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!