Just to give our readers another perspective of life here, I asked Mama Manoogian to write some of her impressions of her visit to share with you. She agreed and wrote the following:

Mama Manoogian reporting from Yerevan and Martuni, where I have been for nearly a month. It has been a very interesting and productive sojourn from California to Armenia and Artsakh.

There have been memorable moments difficult to capture in words. First, the many friends who traveled on the same flight(s) from Los Armenios to London and via Tbilisi to Yerevan�sharing a long, arduous trip, but well worth the anticipation of reconnecting with family and friends. Welcome sights and sounds of the homeland everywhere. I finally feel familiar enough with Yerevan so that I can now give others directions on how to get from one place to another.

Being an avid reader of the on-line journal keeps me in touch with what is going on, and spending time with the loggers was a joyful occasion, not to mention meeting Raffi�s dad, Dr. Kojian for the first time, even though we are from the same neck of the woods. How wonderful it was to see the enthusiasm and energy our young people have brought with them from the four corners of the earth to Mother Armenia. Vardzkernit katar!

And then there was the trip to Artsakh with Ara and a long-time friend from New York. No matter the weather or the time of day, the beauty of the mountains, the valleys and the countryside always takes my breath away. Life here in this isolated place transports me to the edge of time, into a separate reality, and yet into a welcoming home away from home. When I see the people here, they could well be my neighbors and friends anywhere. Their interests, dreams, and aspirations are like my own. We are members of one family, the Armenian family. And I wouldn�t exchange that for anything.