I’ve spent the last few weeks working on the main housing unit of the organic chicken farm that I funded through the generous donations of Stella Aslibekyan, J.T. Gottwald, Nelli Martirosyan, Paul Sookiasian, Armen Yesayan, Sergey Babayan and a good sized group of my close friends and family.  The largest single donation was made on [...]

Hi everyone! Just a few updates for today.  The EU grant Elizabeth, myself and Caritas Armenia submitted to the EU was approved!  I’ll be working with Elizabeth to try and leave Caritas in the best possible position to carry this project forward (it’ll be a three-year project).  We have a lot of planning sessions scheduled for [...]

Hey everyone, Well, I don’t even know where to begin.  I suppose I’ll start by answering some comments that have been posted recently with this statement:  this is a professional blog covering my service here in Armenia, and it is meant to be a positive narrative of my efforts, and the efforts of those I encounter [...]

If anyone is interested in getting some background on what’s going on in Georgia right now, I really encourage you to read the book, “Engaging Eurasia’s Separatist States: Unresolved Conflicts and De Facto States,” by Dov Lynch.  It deals with the PMR, Transnistria, Nagorno-Karabakh, South Ossetia, and Abkhazia specifically.  Effects of the war on Armenia haven’t [...]

Hello Friends! It’s been a little while since my last update, so I’ll jump right into it.  Things have been moving fast on-site; with the heat comes activity.  I recently participated and represented Peace Corps Armenia (right before my week-long vacation) in the South Caucasus Workshop: Promoting Best Practices in ICT, Tourism and Business Services Delivery [...]

GREAT NEWS everybody!  The organic chicken farm project for the Gevorgyans has been FULLY funded!  I’d like to offer a special thanks to a donor who made the single largest contribution (over half) on behalf of Helen Saribekyan and Alexandra Melikian of Phoenix, AZ in the name of the Armenian Apostolic Church of Arizona.  Their [...]

What a process this has been in pulling this together, but I have good news to share with you all.  The Gevorgyans’ Peace Corps Partnership Program grant has been approved.  Again, thanks to a few very special interested parties, the Gevorgyans were able to come up with the required 25% community contribution to enable us [...]

IMPORTANT!!! This is an important entry that I’m hoping you all have time to review very closely.  As a business volunteer in the Peace Corps, I work with all manner of businesses, and all manner of people.  The way that international aide works in community and business development is particular to the country in which it [...]

I wanted to feature one of our amazing local artists here in Armenia.  Her name is Gohar and she’s going to be one of the featured artists in our newly opening Armenian Artists Direct store in the base of the Harsnaqar Hotel Complex.  I’ve pictured some of her stuff here to give you an idea [...]

Hope everything is well with you all.  It’s funny the way that you stumble across things here.  I was finishing up a meeting with some local artists from the arts school that will be participating in our new “Armenian Artists Direct” store to be located in the lobby of the largest local hotel complex, Harsnaqar.  [...]

Hey all, Some of you might have noticed that I had to take down my entry regarding the ongoing political turmoil transpiring here.  There is a media blackout in effect; they’re censoring everything and it’s hard to get access to good information.  I wanted to take up some of the slack, but as a US Govt. [...]

I wanted to throw up some pictures of one of the many monasteries to be found here in Armenia – all old, all beautiful, all interesting and haunting in their own way.  The priests that had occupied this particular monastery over the many hundreds of years that it has been in existence had a tradition [...]