Armenia, too, is a friend of Wayan's, who comes to the shop frequently for lunch and for various traditional medical and beauty treatments. She sat down and talked with us for about an hour, joining our gossiping, girlish little circle. She's in Bali for only another week before she has to fly off to Africa, or maybe it's back to Thailand, to take care of her business. This Armenia woman, it turns out, has had just the teensiest bit of glamorous life. She used to work for the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees. Back in the 1980s she had been sent into the El Salvadoran and Nicaraguan jungles during the height of war as a negotiator of peace, using her beauty and charm and wits to get all the generals and rebels to calm down and listen to reason. (Hello, pretty power!) Now she runs a multinational marketing business called Novica, which supports indigenous artists all over the world by selling their products on the Internet. She speaks about seven or eight languages. She's got the most fabulous pair of shoes I've seen since Rome.

亚美尼亚也是大姐的朋友，时常来店里吃午饭，接受各种传统医疗与美容服务。她坐下来，和我们聊了将近一小时，加入我们三姑六婆的小圈子。她在巴厘岛的时间只剩下一个礼拜，之后得飞往非洲，或者回泰国去照管她的生意。这名叫亚美尼亚的女人过的生活原来一点也不华丽。她从前服务于联合国难民事务高级专员办事处。在20世纪80年代，被派去战争打得如火如荼的萨尔瓦多和尼加拉瓜丛林担任和平调解员，运用她的美丽、魅力与机智，让每个将军和叛军都冷静下来听从道理。（你好，"漂亮的力量"！）现在她经营一间名叫"Novica"的国际行销公司，赞助全球各地的原住民艺术家在网络上贩售其产品。她大约能说七八国语言。她还穿了一双打从罗马之行以来我见过最亮眼的鞋子。

Looking at us both, Wayan said, "Liz—why do you never try to look sexy, like Armenia? You such a pretty girl, you have good capital of nice face, nice body, nice smile. But always you wear this same broken T-shirt, same broken jeans. Don't you want to be sexy, like her?"

大姐看着我们俩，说："小莉——你怎么从不试试让自己看起来性感些，像亚美尼亚一样。你是这么漂亮的姑娘，有好脸蛋、好身材、好看的微笑。但你一天到晚就穿同一件破T恤，同一条破牛仔裤。你不想跟她一样性感吗？"

"Wayan," I said, "Armenia is Brazilian. It's a completely different situation."

"大姐，"我说，"亚美尼亚是巴西人，情况完全不同。"

"How is it different?"

"哪里不同？"