I have several more pictures to upload but blogger is behaving badly. I've been trying to upload this blog update for about 7 days now. All of a sudden, I was able to put pics on and just as suddenly, the uploader stopped working. It has disappeared this post already one time when I tried to publish. I think I'll publish what I have now and send the rest of the pics another day.

Tonite is Halloween and I'm going to a party at one of the other vol's house. I'm going as a gyumri tateek (grandmother). I borrowed a navy blue and white print dress from Emma. This dress or one like it is worn by most older women in Gyumri. I don't know why. Maybe a pic of me in costume will be forthcoming.

October 22, 2007

The fall weather in Gyumri has been beautiful, those crisp autumn days we all love, almost no rain during the last few weeks. Cold mornings and nights, warm days. Confusing clothing choices. A box with two sweaters arrived last week, just in the nick of time. It also included a jigsaw puzzle. What a great treat it has become. It happens that Albert, my 70+ year old host “father” is a bit of a jigsaw nut and the 10 year old granddaughter, Armine, is quite good at matching pieces. I’ve learned the Russian work for “perfect”. If any of you readers have an extra jigsaw puzzle you don’t mind donating to Armenia, I’d love to have it.

:ast week I conducted a focus group in a village near Gyumri.

What follows are several thousand words of pictures:

Here’s the approach to the village. Yes, it had snowed about 3” the night before (not in town).










Here’s the group of villagers I met with. The man in the leather jacket on the end is the mayor.









Cow traffic jam. I love getting caught in one of these.













Scene leaving the village. The black things are cows.









I'm sorry you are not going to get to see the rest of the pics. I'll try blogger again in a few days and see if it is more cooperative.