October 20, 2009

It is another gorgeous day in Tbilisi. After exercising, showering and breakfast, Gia picked us up and we dropped Ron off at the Embassy. Last night when Ron came home from work, he told me that Dato had planned several activities for Ken and Patti Rust who arrive here tomorrow from Portland to attend a conference. We are being included in all the activities. The bad news is this is a conflict with our move in date. Ouch! So I went to the house after we dropped Ron off to see how the painting is going. Well heck, they are DONE! The yellow looks great downstairs and the off white has really softened the look upstairs. I am quite pleased. Back to the Embassy, I found Rami, who has held my hand all along the way and I asked him if there was any way we could move in on Thursday. Of course, he said YES. What a huge relief.

So the plan is tomorrow, Wednesday, I will meet the furniture guys at the house at 11:00 SGT (standard Georgia time which Rami said means any time between 11:00-1:00). I will show them what to take out of the house and where to put the new furniture. On Thursday Ron and I will meet the shipping firm reps at the house at 9:00 a.m. to receive our air shipment. On Friday the professionals come to clean the house. We most probably will wait until Friday to sleep at the house as we have dinner obligations Wednesday and Thursday nights and tours on Friday and Saturday. I will be somewhat frustrated that I won’t have enough time to get things put away and groceries bought, etc but at least we will be able to sleep in the house starting on Friday. We get our VAT exemption card on Monday of next week which will save us 18% on most purchases so it is probably just as well that I won’t have time to shop for the needed household goods and groceries.

On Saturday when I was with Betsy I told her I would be looking for work. After I told her my work background, she recommended I contact a friend of hers, Elizabeth Winship who runs a program here. This afternoon I am meeting with Elizabeth to learn more about the program. The organization she works for is American Institutes for Research. In addition to the many programs they have in the US they work in over 30 developing countries providing various educational programs. The Internet is a wonderful thing! I have no idea how difficult it will be to find work here. I have no idea what is available and how much competition there is, much less what the pay might be. But today will be a start to see what I can find out. Networking has always proved most useful when trying to find the answers to such questions. I definitely think the community of NGOs (non governmental organizations) is a small one and I will be able to find appropriate organizations for the skills that I have by networking. If I am unable to find meaningful work I feel sure there are ample volunteer opportunities and I have already seen some classes I want to take. Richard Bolles who wrote What Color is Your Parachute? used to say ‘No one is free unless they have choices’. I think I will have plenty of choices as to how to spend my time.

October 22

I met with Elizabeth and she was most encouraging. She gave me multiple contacts and also said she would be interested in me doing some career development consulting work with her organization. It has been a couple of days since I met with her and she has asked me to complete a bio data form which is a first step in moving forward with a consulting contract. She wants me to work 25 hours a week and travel to a couple of sites within ROG. I am pleased that things are moving along so easily.

Yesterday I was at the house for about five hours. The movers arrived right on time and proceeded to remove the pieces of furniture we didn’t need or that were being replaced with new furniture. I had to laugh as every 30 minutes they took a smoke break. Did I mention that many Georgians smoke? I am so pleased that Gia, our driver doesn’t smoke. But the smoking makes for an unpleasant meal in a restaurant. They don’t know about non smoking sections yet.

Our new upholstered furniture is dark green with large gold scrolls, so not us but hey, it’s free and I didn’t have to go out and shop for it so I am delighted to have it. Our neighbor Chris will be laughing because she knows Ron doesn’t much care for green in our home in Vancouver. We did break down and paint our dining room green this past year however.

Ron came over for lunch and then we came back to the hotel to rest before heading out for a tour that Dato had arranged for us and the Rust’s who are here to attend the first ROG public finance officers’ meeting. Ron had been ill the previous night with diarrhea and a real bad cases of the chills about 3:00 a.m. It was frightening to me to see him shake so hard but he was almost back to normal by morning. Cipro to the rescue.

Marika, Ron’s assistant picked us up at the hotel and we met Dato et al in Mtskheta, the ancient capital of eastern Georgia. Mtskheta is about 20 minutes from Tbilisi. There we had a guide who took us through the archeological museum. From there we went to the 4th century church located on a bluff overlooking the convergence of two rivers. Absolutely beautiful! Then we went back into the town to visit the cathedral with beautiful frescos including one of Christ surrounded by his disciples and the zodiac. Yes, you read me right, the zodiac.

From here we headed to a lovely restaurant where we had a Georgian feast. The food was almost identical to the feast we had with Dato for Tim’s send off although I think there may have been one or two additional dishes and one or two different dishes. At one point during the toasts (remember every one of these feasts includes a toast master (tamada) and copious amounts of white wine) Dato produced a clay bowl with wine in it and he drank the entire bowl and asked Ken and Ron to do the same. I don’t know how well you know Ron but he never drinks more than two glasses of wine. Well he had already had one or two by this time so drinking a small bowl of wine was a real push. But it didn’t stop there. A few toasts later, Dato produced another traditional drinking vessel, a ram’s horn. It was about 12-14 inches long and he poured a full glass of wine into it and drank it down. Ken and Ron were asked to follow suit. Ron tried his best to decline but they wouldn’t hear of it. Down it went and he was still standing! Patti Rust even tried it but didn’t drink an entire glass. It reminded us of freshmen drinking rituals in US colleges.

Today we went to the house at 9 and met the shippers who had our shipment from the US.

The crew of three and the two of us got busy unpacking all the boxes and had them unpacked within a few hours. Ron and I continued to work until noon then he had to go to the conference so we came back to the hotel, he changed and I ordered lunch. We woofed down our sandwiches and Gia dropped Ron off at the Sheraton and took me back to the house to meet the alarm guys. I continued to put things away, made our bed and tried to get things organized. The alarm guys came an hour later than we had agreed on but hey, it’s Georgian time. I had plenty to do. Frankly I don’t think we need an alarm since you cannot break into our house without a blow torch but I wrote down lots of instructions. After they left I asked Gia to take me grocery shopping as we will spend Friday night at the house. I wanted to get some basics and went into the store without Gia thinking I could figure out the packaging. I was able to get everything except dishwashing powder for the dishwasher. I went outside and asked him to help me. It turned out they only had liquid soap for the dishwasher so I got it although I am apprehensive. I have a ton of things to buy for the house but didn’t have the time or energy for it today. We get our diplomatic card on Monday and it will save us 18% VAT so it is best to wait anyway.

Back to the house to unload the groceries and try to get the counters cleared and pick things up off the floor as the cleaning crew comes in tomorrow to a big clean. I was exhausted by then - 4:30- so came back to the hotel before meeting Ron at 8:00 for yet another feast. I will report on it next blog.