To Armenia – like your own home
APRIL 7, 10:53
“Invite me please to your house,” said one tourist after we’ve had
time to see all the usual sights of Armenia. “Of course, with great
pleasure,” I replied, although I was somewhat surprised. I certainly
did not ask questions, but the tourist explained his desire: “You
know, I do not think I learn about a country if I have not visited a
family and have not seen how ordinary people live.”
Giving a thought to what he said, I realized how right this man was.
It is impossible to understand a country, people just running around
and seeing sights, no matter how old or unusual they may be. It’s
important to visit a house, a family, in what is known as a hearth.
Most recently, and quite unexpectedly, it turned out there is such a
“hearth” for tourists in Armenia. And what is interesting and quite
logical at the same time, women “nurture” this “hearth”. “Three
Armenian grandmothers” as they were called by some Russian tourists
who visited them. But why “grandma” – we didn’t understand well as
they are still far from “grandma’s” age according to our views at
least. Probably, the association played a role here – only a
grandmother can be so warm, cook deliciously and care sincerely…
Let’s get acquainted with the “grandmothers”. Narine, Ruzanna and
Nina. Each of them had her own dream. Narine dreamed of having a small
family hotel. Nina wanted to have Armenian cuisine place to cook
traditional Armenian dishes and through which she’d introduce Armenian
culture and lifestyle to guests in Armenia. Ruzanna also dreamed of
having a place for displaying works of art and crafts of Armenian
masters, to acquaint tourists with the spiritual wealth of our people.
And now it turned out that the three dreams came together and realized
in one place – at the tourist center “Three Jugs’.
“A Jug is a very powerful concept. It symbolizes abundance, is a
receptacle for material food and a work of art; it has the tradition
and the heritage of our people, it is a symbol of the family, it is
from clay and clay is the land where your roots are… And at the end,
I think a jug is a feminine symbol”, – Narine says about the title of
the Center – “We were thinking of the title for quite long. Many
versions were offered but at least one of us did not like any of them.
At the end we all liked the version of “three jugs”. Three friends
hadn’t initially associated “jugs” with themselves until someone asked
them: “and the three jugs are you? Three women involved? “. “And only
then we got, perhaps, yes, there it is!” – laughs Narine.
In addition to the three founding members there are three more women
at the Center. There is no strict separation of duties. All of them
help each other the way they can, and when necessary, they get on the
hard work together. But there is still a certain labor division. For
example, everything that is related to tonyr and manghal (baking of
lavash, barbeque, kebab, and even desserts in tonyr) is managed by
Tsaghik – a village woman, whose name means Flower. “Our Fleur” –
she’s called affectionately by others in the women’s team. Yes, lavash
is baked right on the spot, in tonyr following all the rules. And this
is done in front of guests who can try themselves the art of Armenian
bread baking. “Fleur” also provides tourists with cheeses and other
dairy products of own production. And every other job in common
understanding not suitable for a woman is up to her task: “You never
learned to be real women,” she threw at us while scrapping the piles
of ice and snow in the yard within just 15 minutes” – tell the
hostesses laughingly.
Besides baking lavash on the spot, the hostesses also produce: dried
fruits, preserves, jams, and… apricot vodka from the gifts of their
own garden! All products are 100% organic – no chemical fertilizers
are ever used in the garden. They also make pickles. And the wine is
brought from Areni (Areni is a village in Vayots Dzor province of
Armenia known for its wine with the same name).
By the way, three of the staff – Nina and two cooks, Margo and
Susanna, who make amazingly tasty food – are professional musicians.
“Our team plays two violins and a viola”, – proudly says Ruzanna who
is an art historian herself.
“How do you manage to get along with each other? After all, it is well
known that in a purely female team it is often problematic’, – we ask.
“Weeeell, you should see how we argue and dispute. The walls are
shaking! But in the end we always come to an agreement. It’s not
personal but business disputes. Most importantly, we have an amazing
spiritual unity, the same values, so that every dispute proves that we
really want the same things!” – say “the jugs” smiling.
“When we want something unconventional it’s harder to persuade male
workers to do it. For example, I had asked the workers to cover
masonry with polish to avoid the dust from the stone and to make it
beautiful. For them it was so unusual that they simply refused to do
so. We, with our family, had to take the brushes and… here’s the
result!” – indeed, it came out beautiful, practical, with a surprising
effect of wet stone…
In general, the hostesses have made many things here with their own
hands – small coffee tables, beautiful upholstery furniture in
national style, and collages on the walls…
In one of the shelves filled with souvenirs also supplied by
women-artists they showed us samples of beautifully designed soaps
manufactured by old recipes from the archives of the Matenadaran (the
Matenadaran is both a museum of ancient manuscripts and a scientific
research institute). The soaps had amazingly pleasant aroma – owing to
the use of traditional Armenian aromatic substances derived from
ancient manuscripts.
The works of contemporary Armenian artists hang on the walls in the
living room. Guests can buy the one they like, as well as souvenirs.
“We are planning to make a constantly changing exhibition and attract
more artists to cooperate with us”, – Rouzanna shares the plans – “We
may even involve children’s art. And we also plan to organize creative
musical events and chamber concerts right in the garden”.
But let’s return to those for whom all this is being done – to
tourists, the guests of `Three Jugs’. In addition to delicious
homemade meal they are offered with learning of pottery-making skills
with ceramics, and culinary master-classes, and even an ancient loom.
“All this is of great interest to our guests. They love making small
pottery items which then take with them with the memory of the place”,
– says Narine. By the way, we admit here that the teacher of ceramic
craftsmanship is the only man in the team – still no rules without
exceptions!
During culinary master-classes the guests are taught to cook Armenian
tolma and baklava. The recipe of that very baklava was posted in the
blog of the Russian tourists we mentioned above with an accompanying
inscription “We were taught this recipe by three Armenian
grandmothers.”
The place attracts its guests so much that they are often reluctant to
leave the house to go on traditional sightseeing. “Of course,
sightseeing, visiting famous and little-known historical monuments and
museums in Armenia is included in the program of our Center. But you
know what’s interesting? Coming back from all these trips and
excursions here, tourists often say to us: We’re finally home!” –
laughs Narine.
“Three Jugs” has already hosted tourists from 30 countries with
extensive geography spanning across – Europe, Asia, Middle East, North
and South Americas, and Australia … Africa so far is the unlucky one
among the inhabited continents.
“They come to us exactly for that type of tourism. They are very
different, but mostly intelligent, spiritual people. For example,
there was a group of Russian tourists, pretty well known and famous
personalities, who flew in a private jet, but how at ease, at home
they felt themselves here, with what pleasure they baked lavash! The
Spaniards one evening just out of blue began to sing their songs. And
our guests from China once decided to treat us with Chinese food,
stirring amazement among sellers at the local farm market where they
went to buy products. We hosted Germans who said they came to discover
the sacred Armenia… So much music sounded in this garden! An
American choir and Baltic songs…, “tells one of the hostesses.
“We are happy that we host such wonderful people – interesting, warm,
spiritual, who come to discover the real Armenia in all its depth –
the history, culture at different levels, not just to look at
monuments but to really understand who the Armenians are. And many of
them after all, after talking to us told us: Now we have understood
what Armenia means and who Armenians are. These are the most precious
words that can be heard because this is what our goal is and why all
this we have created “, – sums up Narine.
Armen Sargsyan, Albert Melkonyan
http://style.news.am/eng/news/4133/to-armenialike-your-own-home.html