listen to his story.

It seems that a few hours before my arriving to his house, the police had come by looking for his mother Mrs. Hayrapetyan (this is the woman who had written a letter to the president about her housing situation and I had accompanied to see the mayor about said issue a few of months ago).

Since Mrs. Hayrapetyan was not home, my friend asked the policemen what they needed from her and in turn they asked who he was?

After identifying himself, they radioed to their station and were given instructions to bring my friend to the station.

At the station, my friend was taken to the second floor and was detained for 2 hours being asked questions of his whereabouts on Sunday and asking about letters to government officials including the president in respects to receiving a house.

They went on to accuse my friend of spray-painting some nasty comments on the wall in the neighborhood or maybe even the building the mayor lives in.

My friend denied everything they were alleging and said that he was not alone at anytime on Sunday.

They asked him about his father�s car and when he told him what kind of car it was, they said that they have a witness that saw him with his fathers car at the scene of the alleged crime.

While still in custody, they sent a policeman back to his house to search this storage unit which is under his house for a spray-paint can that would prove he committed the crime. When arriving there, the policeman radioed back to the station to have my friend sent there to open the storage area.

My friend arrived and opened the storage for them to search, which they did with the use of a match to illuminate the area.

After their search, which it should be noted was done illegally, since they didn�t have a search warrant (even here in Artsakh, a request to search must be accompanied by a search warrant), they were unable to produce the evidence they were hoping to find.

And what was this whole fiasco really all about?

Well it seems that the President has decided who will get housing in the �projects� (as Hagop B. refers to the 11 story building which was primarily paid for by a wealthy Diaspora-Armenian), and tough Mrs. Hayapetyan was the first on one of the many lists I saw in the Mayor�s office months earlier for those eligible for housing, the Thomasyan/Hayapetyan family were not one of the lucky ones to receive a place in the �projects.�

I guess there were others who got cut from the list also and someone out of frustration went to the Mayor�s house or neighborhood and vented their frustrations.

As a proximate result, not only did my friend and his family just maybe get the short end of the stick when it came to not getting a house, but to add insult to injury, my friend's basic human rights were violated tonight by the Artsakh police.

I personally am angered, disappointed and insulted at what has happened and would have felt a little bit compensated if at very least, the police had apologized for their error, instead of them telling my friend when they let him go that they will produce a witness to back their story. Of course if they do this, you can be sure I will be there to make sure that the witness is credible and not another one of these people who will provide testimony for the sake of the people in power to get a job done at the expense of someone who in fact is innocent of the crime they are being accused of committing. We have seen this in the past and you can be sure I wont tolerate this kind of thing of happening if I know such a violation is being attempted.

BTW, if this log does not read well, I will edit it when I�m wake, as right now I�m dosing off.

I am logging from the Nairi Hotel in Stepanakert, Karakh. :-) So today Ara has some competition in logging about Karabakh. I felt a little funny (carsick) from the winding road by the time we got close to Lachin, so I slept right through the most beautiful part of the ride. All of Armenia is still so green this year, usually it would have been 90% brown until Karabakh in July, but this year was the opposite. A nice change of scenery.

Last night we had a meeting with the lady running the micro-credit program. Great lady, I really enjoyed meeting with her and hearing her stories. Today we will visit a bunch of projects USAID is doing in Karabakh, and maybe some new possibilities. Tomorrow a couple more meetings in the morning, and back to Yerevan. I will let you know how it all goes.

Yesterday was an adventure, and as great a day as we could have hoped. After some wrong turns and some bad roads, we got to the right border post in twice the time I had calculated. The electrified fence was opened, and we saw at least a dozen soldiers in the building that looked like it should contain about 2-4 pop their heads up to watch eventually. The soldiers were mixed Russians from Russia, and local Armenian boys serving in the Russian military for the better pay. So after the right calls and all we drove into the border zone, across the raked floor and barbed wire electric fence. We had brought some treats for the soldiers, knowing they are not so well off, but not nearly enough Lahmajo, Pringles, Snickers or vodka for them all. They were quite happy to get it though of course. From here we drove to a mini-base which is closer to the actual border. From here the commander greeted us with a few words of English, a few words of Armenian, and lots of Russian, which my dad seemed to understand and reply to pretty well, although I can't be sure :-)

