A Christmas in Georgia but not a Georgian Christmas

December 26 2009

Since we didn’t have any Christmas decorations, we have included a photo of our ‘Georgian Christmas’. All of the items were given to us except the card. If you can’t see it the card has a world globe with peas on top of it, a wheel of Dutch cheese and two guys. Get it? Peas on earth, Gouda wheel two men! Okay enough Bergman humor.

Christmas Eve we joined the Culpeppers in their home along with twenty others for a festive evening with good food and drink. Each year they prepare a feast of seven fishes, an Italian tradition and what a feast it was. We had mussels in tomato sauce, stuffed sole over spinach, seafood salad and on and on it went. Patty is a fabulous cook and loves to entertain and last night was no exception. We came home late and fell into bed as we were leaving at 9:00 the next morning to go explore more of Georgia.

We left the house at 9:00 on Christmas Day with Gia and his wife Tiko whom we had never met. She speaks no English so there wasn’t a lot of exchange. But Gia was more talkative than he has ever been other than one day this week when he and I chatted while he showed me photos of a dog he had befriended and taken to his uncle’s farm, photos of his wife and children and various other family members. We did this in his car while waiting for Ron to get off work.

The day was cold, gray and foggy once we got out of Tbilisi. The drive to Signaghi was about two hours. There wasn’t a lot of color along the way. The Georgian word for ‘nothing’ is ara peri, meaning ‘without color’ literally. The villages are much poorer than the towns, much like rural America. The houses are made of stone, concrete or brick and concrete so mostly everything is gray, beige or orange from the bricks made here. Along the way we spied various items for sale by roadside vendors with each village having a particular item they specialized in. For example, one village had an abundance of squash and pumpkins so there were numerous vendors with small stands selling squash. Another village had live black turkeys for sale. Each vendor had about 10-`4 turkeys standing near the road. I’m not sure if you buy the bird live and bring it home running around the inside of your car or if they kill it on the spot for you. Another place had dressed meat hanging outside on hooks. It was probably pork. And lastly we spied an area specializing in cheese. Vineyards were everywhere.

Like Tbilisi, we saw someone who had planted a grapevine by their front door and ran the vine up to the second floor balcony and across the front of the house to the second balcony. See photo. The road we traveled once we were outside of Tbilisi was a two lane road in better shape than I had imagined. Traffic was light for the most part. While riding in the car, I got a text message from Maia, the woman who has given us each a massage. Remember Georgians celebrate Christmas Jan 7th. Maia’s text read “My darlings, Merry Christmas’. I loved it. How thoughtful. Later in the day when we were having dinner with neighbors, I received a phone call from the other Maia, the woman we have commissioned to create a large wall hanging. She also was wishing us a Merry Christmas. Well back to the trip.

We walked around town after warming up in a restaurant with tea and hachapuri, cheese bread. The bathrooms were unheated. Oy! And the restaurant wasn’t exactly warm. We kept our coats on. We went into a wonderful archeological museum and into one shop selling paintings, rugs and wine. Signaghi is a walled city built in the 1700’s with 23 towers. Recently the government has poured a ton of money into this town and has restored 90% of the façades on all the buildings, creating a charming city with cobblestone streets and pretty stores fronts and residences. More work was in evidence.

From here we drove to Gia’s village where his uncle lives with his family. It was a humble place, requiring a drive up a steep hill on a muddy road, no pavement, just dirt and rocks. Gia drives a small Honda SUV. We might call this farm humble at best. His uncle was probably younger than us but hard to tell since I think his life has been difficult. He never stopped smiling the entire time we were there. Gia had called from Signaghi which is about three or four miles away and told him we were coming and Gia wanted to have barbeque. When we arrived Gia took us around to the back of the house. His aunt was making bread outside in a wood fired oven where the dough is placed on the wall of the oven. The coals are in the bottom and the oven is slightly conical shaped. She baked close to twenty loaves of bread while we were there, forming each one carefully as we watched, putting a small amount of water on the ends of each loaf before bending over the oven,, and slapping the loaf against the wall and then patting it firmly with her hand to ensure it stuck to the wall until done.

Later his uncle cooked the pork Gia had bought in town. This was done over coals on the ground with skewers laid across some stone. Inside we warmed ourselves by a small wood stove which was in a bedroom with two single beds. A beautiful woman was peeling small red onions and looking over her two gorgeous daughters. When the food was ready, we scouted around for chairs. There were two wood folding chairs, one very tattered chair, and several plastic stools. We gathered around the table. The aunt stayed in the kitchen, one of the grandkids stayed in the room but there was no where to sit and she did not eat. Gia, Tiko, Gia’s uncle and his cousin and the two of us sat at the table. Gia’s cousin held her younger daughter on her lap. There was a dish of pickled cabbage, pickles, fried potatoes and a bowl of pork with raw red onions and pomegranate juice and a pile of freshly baked bread. No butter, a rarity in these parts.

Here we sat in the midst of this family that many might consider poor yet they had an abundance of spirit and were delighted that we joined them in this simple repast. This is the fasting season so anyone fasting did not eat the meat. The uncle made traditional toasts throughout the meal which Gia interpreted for us. I forgot mention homemade wine was served. The women did not drink it nor did Gia. He never drinks if he is going to drive. God bless him! We couldn’t stay long as we had a dinner party at 5:00 so we left at 3:00. The toilet was an outhouse with a hole in the floor. Before leaving we helped Gia load up four gallon plastic jugs with wine which he brought back to Tbilisi.

It is always an honor to be invited into someone’s house and to be invited to partake of a meal. It is humbling to see folks who seemingly have so little be so generous. But Ron and I talked about it at breakfast and both felt these people had riches far beyond any material wealth. Everyone there, adults and children, smiled the entire time we were there. No one seemed to be suffering.

We raced back home, changed clothes quickly and walked over to Laurie and Jock’s house to join others in a lovely evening of fine food and good conversation. After a wonderful meal we played a game, dictionary and were laughing the entire night. Ron and I rarely exchange gifts anymore as we have reached the age where we just don’t need anymore things. This year will give to charities here and at home. It was the loveliest of Christmases and we feel blessed many times over by our experiences here.

Friday Dec 19 2009

After our language class that ended at 2:30 we went shopping for a light fixture for hanging over the dining table. We tried a different shop and didn’t see anything we liked. Choices are limited here and of what is available many are butt ugly! So we went back to the shop we went to last Friday and discovered our light fixture was on sale plus we got to use the dip card so we got a 40% markdown between the two. We came home and hung out for awhile then went out to eat at a new restaurant we had heard about. We took a taxi to Vong, an Asian fusion restaurant. It was a very sophisticated décor, very subtle and understated. We were THRILLED to discover they had a no smoking section! A first here for us. We ordered a Thai chicken soup. I had salmon as my entrée and Ron had a balsamic steak with spinach sautéed with fresh ginger. I thought I had died and gone to heaven. It was every bit as good as anything we have had at the good restaurants in Portland. I was so excited to have such a fine meal, I suggested we split a dessert: fried bananas with caramel sauce and vanilla ice cream. YUM! Afterwards we walked around the neighborhood to see what was there and discovered several more restaurants that looked good (Mexican, French and Italian). Vong was very expensive for Georgia and about the same as a good restaurant in the US. But it was worth every penney! We will definitely return.

