First Snow of the Season

A chilly and rainy Friday evening in Yerevan, and Nancy is busily working on her blog post while I use this to fill the moments between emails.  As usual on a training day, I have not downloaded email in 12 hours and have about 150 in the queue.  Unfortunately, the hotel’s web service is abysmal tonight, and my backlog is coming in at the rate of one every two minutes.  I may need to leave this laptop on all night to catch up.

The raw weather promises to continue into tomorrow, possibly dampening (but not canceling) our touring plans.  There was light snow in the northern part of the city this morning, and the long-range forecast suggests more over the entire region on Wednesday.  The sidewalks here are tough to walk on good days (cobblestones) and bad days (rolling stones), so I certainly sympathize with anyone who walks during ice and snow.  Especially the young ladies with stiletto heels.

Training has been going more slowly than planned this week.  For once, this is a good outcome.  The class is more experienced than last week’s, and they tend to ask more questions and debate much more.  It is good to have people there who don’t just blindly believe whatever you tell them.  I am sure many things that have worked at banks in the States would not work here, and vice versa.  We may or may not get caught up next week, but I have several days’ worth of “just in case” activities, so it is no big deal if we do not get to those.

We had a good lesson today about the lack of customer service in government entities from former Soviet republics.  When Nancy obtained her visa to visit here, she filed for a 21-day visa because we are scheduled to be here for 21 days, Saturday to Saturday.  Makes sense, right?  Well, it does in the other countries I have visited, but not here.  We are here for 22 calendar days, not 21 consecutive 24-hour periods.  So, her visa needs to be extended by one day.  A quick check at the nation’s Visa and Passport web site tells us the office is just a few blocks away on Mashtots street, and the extension costs less than $1.50 a day.  No problem, right?

Well, we went to the visa office, where Nancy was given an extension form to fill out, told to bring a photocopy of her original visa and passport, and 1000 dram (for a 2-day extension, the minimum allowed).  Something was also said about a “bank check”, but it went right by us.  Returning ten minutes later with the copies and filled-out form, we were told again “bank check”.  It seems that the visa agents do not accept cash….one must find a local bank (not a problem) and deposit the extension fee in the visa service’s account, returning to the visa agent with the receipt as proof.  This time we managed to follow instructions to the letter, finding a local bank branch (NOT the bank at which I am training people), paying the 1000 dram and the bank’s 100 dram fee (the latter being just over 30 cents), and marched back to the visa office, feeling very confident.  It was a short-lived feeling, as the agent stapled all forms together, took Nancy’s passport, and instructed us to return on Wednesday.  We shall find out then if all has been successful….the fact that the passport was just thrown into a desk drawer made us a bit nervous.  If the passport is not ready on Wednesday I shall have to lean on my bank friends for some fast help, as we are scheduled to leave here less than 72 hours later.    

I have also been having occasional communications during this trip with my team leader for the Hanoi project.  Four weeks after I left there, the bank still can’t decide on the parameters for the marketing research project I was supposed to launch by October 1.  I am starting to have severe doubts about whether the efforts we are putting in will ever result in anything worthwhile being implemented.

One of the students in the current training class very kindly gave me a gift as we quit for the weekend – a collection of 20 or so Soviet coins from the 1980s.  Obviously there were widely used here, but are not worthless to anyone but collectors since the USSR no longer exists.  It is in the culture here to always be alert for one’s interests and use those as a basis for small gifts.  

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Mid-Saturday afternoon, now.  Nancy has had a touch of nausea since about 4:00 this morning, so we cancelled today’s tour.  Actually, our hosts cancelled today – sinced they were able to show me around part of their country last year, they felt it was more important to have Nancy available for touring.  If I had been ill, instead, it is likely that my hosts would have taken Nancy without me.  They will re-work tomorrow’s schedule, and we will leave earlier than originally planned to get a longer day of viewing in.

It has been a bad day to go out, anyway…light snow since about noon, although it has been melting upon contact.  Visibility is poor, too.  Tomorrow is expected to be a much better day- partly cloudy and highs near 50.  I spent a good part of the afternoon at one of our favorite dining spots, extending my lunch to take full advantage of their wifi in the absence of decent internet at the hotel.  I also finally purchased Armenian and Georgian flags…I want a small flag from each country in which I have worked.  Understandable, no store here stocks Azerbaijani flags, so I will need to hunt that one down to complete my 4-country collection.  I ended the afternoon at the grocery store, trying to get some high-energy snacks for Nancy in case she finally feels like eating later.  I’ll spend this evening trying to crack the internet, and perhaps putting some work in on my Vietnam report.  

     

A Chilly Evening

Monday evening, November 7, as I write this.  It is a cold and blustery evening in Yerevan, and Nancy and I are glad we walked less than a block to dinner.  People here tolerate heat much more easily than cold, and activity on the sidewalks seems to totally cease once temps go below 50 F. 

