Torch for Darfur

I went to a torch relay event for Darfur 2 days ago. It was a very nice ceremony at the Genocide Monument, and the Catholicos, the Archbishop of Canterbury and others spoke very well. There was also a survivor from Darfur there, the head of the Jewish community of Armenia, and others. I'm not sure what a ceremony here can accomplish, since it seems the only way to prevent genocide is to simply send in troops, but at least it hopefully raised some awareness, which perhaps can muster up some popular support for international intervention.

Other than that I met some new people, as you do in Yerevan, through sometimes the most random connections. One I met through a very cool American woman who worked in the DC office of a USAID project I was at, and she would come out to the field now and then to see how things were going. She was odar, but somehow had ended up attending the Armenian Sisters Academy in Philadelphia for a few years and remembered a bit of Western Armenian even. So anyway, she asked me to meet with a friend of hers who was working for a Dutch company that is making investments here. A very solid guy, who might be based of of Yerevan next year. I also met an Armenian writer who is probing some very interesting issues. I will share more about that when the time comes (which will be a while).

I'll also mention here that I went to the Republic Squares new fountains 2 days after they opened and it was PACKED with thousands of spectators. It was really great to see so many people enjoying the fountains.

P.S. I'm working on a USAID funded project to create a "Google Earth" type site for Armenia (it is not related to google in any way, though the functionality and content is similar). We need a couple of beta testers to tell us how it works for them and give us feedback. If you want to help, post a comment with your email address (I will not publish it), and I can send you the link. Also tell me the city you live in and the type of connection you have. I will only take some of the firstcomers. We can't handle too much feedback/traffic in this phase :-)