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.