Many think that it’s hard to live when honesty is the basis of your philosophy. But our heroine refutes it. At the very least, it seemed to us that she lives an extremely interesting and rich life, makes things important for the city easy and gets pleasure from. About how the “Brand” and “School of Guides” were born, the importance of teamwork and the love of his hometown from Tamar Mertsedina, a native Zhytomyr citizen and a conqueror of the mountain peaks

“Friend” is our brainchild. At first it was a store selling travel gear, around which formed a party, which needed this instrument .. The store was the center of communication, and I quickly realized that the store itself is not very interesting to me. It was interesting communication, the party itself, it was interesting to develop tourism – to climb climbing and climbing. Then some events took place, and the

“Friend” became a public organization whose purpose was the development of mountaineering, rock climbing, tourism in the broad sense – both sporting and cultural ”

“I love tourism in various forms. Sport tourism – these are certain categories of complexity, discharges, well, and of course the idea of ​​walking on any interesting places, the route, as a rule, for at least six days and most often on foot. If this is a climbing route, then this is a completely different story. This, in fact, is not tourism, but mountaineering. If we talk about popular hiking, not sporting, then it is a transition, and move. We can ride kayaks, bicycles, horses one day, and all the rest of the time we move along the route. We spend the night in tents or tourist shelters, which are different, have their own levels, categories. That is, we set ourselves the goal of going from point A to point B to the most interesting route, and I as a team leader, I have to take care of safety ”

“Hiking is a pre-planned process. We are collecting a backpack, which most often has everything for an autonomous life. This is a compulsory step, since special tourist shelters tailor-made for tourists, when they are in Ukraine, are very rare. When you travel around the world, there is a system there. And there it is much easier to go, because you do not take a tent with you and many other necessary things ”

“Why do I need tourism? I can not rest in a different way! For me, physical activity, “change of personnel” on the route, responsibility for the group that you take for yourself – rest. I am nowhere, under any circumstances, I do not rest better. This is the first. Secondly, tourism is an experience, it is communication with people who fall into some radically different conditions for them, when they have other behavioral reactions, or behavior. And I have a need to solve issues that never arise in normal life. And one more point: given that something is not ordinary life, and stressful situation, everything is more honest. There, honesty acquires an entirely different meaning and manifests itself entirely differently: there is openness, honest reactions, honest relationships. And it’s worth all: time, effort. Now I can not feel it anymore”

“The tourist life imposes its imprint and educates people. Previously, it seemed to me that it was there that there was a will. And then I realized that I was much freer in the city than when I was leading a group and I have to take into account different factors: temporal, weather and human. I have to count the distance, take care of safety. I am fully involved in the process and lock up all the flows. In general, the will is inside and it doesn’t matter where geographically you are. ”

“A couple of years ago, we decided that the” Brand “will deal not only with tourists and climbers as an active part of tourism. We began to worry about the fact that the city has no flow of tourists. I love my city and I want to tell most of the world that we are so in the world and we are well. And we set our goal to turn the flow of tourists inside Ukraine into Zhytomyr, make it a springboard on the way from Kiev or Kharkiv to Lviv, so that people would leave us at some time. And from that came the project “School of Guides”

“At the beginning, we began to think about what is in Zhytomyr at all in order to welcome guests. We saw that we have a lot of gaps in which to invest. Well, the tourists will come and what will they do here? Will drink coffee, go to the city, and then? By and large, you need to get emotions and spend money on vacation. And so it is necessary to create a system that will do it. We realized that people should be prepared to offer appropriate services in Zhytomyr. And if to feed, to drink and to put to sleep with us more or less it is possible, then people who organize quality leisure, we do not have. We have wonderful ethnographers, but they are not almighty and already quite adult, unfortunately. Therefore the “School of Guides” is an actual project »

“When, for example, in Kharkiv, people will say:” And you were in Zhytomyr? I want to go there on the weekend, “then I will assume that my project is successful. I want Zhytomyr to “sound”. Now come here on the rocks. Zhytomyr people do not climb, but from all Ukraine, they travel from Belarus. Here I want to come to Zhytomyr not only on the rock ”

“Zhytomyr is an inert city. Everyone moves chaotically, but when they lean against some barriers, everything turns on. We do not work them out, and this is our biggest problem. When you have a team, making everything is much easier and easier. And the “School of Guides” today is a chance to create a team of professionals who can interact with each other. They will be able to earn a decent amount if it is set up by the system when they are in the team. When will be alone – no one wins »

“Pope is 65, and every year we go with him on skis. I generally love my parents and I am proud of my own roots. My grandfather still lived in Zhytomyr. And it’s probably he who made this vision when honesty is the most important quality you value above all. ”

“Mom in me – a powerful personality. She kayak swam, was engaged in water tourism. If the pope preferred mountain tourism, then mother – water. And my father always said: “They are crazy! You’ve seen where they float on their kayaks! That’s where everything boils. This is not water, it’s a suicide!

“And Mom did everything with ease and pleasure. My parents are my friends, whom I never perceived as a limiting factor. They gave me the will for self-realization. Well, maybe they once forced me to attend a music school, but now I’m grateful for it. “(Laughs)

“When I was at school, my parents taught me that the main thing is not evaluation. The main thing is to understand, not to earn an estimate »

“I can not say if I am successful because I do not know what to measure. If the money is, then – no: I do not earn millions. From the point of view of own realization or realization of own needs – yes, I am absolutely successful. It’s important for me to enjoy the things I do, to realize my own potential. This is the key to my success ”

“I like to paint, though I rarely do it. I love to communicate with people. I love people altogether! Such as they are. This is a constant field for understanding and knowledge. And when you’ve traveled around the world, you realize that we are not really bad at all. ”

“I recently watched the following picture in Europe: the elderly, over 50, work in cafes, shops, restaurants. It’s so beautiful! They see the meaning of what they are doing, and they are happy to do it! They have a Viennese strudel cut with such a feeling and look, as none of the young will do! They understand how cool they look! And we in 45 write ourselves … ”

“For some reason, we perceive someone who pours coffee, out of hand. Why so? In Austria, those who do it themselves understand the importance of the process: they came up with positive emotions. In such a bartender there is a deep awareness that the process is extremely important. And self-esteem persists in any situation. They even clean the dressing rooms at the gas stations with such an expression of the face, as if they are doing an extremely important business. And therefore they carry this dignity everywhere ”

“Do I have a dream? No, I have a set of goals. And so for a dream … Probably, I want people to pay more attention to inner happiness. I’m sure everything starts from the inside. It’s a dream, and everything else is the goals ”

“I would never have liked Zhytomyr to look like Lviv. In fact, Zhytomyr is much more comfortable for life: here it is convenient to get there, there are quite wide streets, there are many greenery. I think I live in a beautiful city. We lack the friendship and love of our hometown. Infrastructure is a livelihood, but from a positive attitude to the city in which you live, which you create, you are forming – this is our greatest pain. If you instil love of the city into the inhabitants of Zhytomyr, then we will rumble! ”
Translated by Aliona Matushevich