Puzzle Pieces of Georgian Life...I hope you start to see the picture

It’s getting even harder to weave together all my mishmashed experiences, so I’ll just go with a few anecdotes and brief cultural tidbits.

Yesterday my host mom made kompot.  She laughed at me for wanting to document the process, but I was determined.  Basically, kompot is like juice.  You put fruit, sugar, and water together and boil the mixture.  They can it and save it for winter or whenever they don’t have fresh fruit.  Ours was made with lots of peaches, yum.  And LOTS of sugar.  Kompot has a syrupy consistency, because of all the sugar. Sometimes it is so syrupy, it is hard to drink.  (They also have kompot in Russia).

Last night I played card games with my host siblings and neighbors.  They play ‘mafia’ as well, with similar rules to what I had when I would play with my friends in the Midwest.  This made understanding what was going on much easier, even if I still could not really voice my opinion.

I finally started teaching!  Planning ahead and communication are not valued in Georgia like they are in the States.  Thus, I started teaching 2 weeks after most people because class wasn’t scheduled/kept getting canceled.  A week after I was supposed to start teaching, I had my first class.  Expecting at least a handful out of my supposed 16 students, I was surprised to find I had one.  I was also surprised to find that he was not on lesson one but on lesson six.  My friends had encountered that, so I was a little prepared, but I was not really expecting it.  Good thing I can still wing a lesson on basic English!  He explained that he and 2 others from the station had been traveling to a different station to take classes with another TLGer (TLG is my program), which is why they were halfway through the course.  He also explained that one of the others was on vacation and the third was working, so that’s why I had only one student.  On Friday, I had 2 students but only my original student stayed the whole class, since another student got called away to work again. The original student is going to go on vacation next week, so we’ll see if the others show.

My Georgian is coming along slowly, but I can pick up more and more, especially when people are talking about me.  I still can’t say much, but people like that I can say what little I can.

I think I need to buy rechargeable batteries, because I’ve burned through about 3 packs already.  Batteries here are cheap but aren’t very good.  My host sisters and their friends love my digital camera, so they have a photo shoot about every time I bring it somewhere.  It’s fun, but I won’t post most of the pics because it makes me feel creepy.  Regardless, they use up the battery quickly, but I don’t want to discourage them.  Since that’s about all I buy in the village, I also don’t mind.

I finally went somewhere in my village on my own.  I just took a walk, but it was interesting to see what the village is like.  The main prize was discovering a way to get to the hills so I can do some real walking/light hiking in the future.

I know all of you still sweating in the States will hate me, but it’s gotten cold here.  We had to bring the table inside the other day, so I no longer get to eat each meal on the porch, admiring the mountains. It has rained most of the last few days, so once that stops, it might warm up.  I hope it does, because it is cold!  I have to wear multiple layers now.

I don’t think where I live is particularly agricultural for Georgia, but it still seems so country to me.  I love it, though.  We were at a neighbor’s house yesterday and just pulled apples off the trees to eat.  We have a hazelnut (I think) tree next to our porch/my window so we can munch on those.  Neighbors have grape vines (how else do you make wine?) and other fruit trees in their yards.  Chickens are everywhere, and cows walk down my road at will.  Our rooster crows all day long and not just early in the morning, as I had originally thought.  As a suburb/city girl, I find all this wonderfully delightful.  I will be quite sad when harvest is over.  I’m hoping to go to the wine-making region of Georgia during the grape harvest in a month or so, which should be awesome if it works out.  All plans in Georgia are subject to change.

Whenever I am introduced to new people and they engage me in conversation, I get about the same conversation (usually in Russian or broken English):

Georgian:Where are you from? 

Me:St. Louis, MO, not far from Chicago. (Sorry, Springfieldians, I decided 7 years was enough time of saying I was from a city I only lived in for 3.  I mention Chicago because they know of Chicago.)

Georgian: How old are you?

Me: 25.

Georgian: Do you have a family?

Me: I have a mom and a dad and a brother.  My brother just got married so he has a wife.

Georgian: Are you married?

Me: No.

(Slight feeling of condemnation for being 25 and single)

Georgian: Do you like Manglisi?

Me: Yes.  It’s so pretty and peaceful.  I love the mountains.  The people are so nice and hospitable.

Georgian: Do you like Tbilisi or Manglisi better?

Me: I like them both.

Georgian: Are you from a big city?

Me: Where I live has about 1 million people.  Where my parents live is not so big.

Georgian: You live alone?