He gave us another Russian who spoke "some" English (precious little, but no matter) to take us to the actual church, where we were instructed not to even point our camera's towards Turkey or our camera's would be taken, and we'd be in trouble. So it was not far and as we got to the church which was just below the road on the hill/cliffside we could see the beautiful ancient tile roof. From there we climbed down to see this octagonal church and it was a very nice one, which if I am not mistake is from around the 8th century. We were free to look at the Turkish side of the river which was flowing quite well, and we can see two Turkish soldiers, no doubt watching us with binoculars. We naturally made faces at them, Lena pulling the best ones. I was tempted to moon them, but suspected our escort might not be as amused as we, nor probably the Turks would be. Along the border there are these tall guard towers too, which the soldiers watch from, and even the ones in the Russian one near us were watching us closely. This was probably from curiosity as much as anything else, since I think we must have been the only tourists they got all year. After a ton of photography (Jack had a field day), we returned to the base for some 'Haykakan Surj" as the Russian commander put it, and the commander played backgammon with my dad, getting beaten in good humor. When the game was close to a 'mars', he would say Mars, Snickers... He was the only one on the base allowed to have a wife and kids with him, and she was the one who brought us the coffee, and the cute Russian kids shot at us with toy guns as they hid inside behind the door. Their dad said something like they thought we were the bad guy Americans or something pretty funny I can't quite remember.

So we headed off, with the kids and some soldiers enjoying their little Australian koala souvenirs that Jack seems to bring an unlimited supply of, and headed back to Yerevan stopping only once for dziran (apricots). The woman was picking them still and when we asked if there were any pesticides (which looked doubtful from the appearance of the fruit) she said no, she had only watered them three times and thats it. So we got 9 kilos (she sells them by the big bucket) which are now sitting at Lenas after we ate as much as we could on the way home. (And they were delicious).

Off to Karabakh in 2 hours...

Wow, what a week! Day after day of solid meetings, sometimes at night too! And next week I won't even be in the office practically, since I will be on a trip to Karabakh and Vayots Dzor (for work). I love going to Karabakh, but three days is not going to be all that pleasant. So much driving, so little time spent there. Well I haven't gone this year, so it will be nice, just to see the scenery. I will hopefully get a chance to log from Karabakh too.

Today is going to be great, we got special permission from a Ministry to go into the border guard zone and visit one or two churches on the Arax river. I have only seen one source of information on the church, since it is so hard to get to, and the villagers who live nearby have told me they had no idea what I was talking about when I asked twice before, uncertain of exactly where it lay. I wonder if they really didn't know because they too were restricted in movement, or if they were just used to denying knowing anything :-) I must say the ministry made getting the permission very easy on us, especially since we got them our information rather last minute. Jack is coming along too, with a zillion cameras, so hopefully this church makes it into his next book (he has two under his belt already). My dad will be leaving soon, but he will accompany us on this trip as well. It is pretty hard to get him out of Yerevan, so this will be interesting.

Yesterday I had lunch with Edele Hovnanian, who has some excellent plans up her sleeves. I can't wait till they are official and I can announce them. (Sorry we always tease you all with tidbits like that!)

well...

I was away for too long already. busy, busy, busy...

We havee managed to meet the deadline and have British Council Armenia new office
open for public starting from 8 July. I was working on the IT side setting up
the equipment, organising the IT installations and etc.

The office is a very modern one, and it offeres services to the public such as
internet access, English language exams, advice in studing in UK etc. Some of
you might have heard about British Council Armenia from a theatre show called
L.O.V.E.

Anyway if you want to read more about British Council Armenia visit www.britishcouncil.am
or Baghramian 24. Or look at some photos.