We finally got our tickets for our trip back to the US in March. It turns out we will not be able to go to the east coast to see our kids due to a travel restriction with the feds. Bummer. Treasury bought Ron’s ticket and we got online immediately for my ticket. My ticket cost $1500 and his costs almost twice as much. His has all the options to change and cancel with no penalty plus his cost more because it is handled by a travel agency that has a contract with the Feds. Lucky me is all I can say to get the ticket for $1500. I am going to Paris in January and my ticket cost $660. Paris is three hours away. When you compare that to what I am paying to go to the US it is an outrageous amount but guess what ? It is the cheapest ticket available and it will take me 15 hrs to get to Paris. If I took a shorter flight without the 8 hour layover in Minsk, the price jumps to $1200 and goes up to $2400 for the three hour flight.

Saturday

We had planned to go to the flea market. We spent the morning around the house. Ron is baking his wonderful rye/raisin/walnut bread for Christmas gifts. By the time he was finished, it had started raining so we built a fire and studied for our language class. The sun came out around 3:00 so we walked to the grocery store and then to the stationery store and came home a new way, discovering another good grocery store but because it isn’t a chain., we doubt that they would take the dip card which saves us 18% VAT (value added tax). It would be a good choice if we only need a few items. We watched a DVD of an Israeli film in the evening.

Sunday

Today we went on a three hour walking tour of Tbilisi. A woman named Marika lead the tour and lucky for us we were the only people on the tour. The weather was spectacular, sunny and almost warm. We started at Freedom Square and worked our way through old town, seeing the remnants of the original city wall. There was a statue along the way (there are statues all over Tbilisi) and there were two older women sitting next to the statue. We asked if we could take their photos and they agreed if we would send them a copy. We agreed to bring them a copy as we learned they are there every Sunday. They were delightful. One was resistant as she didn’t think she was dressed well enough.

We learned about the civil war in the early 1990’s which lasted two weeks in Tbilisi only. It started the last week of December and ended two weeks later so they say the war was in 1991-92. There was an opposition to the first president (Georgia gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991) and the war was a result of the opposition wanting the president to resign. Apparently much of Tbilisi was damaged or destroyed in that two week period. The current Marriot was riddled with bullet holes at the time. This is when the Betsy Hotel came into being as there was no place for visiting dignitaries to stay in the downtown area. She owned a large house and offered to have people stay there. The current Betsy Hotel is in a different building and Betsy no longer owns it although she can be seen there frequently.

We visited the National Museum which is under renovation but there were two exhibitions. One was embroidered icons done by a man. There were exquisite. They take 3-7 months to make depending on the size. The colors were so vivid and the detail was incredible. I would love to own one but doubt that I could even approach affording one. We met the artist and asked our guide to tell him how much we enjoyed seeing his work. The other exhibit was archeological finds from Tbilisi. There were some wonderful pieces from the 3rd century B.C. We went to the oldest cathedral in Tbilisi, 6th century. During the Soviet era, all the frescos were plastered over and they turned this cathedral into a museum of atheism! What the hell would that look like? We are one strange species. We also went to a mosque and Marika said during the Soviet times they turned one of the mosques into living quarters and her relatives lived in one. She said, ‘Imagine having ceilings seven meters high’. We also passed two synagogues. She said there has never been a problem with the different religions here. I told her the rest of the world has much to learn about tolerance and perhaps Georgians could teach lessons. We ended up at the mineral baths. The Georgian word for warm is tbili which is where Tbilisi gets its name. The story of the discovery of Tbilisi is that the king was hunting and shot a pheasant and when he found the pheasant it had fallen into a warm spring and was fully cooked when the king arrived. Sounds like an urban myth to us.

After our tour, we grabbed a bite at Entrée, a French eatery along Rustavili Blvd.  There is a lot of street art along this road.. My feet were way tired and I needed to sit for a while. Well after a light bite, I thought we should indulge since we were in this wonderful bakery with all those yummy French pastries so we split a chocolate tart/cake like thing that was too good to be true. On the way home, we saw a good view of the Caucus Mountains covered with snow.  We took the subway back to home and I have been resting ever since. Ron is downstairs baking more bread for Christmas gifts. He will now have four in the freezer and have four more to go. Since Christmas isn’t until January 7th, I think he will make it.

Travel planning, friends and a massage

December 15 2009

We woke up to rain, wind and cold weather yesterday but soon the sun came out and the wind and cold became fiercer. Today by contrast was brilliantly sunny but still windy and cold. I was at the computer trying to find suitable flights for a trip within the US when we are there in March for a meeting Ron has in San Francisco with Treasury. We want to see Sonia, Ron’s mom in LA and our kids in VA. It will be brief as Ron has limitations as to how much personal leave time he can take when traveling to the US on business. So we will fly from San Francisco where the meeting is to LA then on to VA for two days in before flying back to the west coast to leave for Tbilisi. OY! Welcome to our world. The flight back will be between 20-25 hours depending on the route we are given.

This weekend we showed our friends, Laurie and Jock Conly, how to manage the subway. The four of us met at our house and walked to the nearest station about 10-12 minutes from here and went to downtown then walked up the steep hill to the Betsy Hotel where we stayed when we first arrived here. We enjoyed a leisurely breakfast together and came back home. I love the breakfast there. It was a beautiful day for an outing.

We want to see another part of Georgia so we have planned a trip to the east of here to Signaghi. Signaghi is a walled city with 28 towers, located high on a ridge overlooking the Alazani Valley towards the Caucasus Mountains. The city was built in the late 1700’s and has been compared to an Italian hill town. We have seen so many beautiful photos of Georgia and are anxious to see everything we can in the time we have here. Because it is a small country, about the size of South Carolina, we feel that we will be able to see most everything by taking excursions during holiday and weekends. We will use Gia, our driver for this one on Christmas Day. We didn’t bring any decorations with us so we are not planning on observing Chanukah or Christmas in a traditional way. I find the holidays are the hardest time to be away from home. Gia will celebrate Christmas, January 7th, the traditional day in Georgia. He said the town is close to his village. Many Georgians talk about their village. It seems many still have connections to the rural areas where they have more family and/or land which they farm. I think I have mentioned most Georgians grow grapes for making homemade wine and chacha, a form of vodka. Right in town here you will see grapevines outside of a house that has no yard. Sometimes the owners have strung wire going across the street for more growing room. I have never seen anything like it. But wine is a big part of the Georgian identity. There is a huge billboard near us that reads ‘In vino veritas’ (in wine truth). Correct me if I am wrong as I last studied Latin in junior high! There are over 500 varieties of wine here and someone told us recently that Whole Foods now sells Georgian wines in the US. It is probably their biggest agriculture crop and one of their main exports.

Today after spending most of the day inside working at the computer or reading about places to visit in Georgia to plan our Christmas trip, I decided it was time to enjoy the sunshine so I wrapped up in my warm coat, got my ‘flashcards’, a small spiral notebook, and walked up the road behind our house. It climbs up a steep hill. I practiced my vocabulary aloud while trudging up the hill dodging crazy Georgian drivers. As a pedestrian you must be super vigilant with the drivers here.

