I asked Elza, our language teacher, about wages here. She earns $10.00 an hour teaching Georgian. In our case it is $18 since there are two of us. Her husband works at the embassy as a security guard and the guards make between $600-$700 a month and the embassy provides insurance for their families. This is an above average salary but not a great one here. They are fortunate because they both have jobs. Elza’s utilities for a three bedroom apartment run about 80-90 GEL for gas, 30 internet, 40 for electricity, 9 for garbage and 9 for water. That totals to about $81 a month for her utilities. Many people make 400 GEL (Georgian Lari) a month in their jobs. That’s about $231 a month. Nino’s nephew makes 35 GEL ($20) a day as a restaurant worker but they usually only get three days a week of work. He was thrilled to get the job. Nino our housekeeper gets 35GEL each time she comes and she is usually here 3.5-4 hours. She also gets all Georgian and US holidays off and paid. This is not normal but she said that is the way it was for her. My friend has a half time housekeeper and pays her 700 GEL ($404) a month. To have your children in private school is cost a minimum of $100 a month per child. Gia, our driver, has three kids in private schools. I asked Maia our masseuse how much her utilities cost. She lives with her sister in an unheated apartment. Only the bedroom has heat. The electric bill is 85 lari, the gas is 35 lari, the internet is 30 lari, water is 15 and trash is 8. So her utilities are $100 a month. She supports her sister who has lost her job and her mother who doesn’t work. Maia makes her living with one housekeeping job and doing massage, about ten a week at 25 lari per massage. So she may make around $623 a month plus whatever she makes as a housekeeper. That would be a fairly good salary but she is supporting three people. In addition she helps out with her niece and nephew. Maia’s other sister died a few years ago and she and her sister do what they can to help out the children’s father. I am humbled by how hard it is here in Georgia. People make do and say it is better than under the Soviets where no one had heat, electricity was limited to a few hours daily and food was in short supply.
I asked Nino about her utilities. She lives in a house as opposed to an apartment. It is three floors: a full basement used for storage and wine making I think. The main floor is a large open floor plan with kitchen, living and dining rooms as well as a bathroom. On the upper floor there are four bedrooms but she says they only use one of them for the five people who live there: Nino, her husband Zura, their two kids and Zura’s mother. The house is 15 meters x 14 meters. About 45 feet by 42 feet or 1900 sq feet. Her electricity in summer is about 80 lari and it is 100 in the winter. Her gas is 200 in the winter and 40-60 in the summer. She doesn’t have to pay for water or trash. She tried to explain that to me but it made absolutely no sense. So her utilities at the highest are $175 a month. She only heats the downstairs which is one large room and she uses what sounds like a gas space heater. So I doubt the room is very warm. I am guessing at her income based on what I pay her. She has one other client that she works for five days a week. So I would guess she makes $700 a month. Zura’s income has been sporadic but when he works he makes what Nino makes on a daily basis. In the winter he has almost no income since he has been doing yard work. He just got a job where he works on a contractor who drives military to and from the airport and other places in Tbilisi. Zura gets 20 lari a day working up to 12 hours a day. That is $11.67 a day. He was making up to 70 lari a day when he worked doing yard work but this new job has regular days he works so he is thrilled to be out of the house and earning a regular income. Zura has this very sad face, as though he is permanently depressed. In this culture which is male chauvinistic, men are expected to be the bread winners and Zura was laid off five years ago at a bank and has not had regular employment since then. No wonder he has such a sad face.
February 9, 2010
We got home around 3:00 and started preparing for our dinner party. We had the Culpeppers over and the Nutters who live two blocks away. The two couples are friends so it worked out nicely. The Culpeppers have been so gracious to us, inviting us numerous times to their home for fabulous meals. I was glad to finally be able to reciprocate.