Coming to the life in Yerevan I would say that it's very hot here. The Republic
squere is still under construction. One of the things that i love here is the
ice-cream. It tasts wonderful. You can get almost any kind. Another thing that
I would advise a visitor to do is to go to "Kino Moskva" summer hall
to watch movies. You can take your ice cream with you.

ozzie really brings us so much happiness that we are laughing and smiling all day. today arthur has an interview and ozzie will debut on tv as our puppy.

tonight we are going to the premiere of the orran documentary and i am so happy for orran. one of the things that makes me happiest is watching orran grow.

later tonight we are going to the airport to pick up my mimi morkoor.

so, arthur and i saw a house a while ago. it was an unfinished house that basically just had four walls up. it was in a nice location and had a nice backyard and a view of ararat so we went to put an offer on it and ... just two hours before we made our offer... someone else made an offer and the house was sold (not to us). so the house was on the market for three years and did not sell... but sold TWO HOURS before our offer. i was pretty sad as i was already looking at color swatches (and i dont mean the new swatch watch store here in yerevan).

last night ano, my kavorkin (who lives across the street from that house) called to tell me that the people gave the house back... they could not go through with the sale.

although i have learned my lesson and am not going to get overly excited or jump the gun... but we may consider putting another offer on the table.

that way ozzie can have a garden to play and pee pee in... and i can have an island in my kitchen and arthur can have his own studio (that does not become the guest bedroom once every two weeks... for two weeks)...

wish us luck.

Canadian Armenians have invaded Yerevan.
A large number of Canadian Armenian doctors and pharmacists have helped organize and participated in the Young Medics conference that was held in Yerevan over the past weekend. I bumped into many of these people from the medical field on the streets of Yerevan, to and from the trip to Shushi where we had all attended the open air concert of the National Chamber Orchestra and last night at a folk dance show. The dance group called Garni was from Montreal. They had over 30 dancers on stage headed by my former dance choreographer, Ludvig Bulghadarian, who was also a long time dancer of the Armenian National Dance Ensemble during the Soviet years. During this same event, I met up with 20 some kids from all over Canada who had arrived with a group called CYMA (Canadian Youth Mission Armenia) as well as 4 students from SAMA (Student Association for Medical Assistance) They were all from McGill University, Montreal.
Of course we have family members who are in town as well and another group of young adults arriving from Montreal with the AGBU Scouts to work on a development project in an orphanage.
I guess the saying goes �if you can�t go to Canada, let Canada come to you!�

What a summer this has turned out to be.

On another note, I was in Ayroum All day with the LCO group who are working with the locals to build a solar fruit dryer complex that will provide some 20 villagers with employment. They seemed to be having the time of their lives. I arrived at dinner time. After which, some of the volunteers went out to play ball with the kids who were waiting in front of the house, others were practicing their musical instruments while some others had climbed the fruit trees in the back yard to have fresh yummy �toot� (mulberries). By the way, this has got to be my favorite fruit of this season. I think I emptied an entire tree of its toot. Don�t worry they said, there�s more where that came from. Lucky them for spending an entire month in that pure environment!

Canadian Armenians have invaded Yerevan.
A large number of Canadian Armenian doctors and pharmacists have helped organize and participated in the Young Medics conference that was held in Yerevan over the past weekend. I bumped into many of these people from the medical field on the streets of Yerevan, to and from the trip to Shushi where we had all attended the open air concert of the National Chamber Orchestra and last night at a folk dance show. The dance group called Garni was from Montreal. They had over 30 dancers on stage headed by my former dance choreographer, Ludvig Bulghadarian,who was also a long time dancer of the Armenian National Dance Ensemble during the Soviet years. During this same event, I met up with 20 some kids from all over Canada who had arrived with a group called CYMA (Canadian Youth Mission Armenia) as well as 4 students from SAMA (Student Association for Medical Assistance) They were all from McGill University, Montreal.
Of course we have family members who are in town as well and another group of young adults arriving from Montreal with the AGBU Scouts to work on a development project in an orphanage.
I guess the saying goes �if you can�t go to Canada, let Canada come to you!�

What a summer this has turned out to be.

On another note, I was in Ayroum All day with the LCO group who are working with the locals to build a solar fruit dryer complex that will provide some 20 villagers with employment. They seemed to be having the time of their lives. I arrived at dinner time. After which, some of the volunteers went out to play ball with the kids who were waiting in front of the house, others were practicing their musical instruments while some others had climbed the fruit trees in the back yard to have fresh yummy �toot� (mulberries). By the way, this has got to be my favorite fruit of this season. I think I emptied an entire tree of its toot. Don�t worry they said, there�s more where that came from. Lucky them for spending an entire month in that pure environment!