Me: Yes, I lived with friends, but I don’t live with my parents.

Georgian: What about your brother?

Me: He lived in St. Louis but moved to the state of Colorado when I moved to Georgia.  He lives with his wife.

Georgian: Is that normal in America?

Me: Yes.

Georgian: It’s the opposite in Georgia.

The order of questions vary, but that’s pretty much a routine conversation for me.  Multiple generations regularly live together.  Traditionally, sons stay with their families.  When women marry, they move into their husband’s family’s house.  Now, especially in Tbilisi, couples are starting to live alone, but families are still very close and very tight-knit.  I’m pretty sure I could not handle having my mother-in-law always live with me, but they make it work.  Family and male/female relationships are much different here anyway, so it seems perfectly normal to them, even if it seems foreign to us.  Most Georgian women are married and have kids by 25.  Marriage age for girls seems to be 18-22.  

Although Georgians love to drink, I have yet to be served alcohol in Manglisi.  I have been asked if I loved vodka twice.  The best part is, both times I got asked by old women.  I said I didn't, but I wonder if I had said I did, I would have been offered a shot in the middle of the afternoon.  If I were male, I certainly would have suffered several awful hangovers by now.  Thus is one benefit of being a girl-I am not expected to be able to drink a ridiculous amount.  When it comes time for a supra (Georgian party), I am sure I will be given far too much wine, but until then, I am fine with tea.  There isn't really a drinking age here, so I've heard drinking stories from my 15-year-old neighbor, which still seems strange to me.

More to come.

I had a great title for this post but have forgotten it

It’s only been a week, but it’s already a struggle to decide what to write about.  My week?  What I’ve learned about Georgia?  The funny way things work or don’t work here?  I’ll try to mishmash them all.  I still have yet to have class.  I’m supposed to have class M, W, F at 12pm.  Today it got moved to 4pm because the cops are all out in smaller villages right now.  Last week, class was canceled for a few reasons.  On Wednesday, my host dad came home at 12 (someone is supposed to take me to class even though it is maybe a 5 minute walk), so I thought I would have class. Then my host family told me there would be no class because they had to go to a nearby village to investigate.  A woman had left a baby in a suitcase, something they assured me was very rare.  While it was enough to cancel class, it was not actually a tragedy, as the suitcase turned out not to have a baby in it but just some trash. Don’t ask me how the two could be confused, as I don’t know.  On Friday, I went with my host sisters to the village church for some unknown Orthodox holy day.  I thought I would be able to get back to class on time, since we were going at 9 and staying for 2 hours.  This is Georgian time, so we left after 9, walked slowly to the church, got there at 10am, and we stayed at the church (or really the church courtyard) until 2pm.  I don’t know if I canceled class or it got canceled for another reason, but I didn’t go.  The church is about 1500 years old (can you even fathom that?) and in a beautiful part of Manglisi.  The views of the mountains are spectacular. I don’t know if I can go back to Illinois’s unending prairie after feasting my eyes on mountains for a year.  I am beginning to love the drive to Tbilisi (even if it sometimes makes me nauseas) because the countryside is beautiful and countless animals are just grazing on the side of the road.  Yesterday, on the drive back to Manglisi, it rained for a while, so I got to see the fog over the valleys, a gorgeous sight.  I’ll have more pics up soon.

Since I haven’t been teaching, I have been filling my week with other adventures.  I spend a lot of time at home but got out more this week.  I went with my host mom to visit a friend and another day to visit relatives.  Both were fun adventures where I saw a bit more of Manglisi and just got out, but they also served to remind me how limited my Georgian is, so I really need to work on it.  Friday I walked to church, which tired me out.  I’ve gone to our carnival/park a few times, as that is where my host sisters go most nights to hang out with their friends. I like walking there and it is fun to watch people, but since I’m not 16 and can’t speak Georgian, there’s only so much draw for me.  Between the language issue and living in a Georgian host family, I do feel a little like I’m reliving my adolescence, as there is a constant struggle between feeling like a coddled child and remembering I’m a responsible adult.  I’m not alone in that feeling at all; it comes with the territory.  Sometimes I think the boys have it worse, as they can’t even do their own chores.  Today I did my own laundry (we have a washing machine, so not too difficult) and sometimes can clear my own dishes.  Georgians usually don’t let guests do much of anything, which is part of their famed hospitality.

