I have met a family in one of the Armenian towns.
They both are educated.
The wife works as a teacher at the local school. The husband, however, decided to become a farmer. That was an efficient way to support the family. All the day long he works at the farm, and she, after the school, makes cheese and matsun, which they distribute to sell at the town shops.
When he was a teenager, he was an M. C. Hammer fan. He said he had to go to Tbilisi to get shoes like those Hammer had. Also, they did not have any interesting clothes, so they were asking tailors to make custom clothes for them.
They are able to support a rented apartment for their kids, who study in Yerevan. One of them was able to get and keep a free education at the medical university, which is very hard. They say, that according to the other brother, this guy only studies and sleeps. Another brother, however, who had chosen the IT way, has more free time usually and enjoys the city life.
The wife dreams of having a room with bookshelves, but they send all the money to the kids. “It has to wait” - she said.
We, of course, also talked about coming elections. She said how the teachers have been forced to go to “stand” at the faked rally when the current “prime minister”, from the ruling party came to the city.
She also said she wonder how some people can engage in such a dirty thing to do, as distributing ads of one of the parties. They get paid around $100 for that. “Well, some people have no choice” - argued her husband. “There are more important things, I would do anything, any kind of hard work, but I would never distribute those papers” - she said.
She said - “they’ll never get our voices. they’ll never win in our town. whichever falsifications they do, they won’t win.”. “It’s you, your town, who give them voices, where they are able to fake” - she condemned me. (:
She said that one of the kids - the one who studies to become a physician, already decided to emigrate. He has a feeling that the corruption in the field is huge and he’s not gonna fit the system.
The other one can see how he can live in Armenia. He’s a programmer and he hopes to find a decent job, or maybe, found a startup here.
Everything in the house had been built by them. The husband built the furniture, the walls. The walls are still naked concrete. I have noticed that the walls are built very well, very accurate. I’ve seen different walls and I believe I can notice and appreciate a good work.
Her sister sends her books from Yerevan. She showed me books she reads currently - one of them was an Armenian translation of Hermann Hesse. She is proud that she can convince the pupils to read. She said recently she found out one of them have read “The Picture of Dorian Gray” by Oscar Wilde, by following her advice.
There is no bookshop in their town, she said. Though recently one had been opened, but it only sells books in Russian. “I am not reading Russian fast” - she confessed.
Overall, they both left an impression of advanced, smart people in very hard circumstances, but who still can find their way to live with dignity, and without betraying their values.