Chicks in the marshrutka

Today, as I was going to visit a church in a suburb of Yerevan, I took a marshrutka (crazy-old-minibus) from Barekamutsyun. The vehicule was full, which wouldn't have surprised me on any other day and time, but was kind of weird for a sunday early afternoon. Anyways, there was no place to sit, so I just prepared myself to stand in the 'full-marshrutka-position', half standing/bending my head down because the roof is too low. Then I noticed that a man was sitting on a corner with a box of baby goose (goose chicks, how are those called?), and he insisted that I take his place. Unable to refuse, I sat in the narrow corner and started holding the chicks box that was on my side. As I started talking, people got all excited about seeing a foreigner speaking armenian (gosh... you can't imagine how amazing it is! I am starting to enjoy all of this attention a bit too much, it will be hard to come back to a place where everybody is not praising me whenever I open my mouth) and started to ask me for my phone number. Along with some french/chinese missionaries that I met afterwards we are now counting on a barbecue (Khorovats) party for next Tuesday! That's how life goes in Armenia. It was wonderful to see how enthusiastic Khatchik, the chick box owner, was when he called me to invite me and my new friends, it's beautiful, and I am looking forward to meeting him and his family (I already got introduced to the mum on the phone...).

I filmed part of the trip... The old man sitting next to me is saying that next time he'll bring his cows to the marshrutka. That girl with the chick ended up going to the same church as me. When we got of the marshutka I told her and her mum, 'that was a crazy ride!', and they told me 'wherever the people of God are there is joy!'.