Just to follow on Raffi K�s log on Shamshadin. While we were in Ijevan, the boys got out of the car to make some purchases in the open market and since they were in shorts and really looked out of place, they attracted some attention. But the funniest thing is that the 2 boys who were checking them out, saw Raffi and Jack get out of the Niva, looked at the number plate, then told each other �Yerevantsi en� (they�re from Yerevan). I was trying very hard to contain myself since they then noticed me sitting in the back of the Niva, thinking to myself �if you only knew�. Needless to say, it was an amazing weekend and Shamshadin is now on the top of list of favourite places in Armenia since it reminded me of Karabagh.

I am taking up a membership card from the Zvartnots airport... if there is such a thing!
In the past week I have been there three times already and will return next Monday, the Monday after that, the following Saturday and the Thursday after that, a few Tuesdays and wednesdays in between... this goes on until the end of August.
What am I doing there you say?
LCO volunteers arriving and leaving (and not all on the same days) Lara's parents (who arrived yesterday... this is their first trip here and they are LOVING IT!), my friends from Montreal, my parents and aunts and finaly my brother which I miss terribly. Never seemed to have missed him when we were living in the same house with my parents... hmm?
But you know what, I'd rather spend my summers this way, entertaining and visiting and laughing and drinking than just working and wishing to enjoy the beautiful weather, as was the case in Canada.

Have I told you that I am working on a film? I will tell more about this later!

By the way, lara and I have been thinking of adopting fot a while as well. We were thinking that we should adopt Armenian kids that are really in desperate and unsafe environment. We thought about the orphans in Georgia. Well be looking into this durng the next few months. I will try and post about this issue once I have more info from the Georgian-Armenian community.

Talk about adventure tourism. It was just waaay more adventure than any of us wanted, but to get to Shamshadin, and see it's monasteries and scenery requires some serious offroading and lack of creature comforts. I will try to be brief in sharing this story in order to save us all time.

It all started the morning of the 4th of July, when we got a slow, comfortable start, leaving Yerevan just before noon, and heading to Ijevan to spend the night. We had nothing specific planned for the day, just an idea of looking at some local monasteries if we felt like it. After a delicious lunch of fish on the shores of Lake Sevan, I was telling Lena and Jack about Kirants Vank, well north of Ijevan which I had been to in 2000, and another monastery I had tried unsuccessfully to find at that time as well, Arakelots. With such long days, and a couple of sandwiches, we said what the heck and headed up.

The brand new Lincy funded highway was amazing, except it was sad to see the massive rains had washed 2 sections away. So we got to our turnoff and headed south into deep forests. The first monastery, which was supposed to be just 1km from the village, and which I was unsuccessful at finding again proved very difficult. It was a very humid weekend in the forested areas we spent the whole weekend in and we sweat like pigs searching for this monastery. There are logging roads all over so it is confusing. We returned to the bottom of the hill where I noticed a very tiny spot which could be a wall way above, but we were worried about the light having almost 10km of bad, muddy dirt road to cover in order to reach Kirants, one of my favorite monasteries. So we headed off, and eventually the track confused me and we had to double back a few km to confirm directions. Water had ruined the previous road I had taken it turns out, and it was already completely overgrown, so we headed back on the new road. Getting to Kirants monastery, it was surrounded by very tall grass. After venturing into it twice, and almost immediately noticing ticks jumping onto us, we gave up and left in low spirits. Heading back, Lena had a headache, so me and Jack decided to see if whatever I saw on the hill in the forest was Arakelots. As we started up, we met young Gourgen, who confirmed we were on the right track and guided us up. Arakelots was fantastic, really. With interesting fortifications, and a unique "piled stone" roof in one of the chambers, it distiguished itself as a unique monastery in a land of monasteries. Returning to the car we found that Lena had gotten worse, and that the sandwich she ate was no longer with her. We headed back to Ijevan in the dark to find a nice B&B and were successful in finally finding Svetlana's place, thanks to a new B&B guide to Ijevan.

