Articles by Kristi Rendahl

About Kristi Rendahl (53 Articles)

Originally from a family farm in North Dakota, Kristi Rendahl lived and worked in Armenia from 1997-2002 and visits the country regularly. She works with the Center for Victims of Torture as the organizational development advisor to 10 torture treatment centers around the world, and is pursuing a doctorate in public administration. Rendahl writes a monthly column for The Armenian Weekly. She resides in St. Paul, Minn.

Contact: Website

New Year’s Resolution: Humility

Special for the Armenian Weekly During a time when it seems no one can say the right thing because it is offensive to someone or it isn’t nuanced enough or it isn’t stated strongly enough, I struggle to find words to fill the page and wonder whether I should speak at all. I am upset by the [more...]

December 31, 2015 // 3 Comments

Rendahl: The Shame of Difference

Special for the Armenian Weekly Armenia has been in the social media spotlight recently. According to a New Zealand man who is the father of a newborn with Down’s syndrome, his Armenian wife opted for divorce rather than to keep the child. It’s the stuff of scathing headlines and self-righteous [more...]

February 9, 2015 // 40 Comments

Rendahl: Pit Stops and Acts of Kindness

Special for the Armenian Weekly I left Tbilisi by car after work on a Friday last month. I’d been traveling in cramped airplanes for weeks, so I opted for a private car and driver to Yerevan instead of taking the sensible and responsible minivan. Besides, I thought, it’s been two years since I [more...]

November 25, 2014 // 3 Comments

Rendahl: I’m Still Here

Special for the Armenian Weekly A lesser-known fact about me is that I’ve played piano in church off and on throughout my life. These days I play at a small church in Minneapolis whenever I am in town over a Sunday. I appreciate many things about it. It can be easy to live in a bubble with people [more...]

September 23, 2014 // 10 Comments

Rendahl: What Time Is It?

“There’s an Armenian here,” my former professor’s wife texted me from a dinner party in Fargo, N.D., a couple of months ago. “Do you want to come have dinner?” Naturally, I thought. I’m on my way to stay with my former professor and his wife in Fargo—land of zero Armenians—and [more...]

July 29, 2014 // 3 Comments

Rendahl: Patterns

I was in Ecuador in March. My days were filled with meetings conducted in Spanish. The information was new, the people were complete strangers, and the altitude gave me a two-day headache. On the last day, I went to have lunch with the Colombian friend of a friend who I’d never met. I arrived at [more...]

June 2, 2014 // 0 Comments

Rendahl: On the Road

There were two girls walking along the Interstate as I made my way back to Minneapolis from western North Dakota this past October. I’d passed their car on the side of the highway just before I saw them. They were young and skinny; either the wind or a predator will take them, I thought, so I [more...]

April 14, 2014 // 2 Comments

Rendahl: ‘Why Should I Care about Being Armenian?’

Special for The Armenian Weekly “The people here today obviously care about Armenia,” an attendee said to us, speakers at the recent Armenian Relief Society Eastern Region Youth Connect Program. “But what do we say to those who ask why they should care about being Armenian now that they’re [more...]

March 20, 2014 // 7 Comments

Rendahl: That’s No Bull

Special for The Armenian Weekly I met a cowboy recently. A rodeo cowboy. He’s a small-town North Dakotan boy who lived in Los Angeles for years and then repatriated to our home state some years ago. Anyone reading this column space knows how hard repatriation is—whether you’re from L.A. or [more...]

February 13, 2014 // 5 Comments

Rendahl: A Year of Light

For the past month I’ve been reading and re-reading parts of the journals my great-grandmother wrote and had published in the Benson County Farmers Press in the early 1950s. She was born in 1874—a mere 101 years before I came to be. Her writings bring life to her childhood in Norway, the voyage [more...]

January 6, 2014 // 4 Comments

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