Thursday, March 06, 2003

The two foot deep trench for the main water-line in front of my house is finally being filled as the weather cleared up and all the new water lines to the individual houses have been welded in place.

Now when they get around to really filling it in is another question.

What I mean is this morning when I went outside, I noticed that one of my neighbors was filling the trench with the trash heap he has in front of his house.

I went out to ask him what he was doing and if he realized that after they cover his trash with dirt, in a short amount of time, his trash will settle and there will be a large pothole.

He quickly realized his error, but instead of removing his trash from the trench, he began to fill dirt on top of it so no one would notice.

My other neighbor also put some of their trash in the trench and when I explained that the glass bottles and 5 liter plastic canister with the hole in it would collapse and a pothole would form, they removed their trash.

I called one of my cohorts on the water committee, who is also the mayor and told him that it seems the trash disposal people are not working well (as the neighbor who put in the bottles and canister pays for trash service) and people are filling the trench with trash.

He told me to warn the neighbor who was filling the trench with compost and all his other trash to stop, as it is illegal to burry trash in the middle of the street and if need be, he will have him arrested.

I told him that the neighbor in question is a police officer and the mayor made some comment to the extent of that will work in his favor when he is sitting in jail.

Our people have a lot of learning to do, but at least when something is explained to them, they do understand and take measures to make appropriate changes.

On another note, when I was in Stepanagert, I went to and electronics store called PENTA to purchase a Sony Play Station controller for a friend of mine and really didn�t pay much attention to its condition, assuming that since it was a little more expensive than what a new controller costs in Yerevan, it must be new.

Well as you would guess from what I said above, the controller was not new and in fact it was worn to the point that it was not even in working condition. The �X� on one of the buttons was worn off and there was dirt between the buttons.

My next trip to Stepanagert will be to PENTA Electronics to see if they have a NEW controller. If not, I�ll have to see what there return policy is. If all else fails, I�ll give the owner a call (who happens to be one of our readers), as I�m sure he has no idea (until he reads this) that his store is selling used/worn-out merchandise as new. Maybe he can do both of us a favor and pre-warn his workers so they will have a new controller or my money waiting for me in advance, so I wont have to say anything.

Like I said before, we still have quite a bit to learn, but in time the people here will catch on.

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