January 10 2010
Ah Paris…what a beautiful city. I was last there in 1970! My friend Andrea from Eugene was attending a Buddhist retreat about five hours outside of Paris and invited me to join her in Paris after her retreat ended. I debated about the expense and decided what the heck and booked a seat on the cheapest flight I could find which isn’t cheap here. I flew on Belavia Air, an airline from Belarus, a member of the Russian Federation. We left Tbilisi at 6:10 a.m. requiring Gia to pick me up at the house at 3:45. Oy! My boarding pass was hand written. After Gia dropped me off he called me about 20 minutes later to make sure the plane was leaving on time. What a sweet gesture. The plane was only about one third full. The man in front of me fully reclined his seat and my knees were pressed into the back of the chair. Oy! As soon as I could I moved to an empty row and stretched out. The food served was two small rolls: one with salami and one with cheese and a thin piece of lettuce. No condiments. We got to Minsk in a couple of hours where I had an eight hour layover. You can get a direct three hour flight to Paris from Tbilisi but it costs four times as much as taking a longer flight. Being the frugal person I am…well I had an eight hour layover in Minsk! It was 15 degrees below zero Centigrade! Minsk was as flat as Florida . There was snow on the ground but the runway had been plowed. I was directed to the passport control area and instructed to fill out the immigration card. I protested saying I was not staying in Minsk but to no avail. I got out of line, completed the form and returned to the desk. Once the officer read that I was there for 8 hrs, she instructed me to wait. A uniformed person came and took me through two locked doors and up some stairs to a ‘transit hall’. It was a large area that would hold about 200 people. One person was there sleeping on a couch. Soon I was joined by another person, a young Australian. The only other person was a guard to watch over us. After a while I asked the guard if I could get some water. He followed me down the stairs to the bar where I bought a bottle of water for 2.5 euros. Ouch! Fortunately they accepted euros, dollars and rubbles. I had some euros and dollars which was fortunate as there was no currency exchange in the part of the airport where I was. I returned to the transit hall and I slept for a while on a couch. At some point about 20 passengers were escorted into the room and waited for there until their connecting flight boarded maybe an hour or so later. I chatted with the young woman who had been in Georgia for about three weeks. She hated to leave but needed to return home to Australia. She later approached the guard saying she didn’t have a boarding pass and wanted to go get one. He told her to wait. Someone later came, took her passport and baggage claim ticket then returned and handed her the boarding pass. Strange, we felt like these people had watched too many Russian spy movies! I was left in the hall with the guard and original person who was now up and playing his radio loudly.
Later I went for coffee and a snack. Guess what? The only food available was a half slice of dry white bread with my choice of salami or cheese, just like the plane! They had any kind of liquor as well as a few juices, sodas, beer and wine. I got an Americano, a salami ‘sandwich’ and a small dark chocolate bar (health food). The cost was one euro less than the water!
At 1:15 another uniformed person came and asked me ‘Paris?’ I said yes and he said ‘Come with me’. He walks me through three security stations. I get my boarding pass and wander into a smoke filled waiting area. I now have 90 minutes before boarding. The sun has been out all day but the temps haven’t moved. Everyone here is blonde or has light brown hair with blue eyes by way of contrast to the folks in Georgia where 90% have black hair and dark eyes. I see many fur coats here. Must be more wealth than in Georgia. We were late boarding the plane and were herded into a waiting bus that would take us to the plane out on the tarmac. It was an unheated bus and even with it loaded with live bodies, it was still bitterly cold. The bus sat on the tarmac for 20 frigging minutes. No one could figure out what the holdup was but then they opened the doors to two full buses and left us standing outside while letting five people at a time go up the steps and into the plane. I was out in the cold for another full fifteen minutes. I had a warm thick wool coat but it was short and I realized my tushie was quite cold. My fingers turned to ice even with lined leather gloves. My feet felt like large blocks of ice. After boarding it took quite a while to thaw. I left my coat on for 20-30 minutes. I thought my feet would never get warm again. I don’t remember ever being that cold. It was still 15 below according to a tall gorgeous black French man standing beside me. These temps will make Paris seem balmy! I have been checking the temps there and it is supposed to be 32 degrees F during the day all week and 21 at night. The plane was packed and the seats were the smallest I have encountered in all my travels. The term sardine can comes to mind! They served a ‘meal’: salami and cheese sandwiches! The sunset set at 4:20 while we were boarding the plane.
