Lara and I went to see a play tonight. It was at the Puppet theatre on Mashdots (near Grand Candy and Madenataran). The play was about real life in Armenia. Basically it was a 6 day story about a writer who had just left his wife and was hiding in Gond (one of the poorest areas in Yerevan. He was working on a script when he rescues a young girl who had had a bit too much to drink and was about to be gang raped by some punks. She is arrogant and takes lots of space in that small workshop where the writer was living illegally. Over the six days they learn about one another and start to take care of each other. He finds her a decent night job at the hospital. She starts cooking and cleaning the small room. They never sleep together. At the end though it becomes clear how desperate the girl really is. She needs to get medication to her 6 year old bastard child who is being watched by her mother in her village. It also becomes apparent that the man’s son was one of the leaders of the group of punks who were going to rape this girl a few days before.

The 2 fall in love and the play ends on a happy note for them. But the truth of the matter is there are more and more situations like these in Armenia.

We then walked to Mr toaster. I’d forgotten how good and healthy their food was. Lara and I talked a little about the play. we were disturbed and thought of what we could do to change this. We reminded ourselves that this is why we had chosen to come here. It is not simply to be a good nationalist Armenians, but to do one simple thing a day to make one person’s life a bit better. We both do that through our work, through our daily contact with locals on the streets, in restaurants, through colleagues.

On a lighter note: ARTO Tuncboyadjian’s in town and will perform next week!!