Lala came by today to pick up the fabric to make our tablecloths. Lala is a petite woman and the seven meters of extra wide cloth is quite heavy so I insisted she take taxi to her house and I paid for it. I offered to call a taxi but she wanted to flag one down on the street to save money. I offered to go out with her and carry the load but she said she had been carrying heavy loads all her life. I bet more than any of us can imagine given the history of this country with Soviet era, independence and civil war. During the Soviet era she was a computer programmer. Now she cleans houses and sews for extra income. She is a widow with a 19 year old son in college. Having a job here is a real blessing. So many are out of work. I think I mentioned Zura, our gardener who had a good job with a bank until the new administration came in and turned everything upside down. All the police force was fired due to corruption and many others were let go. In Zura’s case he was told he was too old! He is now 37 and it happened four or five years ago. At the time he had a good income so they built a large home but never got to finish it because of his job loss. Now they have lived in the house for five years with NO HEAT! Nino, his wife and our housekeeper asked to shower here because it is so cold at her place. I said of course. I can’t imagine how many other stories there are like this here. Ron’s assistant Marika’s husband has a similar story. He was very high up in the government and his job was eliminated and he can’t find another job. The most recent stats show a 12.6% unemployment rate but my guess is it is worse since these stats predate the war with Russia 16 months ago which totally wrecked the economy. All foreign investment came to a screeching halt. Construction which was booming at the time stopped mid project. All over town you see half finished buildings. There is some construction going on but it is a fraction of what took place prior to the war. Many shops have closed and there are lots of empty storefronts here. There are also a significant number of street beggars of all ages but the elderly predominate. I read there is a form of social security here then I read it pays a paltry 49 GEL a month. That would be about $30 a month. No one can survive on that. Many widows beg. They are dressed in black. One particular widow stands on a corner that we pass by on the days we go to the Embassy. She steps off the curb when the cars stop for a red light and walks up to the window asking for money. Gia always cracks the window and slips her some change. We give Gia most of our change to use for parking fees and handouts. Many Georgians will give to the beggars. Tim said it was because of their religion.

Last night we took Marika and her husband Koba to a chamber music concert. It was in a beautiful Rococo hall and the concert was great: Beethoven, Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky. It had been a long time since we have been to a classical concert and it was quite enjoyable. It certainly is affordable here. Our tickets were $6 each. On Friday we saw the world premier of a play by Jonathan Levi called Fallen Bodies and although it took us a while to figure out what was going on, it was a great play. It had English subtitles. Next time I will read the synopsis before I go to the play! DUH!

Ron is getting a massage right now upstairs. Maia came here last week and I really liked having a massage at the house. If Ron likes her technique, I want to schedule her on a regular basis. She survives by cleaning house and giving massages. She is probably in her mid 30’s and not married. Nino knows her well and said Maia took care of her sister’s children when her sister died. Maia also gives massages at the Embassy several days a week. She charges very little, $15 which is almost half what the other person I tried charges. Her technique is just as good as the first person I tried. But frankly nothing compares to our special guy back home, Don O’Dell. Boy oh boy do we miss Don!

How Bazaar

December 6, 2009
Today is Sunday. Friday night Ron and I went to the Sheraton to help IWA oversee the set up for our bazaar. We came home around 10:00 p.m. On Saturday I left the house at 6:45 a.m. and went to the Sheraton to help vendors, and Embassies unload and direct them to their tables. All the Embassies in town participated. They sold items from their respective countries, including food items. There were probably close to 100 other vendors who sold everything under the sun that was craft related: lots of items made from felt which is huge here, prints of paintings, typical Georgian souvenirs, quilts (we almost bought one but realized it was too small for a queen bed), jewelry, enamel which is also huge here, hand made clothing, rugs, ceramics and the like. In addition, a number of Embassies held a food court so participants could sample foods from around the world. The sushi was gone is a flash! The only food vendor left after 4:00 was the Georgian vendor and she endured until the end at 6:00. Ron and I bought two prints from a painter and a beautiful huge panoramic photograph of Svaneti in the Caucasus region. I bought some orange marmalade from the British Embassy, a print from Bridie, an IWA member who paints beautiful watercolors. I got some hyacinth bulbs from the Dutch Design Garden table and I treated myself to an amber necklace.
Ron helped with counting the money along with several other men who had volunteered or had been volunteered by their wives. There were four shifts and Ron helped to two of them and stayed until the end around 9:30. I was on the collecting detail so Mikki and I went to each food vendor at 12, 2, 4 and 6 to collect their money. All the Embassy food vendors donated money to the IWA as well as the Embassies once they covered their expenses. The vendors simply paid for table space. We took in something like 67,000 lari. I think that is around $54,000. This money will be used to help various individuals in need here. As an example I think I already mentioned a three year old girl who needs a cochlear implant and two years of hearing and speech therapy. IWA will be helping to pay for her expenses. We got home, bleary eyed and very weary and heated some leftovers, eating dinner at 10:00p.m. before taking hot bath and falling into bed.

This morning we woke up and didn’t move for a while. Around 8:00 we got up and had breakfast then I went back to bed to finish my book and take a nap. Ron woke me up around noon and we had lunch with his freshly baked loaf of caraway rye. Yum. We took the subway to the bazaar where you can buy anything. It is a rabbit warren of a place, crowded little passageways with thousands of tiny stalls about two people wide and one and half deep. The clothes section has clothes hung high and items can be retrieved using a pole with a hook on the end. It is totally claustrophobic. Ninety percent of the clothes and shoes are…black. We decided to try some of the coffee here so bought a small amount and will grind it in the morning and see what we think. I am pretty sure I will not be able to find decaf here much less Swiss water process decaf. What a fantasy that is! We also bought some thread and we bought oats, hoping they are not quick cooking oats. We will know when I make the next batch of granola. Our last purchase was some small drinking glasses that we will use as traditional Georgian wine glasses. Things at the bazaar are cheaper than in the stores but some things I can’t find in the stores so the bazaar is the only alternative. There is also a lot of junk at the bazaar, low quality goods. Because of the crowded conditions and the low quality it is not a place where I would bother to shop on a regular basis. We were curious to explore it and today we felt contented to have meandered through and bought the items we had not been able to find anywhere else. On our way home from the subway we passed by a vegetable stand where we have shopped twice. After we passed by it the owner came outside and yelled ‘friend’, I turned and realized he was pointing to Ron so I told Ron to stop and turn around. He walked back a few steps to the shop and he was invited in to join the men in a round of drinks (homemade) wine. This is a perfect example of the Georgian hospitality. Ron drank a small glass and we were on our way. None of the Georgian spoke English which made the gesture all the more charming.

Friday Dec 11
Happy Chanukah!

I ground the coffee we bought at the bazaar and won’t bother again. Thank goodness for the internet! As for the oats, apparently we left them on the counter at the bazaar because we couldn’t find them once we got home.

I have started paying more attention to how Georgians drive. Elza, our language teacher said Georgian love their cars so much that the word for cars is considered an animate object as opposed to an inanimate object which determines verb usage. That in itself is an interesting fact. This week I observed two lanes of traffic heading in the same direction stopped at a red light. A driver went to the left of the car in the left lane so that he was actually over the mid road line and into the oncoming traffic lane. Since two lanes of traffic to his right were stopped for the light, he turned in front on them to the right!!!!!! I have seen that happen several times since then. Near our house is a complicated intersection and I am always mystified as to how it is supposed to be negotiated. On Sunday when we were trying to cross the street with the light in our favor I discovered that cars that want to turn left against opposing traffic would get in the lane next to the driver in the left lane creating a lane that doesn’t exist and turn left against a red light since the opposing traffic is stopped. I hope that makes sense. What is means is that as a pedestrian even with the light in our favor, we can get killed by a ‘creative’ driver. Gia told us the story of an American who had lived here for several years and drove his own car. You apparently have to drive like a Georgian to survive here. The American has over $800 in traffic tickets from when he last went home and drove in America. That should give you an idea of how Georgians totally disregard the rules of the road as we know them.

