Post Scripts

There are a few unresolved issues in my writings that are in need of a follow up for consistency sake. With a few spare moments on this awful cold and foggy day I give you:

Armenia Online (or – why does our Internet connection still suck)

From our contacts at Arminco (Armenia’s primary Internet service provider), we have found out the following: they suspect that the story of a damaged cable under the Black Sea is a red herring for the following reasons.

1. The cable is over 1.5 meters thick with a steel casing. It would take more than a fishing trawler to do any serious damage.
2. The cable is the main link for the entire Caucasus region, yet no other country appears to have experienced similar problems.
3. If such an important cable had been damaged, one would think there would be reports from other sources in the region about such occurrence, yet nothing can be found searching the Internet to buttress Armentel’s claim.
4. The damaged cable would have affected international telephone lines but that did not appear to have been the case.
5. To conclude, the problem is something internal to Armentel, (problems with their router or failure to pay their bills) and they have concocted the broken cable story in order to give themselves breathing space to deal with the real problem. It is also suspected that their failure to fess up might have had something to do with their reluctance to have looked incompetent on the eve of the public tender for their shares.

Job Interview and Household Pets (or – you never know)

Klara’s owner
In my efforts to help Klara and her owner out of the pitiful situation in which they have found themselves, I helped the owner get a job as a housekeeper for an Embassy family. I advertised her availability and skills in the Embassy newsletter, and she was hired by a newly arrived family for a two-week trial period. This American family not only underpaid her severely (instead of the range between 5-10 thousand Armenian Dram a day which, according to a recent poll, is the Embassy standard, they paid her only 3000 Dram per day) but also after the two week trial period, they left her jobless again saying that they’ll call her back when their household effects shipment arrives. We shall see.

My job
I felt awful after my last job interview. I was sure I had screwed up beyond bad and surely another candidate would be hired. Despite that I am not sure to this day whether there even had been any other candidates for that job, nevertheless, I was selected. I started working as a roving admin assistant for the US Agency for International Development on a six month contract. They have several ladies on maternity leave and various sections need administrative support. Currently I am in the Economic Restructuring and Energy Office and will be moving on to the Program Office mid-February.

This organization, which although on the same compound as the US Embassy and sharing most of its services has a completely different philosophy, attitude and atmosphere than I have experienced working for the US Department of State (US Embassy). The Americans who work here are not as uptight as the USDoS folk, are more relaxed in their dress code, work hours and generally are not as stuck up and full of themselves as the USDoS people. The local staff have more power and a stronger voice than local Embassy workers.

It is not my ideal job, but for the following reasons I’ll suck it up: I get paid a very sweet salary based on my previous government employment, I am learning a lot about the functioning of this organization, which may lead to a more interesting position in the future and above all, I don’t sit at home anymore.

Not only was I hired for the USAID position, I was appointed as a pricing agent for ORC International, a global Human Resources firm. As part of their extensive portfolio they provide information about living overseas to large international corporations in case they wish to send their representatives to live and work in foreign countries. The information provided includes the cost of living situation on the basis of which the corporations can adjust their workers’ salaries. To do this type of research, ORC International needs a local expatriate to conduct pricing surveys in local outlets twice a year.

I am familiar with conducting this type of research as I have completed similar surveys for the US Embassies in Bratislava and Banjul. ORC International’s compensation for my work will allow me to invest in a medium sized carpet, twice a year. I was hired for a three year period of our appointment in Armenia and that should leave me with six of these artifacts to complement our collection of African art. That is such a snotty sentence – I love it.

The bird (trauma)
Our bird is beautiful, clever, with a dynamic personality and a brilliant singer. He got used to his new surroundings very quickly, enjoys them and savors all the yummy snacks he is offered daily for vitamin intake and to which he hadn’t been previously accustomed. Among his favorites are apples, bananas, corn, cucumbers and lettuce that complement his seed diet.

Not to forget, after lengthy discussions during which we came up with some ridiculous bird names we agreed on Fliegel, which seemed cute, original and appropriate as it means “wing” in Yiddish.

My canary care books finally arrived and I had learned that as part of the proper care of our pet we have to trim his talons when they grow too long to prevent injury. The procedure was described as very simple and we set on to the task last Saturday night. We did well with the first foot but as it came to the second nail on the second foot, the bird twitched and we scraped his skin. A tiny nick on a small creature can be very dangerous. Blood trickled out of the cut and we quickly applied flour which was to help coagulate the blood and stop the bleeding. It did. We put the bird back into his cage only to see him start pecking at the injury and making it bleed again. We called the vet.

Luckily he arrived within a half hour and treated the cut with ash from burned cotton wool which is not only a coagulant and antiseptic but it also tastes bad and the bird wouldn’t peck at it. The vet advised that we should keep the baby bird in a “hospital” box as it was undesirable for him to perch, and the box laid with a soft cotton T-shirt provided an ideal environment for recuperation. For the next few days, the whole talon turned black, not from the ashes but from the clotted blood, but every day a bit of it regains its original healthy pink color. The bird is out the box, back in the cage, still uses only one foot to perch which should be remedied by physical therapy that we’ll start this weekend. We know that he is feeling better because he started singing again and seems to be as chipper as before this avoidable accident.

We felt very guilty about causing unnecessary pain to the baby (the vet told us he is no more than four months old) and made ourselves feel better by buying him a new bigger cage in a local pet store and a bunch of toys, perches of different materials and shapes and treats on Amazon.com. Our guilt trip totaled $200.