While I try to get out of the house at least once a day, being home also is fun.  My host family is good about giving me my privacy/alone time (not all Georgian families are since the culture is so much more collectivist), but I do enjoy hanging out with them.  They love seeing my pictures, and my sisters have appreciated my internet.  The whole family has been great about helping me learn Georgian.  Neighbors also drop by somewhat regularly. One brought a delicious cake by one night and Friday night turned into an impromptu DVD watching party. One neighbor’s daughter had just gotten married so we watched the DVD, which was quite interesting to see Georgian traditions.  The neighbor was also so nice and had apologized for not coming over earlier (I more than understand how weddings can take up your time) and told me to drop by anytime I want.

While I have enjoyed getting to know Georgians in my village (many of whom are simply taking a break from the heat of Tbilisi for the summer), I again decided to enjoy some expat (mostly American) company and headed to Tbilisi for the weekend.  There was a basketball tournament (more competitive than I had expected) between the American Embassy, Peace Corps, Ministry of Science and Education, and TLG (my program).  I went to watch, mostly because my friend in the Peace Corps was playing and I wanted to meet up with TLG friends.  The rest of the day was spent mostly at restaurants spending the money I can’t spend in the village.  It was a lot of fun catching up with friends from training and meeting new friends.  I spent most of Sunday walking around Tbilisi, enjoying the exercise and starting to understand the city a bit better.  For the second weekend, I ran into friends, which was great fun.  Tbilisi has over a million people, but it really feels like a small town.  Or maybe we all hang out on the same touristy streets.  Regardless, I hope the trend continues.

An American Day into a Georgian Night

Yesterday I went to Tbilisi and caught up with some friends from my training group.  We were talking about how it felt like it had been forever, but it had been only 6 days since we had said goodbye and gone our separate ways.  It’s hard to explain everything, but I do feel like a proper update is in order.

In my village, my life has been very easy so far.  I still have no idea about when I’m teaching the police here, so I will call my program tomorrow to see if they can get the ball rolling.  I’m not really worried yet because this is Georgia, where people don’t really plan ahead but things usually work out.  Also, Saakashvili was in town on Friday, so there was no chance of classes starting then.  Since I have not taught actual classes, I have taught my host family some English (required to teach 3 hours a week), worked on my Georgian (still way too limited), and played on my computer.  Oh, and ate.  The food is great, and they don’t make me eat as much as I was expecting, but since I now live a fairly sedentary lifestyle, I don’t want to eat nearly as much as they want me to.

After several days of relaxation and struggling to make it out of my room before noon (a hard life, right?), I decided to venture into Tbilisi yesterday.  My main goal was to buy a modem for internet, but also I wanted to meet up with some friends and just walk around.  A neighbor (well, they have a house in Manglisi and one in Tbilisi) took me to Tbilisi.  They would have taken me home, but I wanted to stay a while.  After spending 200 laris on a modem and a month of internet, I went to McDonald’s (it was sooo, close and I knew it would have a good bathroom) to enjoy the free wifi while I waited for some of my TLG friends who are stationed in Tbilisi.  It was great to reunite with the internet.  It was also nice once my friends got there to talk to them and share experiences.  Tbilisi has over a million people, but it felt like a small world.  While outside of McDonald’s, one of the guys found another woman from our group, so our group become 4 instead of 3.  It was great to share experiences and just speak in English, where I didn’t have to think about what I was going to say or how slowly I was going to have to speak.  We walked around the city a bit and ran into another volunteer from our group outside of the internet store, while another friend was buying a modem.  I don’t know what the chances of running into 2 people you know in a city of a million when you know fewer than 25 are, but it was great to see these friends again and again share our experiences.  I should have left before I did, but I was enjoying the familiarity too much.  Thus, it was after 7, maybe closer to 8 when I finally got to the train station to look for a marshrutka that would take me home to Manglisi.  I asked people and kept getting pointed in various directions.  I was about to think I was in trouble when I got a call from my host father.

That was when my day turned really interesting.  Turns out, my host parents were at a wedding in Tbilisi, so my host father and a friend picked me up and took me to the wedding reception.  I was so relieved, although I felt incredibly guilty when my host mom said she had been trying to call me for quite a while.  I had never gotten a call until I was at the train station.  Oh well, they seemed okay with it.  After getting over the guilt and being offered about 20 different dishes, I started to enjoy myself.  The reception was very nice and not that different than ones in America.  There was more live music, more dancing, and lots of toasts, but otherwise very similar.  Also, the table I sat at was mostly women, until the men called me over to take pictures of their table.  Then they had me sit down and spoke to me in (drunken) Russian.  I got several toasts to myself and the friendship between America and Georgia.  It was quite confusing and amusing to hear them explain how they were all related.  The words brother, sister, and fiancée were thrown around far too often for them all to be true, which I think was the combination of alcohol and trying to speak in Russian.  Also, I think they would just use the word for sister or brother when speaking of cousins.  This does not really do the experience justice, but I was so caught off guard by the whole thing and some of it would require far too much explanation, that this will have to do for now.  It was a good night and a great cultural experience.