I had two forays with Lala into looking for fabric for tablecloths. We ultimately found something quite suitable very near our house after spending five hours searching. It is a high end store that caters to upper income folks and carries expensive bedding, curtains, bath towels and the like. We were delighted to end the search and happy with the find. Lala had done some looking on her own and had spied the fabric earlier in the week.

Yesterday when I was out running errands with Gia I noticed the hills around town are dusted with snow. So far none has fallen in the valley where Tbilisi is located. We took in 13 enlarged photos to be framed this week. These are photos that Ron had taken when we visited the botanical gardens earlier in November. The house is big and most of the walls are bare. The quote for 15 pieces (we had two prints to be framed also) was 179 lari which is $107. We couldn’t believe it and we were told they would be ready by 2:00 the next day. Well you get what you pay for. The mats are a little thinner than ours, I think. The frames although they look like wood are plastic and the backing is primitive with string that is stapled to the frame. But they serve the purpose of filling our walls with beautiful photos so I am not complaining.

sick, sicker, better, and a relapse

Nov 29 2009


Tomorrow is our 24th anniversary! How did that happen? Just the other day we were kids, sort of…it was a busy week. Monday was a Georgian holiday. We had lunch with our neighbors, Joakim and Ireni who live quite close by. Yoakim works for USAID and he is from CA. His wife is Georgian. Laurie and Jock Conly were also there. It was a beautiful sunny day and we had a Georgian feast with many delicious dishes.

On Thursday we had a traditional Thanksgiving dinner at the Culpeppers. There were 20 of us present and I can remember six Americans and I think the rest were from Great Britain who thought it was a great tradition to have a day of thanks. Patty’s dinner was delightful as always.

We only had one language lesson as the two holidays were on our language days. On Friday we had our traditional Friday night date: dinner and a movie. We walked to our neighborhood Italian place. We had eaten there once before and after our second meal decided it wasn’t that great. We then took the subway to town and saw Inglorious Bastards. I asked to come home in a taxi as I discovered on Friday after a visit to the medical clinic at the Embassy that I had bronchitis. I got some heavy duty drugs and will return on Monday to see how I am doing. We want to avoid pneumonia at all costs. Saturday I had no energy so I stayed in bed the entire day. Ron made the meals and did the clean up. You can see why I am still married after 24 years with a man like that! I am not sure if it was the codeine cough syrup or just fatigue but I slept a lot in between reading my book. The contractor came and hung our new wooden blinds and they really dress up the place. They were very efficient and were done within a couple of hours. I was supposed to staff a concession to earn money for IWA on Saturday night but had to cancel when I realized there was no way I could go out and stand up for an hour. Ron had an invitation to a Georgian dance performance which he said was incredible with about 50 dancers at times on stage. He said the crowd was like rock fans: yelling, whistling and applauding during the performance.

Today I felt much better so after lunch we headed out for carpet shopping. It was our third day in a row of sunshine and I have to admit I LOVE sun in the fall and winter. We took a taxi to Old Town where we had visited a particular shop before during a lecture/tour a few weeks ago. We managed to buy four carpets: two small ones for each side of our beds, one for the bedroom and one for the living room. We were quite pleased with our finds and the price.

From here we walked to the main town square and took a taxi to La Maison Bleue Studio, a decorative textile shop with wall hangings, scarves, etc. We found a wall hanging we liked which has a quote from a famous Georgian poet Shota Rustaveli in The Panther's Skin: "Kindness triumphs over cruelty always.  The person without intimacy is his own enemy". We will hang it over the mantel. From here we came home and rested and studied our Georgian. I do not feel prepared for tomorrow but that’s the way it goes some days.

Monday November 30
We managed to get through our language class with no great disaster. The physician’s assistant said my lungs were better and continue to take it easy and that I that need any more antibiotics as I was on the mend. Yeah!

I came home to help Nino order some clothes online then headed over to Patty’s where a group of IWA women were working on Saturday’s big bazaar. We worked the rest of the day and I left when it was time to pick up Ron after work. We came home for an hour or so and then headed out to celebrate 24 years of marital bliss. We tried a new restaurant and it was in Old Town. We dined at 24 Rue Chardin and had a great meal. We came home and stayed up too late working on our computers.

Tuesday
Today Lala came over and we took a taxi to a part of town where there are fabric stores. The traffic was very bad so we got out of the taxi and started walking. We stopped in several shops and found one that had linen for the tablecloths she will make for us. However they only had a very dark almost black color so we decided to look at the bazaar which was close by. We discovered why the traffic was backed up when we saw a pedestrian lying in the street who had been killed by a reckless driver. This place is worse than Sri Lanka when it comes to a disregard for pedestrians. As I mentioned earlier in a blog, the color of the traffic light means nothing, pedestrian walkways means nothing. You take your life into your hands when you cross a street here. The body was covered and there were many policemen around to direct traffic.

We proceeded to the bazaar and visited several vendors. Shopping here is a trail as each place we visited did not have enough material, the right color or the right weight of material for our needs. Once again I am reminded of the abundance we enjoy in the US. Not so in developing countries. None of the fabric is wide enough for a tablecloth so Lala will piece it so it will have a nice drape over the edge of the table. Tomorrow she will call to see if this one vendor can get the quantity of material we liked and I will go back on the subway to buy it. Lala lives an hour out of town and tomorrow is her day to stay home and sew. I am supposed to go to a Christmas party for IWA but am not sure I will be able to as Gia is tied up with Ron’s meetings and the party is some distance out of town. Most of the shops were without electricity today and we haven’t even had bad weather yet. I saw several small generators outside of some others shops. I can hardly imagine what it will be like once we get storms or snow.

Today I was trying to finish up an online order for Nino when I discovered I have no phone service and of course no internet so I called the Embassy who in turn calls the phone company who in turn calls here and speaks Georgian as I dumbly mumble that I only speak English. But the phones are now working so I hope I get internet soon. I never remember having this much trouble with phones and internet as we have here. I looked and found I had 13 emails in my outbox. Oy! Surely I will learn patience here.

I didn’t sleep well last night so I am coughing more today than yesterday. I get pretty impatient with myself and want to be well yesterday! It is a busy week because of what needs to get done for the bazaar. IWA sponsors the bazaar and all the Embassies participate. They sell items and give IWA all the proceeds after they take out expenses. IWA also has a raffle, a used book sale and a white elephant sale. Because we did not sell all the holiday decorations and crafts at the open house we will also sell those at the bazaar. Most of the money comes from table sales and proceeds from the embassies. Apparently many artisans participate and over 1000 people attend this event. All the money raised by IWA goes to community needs, often to individuals who fall through the cracks of social service agencies. This year we will help a three year old girl get a cochlear implant and the follow up therapy she will need to learn to hear and speak. Before I arrived IWA helped two people get prosthesis.

