Some photos I just can’t resist posting twice. This is one of them: Stepanakert from the road going to Shushi. The city was under siege for a couple of years during the War of Independence, an easy target as it sits in a valley.

This is the cathedral of Shushi. When we first saw the church in 1992 it was in terrible condition. The Azeris has used it for storing guns and ammunition. We saw those left when the Armenians took the city. Since they knew Armenians wouldn’t bomb a church it was a safe place to store guns. But as the war progresses and the Armenians approaches the church was nearly destroyed. But now it is a remarkable testimony to the restorative abilities of the people who live here. The whole city has a different look to it. I know the town well but wouldn’t have recognized it given the renovation of these impressive buildings.

In Berdzor we stopped at a small business Tufenkian Foundation started to help bee keepers with the production of honey. Medina is holding up a sheet made from bees wax that is accumulated by the farmer in crude condition. It is colleges and at this shop a machine is used to press the raw material(seen in the bucket) into these sheets. Thousands are made and sold (at a low price) to the farmers. These are inserted into the hive and pulled out when filled with honey. hHere we are planting trees in memory of George’s siblings, Mike and Anne. Sorry I didn’t get a better photo. We could be anywhere.

Below is the imposing facade to the Republican Hospital for adults in Stepanakert. It is modern and has up to date medical equipment in every specialty including dialysis. Impressive! It opened about 5 years ago. You can‘t imagine what the old hospital looked like. It was a tear-down and that’s what they did to it

They have MRI and Ct scanners as well.

The photo above and the rest below are of the pediatric hospital. Renovation was completed two years ago with funds donated by a Russian-Jewish oligarch who had strong ties to Armenian friends. Amazing. He gave 1.2 million dollars for the hospital. They too have state-of -the art equipment in every subspecialty of pediatrics. The operating room and ICU are fantastic. No one knew I was coming. Thus what you see is the way the hospital is kept–sparkling clean. The paintings below were done by kids treated at the hospital. These and many more line the halls throughout.