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.