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.