Svetlana's place was fantastic, beautiful, comfortable, and with a fantastic shower and breakfast, all for under $10. We got a late start again due to car issues, which Svetlana's son fixed. Finally heading into Shamshadin, with a lot of difficulty, and the help of some kind Ijevantsis who knew some of our tourism development friends (they drove our car up the hardest parts of the road to the monastery and back down), we reached Srveghi Monastery. It was very nice, and never having found a single picture, and not knowing what to expect, a beautiful surprise. Jack was lamenting the shortness of time to photograph and plans to spend the night there in order to get in all the shots he wants.

From Srveghi we rushed to Nor Varagavank, which I had been to on 4th of July weekend 3 years ago. Each monastery in Armenia truly has its own charm, and this one has no shortage of it. Incredibly intricate carved stones, beautiful shades of stone, and, like all the monasteries of Shamshadin (and most in Armenia) a very beautiful setting.

Again running low on light, we left our relaxed picnic and rushed to Shkhmuradi Monastery. Bad roads caused us to hike the last portion, which allowed us to enjoy the very cut off location with again lush forests, and sheer cliffs. The monastery was small and charming, but we could not dawdle, we rushed back to find accomodations in Berd. We ended up at the hotel, which was not nearly as bad as we expected. True, you could not shower, but otherwise the "luxury" room, at under $4 per person was very clean, nicely remodeled, and comfortable. If there had been a toilet seat that would have been icing on the cake :-)

We had a great dinner nearby, and asked them to bbq some of the marshmellows I had brought with me to enjoy on my 4th of July weekend. They were all amazed by the marshmellows, and thought they were like "barbequed ice-cream". When was said you can eat them as is, they were impressed you can also eat the things "raw". :-)

So the next morning we headed off to fund our last monastery and then head home. Kaptavank was hard to get too, and after taking our pictures, we were happy to be heading back. We were taking a different route back to Lake Sevan, via Chambarak-Shorjha. The spectacular scenery was something we could only appreciate with our eyes, because the haze of the weird humidity greyed out the more distant mountains and forests. We did get some fantastic shots though, and after an hour of working on the car (thank goodness Jack knows something about this), we finally made it to Sevan hours later and ate another delicious meal of fish. I just had the BBQ fish which had some tomato sauce marinade, and the others ate bbq and fried too. While there, I somehow noticed a tiny tick had gotten under my skin, and when we headed back to Yerevan, Jack pulled it out for me. The digital pictures all came out fantastic, and I am just so glad to have another day off today to recover from my trip!

arthur is home, with food poisoning. he wonders how he got it but i was there to witness that he ate persian caviar, ice cream, drank orange juice and then we went to our first ever adventure to waterworld. i think he has himself an answer in that progression of events, but i could be wrong.

waterworld proved to be a great time and thegetaway i needed to pull me through these few days of house guests, tourists, and summer heat.

now that i am refreshed, burned the color of beet, and sore from swimming races with arthur (which he won)... i am ready to tackle on the week.

tomorrow we have a birthday and the next day my favorite and most loved auntie mimi is coming to visit. i am excited to meet her at the airport and jump up and down from the glass seperation and write notes on paper and paste them to the glass so that she may read, and so that the others watching us may laugh at our desperation.

i am also looking forward to a screening of the orran documentary ( a wonderful street children's organization that i am involved in, www.orran.am ) my very close friend shant petrossian, who is a pro., produced the documentary so i am very excited to see how it turned out. he does amazing stuff.

i have always thought about adopting. these are long conversations i have had with arthur. i have wanted to adopt from a very young age. although i do not have anything planned in the immediate future (ozzie is a handful)... i sure hope that one day i will have the opportunity to adopt more than just a seven month old golden retriever :o)

Happy 4th of July!

We are heading for Shamshadin in a minute, Lena and Jack are on the way over to pick me up, so this is gonna be quick. I just love saying Shamshadin though I must mention. Isn't it fantastic? Like Xanadu. But I don't think it is an Armenian name, unfortunately.

I also wanted to share the fact that in the last 2 years, I have sent 5,000 emails. I can't believe that total, it's crazy. So if I don't reply, or am not quick, it is not for lack of putting in a lot of time and effort.

