Honey, I Left Our Kid In the Cab

Many might think I have gone nuts, but the title sounds worse than the reality.



The crusade this time was to sign up my daughter for a swimming class. After a few visits to the local gyms, we picked one that was clean, close to our house and offered group lessons. We embarked on our journey today and requested GG Taxi service (similar to Uber) to enroll her. GG driver in a silver bullet Benz, hurriedly arrived to accommodate us with our mission.



With extremely clean interior and working A/C unit, we were greeted by the driver and I asked him to get us to the nearest currency exchange store. After several minutes we arrived, and I thought to myself it would be nice if I could leave kiddo in the car with the cold A/C blasting, because at times there are lines in this store and it can get crowded.



This is where Armenia started to mess up with my mind and began to discombobulate me. I started to analyze "My 9 year old in the car, with a stranger and all alone." My innate fatherly instincts that had been developed and conditioned over the years living in the States, kicked in and I began to unscramble my dilapidated mindset. I left the car, kept my eyes on the car and instinctively felt a bit worried, but rationale kept me calm and with agony subdued.



You might ask, why and how could I have done such an "irresponsible" thing? The answer is simple, because I am in Armenia and the type of crime that keeps me worried back there, is minimal here. Perverts, or sex predators along with psychopaths, or other criminal elements are kept in check, and crimes of such nature are rarely occurring.



I came back in 15 minutes and saw she had fallen asleep with the driver listening to his radio at a lowered volume. We continued our ride to the swimming club. I started to converse with the driver, and learned he is from Martuni and also a father of two little kids, who has moved to Yerevan in pursuit of better education for his children. I convinced him life in the village is better at least in the summer, and keep his kids bored playing in the river, doing bbq, and everything else concrete blocks can't offer but the nature can.



We continued to the final destination, and as we arrived I was going to ask the driver to wait for us, while we sign up and quickly return, however, kiddo continued with her deep sleep and I felt let her enjoy the rest (another post to elaborate why kids in Armenia don't sleep until midnight, in the summer). I left her again, and went inside to the center to sign her up for the class. The long story short, my worries about safety and perverts lingering around playgrounds and stories of kids gone missing on the way home from schools are gradually wearing out, but still to hunt me for long.



Upon return, my little angel was awake and calmly waiting for me. I told the driver that I would not leave the backpack I left at the front seat, let alone to trust any cab driver with my kid, anywhere in the world but only in Armenia. I asked him to take us back, where he picked us first. I thanked and told him, Armenia has more to offer me than I have to offer her. We should be all grateful for whatever we have today and help her become greater.



On a different occasion, on my way to Ashtarak, I left her again with GG Taxi driver. This time, it was when I needed to stop at a supermarket to pick up someone that was shopping groceries for our journey. Before I located my friend inside the store, I went in first to grab a few bottles of water and beverages for the driver, and kiddo. Upon my swift return, I come to witness she is in the cab with the driver gone missing. I thought, "Oh man!" and when I asked, she elaborated that "Papik", the grandfather in Armenian, left to get her a bottle of cold water. It was getting really hot, and this cab didn't have A/C unit but rolled down windows. As I was placing the drinks inside the car, I looked back to see our driver is returning with a bottle of water in his hand.



When it comes to children everyone in Armenia treats them as they should be, angels and divine beings. These gestures, and acts toward children are very common and normal here. Although not very foreign to me, I am still overwhelmed to find out kindness towards kids still exists in the world, especially so abundantly in our little Armenia.

Photo: Street Scenes in Armenia. Source: Flickr