E-Mail 'Two Prostitutes, Three Peanut Sellers, and Me' To A Friend

Email a copy of 'Two Prostitutes, Three Peanut Sellers, and Me' to a friend

* Required Field






Separate multiple entries with a comma. Maximum 5 entries.



Separate multiple entries with a comma. Maximum 5 entries.


E-Mail Image Verification

Loading ... Loading ...
Kristi Rendahl

Kristi Rendahl

Kristi Rendahl is associate professor and director of the nonprofit leadership program at Minnesota State University, Mankato. Prior to starting with MSU in 2017, she worked for over 20 years with nongovernmental organizations on several continents, including living in Armenia from 1997-2002. She speaks Armenian and Spanish.
Kristi Rendahl

Latest posts by Kristi Rendahl (see all)

15 Comments

  1. Kristi,
    Your short but mountain-moving story speaks of present realities of our world.A cruel one,no doubt about that.Extreme poverty,rather MISERIA!!!!Misery that has enlapped the world we live in.How can one forget such inequalities!!!!
    Time for the filthy rich to awake and extend a real hand to try to mend the wrongly led people of the whole world. Time to share the wealth,abundance of food etc., with those who lack ALL THE FACILITIES AND GOD GIVEN RIGHTS TOO.
    Please write more about what goes on in THE THIRD,rather Unknown world…..
    May God bless you and your good work forever.Keep it up, perjaps you can move the conscience of the MAGNATES of t he world and make them G I V E \!!!!

  2. Thanks Kristi – an important story and description of real life in so many countries in our world. Joseph

  3. GAYZAG

    Concerning to Kristi Rendahls article I feel the same as you and I also appreciate very much that AW is printing her reports from other parts of the world. I even regard Kristis reports as good litterature and I think it´d be good to publish these articles as short stories.

    But Armenia is not in an economic situation to support these many suffering countries in Africa. In the first place thats the task of the former colonial states which still nowadays make huge profits in African countries.

    And furthermore the problems here in Armenia are still steadily increasing daily.
    I am sure you know the report of the Policy Forum Armenia published on Oct. 3rd
    2012.

    The report clearly expresses how Armenia in a period of only a few years is expecting a strong devaluation of the Dram, if nothing is changed. A change would be the building of a government of national unity, including all constructive powers, maybe including the Diaspora, too.

    But as long as the government leans on the support of the oligarchs the devellopment goes in direction of this devaluation. We all know that even a devaluation of the Dram will hardly influence the life of the oligarchs. But it surely
    will strongly increase the number of Armenians leaving their homeland.

    Who wants this ?

  4. Right. before everthihng, I mean everything, we have to be human. Being a human before anything else is what can unite the human species in out planet and lead to alleviation of his sufferings.
    Thanks Kristi again for this powerful piece. You are a blessing to these pages.

  5. t present the number of these has risen to 1,470 in the world…
    If only 2 o3 are thsoe at the top lioke Bill Gates and the Mexian(I forget his name) and another,if these would kindly agree to form a club of the top 2 or three, and then another from top Ten,likewise, down to top100 or 50 or all the way down to below the ten billion mark,creating the ¨ World those Club of the above 1,470,pledgeing to percentage wise invest in the WORLD RELIEF FUND FOR THE THID WORLD COUNTRIES….say beginning fro,m 20% from the top (above ) towards..I less down think they would possibñly SURPASS THE World Bank-e.g. not really so indeed,thus try to reach out and hethose downtrodden so to say poor , or the ones in Misery…THE WORLD WOULD BE A MUCH BETTER PLACE-BTW it stipulated that there are a few new Armenian origin ones in Moscow.One of them has more wealth than KK.