On Sunday Laurie called to say she was having back spasms and asked if Maia coming to give us massages. I told her I would call and see if she was available. Maia arrived here about 12:30 and I walked her over to Laurie’s as they had never met. Afterwards, Maia came back over here and gave Ron and me a massage. I was so glad as I had overdone my weightlifting exercise on Friday using ankle weights that weigh 14 pounds each. My hips were killing me Friday and Saturday night. Maia’s massage cured what ailed me! Sunday night we watched a 1949 Japanese detective film. It was interesting to note how some things have changed and others haven’t changed in film making.
Monday I stayed home as Elza is on a vacation with her family so we don’t have language class until Thursday this week. She had assigned a long lesson so I spent a lot of time on my homework. In the afternoon I went over to Laurie’s for tea and for her to show me where the yoga class will be. Tomorrow I start a new class that Laurie is teaching in Leslie’s house around the corner from Laurie. Afterwards I came home and fixed a simple meal as we both have gained weight this past week, Funny thing but it is so much easier to take off three pounds than 20 so we weigh daily and start to work on lessening our intake once we realize we are gaining.
It has been cold since Saturday. A little snow lingers and the sun pops out throughout the day making me happy.
February 15 2010
YIKES! I apologize for taking so long to get this posted. We had more snow on Friday and had planned to go to a movie but when we started driving out of the neighborhood we realized it was not a good plan as the roads were so slippery. We were with Jock and Laurie and turned around and went to their house and watched the DVD ‘Spanglish’. We slid our way walking home and I got up early for my yoga class. Ron and Jock packed the car and came by to pick us up at Leslie’s after the yoga class. We all piled into the car to head to Bakuriani, another ski resort. We didn’t go anywhere as the street was a sheet of ice. We all got out and started pushing the car (uphill!) and nothing. Then two guys came by and with five of us pushing Jock got some traction and made it to the top of the hill and off we went. About 90 minutes into the trip we had a flat. Unfortunately the wind was blowing to beat the band and we nearly froze to death. We went from bad to worst when we found out the spare had almost no air. The good news was John Hansen was coming to Bakuriani and was behind us so we called and asked him to stop and help. He put our tire on top of his loaded car (four adults, a toddler and ski gear and luggage). He left us with a small compressor so we could fill the spare. We drove to the next wide spot in the road and called John who had backtracked looking for a tire repair place and he joined us at the tire repair place we had found. We had to go to another place to buy an inner tube. One thing that you learn to live with in developing countries is a lack of inventory. Often you have to go to several places to find what you need. I am not sure how we would have accomplished this repair had it not been for John. I can’t begin to describe how cold it was but colder than Paris which is 16 degrees F when I was there in January. We drove on to Bakuriani and had a late lunch around 3:00, a very picked over buffet at the hotel, and went to our rooms for a nap! The next day we had breakfast at 9 when they started serving at our hotel. Then the guys headed up the hill to ski when the lift opened around 10:30. Georgians do not do early morning anything! Leslie, Laurie and I walked up the hill and made it all the way to the top where the ski lift was and saw Jock and Ron after their first run. It was sunny and warmer than the day before. We tried helping a man and his family by pushing his car on the road as he was spinning his wheels on the ice. No luck! The three of us just didn’t have enough oomph. On the way down we helped another man and were successful. Rarely did we see chains on this icy road but there was a lot of traffic to the ski lift. On the way back I spied an Illy sign across the street from our hotel which only served instant coffee. Being from the NW where coffee is one of the major food groups, I eschew instant coffee. The place was a lovely family owned small hotel. It was nicer than our hotel in décor. Our hotel had three or four fixtures with plastic columns with small plastic fish in them. I think if you plugged them in the heat from the light at the bottom would cause the fish to float or swim but none were functioning and were awfully ugly anyway. The Cedars across the street has tasteful Georgian wall hangings and hand made sconces. The owners were warm and welcoming. We enjoyed some great Americanos and cappuccinos. The next day all of us went over there after our breakfast and had another coffee drink before taking off for home. We made reservations for another three day weekend in early March. We arrived home three hours later to dry streets. We were glad the snow and ice had dissipated as it made traveling much easier.
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