Saturday, July 14th
We met in the lobby for our trip to the worksite and were joined by a group of 8 young people from to the woksite. Fortunately with our competent drivers Melik and Hagop it
only took us 1 hour 10 minutes instead of the 1 1/2 hours it took us yesterday to get there and back. Several young people from KPMG Armenia organization joined us that day. It took both buses to carry everyone. No turn arounds or requests
for directions. Hagop has been there and this is actually Melik's family region, so he knows this area rather well.
After passing buckets of rocks in a bucket brigade for a couple of hours, we broke for lunch. As always there was way more food than we could all consume!Fried chicken on a stick, rice pilaf with corn, a peas and greens salad, summer salad, hats, lavash,cheese and more. That "after lunch it must be naptime feeling was settiling over us and conversation slowed a bit.
Toward the end of our meal our fearless team leader (Leo Manuelian) came in with 2 mamoth super soakerwater guns blasting and yelling "Vatrtavar Day!" (It is a holiday that will officially occur on Sunday clelbrating water in a rather "free for all" way)All the fun then began and bedlam became the norm! All the team went every which way with water bottles and went after whoever walked in their path. The locals even joined in and Tigran the homeowner brought out the cold water hose to refill the barrels with which we refilled our various water bottles. We decided that he should be part of the festivities but everyone who tried got thoroughly hosed with very cold water. Armen, Melik and Hagop stayed a bit off to the side. So we began to include them and they reciprocated.
Then Melik went into full swing with a large clean oilpan which thoroughly doused his victims. Several of us made a plan and one by one made sure we got each of them relatively well. Even Armen's son Aram who had joined our team last year was there. He tried to sneak off and hide when he saw us coming. Gohar and I planned a sneak attack pretending to try to sneak up on someone else. We walked down both sides of the bus where we could see Aram in the mirrors returning to watch the action. Once he had passed the side of the bus that Gohar was on and we between the bus and the house, I came around the outside and she turned towards him and there was no escape!
At this point we were all thoroughly soaked, except Armen's second son who was the film maker of the whole event. I can't wait to see it unfold on the big screen!
We got back to work passing large rockes and buckets of smaller rocks until coffee break. The KPMG team had to leave us at 3pm. As it turned out we had pretty much finished the job we had to do so it was determined that we were done as well. Unfortunately for Melik we hadn't all dried off so he will have to deal with the aftermath of our wet dirty bodies messing up his pretty bus. LOL! It meant that we got home earlier than expected as well. No police involvement this time. Some of us even took the opportunity for a nap as we are still trying to get back into a normal bio rhythm for 8 time zones or more off kilter. That and a nice warm shower first.
We met a little bit early to walk to dinner which was a bit further away at a place called "the CLub". Appetizers were already laid out and water bottles scattered across the table. Unfortunately my first attempt was on a bottle of "gaseous Jermuk", as they refer to it. Not my favorite. So we requested that they exchange all the other gas waters for regular- (Unleaded, as some like to say)
One unusual appetiver was a variety cheese plate which had a few less salty than usual varieties. A nice change from the super salty and extra salty usual varieties. Or entres were Monti and Armenian pizza, but no tomato sauce on either variety. One was a delicious vegetable variety with some lovely spice combination. The other was a shredded chicken pizza with (we think) curry seasoning. Not a choice I would
request on a repeat trip. Some of us shared a nice bottle of wine and many spent a little time perusing the aisles of the little connected souvenir/craft shop.
After dinner, some made their way directly back to the hotel. I led the others on the scenic walk back pointing out interesting pit stops along the way. The last 4 of us decided it was way too early to go up to the rooms so we went to the Marriott for a drink and stayed out til about 1 am. Two were on a mission to run up the Cascades in the morning so they figured bed was due about then. By Susan Bosovich
We met in the lobby for our trip to the worksite and were joined by a group of 8 young people from to the woksite. Fortunately with our competent drivers Melik and Hagop it
only took us 1 hour 10 minutes instead of the 1 1/2 hours it took us yesterday to get there and back. Several young people from KPMG Armenia organization joined us that day. It took both buses to carry everyone. No turn arounds or requests
for directions. Hagop has been there and this is actually Melik's family region, so he knows this area rather well.After passing buckets of rocks in a bucket brigade for a couple of hours, we broke for lunch. As always there was way more food than we could all consume!Fried chicken on a stick, rice pilaf with corn, a peas and greens salad, summer salad, hats, lavash,cheese and more. That "after lunch it must be naptime feeling was settiling over us and conversation slowed a bit.
Toward the end of our meal our fearless team leader (Leo Manuelian) came in with 2 mamoth super soakerwater guns blasting and yelling "Vatrtavar Day!" (It is a holiday that will officially occur on Sunday clelbrating water in a rather "free for all" way)All the fun then began and bedlam became the norm! All the team went every which way with water bottles and went after whoever walked in their path. The locals even joined in and Tigran the homeowner brought out the cold water hose to refill the barrels with which we refilled our various water bottles. We decided that he should be part of the festivities but everyone who tried got thoroughly hosed with very cold water. Armen, Melik and Hagop stayed a bit off to the side. So we began to include them and they reciprocated.
Then Melik went into full swing with a large clean oilpan which thoroughly doused his victims. Several of us made a plan and one by one made sure we got each of them relatively well. Even Armen's son Aram who had joined our team last year was there. He tried to sneak off and hide when he saw us coming. Gohar and I planned a sneak attack pretending to try to sneak up on someone else. We walked down both sides of the bus where we could see Aram in the mirrors returning to watch the action. Once he had passed the side of the bus that Gohar was on and we between the bus and the house, I came around the outside and she turned towards him and there was no escape!
At this point we were all thoroughly soaked, except Armen's second son who was the film maker of the whole event. I can't wait to see it unfold on the big screen!
We got back to work passing large rockes and buckets of smaller rocks until coffee break. The KPMG team had to leave us at 3pm. As it turned out we had pretty much finished the job we had to do so it was determined that we were done as well. Unfortunately for Melik we hadn't all dried off so he will have to deal with the aftermath of our wet dirty bodies messing up his pretty bus. LOL! It meant that we got home earlier than expected as well. No police involvement this time. Some of us even took the opportunity for a nap as we are still trying to get back into a normal bio rhythm for 8 time zones or more off kilter. That and a nice warm shower first.We met a little bit early to walk to dinner which was a bit further away at a place called "the CLub". Appetizers were already laid out and water bottles scattered across the table. Unfortunately my first attempt was on a bottle of "gaseous Jermuk", as they refer to it. Not my favorite. So we requested that they exchange all the other gas waters for regular- (Unleaded, as some like to say)
One unusual appetiver was a variety cheese plate which had a few less salty than usual varieties. A nice change from the super salty and extra salty usual varieties. Or entres were Monti and Armenian pizza, but no tomato sauce on either variety. One was a delicious vegetable variety with some lovely spice combination. The other was a shredded chicken pizza with (we think) curry seasoning. Not a choice I would
request on a repeat trip. Some of us shared a nice bottle of wine and many spent a little time perusing the aisles of the little connected souvenir/craft shop.
After dinner, some made their way directly back to the hotel. I led the others on the scenic walk back pointing out interesting pit stops along the way. The last 4 of us decided it was way too early to go up to the rooms so we went to the Marriott for a drink and stayed out til about 1 am. Two were on a mission to run up the Cascades in the morning so they figured bed was due about then. By Susan Bosovich
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