Tough adjustments

Nov 15 2009

The day after the bath, I met with the contractor, his translator and another man who accompanied them but never said a word. They showed me a color chart that didn’t have anything even close to dark purple so they proceeded to have the two workmen mix colors and throw them up on the front door. Unfortunately you can’t get true colors here so what resulted looked more like mud than anything else. They came back with a fan color chart where there are six shades of a color on each page. I chose a dark purple and the contractor informed me it would cost more but couldn’t tell me how much. They left and came back in three hours. The cost was prohibitive so he suggested that I just paint the front door and leave the gate, and garage doors brown. Bingo, great solution I thought. He did not bring the color fan with him and I got paranoid about which color I had chosen so I asked him to return with it before we closed the deal. The third time they came back, I was reassured I had chosen the right color. The next day I was leaving for language class and they opened the can of paint. It looked like the wrong color but I had to leave. They painted the door and Ron and I had similar reactions, whoa, way purple! I said I had wanted an eggplant shade and this looked more like a bordello. We decided to live with it over the weekend and see how we felt. From the inside it actually looks good as there is no direct light on it. From the outside it is just too purple. As I said to my friend Laurie, if this is my biggest problem in life, I’m doing all right!

On Sunday we started the day with a visit to the National Museum where a Fulbright professor of Oriental art gave a brief talk on regional carpets. We then visited an ethnological museum to see more examples and ended up visiting two shops that sold carpets to get a feeling for more variety and cost. From there we went to a specially arranged brunch at the Radisson for Embassy staff. We were given a discount if we bought tickets prior to today. The food and selection was fabulous, unfortunately, so I overate. No surprise there.

Afterwards Ron and I followed up with Maia, the felting artist about a possible commission. She had numerous swatches of felting to give us an idea of the possibilities. We grew more excited about the project and she did too as she mainly does utilitarian objects like scarves to supplement her income. She was excited as this project will allow for more creativity with color and design. She will draw of some sketches and show them to us sometime this week. We asked her to come to the house so she could see the space where the piece will hang.

We came home and I got into my sweats and slippers as I didn’t sleep well due to a cold I have managed to get. It seems half of the Embassy staff is sniffling. We played bingo three times this weekend, using our Georgian language to call out the numbers. It was a great way to learn the numbers. You should know just how complicated this is. You count 1-20 then at 20 you say 20 plus one, 20 plus two, etc. When you get to thirty you say 20 plus 10, twenty plus 11, 20 plus 12, etc. At 40 you say two times 20, two times 20 plus one, two times 20 plus two. At 50 you say two times 20 plus ten, two times twenty plus 11. So in reality you have to do math while counting. At 60 it becomes three times twenty plus 1, at 70 it becomes three times 20 plus 10, three times 20 plus 11, etc. I think I can no longer do addition given my bingo performance this weekend! If I were to sound out the word for 93 for example if would sound something like otkhmotsdasammeti. It’s a mouthful.

Did I tell you when many drivers, including taxi drivers, pass by an Orthodox church they cross themselves? Pedestrians will do the same. In addition Orthodox Georgians fast two days a week and do not eat any animal products, so it is a vegan diet on Wednesdays and Fridays. No milk, no butter, no cheese, no animal product of any kind, including mayonnaise as it contains eggs

Someone asked my why people get paid so much to work in developing countries. There are many things you have to do without and to adjust to when living in developing countries. I will try to give some examples as they occur to me. I think the biggest adjustment is being so far away from family and friends. It takes one-two days to travel from home to here and it is very expensive so people go a long time in between trips home. Today I washed the eggs I bought at the Goodwill yesterday. Goodwill is the European style super store that has high end groceries (they even have a small gluten free section), clothing, gardening supplies, mostly imported from Europe, furniture, hardware and household goods. Yet when I buy eggs I have to wash them as they have not been washed and contain fecal matter on the shell. The only flour Goodwill has is white flour. Ron likes to bake bread and there is no whole wheat or rye flour in Goodwill or any other store we have searched. I have not been able to find hand lotion although I am sure it exists here. Yesterday I went to an Italian grocer and they didn’t have polenta, ricotta, or lasagna noodles. They did have a hair brush with bristles which I had not been able to find. It was imported from Italy and was over $12. I have not been able to find a pie pan in any store yet. I did find wash cloths but not where I bought the towels. These are all minor inconveniences but it does mean I have to change how I cook when I can’t find ingredients for the recipes I usually use. The bigger issues are things like clean air and water which we take for granted in the US. Because Ron is associated with the Embassy we have three water filters: one for general household use and two for the kitchen/drinking water.

Traffic laws come to mind here and when we were in Sri Lanka. If we drove like they do here we would be arrested numerous times. This week we were stopped at a dedicated pedestrian crosswalk. This is where a pedestrian can push a button that changes the lights where there is no intersection and then ‘safely’ cross the road. There were three lanes heading in the same direction , all cars were stopped as two people crossed the street going in opposite directions. A car pulled along side us into the opposing traffic lane and breezed through the crosswalk. If the pedestrian had been in the wrong place, she would have been killed because of this idiot driver. It reminded me that even when the light is in your favor you cannot trust the drivers here. I have described the driving here in a previous blog.

We have been without Internet for three days now. Yesterday we asked Roland who is our contact here for any logistical problems to call about the Internet. At 5:10 he called me back to say the company wanted me to call them today to schedule an engineer. I called as soon as they opened and was told the engineer would call me sometime before 1:00 to schedule coming to the house. At 1:15 I called them back to find out why I had not been called back. They said they could not get to us today and the engineer would call tomorrow. That makes four days without internet assuming tomorrow they call me back and come here.

The window blinds we ordered have arrived and the contractor has now scheduled them to be hung three times. It has been delayed until next week. This is a private contractor not the Embassy. Our neighbor’s electricity went off yesterday and her modem and router were fried. Another friend’s electricity was off for nine hours one day this week.

Sidewalks are mostly non existent. Here there are patches of asphalt interspersed with patches of mud and puddles this time of year. Sometimes trees that were planted in the sidewalk area have died and tree stumps stick up just enough to not see them but to trip over them. The manhole covers are in the sidewalks not the streets and sometimes they are missing so if you aren’t paying attention you could fall into a hole. As it is, you must look where your feet are going because the ground is so uneven. Occasionally you will find pavers for sidewalks but even these can be in disrepair. Roads are another issue. They are in poor repair and outside of Tbilisi they are even worse. At times there is no asphalt and along with that there are huge holes in the road.

There are so many things we take for granted because we have been so blessed with wealth in the US and consequently we have fabulous infrastructure and services like water, sewer, gas and electricity. Those things are quite different in the developing world. Customer service is another example. Although there are plenty of people to wait on you, no one has taught them about customer service. Yesterday I was in Goodwill which has a huge section devoted to alcoholic drinks. I asked for help finding sherry which I use in cooking. The young woman didn’t speak English so she called over an associate who was talking with three other women who worked there. She came over and I told her what I wanted so she took me over to ‘cherry’. I assume this was kirschwasser. When I told her what I wanted was sherry not cherry, she said ‘I don’t know what that is’ and rejoined her friends to finish their conversation. I approached two men who worked in the section and they took me to the sherry section. When we were in SL the air was so dirty I had five episodes with respiratory problems instead of one every three years which is about average for me. I am not complaining here but rather trying to help those who wonder why expats make high wages.

I forgot to mention that here another danger is rabid dogs. We were encouraged to get a rabies vaccine when we arrived. These aren’t things that we have to deal with at home. Many buildings are not heated here. Maybe when it gets really cold they will heat them but so far no so. I think I mentioned that my housekeeper lives in an unheated house. I assume that is the case for others as well. Nino and Zura built their house five years ago so they have had five winters without heat.

