DBC Pierre (right) Swapped Hats
Bumping into a platoon of soldiers guarding Armenia's border with
Azerbaijan, where occasional fire is still exchanged across the mountains. As usual, a very hospitable Armenian soldier swaps hats for posterity. |
The Trailer Restaurant
In Armenia there is no real tradition of restaurants for eating pleasure -
they take the view that eating out is a break for the wife, so don't expect
restaurant food to be better than hers. This collection of caravans in the
snow outside Chambarak was our local café - the hostess would cross the snow
from the kitchen caravan to the eating caravan with very tasty pork and
strange vegetables. |
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Road to Sevan
The town of Sevan is some distance up the mountains from the capital
Yerevan. An interesting experience sometimes, as there is no officialy
enforced side of the road to
drive on - you drive where there are least
potholes. |
Unexploded Bomb in a Cellar
A man stands by the shaft of an unexploded missile embedded in his
basement (an image I also borrowed for Ludmila's Broken English). It was one
of thirteen rocket-propelled grenades lobbed over the mountain at Chambarak
from Azeri forces, setting his roof alight, and crashing through three
floors before hitting the cellar without exploding. The man moved his family
of six into a garden shed until assistance came to defuse the armament. I
asked him when it happened - he said 15 years ago. He still lives in the
shed. |
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Waiting at a Soup Kitchen
A Yerevan-based charity has set up a soup kitchen in Chambarak, a border
town with almost 100% unemployment, and still a high refugee population from
the war with Azerbaijan. Armenia's struggling social infrastructure is
unreliable in providing any state pension, so many people suffer real
poverty in winter temperatures sometimes lower that minus 30. The soup
kitchen is open for free soup and bread on weekdays. My biggest memory is of
old ladies filling tupperware containers from their plate, to take food home
for the evening or weekend. |
Chief Psychiatrist
Chief Psychiatrist for the region, also typically hospitable, talks us
through the huge problems facing Armenians with mental health problems.
Among these is a hangover from Soviet days, where any psychiatric visits are
noted on your official files, making it hard to get work, or even a driver's
licence. Thus, very treatable conditions like depression are left to
progress into more serious problems as the population can't afford to be
stigmatised. |
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The MSF Land Cruiser
Travelling around the border regions, still in conflict, requires signs and flags that you are not armed. This was our Médecins Sans Frontières vehicle. |
Outside Chambarak
The town of Chambarak, whose physical setting (not social) inspired the town of Ublilsk in Ludmila's Broken English. Strongest memory: the smell of dung smoke. |
