I’m so tired of the New Years celebrations. Just too much food and still too many people to visit, which means more food.
I was in Martuni for New Years Eve and after visiting everyone here in Martuni I wanted to visit, on my way home, I was invited to sit with the neighborhood men in front of my neighbor’s new store until the wee hours of the morning.
As we were sitting, my neighbor the commander and his wife drove passed and wished us a happy new year, refusing our invitation to join us, as they were off to his base from where he and his wife went on to the front line posts to visit with our boys, where each one was allowed to call their parents on the commanders cell phone (not paid for by the army, but by him). I later asked others I know that serve at other bases if their commander does the same and they said no. I guess anyone that is a commander should have 5 children and know the value of family so they will be more companionate towards those that serve under them. Grigori really is one of our exceptions in our army and is also a great neighbor.
On the morning on the 1st and only after a couple of hours of sleep, I was off in the direction of Stepanagert, where I stopped off in a village, ate and drank two meals and then continue on to Stepanagert.
I visited 4 families in Stepanagert and ate another 4 meals. To say the least, I’m very tired of eating and of course when I got back to Martuni, I visited with another friend that I didn’t see the day before and again another meal. I felt like I was going to pop and was too full to sleep, but was very tired. It was a no win situation.
Yesterday again visits and again too many meals of leftovers.
Today the meals didn’t start until 4 PM and my first meal was poison snake, which my driver caught at my lake when we went to visit and wish my guards a happy new year.
For those that are squeamish about snakes, you may want to skip the next couple of sentences.
I brought the snake to a friend’s house, where I took the skinned and cleaned snake into the living room to find my friend entertaining other friends. When I pulled the snake out of the bag to show them my catch, they became squeamish, as the snake which was killed 2 hours before was still moving. Mind you, no guts, nothing but flesh, bones and the snake was moving around as if it was still live. It was kind of freaky.
I wash, chopped and cooked up the snake and with great pleasure, ate the snake and was joined by the twin daughters of the house, that ate the lion’s share of the snake.
And did the snake taste like chicken? Not really, it was way better. I really recommend poison snake and for those that come to visit, will treat you to this delicacy. I’m sure it also has some medicinal value. Anyone know?
Now for my observations of this years new year celebration.
First and foremost, this year though there was plenty to eat, the tables I sat at were not as they use to be with plates and plates of food piled on each other. This was defiantly a slim new years.
I spoke to a few stores and they told me that this year, people spent much less than past years. It seems that the price of flower is now equal to the price of sugar, meaning that the price of flower this year is twice as much as it was last year.
Someone pointed out that in July 2003, the Prime Minister had announced on television that Artsakh had a record wheat harvest and that the price of bread/flour will not go up and they will make sure that we keep the wheat we need to feed our people. At that time a sack of flower was 7,000 dram. Today a sack of flower is 14,000 dram. In fact last year around this time, flower was around 7,000 dram and even less from what I remember and we didn’t have the harvest in 2002 that we did in 2003. The Prime Minister once again fooled the people and what people told me in the last couple of days, the lack of food on tables for our celebration was due to people in fear of maybe not having enough for bread in the months to come, so they are now saving just in case.
So what does all this mean? This means that the Prime Minister is on everyone’s s-list and I get this really strong feeling from what people are saying everywhere that his days really are numbered and he has to go. I sure wont miss him since he has fooled me personally on a number of occasions.
Well I hope everyone had a wonderful new year and your 2004 will be all you need it to be.
I was in Martuni for New Years Eve and after visiting everyone here in Martuni I wanted to visit, on my way home, I was invited to sit with the neighborhood men in front of my neighbor’s new store until the wee hours of the morning.
As we were sitting, my neighbor the commander and his wife drove passed and wished us a happy new year, refusing our invitation to join us, as they were off to his base from where he and his wife went on to the front line posts to visit with our boys, where each one was allowed to call their parents on the commanders cell phone (not paid for by the army, but by him). I later asked others I know that serve at other bases if their commander does the same and they said no. I guess anyone that is a commander should have 5 children and know the value of family so they will be more companionate towards those that serve under them. Grigori really is one of our exceptions in our army and is also a great neighbor.
On the morning on the 1st and only after a couple of hours of sleep, I was off in the direction of Stepanagert, where I stopped off in a village, ate and drank two meals and then continue on to Stepanagert.
I visited 4 families in Stepanagert and ate another 4 meals. To say the least, I’m very tired of eating and of course when I got back to Martuni, I visited with another friend that I didn’t see the day before and again another meal. I felt like I was going to pop and was too full to sleep, but was very tired. It was a no win situation.
Yesterday again visits and again too many meals of leftovers.
Today the meals didn’t start until 4 PM and my first meal was poison snake, which my driver caught at my lake when we went to visit and wish my guards a happy new year.
For those that are squeamish about snakes, you may want to skip the next couple of sentences.
I brought the snake to a friend’s house, where I took the skinned and cleaned snake into the living room to find my friend entertaining other friends. When I pulled the snake out of the bag to show them my catch, they became squeamish, as the snake which was killed 2 hours before was still moving. Mind you, no guts, nothing but flesh, bones and the snake was moving around as if it was still live. It was kind of freaky.
I wash, chopped and cooked up the snake and with great pleasure, ate the snake and was joined by the twin daughters of the house, that ate the lion’s share of the snake.
And did the snake taste like chicken? Not really, it was way better. I really recommend poison snake and for those that come to visit, will treat you to this delicacy. I’m sure it also has some medicinal value. Anyone know?
Now for my observations of this years new year celebration.
First and foremost, this year though there was plenty to eat, the tables I sat at were not as they use to be with plates and plates of food piled on each other. This was defiantly a slim new years.
I spoke to a few stores and they told me that this year, people spent much less than past years. It seems that the price of flower is now equal to the price of sugar, meaning that the price of flower this year is twice as much as it was last year.
Someone pointed out that in July 2003, the Prime Minister had announced on television that Artsakh had a record wheat harvest and that the price of bread/flour will not go up and they will make sure that we keep the wheat we need to feed our people. At that time a sack of flower was 7,000 dram. Today a sack of flower is 14,000 dram. In fact last year around this time, flower was around 7,000 dram and even less from what I remember and we didn’t have the harvest in 2002 that we did in 2003. The Prime Minister once again fooled the people and what people told me in the last couple of days, the lack of food on tables for our celebration was due to people in fear of maybe not having enough for bread in the months to come, so they are now saving just in case.
So what does all this mean? This means that the Prime Minister is on everyone’s s-list and I get this really strong feeling from what people are saying everywhere that his days really are numbered and he has to go. I sure wont miss him since he has fooled me personally on a number of occasions.
Well I hope everyone had a wonderful new year and your 2004 will be all you need it to be.
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