Every piece of electronic equipment we have here has been a pain. We bought two DVD players, and two TV’s from Tim plus we have three computers. We have had the satellite people here twice, the computer person here twice and he is due again as Ron’s computer went haywire yesterday. I liken our experience to making a hundred tiny adjustments on a daily basis and frankly there are days where it just wears you out. You want to yell and say stop, enough already. Then something great happens and you forget about it. Or you see some quaint custom and you are once again endeared with the place. It is always hardest in the beginning because there are so many adjustments that hit you at once. So I hope this is helps to understand why the pay is good in these jobs. I’m going to stop here so this blog can get posted as I am way late!  But before I do I want to share with you some great sunrise photos Ron took from our Bedroom window.

What starts with a Ball and ends with a Bath?

Nov 10 2009

It is a beautiful crisp and sunny fall day here today. There are four workmen here, installing window screens (so far with a day and a half they are just hanging the infrastructure to mount the screens on) and painting our outside gate, garage door and front door. They also are painting the risers on the interior stairs. The steps are stone (granite?) so only the risers need painting. I was home most of the day yesterday because of the workmen and all of today. I so want to get outside with this weather but alas, it ain’t happening. The pace of work here is slowed by the number of smoke breaks. Georgians love their smokes and their wine!

On Saturday we attended our first Marine Ball to celebrate the 234th birthday of the Marine. Oh my, this is a subculture unto itself. The evening started with lots of speeches, a video from a high ranking Marine, and some ceremonies. That took over an hour, starting at 7:00. There were hundreds of people there so getting to dinner took awhile. I think we actually ate around 9-10. Then there was dancing. Prior to that there were a number of performers who were doing various Georgian dances. Like the supra menu I think the Georgian dances tend to be very similar each time we see them. This was our third time I think. We stayed until midnight and came home.

On Sunday we explored our neighborhood a bit more. On Saturday we met some of our neighbors at the ball so tried to find Joakim’s house and were successful. His family lives right around the corner from us on 80 Lvovi and we are at 93 Lvovi. We can’t walk directly there as Lvovi dead ends between our homes so we walked down to the next street and found an alley that got us back to his side of Lvovi. By the way, don’t ever try to mail us anything with a Georgian address because as far as we can tell they don’t deliver mail in this country. For some bills they call you and tell you how much you owe. Think of the paper you save! And postage!! We aren’t sure how the other bills get paid. When Tim left Georgia he found out he owed money for his landline and in three years he had never gotten a bill. Scary! How do businesses stay open when they don’t collect money any more often than that?

On Sunday after exploring the ‘hood’ we took a taxi to downtown and visited some art galleries looking for our next anniversary present. Each year we buy a piece of artwork that we choose together to celebrate our anniversary. This idea was inspired by Ron’s mom who said to us one year “You two are so boring” when we told her we had bought each other sweaters for our anniversary. Well it worked, from then on we have been buying artwork and in almost 24 years we have a nice little collection of art. Our only regret is not marking what year we bought which piece. Many friends have adopted this ritual which we think is way kewl!

The first gallery we visited was very high end and quoted prices in euros which is strange since Georgia isn’t in the EU and lari is their currency. We did see one artist there whom we really liked but the price was 4-5 times what we usually spend on art. We continued walking through Old Town which is charming and stopping off in other galleries. Before long we got hungry and decided to walk to Prospero’s Book where we could get coffee and treats. Along the way we ran into Jock and Laurie Conly who arrived here two days after us. Jock works at the Embassy. At the ball, Laurie and Ron were dancing and Jock and I were sitting together. I commented that Laurie sure liked to dance and that Ron did too. Jock’s response was “good. They are happy and so are we!” I loved it because he doesn’t like to dance that much either. Laurie is a yoga instructor and I have never seen anyone who likes to dance as much as she does. Once the music started I don’t think she sat down. She was a delight to watch. Jock and Laurie were looking for Prospero’s so we invited them to tag along since that was where we were headed. We sat and visited over coffee and discovered we have a lot in common. We were thrilled to make new friends. We parted company and Ron and I walked to the home of Maia who is a fabric artist. She does silk painting and felting. She teaches classes and makes also makes tapestries that are exquisite. They take 100s of hours to complete if not a 1000 hours. Her felt scarves were in muted grays or whites and were the most unique I have seen. She is very meticulous in her work. We want to explore having her make a wall hanging for us. We have a lot of blank walls here and our dining room table seats 10! So the wall beside it is quite large and bare. We will return next Sunday to further explore options. She will have catalog so we can see colors and sample wall hangings. Afterwards we rode the subway home. The subway here has two lines: one main line that more or less follows the river through town and one spur off the main line that goes through Saburtalo which is where we live. So we have to change trains. The main line has very old cars, Soviet era? I’m not sure but they are old and tired. The spur had newer cars. Both lines were crowded on Sunday at 5:00 in the evening.

On Monday we went to our language lesson and pleaded with Elza to slow down as neither of us could keep up with the pace she has set. She said we were the ones who should set the pace so she did a general review and we both did well. She didn’t assign any homework which was good so we can spend this week reviewing ad getting caught up. We meet her Monday and Thursday from 9-10 and on Friday from 1:00-2:30. We practice every night and every morning. We have learned most but not the entire alphabet. I still want to pronounce the letters as they appear so the letter a is really m, the letter b is really kh m is o, n is e. Remember I speak Southern so even English is a trial for me. They don’t believe much in vowels here either. But I can now say a few words and sentences and recognize letters in ads or on signs so there is actual progress.

The painter came on Tuesday along with the screen guy. The risers got painted and the front door. While it was being painted Laurie came to visit so we sat outside in the sun as the paint fumes were awful. The painter painted the inside first. Then Laurie left and I went upstairs while he painted the outside. When Ron came home he pointed out that the door was BROWN not eggplant! I had chosen the color while looking at a color card standing in our hallway, thinking it was a deep purple. I will need to call on Thursday to get it rectified.

We are experiencing problems with our internet and phone line. For two days our service has been intermittent. Welcome to a developing country.

Wednesday

Today is Veteran’s Day. We decided to have a play day and what fun we had. We slept in as I started having a sore throat yesterday and wanted to get enough rest to knock it out! It seems to have worked as I did fine today. At 10:00 Gia picked us up and first we ran by a stationery store to get index cards. No such thing. So we got some spiral notepads to make flash cards for our language class. Then we headed to a neighborhood where there are numerous Art Nouveau buildings. We had a book Tim gave us which identifies hundreds of building in Tbilisi that are Art Nouveau or have Art Nouveau decorations on them. For 90 minutes we walked around and spied quite a few of them. What a thrill! Afterwards we took Gia to lunch in Old Town. From here the three of us walked through the botanical gardens. There were numerous waterfalls here and the leaves were turning colors of fall. It was gray today but dry and not cold so I am not complaining.

We topped the day off with a Turkish bath. They are a number of baths located side by side in Old Town. Most are subterranean with domes above the ground level. Apparently there are sulfur hot springs in this area. We had a private room. There was an ante room for disrobing. Next to it was a large tiled room with a large tiled pool, two showers, a sauna and a bench for the bathing part. So Ron and I were in the pool for about 15-20 minutes when there is a knock at the door of the ante room. There was a glass window in the pool room so we could see into the ante room. A man entered, disrobed and came into the pool room in a towel. He set his basket down, proceeded to put on a pair of under shorts, removed his towel and invited me over to the bench. I lay down on my stomach and he scrubbed me with a mitt. It felt like coarse sandpaper but there was no blood drawn. I turned over and he completed the process. Next he lathered me up and scrubbed again, both sides. This was followed by several buckets of warm water being poured over me. It was so relaxing (after I got over the shock of a stranger in a conservative culture bathing me). I was done and Ron was next. The only difference was he washed Ron’s head and face. He left the room and we continued to lounge in the pool. Delightful! A perfect ending to a perfect day.

