I am enjoying a quiet evening at home, with just my boyfriend and our two cats (one of the cats is jumping all over my laptop while writing this. I have to push him off every minute or so). I have had a very busy social couple of days behind me, and I need to 'recover' from that. It started last Thursday when we celebrated (???) St. Patrick's Day at Cheers. Well, celebrate? Last time I 'celebrated' St. Pat's was when I was studying in the US over a decade ago. For me, it was just a nice reason to go out and party a bit. ;-)
Then, on Saturday we went to Spitak for a few days, catching up with friends. For my boyfriend it was the first time in Spitak, so he was looking forward to meet my friends there. We socialized heavily for a few days, but it was fun. We had a good time. On Saturday we started with a barbecue at IATP Spitak Site and SpiTux computer center, where I worked as a volunteer a couple of years ago. It was good to see 'the gang' again. I love coming back there and spending time with my friends. Every time I go there, it feels like coming home. Later, on Saturday evening we went for coffee at a family I am friends with, but we ended up staying for almost four hours! Sunday we spent with my friend H. and her family. We sat and ate and drank and talked (and laughed!) for most of the afternoon and evening, and a good part of Monday as well! Later I visited some other friends, spending the evening talking and eating semochki (sunflower seeds). H. lives in one of the small villages near Spitak. A few months ago a new church was opened in the village, which we visited on Saturday. It's a nice church. H. told me it was built by some maffioso. I guess he had a conscience to clear...
I came back today to a snowy Yerevan, with the snow getting worse in the course of the day. I guess we won't have noon coffee on our balcony again any time soon while enjoying the view of both Ararat and Aragats. On the opposite, while writing this, it is getting foggier and foggier and I can't even see the opposite side of the gorge and the bridge next to our apartment any more. I heard the snowy weather will last for at least the next couple of days. Hmmmm......

Oops! I just saw the date of my previous log... Blush! Blush!

My parents were here for ten days, so I spent time with them. They came here expecting cold, wintery weather. Instead, while they were here, the weather became really nice and spring-like. And, at the same time, Western-Europe was hit hard by winter: Holland saw the worst snowfall in twenty or so years....

Work is not keeping me busy at all. Two weeks ago, though, together with some colleagues from work we paid a very interesting visit to a children's hospital here in Yerevan. We are working on a project aimed at introducing a more child-friendly approach to children's wards in hospitals, for example through the establishment o playrooms on the wards where children can not only relax and get away from the hospital environment, but where they can also be mentally prepared for upcoming surgery or some other procedure in order to make this procedure seem less frightening. The hospital we visited has been supported by a Swedish hospital for many years and together with their Swedish counterparts the Yerevan hospital recently created such a playroom facility, which we wanted to see. Everyone in our group was truly amazed about the playroom itself, but even more about Shoushan, the woman who runs the facility. She had had training in Sweden and in about six months had the whole facility up and running, including renovation and furnishing the rooms. She was so strong, so motivated, so dedicated to and so passionate about her work!! A very, very remarkable person.

Another memorable visit I made in the past few weeks was one of the Armenian facilities of SOS Children's Village near Abovyan. SOS Children's Villages is an international organization (www.sos-childrensvillages.org) that provides a new home for children who lost their parents or who for other reasons cannot live with their parents anymore (for example because the parents have abandoned their children, are alcoholics, are in prison). The children live in small groups of 6-9 children and one SOS staff member, called the SOS-mother. Each "family" has its own house on the premises of the Children's Village. The Armenian Children's Village consists of about 80 children. It has its own kindergarten which also serves the children from the neighboring villages. During this visit I again met so many passionate and dedicated people, people who really cared about their work.
I wish there were more people like Shoushan at the children's hospital and Ashot, Veronika, Irina and Hovik at SOS Children's Villages!
myrtheko