I arrived in Paris and breezed through the passport area. I didn’t check any luggage so was on my way quickly. The hotel had sent me directions so I hopped on a train that took me to the center of Paris and then caught the Metro to an intersection one block from our hotel. Andrea had not arrived so I went to our room and unpacked, waited 30 minutes and decided to go grab something to eat since it was 8:30. The hotel clerk made a recommendation of a nearby restaurant. I was more tired than I realized and missed the street but found it after retracing my steps. I got there and it was closed. The restaurant next door was packed and I didn’t see any seats so went across the street to a Japanese restaurant, one of my least favorite cuisines but thought I could get a hot bowl of noodle soup. No such luck. I was seated at a ‘table’ with two couples who were together and another couple at the other end. I was between the two parties. It was one of those places where they cook at your table as a form of entertainment. After traveling for 18 hours I was in no mood for entertainment! And they didn’t have noodle soup on the menu. I ordered miso soup and pot stickers, ate and went back to the hotel. Andrea had arrived and it was great to be together again. We have known each other for thirty plus years.
We slept in the next day and had missed the breakfast at the hotel. We went across the street and had fabulous coffee and pastries. Those French know butter! We decided to be kind to ourselves and not knock ourselves out trying to see everything. Our goal for Monday was to go to Musee de l’Orangerie to see Impressionist art mainly Monet’s Water Lilies. We decided to walk as the sun was out. We started from the cafe around noon. It was cold, damn cold but we persisted. It never got above freezing the entire week and with the chill factor it was 16 degrees F. Oy! Every time we went out my fingers suffered. Our masseuse in Tbilisi had knitted me a wool hat before I left and I was so thankful to have it. It would slip on my head but without it I would have been miserable. We walked along the Seine River, saw Notre Dame along the way and the Louvre. I had no desire to go inside the Louvre. I had been there 40 years ago and it is just too darn big. You could get lost in there and never emerge. We did duck into Shakespeare and Co. bookstore. It is a famous English bookstore where David, our son, spend his nights in Paris, sleeping on their floor. The place was packed with Americans, mostly people half our age. It felt good to get out of the cold but it was crammed and claustrophobic. We arrived at the museum and lucked out as there was no line to enter. This is a relatively small museum and Monet’s Water Lilies are housed on the main floor. They are huge and occupy two rooms that are round with curved walls which contain four large panels of Monet’s paintings, one to each wall. I was overcome by their beauty and I wept at the sight of them today. I had last seen them in 1970 when I visited every major art museum in Western Europe with Walt Padgett, my first husband who is an artist. We spent a long time in both rooms then headed downstairs to see other Impressionist works. What a thrill! We returned to Monet’s Water Lilies before leaving. Around 3:00 we stopped for lunch and had a delicious omelet with French fries! We skipped dinner since we ate a late breakfast and lunch. On our second day we visited Musee d’Orsay, a huge museum and we had to wait in line outside in the freezing cold for an hour to get in. Andrea was most patient with me as I really was committed to seeing the works here. Once inside we decided to concentrate our viewing on the Impressionist works and skip the rest. I get saturated after viewing works for two hours or so. The museum was a madhouse, frankly. Too many people in some rooms to adequately view the works. But we prevailed. In one room we were looking at a painting and a woman with a small digital camera thrust her arm in front of us to take a photo of the painting. It was rude to say the least. Later I observed her and realized she was not looking at the works, just thrusting herself in front of patrons and snapping photos. What an interesting species we are…I went to the museum shop to buy gifts for Gia’s children who study art in their school in Tbilisi. The night we ate at their home they showed us their texts with lots of photos of famous works of art. Afterwards we found another delightful café with another fun waiter. I have no memory of what I ate but it was good!
From here we decided to walk to the Eiffel Tower. It was so cold and the sun wasn’t out so it seemed even colder. It turned out to be farther than we had anticipated. Andrea had a fall recently and is still suffering from the fall so walking for long distances is uncomfortable for her. Alas we arrived and discovered another long line to go to the top of the tower. I told her I was unwilling to wait outside in the cold again and she readily agreed. We took our obligatory photos and headed back to a place where we could catch a bus home. Again we skipped dinner since we had eaten lunch so late in the day.