Everyday things and a Birthday Bash!

Today was another big shopping day. We are still trying to furnish the house with some small items. So off Gia and I went at 10:00 to the bazaar. This is a huge bazaar with everything under the sun for sale. There were women standing around with a little tray hanging from their necks and containing shoe polish and shoe brushes. Most vendors had stalls. We found a coffee grinder and rolled oats and a small covered dish for storing food. Next we went to the big Danish House. I wrote earlier about this place. Today we went to the main branch and it was significantly larger and better stocked. I got two small stainless steel carts to use in our bathroom as we have no counters and we need some flat surfaces to put things like our toothbrushes, hairdryer, etc. They fit perfectly once Ron and I assembled them. From here Gia and I went to the Embassy so I could mail our ballots which we got off the Internet last night because ours that were mailed Sept. 28th have yet to arrive. I also got my second rabies shot while there. Next we stopped at a store named Super which is right by the Embassy which contained lots of household goods, including some things we just ordered on line because we had not been able to find them here. Drat! Someone obviously planned this store for the ex-pats at the Embassy given the merchandise they carried. I didn’t see any Georgians shopping there. I found two items I needed. From here we drove a short distance to Goodwill where I got some groceries, some household and home office items. Lastly we went to the veggie market and got fruits and veggies. Gia was a big help at the bazaar and the veggie market. I could manage the other stores on my own.

I haven’t spent much time writing about Georgians and Georgia. In my last entry I mentioned that most Georgians in Tbilisi live in high rise apartment buildings. Some of these complexes are gigantic. Many dry their clothes on a balcony or a clothes line that is suspended from a window. Today I saw a very clever way to keep your clothes from getting wet when it rains. Some creative person had placed a sheet of plastic over their clothes that were on the line. The apartment complex across from us is very tired: the concrete skin over the bricks is flaking off. It seems to me that would make the apartment colder without the proper protection. Many of the older buildings from the Soviet era are in poor repair. Unfortunately they were ugly to begin with and then to have them look so run down only adds to their ugliness.

Georgians seem to like wearing black clothes. Gia wears black pants, a black hat and a black jacket. All older women seem to wear black. And many young people do also. I’m not sure if it is because it is so practical (you could wear the same outfit daily and who’s to know), because it is a conservative culture or for some other reason. I fit right in as I wear a lot of black because it is so practical, particularly for travel. I noticed even store windows are filled with mannequins wearing black and oh my one had on gray.!

Georgian drivers are nuts, just plain nuts. As an example, when we are going down a busy city street, four to six lanes, impatient drivers will cross the solid double line in mid road in order to pass the car in front of them, even when there is no place to slot back in and even when there is on coming traffic. It is common to see this. About ten days ago I saw someone do this when the on coming car was a police car. And the police car moved over to allow the car to continue in the wrong lane! Go figure. The Embassy and tour books say the greatest danger in Georgia is not thugs, gangsters or malaria but drivers. I think I mentioned the wreck we saw in a small village where the obviously was driving very fast and lost control of his car and went up the side of the bridge. Fortunately there were Jersey barriers that prevented the car from falling into the river below. Georgians do not wear seat belts. The law requires you to wear them once you leave the city (really, why I ask?) If this guy didn’t have on his belt he probably did go for a swim. We arrived after the accident so I can’t report on where that driver ended up. They definitely disregard the lines painted on the road. Lane markings are completely ignored. Dick Parker, are you paying attention?

I applied for a job here and was told the job would involve travel but the interviewer told me the roads weren’t safe. I asked was that because of infrastructure problems or bandits. She said it was due to Georgian drivers and they had one employee who they convinced to take the train rather than drive. I was offered the job (part-time consultant) but declined as it is too early to start work when I am still trying to find towels for the house! The Georgians drive very fast all the time: in the city, on the highway and in neighborhoods. As a pedestrian you take your life into your hands any time you are crossing a road as the drivers do not yield to pedestrians. So try to imagine this: a Georgian dressed in black at night crossing a street mid block. I do wonder what the stats are on pedestrian deaths. We have an unusual intersection quite close to our house with five streets intersecting. It is fascinating to watch drivers (did I say they are all aggressive?) maneuver this intersection. At times there is grid lock because no one wants to yield.

Physically Georgians mostly have black or auburn hair. They are a few blondes, some of whom are bottle blondes. I would bet the few light brown headed folks are of Russian decent. Some Georgians are quite short, under five feet, men and women. Mostly Georgians are not obese like Americans. There are a few. Some of the young women are thin as a rail. They eat a heavy diet but there are hardly any fast food chains here. McDonald’s is the only US chain we have seen.

Nov 7 2009
Man oh man, where does the time go? I have no idea. Today is Saturday and we went to a flea market. It was mostly used cars, literally 100’s if not a 1,000 of them with almost as many men selling them. Ron bought a used drill so he is as happy as a clam. When he sealed the deal with the seller, the seller kissed the money Ron had handed him then bent over to where his other power tools were on the ground and touched each of them with the money. I thought it was so cool and according to Gia it is a common practice to ensure more sales. It was one of those special moments when we are in a foreign country that makes us appreciate a culture and how it is different from our own. We saw the coolest 1952 BMW for sale for $6,000 USD. It would only take another $15,000-$20,000 to get it restored. But it was a beauty in its day.

On Friday I went to a welcome coffee for new members of IWA (International Women’s Assoc). I could only stay a short time as we had to pick up Ron and head out to the Embassy for our language lesson. We had to cancel Monday and Thursday’s lessons as Ron was doing a training all week. Then he had meetings at the Embassy for the rest of the day so Gia and I headed to Goodwill to do more grocery shopping and to look for drill bits. Score!

Ron and I had our first movie/diner date here last night. We went to an Indian restaurant, one of our favorite cuisines. It wasn’t as good as some but worth repeating. Then we went to a theater to see Departures, a lovely Japanese film. There were about 15 of us there and the seats were the hardest I have ever sat in. They felt like a piece of wood covered with a thin fabric.

I saw two more car accidents yesterday at a round about. The two accidents were side by side. If you drive here you really needed to be a very defensive driver because everyone is in such a hurry and willing to take crazy risks to get ahead of the other drivers.

Today Ron hung an arrangement in our hallway of a woven bag and two ethnic hats. Our walls are bare and this is a big house so we are eager to start filling up the space. We hope to go to some galleries tomorrow, Sunday. Tonight we are going to the Marine Ball, an annual event to celebrate the Marine’s birthday. I think they are 234 years old this year. We have to get all gussied up which is a real trial for this aging hippie who loves to dress casually but we will see what I can do to fit in tonight!

Oct 30 2009
Two Georgians who don’t speak English came to the house today to hook up cable to our TVs since we have moved them from the rooms where Tim had them. I had to call Roland at the Betsy Hotel who arranged for their visit to translate for me and them. I noticed that they brought their tools in a plastic bag, just like Sri Lanka. We have such abundance in the US, it is good to be reminded that not everyone has it so good. When is the last time you saw a cable guy without a tool box? They were here two hours so I had to make two more calls to Roland before they finished. There are now three remotes to operate our TV and so far we get two channels. Guess we need a class on how to operate satellite TV. We have never had cable so imagine our confusion!