First few days in Manglisi

I wrote this when I first got to Manglisi and just now got internet to post it.  Not much has happened since then, except I should now have internet.

I already feel behind.  Someday I may get to training, but it was lots of training and Americans and little Tbilisi.  It was still fun.

I had too much fun last night and stayed up far too late. Thus, I was quite tired today so was not very exciting for my host family.  I got picked up around one-thirty by a cop from Manglisi named Gela.  We talked about drunk driving laws and laws about cell phone usage while driving along in his Mercedes.  We talked in Russian, which I think I will rely on far too much if I let myself.  Obviously I want to improve my Russian, but I am also committed to learning Georgian.  Manglisi is up in the mountains so we had quite a few twists and turns, so I can understand why I have heard so many stories about people throwing up in public transportation (alcohol aside).  The scenery is gorgeous.  I hope to have pictures soon.  About three or so, we arrived at a shiny new police station.  I never would have felt so comfortable in a Russian police station.  I sat there for quite a while before Gela took me to my new home, to another Gela.   

My host family consists of Gela, his wife, Nona, their four children, and the grandmother, Gura.  The children are Ana-17, Mari-15, and the twins Luka and Oti-13.  I think I got that right.  Their neighbor Data, also 15, spent the whole day with us, since he spoke some English.  The house is pretty nice.  I have a spacious room. The toilet and bathroom are both downstairs, and the stairs are outside, so that could get interesting in the cold. For now, being outside is great. 

I fell asleep before I could detail everything.  I was exhausted so went to bed early and slept in far too late on day 2, although it was the best sleep I’ve had in probably 2 weeks.  I woke up around 6 with the roosters but easily made it back asleep.  Yesterday I had hardly any time to myself but today I had time to plan my lesson, organize my room, and feel human again. I can communicate in Russian mostly with my host mother.  I think my host grandmother speaks Russian, but her accent is difficult.  The kids understand a little English, and my host mother is eager to learn, but Data, the neighbor, is the one I have talked to the most.  I feel bad because I can say so little in Georgian.  They clearly want to talk to me and I really want to communicate with them, but right now it is difficult, so hopefully we will all make progress quickly.  Today seems better than yesterday already.  Hopefully soon I will have some pictures of Manglisi, because it is so pretty.  The mountains are gorgeous, and right now it is around 70 or 75 outside.

Manglisi has about 5000 residents according to the internet.  Data said it has more like 10-20,000.  He said that the old police station (looks like ruins) will become a Radisson hotel.  He also said that they are going to build an airport soon. I’m curious to know more about both possibilities.  Everything in Georgia seems to be changing rapidly, and it is very cool to be part of that change.  The people who work for TLG work very hard, and it is obvious that they do this because they want to help their country progress.  Knowing that Manglisi might become a tourist spot makes me feel like teaching the police officers English actually will be helpful.  I know it used to be a resort during Soviet times.  I have a feeling people from Tbilisi and other areas come here in the summer to escape the oppressive heat of Tbilisi and just relax for a bit.

Things I saw today:

Men leading carts with donkeys

Cows walking down my street in front of a Mercedes

First thoughts

A few first thoughts about Georgia:

On my first day, I went on a walk around our area of the city with some of the other volunteers.  We are on the outskirts so did not find a lot.  That said, we saw several grape vines, fig trees, pomegranate trees (I'm sooo excited for when they are ripe!), and some kind of plum tree.  This was awesome.  There was also a Lenin head carved on an old bridge.  It's strange the things that sights of communist architecture do my heart, making me feel a little at home.

We walked around Tbilisi that afternoon on a more official tour.  We ended up in the tourist part of the city, which isn't even that touristy.  They have lots of cafes, restaurants, etc., but no hordes of foreigners, which gave the city a very chill atmosphere.

I've been able to use my Russian a few times, which has been cool, especially since the 2nd time I saved me and my walking companions from being lost in Tbilisi.  I am committed to learning Georgian, but I still want to improve my Russian.  It also feels nice to have a way to communicate when my Georgian is nil (now at a few words, but still waiting to master important phrases like 'Do you speak English?')

