Harsanik

My old friend Emil Sanamyan got married on Friday at Gandzasar Monastery in Karabakh. Him and his beautiful bride came from Washington, D.C. and the guests came from all over the world. It's great to see this trend of coming to Armenia to get married grow. The setting is so beautiful (that is why I chose this photo, despite it being a bit blurred), the guests all have such a great time, and so many new people are exposed to Armenia. Going all the way to Karabakh for a one day visit though I must say is tiring. I always prefer to break it up - though for a group this big there is nowhere to stay along the way.

I also had the opportunity to visit a small village in Karabakh with one of the guests at the wedding who has an ancestral home and relatives there. It is so different an experience to actually have a tie to this specific part of Armenia... an actual house you can say is yours. Along the way we got to see some of the progress along the North-South Highway the Hayastan All-Armenian Fund is building. It seems to be making some decent progress, though it is hard to believe it will finish next year as projected. This Thanksgiving's Telethon will raise money for work in Martakert area apparently... I'm quite curious to find out the actual details of this development project. Unfortunately I didn't have much chance to wander around Stepanakert or Shushi on this trip, but I saw a lot of those back in May and they are definitely looking better and better (especially Shushi with all the new roads and sidewalks which Stepanakert has had for years).

Well, I'm tired from a few days on bumpy, windy roads, so that's all I'll bore you with for now.