Birthday money spending!!

It has taken a lot of miscommunication and poor organization to be this delayed but eventually we got to the old peoples home in Artsvanik! Having finally got organized and collected all the necessary bits and pieces together we wandered off….

Mum, Penny, Roubina and I turned up carrying bags of goodies for the (mainly) old ladies. There is one old man, and he seems very happy. Apparently he is very interested in marriage but he hasn’t found a lady young enough for him (yet).
We piled inside and the ladies came with us (they had been relaxing outside enjoying the lovely evening). Different people looked excited by different items, one old lady was pleased by the paper we took, there was plenty for her poetry. There were quite a buzz by the women by the knitting stuff. One was especially keen on the chickens, and she was so excited when we gave the money to purchase these. The residents and staff had already prepared the area for the chickens and now is a good time of year to get them. I have a strong suspicion that next time we go there we will be fed omlettes and given socks for our efforts…

We took some nice chocolates and had tea with the residents and staff. The staff and residents are very proud of the art work and craft and so we were shown their art room again... Both Penny and Mum who hadn’t been there before commented on how nice and clean the place was and also how relaxed and friendly the staff/resident relationships seemed. It is easy to see how this place really has a long wait
list as compared to many elderly these guys have a safe secure place to live.

There is a little money left over – enough we think to purchase a DVD player, so they can watch old movies etc.
Thanks so much to everyone who contributed – I am looking forward to finally passing on the DVD player and going back when they have got the chickens established and laying!

Mum's here and fire

On an exciting note, Mum has arrived! She is currently sitting at home relaxing and doing a jigsaw puzzle… She is learning fast. Everyone says - how are you? Then the next question - how do you like Armenia? (answer: oh, I am fine, Armenia is very nice) The more you gush the more people like you in return! I will definitely write more about her visit soon...

We had a fire in our floor at work last week and so now we are without power, it looks like it isn't going to be fixed fast - the fire was caused because the wiring is old and there is no earthing, neutrals etc. The wires are not even in conduit, the wires are just plastered straight into the walls... The whole lot is being rewired now... Funny how something bad has to happen before they finally get around to fixing stuff. I guess there is so much to fix here...

All the people on my floor are refugees, trying to find a power point in some other part of the company, trying to find a desk to borrow for a short time, trying to get some work done. It is difficult for us but this is even worse when there are some people around who are refusing to allow people to sit at the empty desks in their offices. I love the cooperation and team work here. Grrr. I don’t think that people seem to realize that we are all working for the same common objectives.

I am starting to think I might bring some bad luck with electricity as I have already set fire to my apartment once, fried my computer, melted various cables and other bits and now had a fire in the wall of my office…