Wednesday, February 25, 2004

I’m back in Martuni after a very long stay in Armenia. I’m really glad to be back.

The return trip was for the most part uneventful and the only thing interesting was picking up a couple of Westerners on foot with backpacks. They were on their way to Sevan which from the turnoff I left them at was 40 kilometers away.

One of them was from Italy and had made his way to Armenia via Bulgaria and Georgia. I asked him if he hitchhiked the whole way and he said no, only in Armenia, as he it was not safe to do so in the other countries.

The other walker was a girl maybe from Italy, but was leaving Armenia by air and going to Syria. She also had a noise ring.

I guess the only reason I picked them up was that they looked to the locals like freaks and from what I could tell, they were having no luck in getting anyone to stop. I guess holding up a thumb is really not an understandable signal in Armenia.

The weather here in Martuni is quite nice.

While I was in Armenia, I had sent my dog off to the chicken farm with my driver as she was in heat and 10 days ago, I got a call from my driver, who told me that he got a call from the farm to say that my dog had escaped and up until yesterday, my driver had not been able to find her.

When I was in Stepanagert, someone told me that they had come to my house on the 5th and my dog was at my house and barking. She said she came by on the 6th, and my dog was behind my house laying on the ground and looked sick and there was another dog in my yard. She said she chased off the other dog, but even then, by dog would not get up.

On my way home from Stepanagert, all I could think was that my dog returned home and maybe was injured by someone for killing a chicken or something and I was going to find her behind my house dead and covered with flies.

I got home and outside my house, my dog greeted me. She was quite thin and her paws were covered in a familiar blood (chicken blood) and she was a bit thin, but alive.

I fed her really well and for the most part she seems to be the same dog I left almost a month ago.

I’m not sure what I’m going to do with my driver, who was left here in Martuni to take care of things while I was gone and especially to look after my dog and make sure she was fed. At very least, I will make him pay for all the neighbors chickens my dog ate.

Anyway, it’s good to be home and also to find my dog alive.

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