A Fair Valentine's Day

On Saturday, Jeanne, Gordon and I went with a colleague of Jeanne's and some of her friends to the Matenadaran, Armenia's ancient manuscripts repository. There are more than 17,000 Armenian manuscripts and more than 100,000 medieval and modern documents (no word on whether they are preserving every Twitter tweet, as is the Library of Congress). Most of the collection is for research, but there were some interesting preserved and restored works on display, not only in Armenian but in other languages and of other cultures. Sometimes, an original of another language was lost and only the Armenian translated copy remains. There are some beautiful miniatures, calligraphy and other illuminated works. Armenians considered their books such a treasure that when Genghis Khan came through and demanded their gold, they said no. When he said give me your gold or I will burn your books, they gave him the gold. In the lobby were signs explaining highlights of the collection and the restoration process - with a prominent USAID logo.

Saturday afternoon and into the night we worked to get ready for the fair - arranging the room and making signs. Sunday was a twelve-hour day - don't worry; I full intend to take comp days (maybe in the spring and/or if any visitors are coming) to make up for the extra time I've put in - I figure I'm up to about three days already, and I started just two weeks ago yesterday!

The fair itself was a mixed bag. On the positive side, each of the focal points came to represent their products, and they did well - pricing, setting up their displays, demonstrating, making eye contact, selling without pushing. On the down side, there weren't a lot of customers for the first several hours. What was it - the non-ideal location? The day? Time? Occasion? Publicity? The first customer was my host sister, who felt she had to buy something to be supportive; I know she doesn't have a lot of money so I felt a little bad about this, but she was so glad to be invited that maybe it was all right. I accidentally undercharged her and made up the difference with my own money. After that, one of the Peace Corps staff members, Gordon and Jeanne purchased the most. I kept detailed notes as to what people were looking at and reacting to, and Brian interviewed all of the participants to find out what might make future fairs more successful, so it was a good learning experience. The next one, March 6, is for International Women's Day, a big occasion here. That one, though, is sponsored by someone else and Homeland Handicrafts will just have two tables, so I hope there will be a lot less work for us. I'm glad it is over. Yesterday the buyer for the U.S. Embassy came back - she had sold some things! - and took some of what didn't sell at the fair, and she'll come back later this week and look at the "permanent collection."

In other news - the bells are back to ringing on the :47 and the :23. Maybe whatever it is gets reset frequently. And the days are getting noticeably longer! Dawns and sunsets have been beautiful the last few days. No news on when the Apple store will get my computer display. On the other hand, I had sent myself an envelope of New Yorkers and a box of books; I heard from the Peace Corps office that they have arrived! I will pick them up tomorrow.

And a final note for today - I went to a couple of supermarkets to buy ingredients to make a dessert for Brian's birthday, and I might be mistaken, but I did not see any Laughing Cow cheese! It's the staple cheese of many a developing country - can it be true that it isn't available here?