On Wednesday we decided to go our separate ways. Andrea wanted to see a museum with Asian art and I had one more Impressionist museum I wanted to see. The Musee Marmottan Monet has the largest collection of Monet’s in the world. The collection is housed in the former home of the Marmottan family and still contains some of the original furnishings. Given my intent I barely looked at the furnishings and concentrated on the paintings. Other artists’ works were here and as it turned out many of the Monet’s looked more like painting sketches or studies for his master works: The Water Lilies. There was a real bonus downstairs, an exhibit of post Impressionist and Fauvist works. I felt so lucky to have happened upon this exhibit as this is another period I like. Afterwards I made my way back towards our hotel, riding two different bus lines. I was so pleased that I never got lost! I found a café near our hotel and had salad and an omelet. Andrea arrived after me and was thrilled with her adventure as well. We decided we should splurge and have a real French meal in a fancy restaurant and went to the place our hotel recommended. Oh my! It was perfect. It was a short walking distance from the hotel and an intimate setting. Arriving at 7:30 we were the only ones there but the place filled up as the night progressed. We chose the fixed price three course option. I ordered mussels in curry cream sauce as a starter and Andrea had goat cheese in phyllo dough. Oh my god, it was too good to even attempt to describe. We shared bites so we had the best of all possible worlds. I had expected a few mussels and was shocked at the size of our portions. There was just a hint of curry and the mussels are small and so tender. I could have stopped there but had the entrée which was duck breast with a cherry sauce and two potato and apple cakes, something like hash browns only a thousand times better tasting. Andrea had a beef dish I think and we ended the evening with a chocolate mousse to die for. Oy! I would weigh a ton if I lived in France. Given their excellence in baking and my love of carbs I wouldn’t stand a chance!
The next day Andrea needed to take some time in the morning so I headed out to the internet which was about 9 blocks from our hotel. Due to the cold, I didn’t frequent it as often as I normally do. Ron had been calling me using Skype but the connection was never good and we frequently got disconnected. I don’t remember what the heck we did that afternoon. That evening we went out for a seafood dinner but frankly I was tired of restaurant food by then and should have just had a salad. Andrea was wiser than I and ordered a starter and stopped there. Afterwards we took a bus to the Louvre to see I.M. Pei’s much touted glass pyramid entrance and to see the Eiffel Tower all lit up which we could see from the Louvre plaza. I got terribly cold: hands and feet had turned to ice so we grabbed a cab and came home.
Our final day we packed up and took a cab to another hotel where Andrea was spending the night before staying with a friend for the weekend. Her new place was in the heart of Montmarte so we took a little time and walked around and visited the Sacred Heart Church. We lucked out as there was a service going on and the nuns were singing. The acoustics were superb. Afterwards we grabbed a bite to eat and went back to retrieve my bag at her hotel. From there we headed down the hill to the Metro and I took the Metro to the train station where I caught the train to the airport. Slick!
My return trip via Belarus was similar to my initial experience. I was directed to passport control and this time the person instructed me to buy mandatory insurance. I had handed her my boarding pass for the next leg of the trip to demonstrate that I was not staying in Minsk. She told me to step aside and wait. Once again I was escorted to the waiting area and just made it in time for my connecting flight. What’s up with mandatory insurance? I didn’t have time to find out but it sounds like a scam to me.
I arrived in Tbilisi at 4:30 a.m. and crawled into bed to snuggle my warm honey at 5:30. We chatted briefly and I fell asleep to be awakened at 11:40 with soft kisses. How great is that? There’s no place like home even when home is the Republic of Georgia!
Monday, January 11, 2010
Friday, January 1, 2010
New Years in Georgia
December 31 2009
It is a rainy day here and very dark and gray. Yesterday I asked Nino, our housekeeper to tell me about the traditions of the Georgian Christmas. (Thanks, Dana) I discovered that Georgians do not give gifts at Christmas (Jan 7th) but at New Years. Yikes, I thought to myself, Ron has been baking and freezing holiday bread to give to colleagues at work as well as Gia, our driver, Elza, our language teacher and Nino and Zura, Nino’s husband who does yard work for us. We had planned to give gift baskets with Ron’s raisin walnut rye bread, cranberry cookies I had baked and frozen, chocolate bars and cranberry candies both from Oregon. In addition we had some scented soaps and mixed nuts. Ron made bread last night and got up at 4:45 this morning to bake two loaves. This bread has to be baked inside a Dutch oven so it is one loaf at a time. I woke up at 5:00 and read in bed thinking surely I will fall back asleep. No such luck so after awhile I got up and joined Ron in the kitchen and made some coffee. We managed to put together five gift baskets before heading out to class. Ron will bake more bread this weekend and give his ‘gifts’ next week to his colleagues.
