House of Hospitality

My Red Cross colleague Lusine lives with her father, mother and grandmother in a house with a big garden. They have invited me many times, and I got some interesting hours in this house full of food and warmness... And a taste of Russian history and culture!

I have had many meals and coffee cups there, and one day I brought a waffle iron from Norway! The whole family and our friends were very happy, and said it was tasty... :) They will now try to find a waffle iron in Yerevan...

Lusines grandmother is from Russia, and they speak Russian with her. I only know a few Russian words, so the communication was a bit difficult... but she understands Armenian, and with me she tried to speak Armenian. She knows all the words, but since she never speaks it, I could see that she struggled to find the words.

Lusines mother and Lusine and Hermine translated into Armenian, and when I did not understand, Lusines mother said the word in French. All in all it worked somehow, and I found out that the Babushka had been living in Armenia for 57 years (she "wrote" the number with her long fingernail on the kitchen table for me to "read"), she has been skiing in Siberia and living different places in Russia. She also told me a story from the 2. WW:

According to the Babushka, the Norwegian saved some Russian soldiers from the Germans, they where shipwrecked after their submarine was hit. If this was the story in reality I do not know, since there is a big risk of misunderstandings... But her point was that the Norwegians helped Russian soldiers during the war.

She also told me about Russian traditions during Eastern. They have this cake that is fresh for 40 days, and after the Lady Bird day (7th of April) they visit the church yard and put crumbles from the cake on the graves. They also leave eggs and cakes for the dead people to eat...
We also spent some nice hours under the sun on the balcony in front of the garden, which have to be very beautiful during summer! They grow wine grapes on the balcony, and herbs, fruits and berries in the garden.