Today was the first totally clear day we have had here and, from the Bank’s training room on the 6^th floor I was able to see snow-capped mountains roughly 40 miles to the south and west.  A beautiful sight which is often obscured in this hazy valley.

My first training class “graduated” Friday, and my second began this afternoon.  The current group is more seasoned, so they are already challenging me and feeling free to give their own takes on topics.  Good – that is the way training is supposed to run.  It is also much easier to run a discussion or debate than Slow Death By Powerpoint.

My first class gave me a momento on Friday – a miniature carved wooden barrel, with working spigot, filled with a litre of 10-year old Armenian brandy.  A very nice and generous gesture on their part.  While we cannot take it home via carry-on because of American stupidity about air travel “safety” (yes, we could carry it aboard in any other country), Nancy’s suitcase is large enough to accommodate it for checked luggage.  Perhaps we need to have a brandy party over the holidays, as the bottle of brandy I was given here a year ago sits at home, barely touched.

Speaking of local generosity, our training department hosts have reserved our upcoming weekend (our last on this trip) to take us touring.  Saturday will start with a local church that is the center of the Armenian Apostolic Church, continue to the Genocide Museum, and end with a trip to the closed Turkish border, near Mt. Ararat, where St. Gregory built Khor Virap, a monastery, and founded Christianity as the state religion in 301 A.D.  While I have been to the latter, Nancy has not.  Sunday is scheduled for a drive to Gegharkunik, about 100 km. north of here.  It is a mountainous region most noted for its many remote churches (which some people still reach by donkey) and the 2000-metre high Lake Sevan, which supplies drinking water and fish for Yerevan.  I expect snow to greet us there.  I have been to this area of Armenia only briefly, and look forward to a return.  My hosts, however, have made it clear that Nancy carries veto power over any plans and destinations.

While we continue our 8-10 mile daily walking pace, we have yet to enjoy any true entertainment options here.  There was a promising symphonic concert in the middle of last week, in the Opera House, but I was just not up to attending after a full day of training.  Unfortunately, a look at events over the next two weeks suggests there are only Armenian plays and operas, which would be fruitless for us to attend.  But, we will probably catch a jazz evening or two at a widely-known club that I dropped in on last year.

We got little done Saturday because one of the meals I ate Thursday or Friday gave me a mild case of food poisoning.  After spending a couple of morning hours at the flea market and catching a meal, we headed back to the hotel and I slept into the evening.  By Sunday morning all of the symptoms had abated, so we spent the day checking out the Cascades (a semi-finished valley-high monument to Soviet-Armenian friendship) and its associated museums.  We also wandered some of the high-class apartment buildings under construction at the top of the valley overlooking the city, and many ruins and abandoned stone houses near said construction.  I do not know if the ruins are from people being ousted in the name of urban development, or if they collapsed in the 1988 earthquake.  But, with each failed house is probably the end of somebody’s dream, and it is hard not to think about the former inhabitants when one strolls through what used to be their yard.

There are a few photos to post and many meals and probings to tell you about.  But, truth be told, Nancy has been doing a far better job of this in her blog than I ever would.  Those of you who read this but are not aware of hers might want to check out:

http://armenianvacation.blogspot.com

Otherwise, I shall catch up on the good stuff as time permits, now that training has eased up for the rest of the trip.

The First Week is Almost Gone Already

Well, here it is:  Thursday evening of our first week already – the time has just flown by since arriving Saturday night.  Of course, I have had to earn this trip by working at training bank employees during the day, which makes it hard to find enough time at night to explore as much as we would wish.  The second and third weeks of this project will be easier…not only will I have worked the bugs out of the training, but the second group of trainees will only be training in the afternoons.  So, Nancy and I will be able to stay out/up late and sleep in, and have a good lunch together before I go off.

The first group of trainees, who “graduate” tomorrow, has been a total joy to work with.  Almost all have been with the bank, and in banking, for less than two years, and this is their first formal training outside of job orientation.  All are from outlying regions of Armenia which, because of the country’s many mountains and tortuous roads, means they are staying in Yerevan for the week.  For some, this is their first trip outside of their villages of 5 or 10,000 residents.  Several have commented that they wish they could move to Yerevan, where the job opportunities are more promising and there are more “eligible” men for marriage (the class is 80% female, with all but two in their 20s and only one married).

I have been trying some relatively unusual training tactics with them, including field trips (on foot) to nearby supermarkets, parks, and sidewalk cafes to observe marketing surroundings, customer service, and physical scapes of service industries outside of banking.  Bankers think about marketing so little that there is much to learn from other businesses, as long as they learn to keep eyes open and mouths shut.  My class will remember this week, whether or not they remember the lessons.

My hosts at the bank…the same three training officers who were so welcoming to me last October, have picked up right where they left off.  The training day starts and ends with a fresh cup of Armenian coffee at their meeting room to discuss the plan for the day or how it actually played out.  Admirably, the entire department (7 people) automatically joins such gatherings, as Karen, Arevik, and Frants all believe that everyone has value to offer in discussions.

