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.
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