OK, off we go to the French Bakery for sandwiches, then off to.... Shamshadin, where I will get to see some monasteries I have never been to (yes, there are more). It is one of the most beautiful parts of Armenia though, so no matter what the monasteries are like, the scenery will be spectacular.

I took a trip to Khor Virab (St. Gregory's pit) and Noravank with some friends and relatives last Saturday. Wow, does Noravank look beautiful (thanks to a facelift c/o a fellow Canadian-Armenian). The weather was beautiful, I took over a hundred pics (as usual), we did some amateur rock climbing, and also had a great picnic.

I witnessed several animals being sacrificed at both churches and in one case a rooster was screaming for five minutes while they were slowly sawing through his neck. Paritioners were smiling with animal blood smeared on their foreheads. Supposedly our church denounces this pagan practice, but for some reason they still allow it to happen on a continuous basis on church grounds. Considering that our country openly discriminates against cults such as Jehovah's Witnesses, I'm surprised they condone such an anti-Christian tradition.

On a different note, there is a rooster a few doors down that keeps me awake all night long with its incessant crowing. Although it was amusing the first few nights, especially since the place where I am staying temporarily is centrally located, any more sleepless nights may force me to reconsider my views on animal sacrifice.

Once in a while I walk through Republic Square to see the progress of all the construction. Last week I decided to take a bunch of pics of the disaster and I thought I would post some here. It is actually coming along well. The curbs have been brought out, the huge mosaic area has been paved, sandstorms everywhere, the pigs are squealing as they run here and there foraging for food, and there is an old woman giving out free Candy. :-O

Last night we had supper at a new restaurant called Kilikia (on Hanrapetutyun, corner Sayat-Nova). It was great! The food was a mix of Eastern and Western Armenian cuisine. We had S'pass, but it was really madzunov kofte, sarma (stuffed vine leaves) with skhtor-madzun and something called "musakhan" that my mom makes all the time. It's a chiken sandwich wrap with lemon,onions and sumak as the main spices... mmmmmmmm and mmm!
Tonight, Shant Minas from CA (LCO Volunteer) organized a Khorovadz at Sevag and Sevana's (more LCO vounteers) from Iran... we had a blast in their yard.
All the wile we are preparing to recieve our LCO volunteers tomorrow night!

Too much fun!

A mosquito woke me at 5 this morning. I don't know how the little bugger got in! I killed it, but couldn't go back to sleep, and now I am pooped. At least I finally used my excersize bike (5km, which is pathetic I know, but a start). My dad arrived last night at 1:30am. Since his friend was picking him up anyway, I did not go. He'll come over tonight.

So on the way to work most mornings I walk past the parliament, which has some nice white mulberry trees. So as I go by I can pick one or two hanging over the sidewalk. Quite nice. The cherries which are in season now are fantasic. What else? Well work as I predicted, is just crazy this week. I am already going crazy and it is just tuesday morning. Day after day of meetings, wearing suits, and no time for real work even which just piles up. What saves my sanity is knowing it is a 4 day week, and we have plans to head out of town this weekend (to Shamshadin). Jack (Hagop) will be here from Australia, so hopefully he'll join us...

I just got a 5mb email this morning. Not something pleasant in Armenia. So I switched to webmail to see who it was from, and it is from my (speaking of the tasmanian devil continent) Australian cousins. Some of the pics are over 1mb each. What is remarkable is that they are the grainiest, worst quality digital pics you can imagine. Well, nobody can accuse Sabrina of being a computer geek, that much is certain.

And yes, it is now officially 4 years that I am a resident of Armenia. I had no idea how long I would stay when I came... a year, a month... and here I am, still loving it.

25 LCO volunteers to arrive in just 3 days... lots to do!
very excited, very busy and very happy with my new life in Armenia.

(Narineh is indeed one of the best things forkids. Amassia practically grew upon that (for one month anyway) in 2001.)

Friend's benefit B-day was one of the highlights of the weekend. The kids at the school Lena mentionned were SUPER. You can read on the "three tenors" on the on line AIM www.armeniaweek.com

I will leave my thoughts of the play L.O.V.E for another log as it well deserves it.