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RASH IV

The final installment of Rash IV closed PUSH 2008.

Jenni began by speaking about her third year in Rwanda - she was based in the capital, Kigali. Things were worse then they had ever been and the gap between reality and her imagination was getting thinner. The rash continued spreading throughout her face, and she doesn’t love Bernard unconditionally anymore.

After spending three years in Rwanda, she resigned – only to find out a couple of weeks later the U.N. was kicked out of the country.

Jenni sits down on stage with her knitting and talks about moving to Haiti. The situation there was similar to that in Rwanda. Her relationship with Bernard was disintegrating with pointless discussion. After two years she left Haiti because it wasn’t big enough for the two of them.

In the next few years Jenni worked in 25 different countries. Her dad would prelude each trip with “Are you sure it’s safe Jenni?”

She explains that she began knitting to manage her stress better. She started measuring flight distances with knitting lingo and her biggest challenge was getting her needles through airport security. It was her first time she didn’t have itchy feet and she realized she didn’t want to start her life from scratch anymore.

Jenni signed up for a UN training program in a forest in Germany – it was a little late for training on what to do if you are kidnapped.

The stage went back to the well-known gunshots and she explained a familiar scene that was present in each installment of the play. People ran out from the trees, dragging them out, covered their heads and interrogated them. Jenni has a gun to her head. She starting yelling saying she was pregnant and married.

During the debriefing she was told that talking saved her life - she was told the same in Rwanda. That is when she realized what she wants is not what she needs. She was going to always have to deal with her inner conflict. “Is that selling out?”

She sat down to knit again discussing her flight to JFK airport. She was exited to be in New York, crossing the Brooklyn Bridge. She landed her dream job - working for WITNESS. She is not working on the front lines, but she is working for those who are.

She ends the play by saying she is surrounded by knitting cafes to manage her stress and it was the first time her dad stopped asking her when she was coming home. She is still living in chaos, but she loves it.

Then she gets a call from the same familiar voice at the UN asking her if she would leave for Sudan in a couple of weeks.

She answered, “Maybe not right now, but what about the future? I’m still wavering.”

Posted by Melissa Turtinen