Mashuka

Mashuka means minibus. You can see mashukas everywhere in the city. It is a very popular transportation. There are fourteen seats in one mashuka, but usually the mashuka takes more than fourteen people – people just stand in the car rather than sitting, it’s kind of dangerous though. Different numbers of mashuka have different routes. There is usually a sign on the windshield of the mashuka telling you where it goes, but the sign is in Armenian. Since I can’t read Armenian and taking taxi is not that expensive (about US$2.5 and up), I usually prefer taking taxi. When my Armenian friends knew that I took taxi, they tried to persuade me to take the mashuka. Taking mashuka is much cheaper – it only costs 20 cents US dollar every time you hop on it. It’s cheap, but the thing is you have to know where to take a particular mashuka and you have to tell the driver when you want to get off. I wasn’t feeling comfortable to do that at the beginning because I need to speak to the driver in Armenian, plus I am usually being stared at by the people in the van because my face looked different.

I couldn’t stand the peer pressure so I decided to try to take the mashuka. One of my friends helped me at my first time. When we were waiting for the mashuka, she told me that she would help me to tell the driver to stop at the Republic Square (where I needed to go), and I was like “ok~” and didn’t think too much else. When I hopped onto the mashuka, she told the driver in A VERY LOUD VOICE that because I don’t understand Armenian, I couldn’t tell the driver when to stop but I needed to be dropped of at the Republic Square. Oh my gosh. I believed every single passenger in the mashuka could hear that and I believed that my face was redder than a ripe tomato at that moment. I thought, “Gees, now everyone here knows that I don’t speak Armenian.” During the ride, I tried to avoid any eye contact with anyone. When I got to the Republic Square, the old man sitting beside me was being very helpful and told me I should get off there. People here are friendly anyway.

So from now on, every time when I see my friends, they would ask me “How did you get here? Did you take the mashuka?” And I can proudly answer them “Yes!” I do think it is a great compliment because I act like a local now.