Writing three fun-size features for Lonely Planet's next guide to Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan (GAA), seemed simple enough: call and email Armenian family and friends; ask them to share memories, folklore, that lullaby Granny used to sing; write poignant prose; get paid. In fact, it was like extracting pine nuts with my teeth.
Like any deadline three months ahead, it was all going brilliantly until I started to tackle it with four weeks to go. You'd never think I had a tribe of relatives in L.A. and another branch in London, all practising Armenians theoretically wallowing in cute cultural references. When my lovingly hand-crafted email questionnaire failed to elicit a landslide of responses, I had to call and Skype at selected targets instead.
I got lots of stories and 'information'. But knowing that my mother's fourth cousin's mother had once knitted a sock that her intended wore to a May Day gathering as a sign that he was ready to exchange several sheep for her didn't fall readily into my categories on Armenian emblematic fruits, the Church, or Mount Ararat. I ended up getting soundbites from three men called Moses.
However, I did discover that several of my older relatives have never even been to Armenia. Which is odd, because I thought they had all been born there. (My mother's and father's relatives are distantly related, which explains some strange personal traits I had been wondering about). My father's family, Seventh-day Adventist converts in Cyprus, knew more about Betty Crocker than they did about Gregory the Illuminator.
Complete strangers turned out to be the most helpful: Zareh (Serge) Jerejian at Armenia specialists Sunvil Travel sent me an information pack and put me in touch with some heavyweight Armenians: kind and courtly ex-newspaper editor Asadour Guzelian told me a lovely Noah on Ararat story, while a grumpy woman journalist in London collapsed under the weight of her own ego and gave me nothing.
The other godsend was Irina Petrosian, based in Indiana. With her husband, David Underwood(ian?) she
has written a charming book called Armenian Food: Fact, Fiction and Folklore. She kindly shared some arboreal arcana with me, so do check out the beautifully illustrated fruits of her firsthand research, available from Amazon or from lulu.com. With David, she also has a toothsome blog site called Armenian Food.
Thanks to these loyal fellow countryfolk, I was able to deliver on brief and on time. Now my editor loves me, and I can dance to the piping of the duduk (flute-like instrument carved from apricot wood) like a young goat...
More, much more Armenia stuff to come as I bother family and friends to find out about the communities in London, L.A., Lebanon, Cyprus and Yerevan.
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