The department also hosted Nancy and me Tuesday at a dinner in a local renowned Armenian restaurant that is ingeniously named Caucasus.  Over the 2+ hour meal we were graced with such local delicacies as grilled lamb, pork chops, and chicken; hummus, fermented buffalo milk, breaks, Georgian bean sprouts, locally made wine, peach juice, sparkling pear juice, rose hip juice, etc.   I have no idea how the hell Nancy and I made it from the car into the hotel with our overfilled bellies, but the evening left an impression that she will never forget.

Speaking of Nancy, she now knows the city far better than I do.  She has started the habit of selecting one major city street each day to stroll and peruse, including ventures onto side streets.  While I may know the main tourist spots in the city, she knows where to find lunch for less than a dollar, and where to buy fresh veggies in an underground mini store than can barely be seen from the street.  Tonight, on the way back from dinner, I was thoroughly disoriented while she quickly led me back to the hotel.  We have had dinners this week in Georgian, Armenian, and dumpling restaurants, with many more to try in our limited time.  We have also found that many restaurant owners are purely deceptive – the 10% Service Fee that is routinely added to meal bills does not find its way to the server.  So, we find ourselves essentially double-tipping.  The server at the restaurant last night was so happy with her tip (it was only about 11%, but well above local standards) that she gave us a Romanian coin in return.  No doubt we will be remembered if we return there.

The weather forecast for this weekend is constantly changing, but appears to promise clouds, temps in the 50s, and a moderate chance of rain on Saturday.  With luck, we shall visit the giant open-air flea market nearby, the Cascades (monument steps ascending a 600-foot hill to a tower commemorating Armenian-Russian friendship), the Mekhlas jazz club, and maybe the genocide museum (detailing how Turk armies killed over a million Armenians around the end of World War 1).  A car tour of southern Armenia will wait until next weekend, as Karen and Arevik are enmeshed in MBA classes and exams both Saturday and Sunday.   

Nancy's First Day in Yerevan

It's 10:30 Sunday night, October 30, and Nancy is resting in bed from the trip and first day's fun as I write this.

The travel here was relatively smooth...all three flights were on time, and layovers were minimal.  We left Columbus at 7:41 Friday evening and landed here about 9:30 local time Saturday evening (just after noon back in Columbus.  However, Armenia went back on winter time the overnight we arrived, so we are 8 hours ahead of Columbus until the U.S. adjusts its time shortly).  Two of the three training dept. officers from ArdshininvestBank were waiting for us in the airport...twice, actually, since one of them thought we were arriving in the morning, so they made a double trip to the airport for us.

It was very good to see Karen and Arevik again...they were incredibly gracious and hospitable to with me during the project last autumn, and are planning to do the same this year.  More on that as this blog evolves.  On the car drive into town they caught me up on changes in the bank, and promised to let Nancy and me sleep and relax on Sunday instead of doing heavy-duty touring.

After unpacking and a quick dinner in the hotel lobby snackshop, we were in the sack by midnight local time with no reservations about sleeping until noon if necessary.

But, of course, there was too much to show Nancy in Yerevan on the one day, since she will be on her own during the next five workdays as I pretend to train bankers.  So we set out at 11:00, right after a fine breakfast in the hotel restaurant, and I tried to give her a lay of the land to help her plan her week.  Some of the highlights of our 8-mile stroll were:

Armenia's largest brandy distillery (we will visit it later in the week)
Republic Square, the acknowledged center of town
An extremely upscale outdoor shopping/office/apartment mall, under construction, where little has progressed since last year
Opera House
The largest local fresh foods bazaar in the area
Outdoor art show across the street from the opera
Grocery store about 2 blocks from the hotel, where we can stock up on soda and snacks at about 1/4 of mini-bar prices at the hotel

And a bunch of places in-between.  A good part of the time was spent in areas that were new to me, since I only had one day to explore when here last fall, and we wanted to find a restaurant for dinner that did not cater to tourists.  We finally found one just outside of the fresh food mall, and had a fine meal of tabouli, spiced shredded chicken fried in lavash, mushroom soup, and grilled lamb.  Expensive by local standards, with a tab of about $19 including drinks and tip, but delicious.

Back to the room with some snacks and sodas, Nancy to plan her travels and me to go over my training notes one last time.  I'm looking forward to this trip, but hope Nancy doesn't get bored while wandering around this week...or doesn't see everything available.  With the number of museums and other historical attractions, that shouldn't be a problem.  At the opera house we did see a number of coming attractions on various posters, and have tentatively decided to attend a classical music concert on Thursday night.  Unfortunately, cultural event promoters here don't seem to see much value in listing events that occur beyond the next weekend or month.  And, this being the end of October, we can't get any online listings that cover past tomorrow. 

OK, that's it for tonight.  Many more things to muse about, but we have to leave some material for later during these three weeks.  Take care and have a great Sunday.