Feb 21 2010
On Valentine’s Day Ron overwhelmed me with a dozen red roses. We left the next day for the ski resort and I was thrilled when we returned on Monday to discover the roses still looked great.
One of the things we deal with in a developing country is the dirt: dirty air and dirty streets in this case. Because many streets are not paved and because many paved streets have potholes, there is dirt everywhere. So when it rains or snows, you get very muddy. I frequently have to wash off my shoes and polish them much more frequently here than at home. The house requires vacuuming twice a week and dusting often.
I have started a yoga class that Laurie teaches in our neighborhood at Leslie’s who lives right around the corner from Laurie. We meet at 7:30-9 on Wednesday morning and at 8-9:30 on Saturday. I have gotten terribly out of shape and more rigid than I care to admit so I am thankful to be limbering up. Laurie is a great teacher and I am thankful that I don’t feel like I have to compete with the much younger participants. There are four other women in the class.
On Wednesday last week Ron went to Ireland with some people from his work to look at how Ireland is doing capital budgeting. He left at 3:00 a.m. to go to the airport. I decided to get up and fix him some coffee. As I was sitting at the table with him, I realized I was drinking regular coffee, not decaf. Bummer! We ran out of decaf a good while ago. I tried to go back to bed but it was useless so I stayed up until 11:00 that night. At 5:00 p.m. I went over to Jock and Laurie’s to help them with a dinner party they were having for some of Jock’s Georgian staff. He has 80 Georgians on his staff and he has invited them all to a series of dinner parties he is hosting over the next few months. So I helped with set up, food prep and clean up. We finished in the kitchen around 11:00 and they invited me to stay over. I decided to do it because by then I was exhausted, having been up since 2:00 a.m. Live and learn!
On Thursday I cooked my hinny off. Friday was a chocolate/chili fund raiser for IWA and I was asked to quadruple my recipe for Black Bean Soup with Chocolate. I didn’t bring but one large pot and it wasn’t large enough. I should mention here that there are NO black beans in Georgia so borrowed Patty’s stash which I will replenish when we go to the States in March for a meeting in SF. So I reconstituted six pounds of black beans and cooked them on Thursday. Then I needed to refrigerate the soup. What a mess I had trying to mix all the pots I was using to even out the spices, etc. I was in the kitchen from 10:30 until 5:00. I took a break and came back after dinner to make a double batch of brownies. On Friday I left the house at 9:30 a.m. and had Gia take me to Patty’s where I stayed until 11:00 p.m. From noon-6:00 p.m. we held a chocolate tasting. For 20 lari participants could come for coffee, tea, soft drinks or juice and as much of the chocolate desserts as would fit on a plate. This event didn’t sell well but we had about 30 people come throughout the day. At 7:00 we held a chili contest. Here guests could sample the 10 chilies that members of IWA had made and vote for their favorite. The tickets for this event were 45 lari. We served appetizers, wine, beer, soft drinks, chili of your choice, corn bread muffins and any of the chocolate desserts you wanted. We sold about 110 -120 tickets for this event. I got home a bit after 11:00 very tired but glad we had made about 3500 lari for the effort.
Saturday was a relatively pretty day so I left the house a little before noon to go downtown. I feel like a mole here: anytime the sun comes out I want to be outside. So I took the metro and went downtown. There are very few public toilets and I only know of two downtown so I stopped at Prospero’s Book Store to have lunch and relief. I ran into Leslie my neighbor who was with two other women who were buying rugs next store at an antique carpet place. From here I walked down Rustaveli to Pushkin Street and further down the hill to an art salon owned by a member of IWA. She had quite a collection and I saw a copy of a 12th century icon of St George that I liked. I didn’t have enough cash to buy it so will return to see if it is still available. I then walked back up the hill to the Hobby Gallery that I discovered on our art salon tour and they had a new exhibition up to commemorate the life of a former diplomat who lived here before going to Haiti to work. He died in the recent earthquake. Apparently he was a big supporter of the arts in Tbilisi. I was pleased to see three of Maia’s pieces in the show. We are having an open house for her on Sunday so people can see her work and meet her. We were so pleased with our wall hanging we thought we should share her talent with others in hopes of getting her more work. Maia supports herself with her art and teaching others. It was quite warm so I decided to take a taxi home as I was tired and I had a long walk to the metro and an even longer walk to the house. When I got home I relaxed and napped then got up and got ready for another fund raiser, this one was sponsored by some of the embassy staff. I shared a taxi with Leslie and her house guest, Lisa. We went to the new and very exquisite Radisson Hotel in downtown Tbilisi. There were 140 guests for this event and we had a great meal. Our tickets were 80 lari.
Ron was due to fly in at 3:40 AM but called to say Tbilisi was fogged in and he would have to stay overnight in Istanbul where he had been sitting for a six hour layover. Bummer! On Sunday I worked on my language homework which I had managed to put off all week. I spent a long time trying to find the Olympics on TV and curling and ice hockey were featured. Bummer! I am bored with both. I rescheduled Maia our masseuse so that Ron could still get a massage. She arrived at 6:00 and as she was finishing with me, Ron arrived in time to shower before his massage. As I was leaving the room, he was moaning softly something about being in heaven. Yeah Maia!
I read in the newspaper an ad for bank mortgages. Thank your lucky stars, it is 14.9% here! Remember the 1980’s?
On Monday we had a beautiful day after a light morning rain but the wind picked up and created havoc. I had planned to take a walk but once I went outside I didn’t feel safe due to the force of the wind. Ultimately, it blew our satellite dish off the beam so we now have no reception, the power went off and on all day and night, there are roof singles scattered about today and two large pieces of flashing blew off the garage and several other pieces are loose and bent. The telephone pole at the end of the street is close to falling over into the street. Our generator came on at least once. It is the size of a Mack truck and comes on automatically if the power goes off for more than 30 seconds. We are so spoiled here. I think only expats have such privilege. We have UPSs for our computers so we are protected there also.
Today is Tuesday and because it is sunny again I went downtown to get a gift for a friend’s son who turns six on Sunday. When I stepped outside I thought it was warm enough to go without a jacket but once I got outside the gate I realized that our front porch is the warmest place in Tbilisi because it faces south and the stone porch and façade of the house absorb the heat and fooled me into thinking it was warmer than it really was so back into the house I went to get my lightweight coat. I went to town on the metro.
I don’t know if I mentioned the people who beg for money here. Ninety percent are the elderly who have very meager pensions; I think it is about $40 a month which is totally inadequate. Mostly elderly women beg. Widows dress in black and many cover their faces with a veil to save being embarrassed by begging. Some hold a picture of a saint, I assume to let you know they are Christians. Many Georgians give to the poor and we do also. Some beggars will stand in the entry to the metro as there is always foot traffic there and they can get out of the weather if it is cold or rainy. Some ride the subway and walk down the car either verbally asking or simply walking with their hand out. Sometimes there are children begging but not as often as the elderly. Also I see people lying on the street on a blanket with a cup for donations. There are a number of regular beggars at the main subway junction where I change lines. Today I looked in my car and counted about 80 riders and 11 had on a coat or jacket that wasn’t black! Most of the 11 were gray or brown with an occasional color like green. I wear black jeans daily and have a black jacket that I wear when it isn’t too cold so I fit right in here!
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