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.