A Little on my Village, Easter, and Internet

Written April 28^th:

Today my cluster (Melissa, Caitlin, Ian, Eric, Von, and myself) walked around Kvishkheti to get a better idea of the area, where everyone lives and use what we learned for the inter-cluster map drawing competition (which we will inevitably win)—WE DID WIN… obvs. We walked all around town, stopped by the markets, went down by our river, skipped some stones, and then hiked up a small mountain. There are four markets. They are all the same size (no larger than a Circle K) and all sell the exact same thing, but we already have our favorite where we are quickly becoming regulars. There is a cultural center where children take dancing classes, and I’m assuming events are held there as well. We crossed my first suspension footbridge (but then a car crossed it so I guess it was just my first super tiny suspension bridge). We walked through a pasture of cute, happy cows – the cows here are a lot smaller and more diverse than the ones in America. Georgians raise cows the right way, without the cramped spaces and hormones and corn. The hike was a steep but rewarding one. The top point we reached is called three stones (Sami Qva) due to the large three stones (more like boulders) stacked on one another. From there we could see all of Kvishkheti as well as Khashuri in the distance. We also saw the church (the girls only from the outside since you must wear a dress and scarf on your head when going inside), a run down building called the Writer’s House, known to inspire good writing I suppose, and some sort of museum. Our Georgian guides (Caitlin’s host-uncle and little host-brother, Giorgi, also known as Godzilla) were very kind and helpful, but there were language barriers from time to time so I don’t really know what the museum was for, or even if it was certainly a museum…

Written Today:

Last weekend was the Georgian Orthodox Easter. Here it is a bigger deal than our Christmas. There was tons of cooking, eating, and drinking. A couple of traditions:

-       They grow a small plot of wheat grass in a bowl to symbolize re-birth. They use this grass as a bed for…

-       The eggs they only dye red to symbolize Christ’s blood and also rebirth?

-       When you greet someone during the Easter weekend, instead of saying “Hello” you say “Christi asgahd” (Christ has risen) and receive a “Chesmavidad” (spelling is so wrong, but it means ‘indeed’).

-       There is also a tradition where two people each take one of the boiled, red eggs and hit them together. Whoever’s egg cracks loses and has to give their egg to the winner

-       There are two types of Easter bread: pasca (a drier, less delicious version of Panatone) and nazuki- a mildly sweet bread with raisins. Nazuki is my favorite of the two, but I pretty much only enjoy it dipped in my coffee (which all the Georgians think is super weird). I better get used to it though since my host mother and sister baked TWENTY loaves of it!

-       Last, but certainly not least, there are the supras (feasts). The biggest one I went to was 20 people, with a full table of food and wine. One guy got so drunk he fell asleep in the bathroom and then again at the table.

We are heavily warned of drinking (especially the females) while here in Georgia. For the men it’s a matter of being pressured into over-drinking and for women it is a good way to earn a bad reputation in your community – even if you only drink occasionally. Luckily, my family and community in general don’t seem to be as strict as others. Within my family it is perfectly normal to drink wine at dinner and occasionally have a little more fun.

My family is extremely warm and welcoming to me. Marina always makes sure I’m taken care of, Lela always hangs out with me, helps me with some translating, and tells me how much she enjoys my company, and Jumberi refers to me as his “lamazi kargi gogo amerikeli” beautiful, good-girl American. When faced with challenging language lessons, technical training, and communication barriers on a daily, hourly, moment-by-moment basis, it’s very comforting to know you are loved.

Today I fell on the gravel road while running. It’s becoming somewhat of a tradition; every time I live in a foreign country I have to trip while running and fall onto rocks, I still have my battle wounds from Buenos Aires.

Today I purchased an internet modem which I don’t really plan on using until I get to my permanent site, mainly because of cost, but also because I do have occasional internet access. The great thing about it is we get 48 hours of free internet! So I’ve been indulging in that for a bit. The nice thing is that I don’t seem to miss it during the days since I have so much to do, but I’m not going to lie, it’s been pretty sweet having it today.

Tomorrow we get to meet the teachers (counterparts) we will be working with during PST. We will teach with them in English classes in Kvishkheti as test runs before we are sent out into other parts of Georgia to teach. Tomorrow we also get to do a cluster exchange where we visit other people’s PST sites. I’m headed to Osiauri. Don’t really know what to expect, but I’m excited to see a new part of the area.

