Running water has become a sign of hope for me. When I hear the rush of water in our toilet
tank, I smile inside. When evening comes
and the outside sink is still gushing water, I rejoice. When I walk along our now-muddy roads and see
a stream of melted snow weaving its way to the drainage ditches, I feel a small
sense of victory. Spring, which the
Georgians recognize as regulated by the calendar, so started on March 1, is
slowly conquering winter. The
temperature is still only dallying with positive degrees (in Celcius) and then
returning to spend the night in the negatives, but the abundance of sunny days
has made life much more bearable. Still
no hot water at home, but I’ve learned you can survive without that.
 |
| Ok, so this isn't really supporting my declaration that things are thawing, but it is just so cool. |
While this winter has been painful, it has taught me a lot
about myself and about life in poverty/developing countries. I have toyed with the idea of working in
economic development and would like to work in emerging markets. I now have a much better understanding of
what that means now. No, I still have no
clue about economics, but I understand that if you have something, you use it,
you don’t save it for later here. Food
goes quickly. I bought some cookies in Tbilisi and brought them
home on Sunday night to share with my host family. Granted, I ate some in Tbilisi, but I brought a kilo home. I had a few for breakfast on Monday but never
saw them again. They’re gone. Today my host mom made lobiani-basically
refried beans in fried dough. It’s much
better than it looks. I tried to eat
only a little bit to save some for the kids who weren’t home yet. My host mom told me to eat more. Those who weren’t there just miss out. It was delicious! A friend just moved into an apartment. It has 2 burners but no oven. Our stove actually has no oven. You can buy a glorified toaster oven or in
winter in the village, you just use the wood stove you are using to heat the
house. I’ve realized that a lot of
Georgian food does not need an oven, probably because most people don’t always
have access to them. Toaster ovens
require having electricity (so the power has to exist and work) and that costs
money. The wood stove works well in
winter. These are realities that never
occurred to me before.
That’s not to say life here is all hard. Tomorrow is a holiday (International Women’s
Day, which is celebrated mostly in the former USSR). Today a friend, colleague, and mother of a 1st
and 2nd grader gave me jewelry from the 1st and 2nd
grade class. I felt very honored. We also got cake and cookies in the teacher’s
lounge on Monday to celebrate, since we don’t have school tomorrow. I’m hoping to make cookies for my host family
to celebrate.
I mentioned before I’m trying to take advantage of the
sunshine and warmer weather by going on walks.
I’m discovering new sites around my town, taking pictures of the
graffiti that has become familiar, and constantly turning down offers of
rides. Why else would I be walking along
the road except to get somewhere, especially in the cold? I’m constantly impressed by the kindness of
people, both friends and strangers. When
the mud dries, I’ll move off main roads, but I’m inviting this attention now by
staying on paved roads for ease of use.
Now I know how easy it is if I ever do want to hitchhike somewhere.
 | |
| Why I like paved roads, even if unpaved roads yield treasures like this van |
On that note, my host dad took me from school to the bank on
Monday. They needed to borrow some money
for a few days, and I had to get it out of the bank. I am pretty sure they don’t understand why I
keep most of my salary at the bank, because the impression I get is that on
payday everyone goes to withdraw their entire paycheck at once. For me, that would mean that I would spend
it. It’s much easier to budget when you
can’t spend money that isn’t in your wallet!
Regardless, when the bank opened, he came to pick me up and drove me to
the bank. I’ve walked the short route
tons of times, but I realized that I had never taken the trek (ok, it’s about 3
minutes in the car) in a car. That got
me to thinking how little I actually use cars in my village. I love that I can get anywhere in Manglisi I
need to by my own energy. Cars are for
heading to Tbilisi. I hope that I don’t lose this way of life
completely when I move back to America. To finish the story, I told no one that I was
leaving, and actually ended up leaving during a faculty meeting I had no idea
about, but my co-teacher did not ask any questions or see anything strange when
I showed up about 10 minutes late to class and just picked up where we
were. I knew this would happen, but I
still marvel at how Georgia
works sometimes.
Our Russian TV experience is continuing. I much prefer the Russian shanson music videos to the horrible
Western videos that come on when my host sisters turn on the Polish music
station (I’ve come to the firm conclusion that Rihanna should never be a role
model for any woman or girl). When Putin
got re-elected on Sunday, I came home to watch the last hour of voting (and
lots of apparent monitoring) on Vesti,
a Russian news network. We still watch
our Telemundo soap operas (with Georgian dubbing) each night, but most of the
day is full of Russian, much to my delight, especially since late afternoons
mean a Russian style show that my host mom loves.
Now that it is finally starting to warm up, I will finally
make it somewhere other than Tbilisi
every weekend, so more adventures should be coming. In the meantime, I’ve been getting lots of
good news while sitting in Manglisi. My
parents have decided 26 hours is too long to fly to Georgia,
so they’re meeting me in Rome
and letting me plan a European adventure for the three of us in June once
school ends. I am very excited, since I’ve
wanted to go to Rome
since I started studying Latin in 8th grade (half my lifetime ago…weird).
I find out next week about acceptance into
the MBA program at Michigan and about the FLAS
scholarship for Michigan…but last night I
found out I got a FLAS from Indiana
for next year. The FLAS is basically a
full ride for a year care of the Department of Education, and, coupled with the scholarship I got for the Indiana
MBA program, means that I am 98% sure I’m about to become a Hoosier (and no,
St. Louis friends, not that kind of hoosier!).
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