A Return to Kharberd Children’s Home
New Year’s Day 2001, Specialized Children’s Home, Kharberd, Ararat Region, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia
Now that the New Year has passed and I’m slowly coming out of hibernation, it’s time to start taking photos again. My first excursion will be back to the Specialized Children’s Home in Kharberd, about 20 minutes out of Yerevan. I’ve spent years photographing at Kharberd, but haven’t been back for about a year and a half, I think.
Anyway, as it’s approaching [Armenian] Christmas on 6 January, it was fortunate that the Director of the Children’s Home rang me up today to wish me a happy new year. Hopefully, I’ll have some pics to post on the new Hetq Online Photoblog tomorrow evening, and thankfully, this time Dr. Balasanian isn’t going to force me to eat khash with his parents — refugees from Nakhichevan — as he did in late 2003.
Garo has more on the ritual of khash eating over at Notes from Hairenik, but I have to admit that I hate the stuff, or in particular the obscene amount of lavash that has to be stuffed into the bowl whether you want to or not. Why anyone would want to eat something resembling and probably tasting like papier mache is beyond me, and I now eat half a bowl every three years.
Still, the accompanying vodka and company is always good.
Anyway, in the meantime and until tomorrow, some of the pics I took at Kharberd years ago are online in Macromedia Flash format on my web site here.