Now I have to see if I can drag myself away from the internet long enough to do my language homework…

First Days in Kvishkheti

Please excuse the delay in my posts. I have a lot more to say, but it will have to wait. I wrote this on April 27^th and I just re-read it and added I few comments here and there.

Well I met my host family for the next three months! There are a total of 10 of them but so far I have only met the host mother, Marina, host father Jumberi, and one of the daughters, Lela. They are all very warm and welcoming and I’ve already hung out with Lela a lot. She speaks more English than I do Georgian, so we manage to get our thoughts across… for the most part. She tries to teach me Georgian words but I just forget them 10 minutes later. She really gets a kick out of it when I try to say “frog” (which I can’t remember again)… Since I wrote this post I have learned how to say “the frog in the water ribbits”: bachachi skalshi krighrinebs” – spelling could be/is waaaaaay off.

My host village is called Kvishkheti and it’s about a 20-minute marshutka (bus) ride from Kashuri. It is widely known in the region for being a beautiful place, and for good reason. We live up a dirt/rock-paved road on a pretty sizeable hill. We are surrounded on all sides by lush, green mountains, a small stream runs just behind our house, and when you look down the hill you see gardens for days (primarily of grapes- Marina has her own grape field with both black and white grapes). Pretty much every single family makes their own wine and takes great pride in producing the best brew. I got to try my family’s wine today and it was quite good! It was a little sweet for a red, but also tasted like it has a higher alcohol content so it balances out pretty well.

As soon as we managed to lug all my bags into my 2^nd floor room (shout-out to the marshutka driver who did most of the heavy lifting!) I was immediately offered food and drink. Pretty sure I made mistake number one when I drank the water they gave me (we aren’t supposed to drink any water that isn’t bottled or boiled). Marina said it was from the spring and I’m not so sure that falls under the PC potable water policy… hopefully I don’t wake up with Giardia in the morning! (I didn’t and continue to drink the refreshing spring t’skali – water) I explained I was vegetarian and that didn’t seem to be a problem. The dinner consisted of a salad that Lela made, mashed potatoes, a very weird/interesting pickled plant salad that I have never seen before (turns out they are pickled capers, but still on the plant), Georgian-style bread (puri- served at every meal), and of course some farmer’s cheese straight out of the bucket! To drink they had some homemade cherry syrup that they add water to (very yummy) and of course the wine. I was expecting to be very careful about drinking because in order to be a “kargi gogo” (good girl) in Georgia, you are generally expected to not be a drinker (this has not been the case in my family at least). To my pleasant surprise Marina and Lela took turns toasting to me, to us, and to one another. Each time you toast you practically chug your wine, which I did go a bit easy on. After dinner we ate cake that Lela had made and drank some coffee. Then Lela and I went on a walk to the store in which I got to see some of the neighborhood and just see what its like here in general. While we were walking we ran into one of the host brothers of another volunteer and he was playing a Georgian instrument. The cool part was he was playing a Red Hot Chili Pepper’s song and since he spoke English we could share that little cultural exchange. When we got home we then went down to the train station to greet Jumberi, who was just getting back from Tbilisi. He brought us candy which was chocolate-covered something (a very sweet something) but honestly I have no idea what it was. Then we walked up the hill to see a fellow volunteer, Von and hung out at his place for a little bit where I think I tried my first t’cha t’cha (homemade disinfectant- also known as 80 proof –not a typo- grape vodka). In PST they pretty much had scared me out of drinking, but I was able to casually try and enjoy local spirits tonight without feeling judged and I’m grateful for that.

We also have a dog, Gura, who barks allllll the time and we haven’t quite warmed up to one another yet. I don’t know what they feed the dogs in Georgia, but when Jumberi was petting/playing with him and Gura got “excited” (catch my drift?) he was the most well-endowed dog I have ever seen… and my neighbor’s dog is a bull mastiff.

Aaaaaaand I used my first of many squatty potties. Not terrible, but definitely a downgrade from good a good ol’ ceramic potty. Better get used to it though, it’s an outhouse kind of life for me from now on.