Georgia seems like it is undergoing a lot of reforms and seems in the midst of rapid change.  Even our program seems fairly dynamic.  In 20 years, I think this experience will be even more unique than it feels now because the country will be so different then.  The people behind my program seem pretty committed to changing the country and increasing tourism, etc.  It'll be interesting to see what people in the countryside think about all of the changes.

Mr. Hanhan makes her plane

The last few days before I left proved far more stressful than I had anticipated.  My ticket for Sunday night gave me a few extra days, so I thought that I would not be too rushed in all my last-minute packing.  Or not.  Just as I was pulling out of my street in St. Louis with my parents’ truck filled to the brim with the majority of my worldly possessions, I notice that I can’t turn the wheel.  It was not the time for the power steering pump (something I previously did not even know existed) to go out, but it did.  My cousin and aunt came to the rescue, along with a repair shop not only still open at 8, but secure enough I could leave the truck with all my stuff overnight in the garage, something I could not say for my neighborhood.  Everything was solved, but I lost about 10 hours of packing time. 

Adding to that stress, at midnight on Friday, I double-check my flight.  After having looked at the email several times, sending it to three other people as well, only with the clarity of a late night stupor, do I notice my name is spelled wrong.  My wonderful father woke up at my panicking and called Turkish Airlines to try to solve the problem.  He was successful enough that he was convinced I would be fine but I was not.  The remaining time at home was spent fretting about whether I would actually be allowed on the plane.  This did not make for sleepless nights, but it hid from my consciousness the true enormity of what I was about to do. 

That said, I still had a great time with my family at my brother’s last show.  In perhaps a show of sibling solidarity or a cruel twist of the calendar, my mother had to say goodbye to both me and my brother on Sunday.  Saturday night was Griffin’s last show with his band.  As this has been the longest commitment in his life so far and a defining feature of his adult life, leaving the band was a big moment for him.  Having expected to miss his last show, I was very glad to get to witness it.  (For those of you who don’t know, my brother got married in June and is moving today with his brilliant wife to Boulder, CO so she can pursue a PhD in Art History).  The show was a lot of fun, and it was very evident Griffin will be missed. 

As I’m writing this from the Istanbul airport, I clearly made it on my flight.  I had no problems whatsoever, as my father had guaranteed.  My flight was at 10:30PM, so it was fairly easy to fall asleep.  I had no one seated next to me, so I was able to stretch out a bit.  In general, Turkish Airlines was pretty awesome.  They gave everyone a little pouch of goodies like an eye mask, ear plugs, socks, toothbrush, and toothpaste.  I did not watch any of the movies because I was too busy trying to sleep, but I did appreciate the selection.  They had a sweet Turkish movie about an American discovering some secret about Topkapi Palace (a very cool Ottoman palace in Istanbul).  I would have watched it had they offered it in English.  They were also showing things like Little Red Riding Hood and Battle:Los Angeles, which made sense, since they are relatively new.  They also had Ever After, which has to be at least 10 years old.  The true find was Big Trouble in Little China.  I have no idea how Turkish Airlines got a hold of this movie or decided it would be a crowd-pleaser. I only know of its existence because someone found it in the $5 bin at the Kirksville Wal-Mart several years ago.  Oh the pervasiveness of American culture. 

Instead of watching movies, I slept and crammed for my first test on the Georgian alphabet: Georgia. I’ve had an intro to Georgian book since Christmas, but I kept finding other things to do and spent my limited studying attention span on the GMAT.  My goal was to at least have the alphabet down by the time I set foot in Tbilisi.  I knew I could study on the plane if I had to…I had to.  It’s starting to make sense but a few letters still trip me up.  I’ve started to learn a few words.  I’m planning on learning most of the language by immersion.  It will be a fun test of this theory that studying by immersion is the best.  I’m sure, at 25, I am not the best test subject, but my language learning ability is probably about the same as when I was eighteen and trying to learn Russian.

I could go on, but this is long enough.  This is what happens when you have 6 hours to kill.  I promise future entries will be less filled with humdrum details and more cool cultural experiences/observations.  However, if this blog post does go up, consider it a big blogging success.  Blogger is now entirely in Turkish so I'm guessing at what buttons to press.  Also, a French(?) group of teenagers just got finished playing some kind of karate-chopping improv game.  It was nice to see some non-Americans making a spectacle of themselves.