  7. To Gaytzag, povery, wars, famine and all the rest of ills on our plant as we know have multiple causes, but I am surprised by your comment that “if the filthy rich ” could give a little more is your solution. Do you have a problem with the wealthy? is it bad for me to enjoy a certain standard of living if I have worked my buns off getting there? we know many things can be done and they should but throwing money to regimes or countries that are corrupt and undemocratic is feeding the wrong people. and i for one am not wealthy but i do work hard for what i have so stop demonizing “the wealthy”

  8. To dear Arek,
    Please -not only you-excuse me for such bad writing in haste and dropping out letters etc.,etc.
    The reason being I was working on a ¨paper¨that will go out in an hour (just completed it.I should have been more explicit, elaborative about it.
    I only meant to convey the VERY RICH by word ¨filthy¨.Like those Billionairs,forming a club of such..no comparision with a few million owners, or further down to less so.
    Thjos on really top,what dos it matter to sya the Mexican No.1 billionaire to 57billions ,if I recall well, some 20% was INVESTED not given outright to a Fund -that of the Billionaires Club ,which I imagine, that they ought to form…
    You see his country is so POLARIZED that WORST THAN THE ARMENIANS(BTW, an eye opneres that we are not alone this wise)his country men POUR INTO T HE U.S. IN SEARCH FOR A PIECE OF BREAD…Do you follow what ám saying???? I believe some 12 million or so that have crossed the border over…some get caught ,sent back then attempt agian.Where do you live? haven´t you heard of that…
    Then again, if our OWN 5/6 No3 GOOD NEWS,I read yesterday on internet we have 3/4 billionaires in Moscow!!!!! plus the other 5/6 can do the same That which I am advocating to start off our NATIONAL INVESTMENT TRUST FUND, then down to milliaires to hiundred thousand investors to even us each investing a hiundreed bucks or 2oo dolalrs.Just calulate to what that would amount to…Which could FIRST BE UTILIZED FOR
    R E P A T R I A T I O N…then loaned indeed(not handed out) to those who wish to renovate businesses in RA/Artsakh and Javakh .etc., i am tired repeating this.Please let me go…if you have further queries ,let me know please!!!!
    Oh near forgot I did not mean people such as myself and others who have during 50/60 yrs hard work procured the elementary tools to live apt. or homes.Also help in very small sunms to RA/Artsakh…
    But what caught my attn was when I read there are 1,470 Billlionaires out there…ours close to 10…

  9. GAYTZAG

    Your idea is very good and I like it much. But it will always be just theory. Why these
    billionaires got so rich : They worked hard and they kept their money together. And
    I think the richer you become the more you are anxious to lose everything again.

    Furthermore I think it would be very difficult to bring higher amounts to Armenia, without supporting the government and the oligarchs first. Why Kirk Kerkorian withdrew ? Not because his money finished, no – because he noticed how he has been cheated !

    Before billionaires start paying the Armenian government has to be changed and the oligarchs have to quit the Parliament. Now there is no hope !

  11. I am so glad you put light such words of truth (They neither want nor need my tears or pity. I will break down because their generosity shames me. My bad experiences are largely a result of my own poor decisions. In their lives, there is no room for error.) Good journalism

  12. Their generosity reminds of something I once heard, “There are two kinds of people in the world: haves, and have-nots. The haves are takers, the have-nots are givers”. I sure enjoy the company of the have-nots, for their warm spirit of sharing, of giving.

    And Marlo Thomas said, “My father said there were two kinds of people in the world: givers and takers. The takers may eat better, but the givers sleep better.

    Nice article, Kristi. Keep them coming :)

  13. Thanks for the beautiful writing and even more beautiful images. Out of the ugliness of their circumstances their great hearts shine through… And so does yours.
    I guess my outlook is similar to yours but for different reasons; although born in the U.S. I was raised overseas, and spoke Japanese, Urdu, and Turkish before I was 9, and saw things while still in elementary school that Americans never usually see nor acknowledge their existence in our sheltered and privileged nation.
    I never saw poverty, death, or war, or the consequences thereof, as unusual since they were the norm off my childhood.
    Glad you could share that such exists as the regular reality of so many, and very grateful for your depiction of the humanity they show in that adversity (and that we usually don’t here).
    If more people would read you and have the courage to go where you’ve been there might be some hope for us.

Comments are closed.