Movses is a nine year-old boy who was born in the village of Movsesashen. The village is located in the Kashatagh district of Karabakh. Movses is an only child. He likes living in the village where he was born. After school, Movses helps out with the family chores; herding home the livestock and chopping wood with his father. He never grumbles even though it’s not always that he gets a chance to watch TV. There is no electricity in the village. They can only watch TV when the generator is powered up. The family moved here in 1999. The boy’s parents work in the village school, raising livestock and keeping bees on the side. Ashot Simonyan, the boy’s father, says they lead a decent enough life on their stable 80,000 monthly income. The family garden plot also puts food on the table. “People who don’t live have only themselves to blame. One must work in order to get by, especially when the government lends a helping hand to new families or those with many children,” says Mr. Simonyan. Commenting on rumors regarding the return of territories, the father asserts that the possibility of leaving the village has never crossed his mind. The village of Movsesashen is located in the northern reaches of Kashatagh, some 50 kilometers from the regional center of Berdzor. Only six families call Movsesashen home. One of them is the large family of Hamik Mkrtchyan. They moved to the village in 2002. They started to raise livestock and then found work in the school. Hamik is the school’s physical education teacher and military instructor. His wife works as a cleaning attendant in the school. Their combined salary is 80,000 drams. They too have a garden plot and some animals. Mr. Mkrtchyan says that life in the village is gradually improving, especially since they have work. They couldn’t get by without jobs. In addition, the father said half jokingly that the family’s burden had been lightened since some of the girls had been married off. In the past, the village had no public transportation. During his visit to the village last year, NKR President Bako Sahakyan promised to remedy the situation. Two months ago, a small bus was allocated to the community of Arakhish, of which Movsesashen is a part. On certain days during the month, the bus takes residents of Movsesashen and the neighboring villages of Shaloua and Vakounis to the town of Berdzor and back. The main problem facing the village is the lack of electricity. President Sahakyan also promised to remedy this as well during his 2008 visit. Almost everyone we met in the village said that more people would move here if there was electricity. One large family is preparing to leave the village because there is no power. Village residents hope that they’ll get electricity this year based on the promise made by the president. When we arrived in Berdzor we tried to find out from the regional administration what exactly was being done along these lines. Deputy Regional Administrator Artash Mkhitaryan told us that work was underway to supply the district’s villages with electricity. “All the feeder wires installed prior to 2006 must be replaced. This is an issue of efficiency as well as safety,” Mr. Mkhitaryan said. He stated that plans were to supply the villages of Shaloua and Vazgenashen with electricity this year, but that getting power to Movsesashen was still an unresolved issue. “Funding levels have been set, but not the communities on the receiving end. I don’t know the amounts involved,” the Deputy Administrator confessed. (Also see: http://archive.hetq.am/arm/society/0707-movsesashen.html)