After dinner we attend the IWA Halloween party which is a fund raiser. I think I mentioned that I attended the monthly meeting on Wednesday and won the raffle which was a wonderful basket filled with champagne, two flutes, chocolates, fancy bars of soap, cheese and olives. Well I won a door prize at the party, a fifth of gin. Then I won another raffle! Earlier in the evening Ron and I had spied several paintings and really liked two of them. We thought they were the host’s artwork so we asked David who the artist was and he pointed to one of the guests. I thought later I would ask if we could visit her studio to see about purchasing some of her work. We have no artwork here and all our alls are bare. So when I won the raffle it was for two of her paintings, the very two we liked the most! Can you imagine winning three prizes in three days from the same organization? I was actually embarrassed. Several of the members said to be it wasn’t fair. I agreed but it was great!

The costumes were quite elaborate: Julius Cesar, Cleopatra, the ‘Scream’, a gladiator, butterflies, and on and on. We asked where people got such costumes. It turns out that the opera here rents their costumes. Cool!

Oct 31
Today is Saturday and it has rained all day without stop. We slept in and moved slowly this morning. At ten o’clock I went to my bread lady across the way and got two rounds still warm from the oven and came home and made scrambled eggs, juice and coffee to go with our warm bread. Yum. We puttered around the house and then had lunch and practiced our language lessons. Later we went to explore the neighborhood and stayed out for almost two hours. First we walked to the end of our street. We discovered it is a block long and dead ends. Te houses are huge. Then we walked up the street to the street that parallels ours. Same thing, huge houses and one block long. Next we went to the commercial area and found more bath towels sans wash cloths. Wash cloths must be unique to the US??? We went through a few more stores and Ron found some rye bread (the label was printed in Georgian and English). Now he knows the word for rye flour so he can inquire where to buy it since he wants to bake bread here. Prior to leaving home he baked all our bread without a bread machine for those who are wondering.

November 1
Each day we feel more settled here. Today Ron hooked up the stereo, assembled the lawn mower we bought for Zura, the gardener, did some touch up painting. We practiced speaking Georgian a couple of times at the kitchen table. Sometimes we can’t help but giggle at each other’s pronunciation.

At noon we left for the Culpeppers where Ron had a meeting regarding the training that Treasury is doing this week for folks at the National Ministry of Finance where David and Ron work. While they sat in the living room with the out of town consultant discussing their work, Patti and I were in the kitchen making lunch and Patti giving me helpful tips about where to shop for various items. It is really quite helpful to talk to someone who knows where to find things. Patti has been here over four years and David just signed up for another two. They have an enormous house and I am grateful that mine is not that big. Patti’s housekeeper is full time.

The Culpeppers love to entertain and have the perfect home for it. In addition they have all the necessary items for entertaining. One wall of the dining area is a large rack (four shelves I think) of nothing but stemware: white wine glasses, red wine glasses, water glasses and on and on. It is very impressive. Patti’s kitchen looks like the home of a pro. She is quite a good cook and thoroughly enjoys it. She prepared a typical southern (they are from Texas) Sunday lunch: roasted chicken, mashed potatoes with sour cream, sweetened carrots and peas. It was delicious! We ended up staying for five hours.

November 2
We came back home from David and Patti’s and practiced a little Georgian and nearly froze as our heat has not been turned on. This process is done by the Embassy. We have radiators so I assume there is a boiler involved. I piled the covers on last night. Before heading off to bed, we called (Skyped) Ron’s sister Sandi. I am so grateful for the technology although last night it was a little whacky and kept cutting off on us. I think Ron had to call her four or five times to complete our phone visit. But heck, it cost two cents a minute. We got what we paid for!

Today I stayed home all days as we had scheduled a number of workmen from the Embassy. At 9:30 two men came to look at the refrigerator which leaves a small deposit of water on the floor each day. Next came two men to change the kitchen faucet which is mounted backwards. Normally these are things Ron would do but alas he doesn’t have the right tools here so he is free of these chores. While they were here I asked then to turn up the hot water as it never get real hot and I like a steaming hot bath before bed each night. Nino had arrived by then. She is our housekeeper and will be working three days a week for four hours each time. She told me she was worried that I didn’t have enough for her to do and she really needed the work. I told her I would stop doing the laundry and let her do it and if she wanted to she could do all my ironing as everything I own is wrinkled from the trip over here. She shared a personal story today about how her husband used to have a good job. HE has a degree in Economics. But when the new president came into power he not only fired all the policemen (who were notoriously corrupt) he also got rid of a lot of other folks because they were too old and needed to be replaced by younger people! Zura is 37! Last year he applied for several jobs and was told he was too old although he was fully qualified. He not works as a gardener for us and five other families. I asked if they had a home and she said they built their home back when Zura was employed and made good money. But they never finished the house because of the loss of income when he was fired. She said they didn’t finish the floor on the second floor. I assume it is raw concrete as opposed to being finished with tile. Then she said they nearly froze last winter as they don’t have heat in their home. She said her son was cold all winter and all summer. I said that’s probably because he never thawed out! She said they hope to get radiators for three rooms this year: the dining room, the kids’ bedroom where her mother also sleeps and the bedroom where she and Zura sleep. It gets cold here in the winter. I am uncomfortable in our house with no heat and it is only Nov 2. But it was a real insight into how many people live here. Once again we are reminded how good we all have it. I know there are people without heat in their homes in America too but I don’t know any one who doesn’t have heat. When you know someone like Nino it is a shock. She just got a new to her car. It is a big SUV. I’m not sure why she bought such an expensive car when she doesn’t have heat. Perhaps the car was a good deal since it is such a gas hog. Who knows? Each of us has values and sometimes situations like this bring home the differences in our values. I am so frugal and practical and besides I HATE being cold so I would opt for the radiators.

Later in the day the radiator guys showed up. Embassy staff have keys to all the houses. So I heard men talking and looked outside. They had entered the back gate which is locked and the utility room also locked and were working away. They would not enter the house without my permission and asked permission before entering rooms with closed doors.

I am very impressed with the Embassy staff. They are extremely courteous and careful. Most speak at least limited English and some speak great English. Unlike me struggling with my Georgian. So everyone showed up except the person who was to vent our dryer. That brings up another point. Many Georgian lived in huge housing complexes; some are god awful ugly leftovers from the Soviet days. Many had tiny balconies and this is where folks hang their clothes to dry. Unlike Sri Lanka, it would take a mighty long time to dry wet clothes in this rainy climate. But owning a dryer would be a luxury. They are expensive and they take up valuable space. When I went for my massage last week, Mia’s apartment consisted of a small entry which served as the kitchen and dining area. It was maybe five feet by 10-12 ft. To the right was the bathroom which had a shower, toilet and sink with no room to spare. The other room was the bedroom which had two single beds pushed together and an armoire. Again there was no room to spare. I admire those who live simply o that others may simply live. If the whole world lived like we Americans do we would need four more planets to provide the needed resources. Pretty scary when you realize how china and India aspire to our lifestyle. It is awkward at best living in a developing country in a lifestyle that is afforded only by the extremely wealthy.

The house got toasty pretty quickly after they turned on the radiators. I hope to turn off most of them once the house warms up. We don’t use the two guest bedrooms so there is no need to heat them. Tim said he only needed to keep a few of the radiators open to keep the house warm. Right now I am grateful for the heat and thinking of Nino’s family without heat tonight.