Back to the traditions here. Apparently New Year’s Eve and Day are a big deal here. Like at home it is a national holiday. And like at home, drinking is a big part of the celebration so driving here at night is worse than normal. We both have observed more erratic driving than normal during this season. It just gets crazier and crazier. Nino told me on Christmas Eve the devoted go to the churches and stay there all night until the next day around one o’clock in the afternoon. They do not eat, drink or sit for that period of time. I am too old for such traditions. She said her brother-in-law does this at Christmas. She said the churches are packed so those who chose not to stay all night go into the church Christmas day, light candles and leave as it is so crowded you can’t do anything else. There is literally no room. Georgians do have Christmas trees and have for a long time apparently. Nino grew up having a Christmas tree but she said they did not exchange gifts. Now gifts are more common but they are not given at Christmas and just on New Years and I think mostly this tradition is for the children. Nino said they put the gifts under the tree. Many Georgians now have artificial trees. One nursery I am aware of had real trees but they cost a small fortune, starting at over $100. I have spied some people selling small trees (some were branches mounted on a small piece of plywood) near the fresh markets but not large lots like we have in the US. Speaking of trees, there are no paper bags here at any of the stores. It is plastic or nothing. Small bakeries that make bread only either just hand you the bread with nothing or give you a piece of newspaper if the bread is hot. Some have plastic bags but I often see people carrying bread totally unwrapped or packaged in any way. Countries as old as Georgia have no forests left so paper is scarce and expensive. I could find no tissue paper for the baskets for example after trying several stores. I forgot to ask Nino about Jan 19th which is the Epiphany, another national holiday.
Wikipedia says:
Epiphany (from Koine Greek ἐπιφάνεια "appearance", "manifestation") is a Christian feast day which celebrates the revelation of God in human form in the person of Jesus Christ. It falls on January 6 or on a Sunday close to that date. January 6 in the Julian Calendar, which is followed by some Eastern Churches, corresponds at present to January 19 in the Gregorian Calendar, which is the official civil calendar in most countries. On this day, Western Christians commemorate principally the visitation of the Biblical Magi to the child Jesus, i.e., his manifestation to the Gentiles.
Ron and I have noticed a marked increase in the meat being sold on the street. We assume this is for the celebration of the New Year. Orthodox Christians however do not eat any animal products when fasting. Fasting started three weeks or so ago and will end the day after Christmas, Jan 8th. We have seen lots of small pigs minus their innards hanging from the stands set up near the fresh markets. The entire pig is bought and cooked whole we assume. Pork is a main meat source here. Although other meats are consumed: sheep and cows are other main meats. Georgians eat a lot of chicken and often they are sold with the feet and occasionally with the head. Yuck! Since these products are raised on small scale farms they do not endure the processing that we have in the US. So chickens are their natural color which is much more yellow than ours which have been bleached.
That sums up what I know about Georgian traditions for the Christmas season. So Ron will get off from work around 2:00 apparently when the ministry closes for the holiday. He was given two gallons of Georgian wine presented in plastic jugs. Glass is another rarity here. Most Georgians make homemade wine and chacha (vodka), and put it in plastic jugs. Since it is cold and rainy we will probably build a fire and call it a day. I will be cooking this afternoon as I leave for five days in Paris on Sunday. Ron is a competent cook but doesn’t usually bother when he is alone. Being the classic worry wart, I cook up a few meals that he can eat while I am away. I will meet my friend Andrea after she completes a Buddhist retreat outside of Paris. I am excited about seeing some great art while there. I don’t have anything else on my agenda but I am sure we will pack in a lot in the time we have. She got us a great room at a hotel in the heart of things.
Tomorrow Ron and I will probably do some more exploring in our neighborhood. If the weather is cooperating we want to try to find the lake that is on the other side of the ridge above us. I hope that our little funky movie house will be open and showing a good film. Our good friend James in Charlottesville read in the blog about the wooden seats and sent us tushie cushions! Yeah James! I think it will be a quiet weekend for us.
Ron got home at 1:30and said he was one of the last to leave the building. Gia came in with Ron and invited us to his home to meet the rest of his family tomorrow. So we will walk in the morning and go to Gia’s in the afternoon. What fun!
January 1 2010
We went to bed shortly before midnight but got up when the fireworks started about 11:50 and they continued until about 12:20. We are truly amazed. It was as though every one in Tbilisi had bought a large supply of fancy fireworks. The sky was filled in every direction yet this was not a ‘sponsored’ display but individuals shooting off sky rockets, etc. When you think about how expensive fireworks are and how poor most Georgians are it was even more impressive. They continue tonight but on a much smaller scale.
We slept in today and had a leisurely breakfast. Afterwards we decided to take our walk. It was another glorious day here with blue skies and bright sunshine. First we went down a street near us that we were curious about then headed up the hill to try to find the lake that we knew was somewhere over the ridge behind our house. On the way up we were looking over a fence to try to find the rushing water we could hear from the road. A car stopped behind us and it was our friends Mike and Cassandra from the Embassy. We had met them in DC when the four of us were at the security training that we were required to take. They were heading up to the lake and offered us a lift. The lake is quite large and beautiful. It was a mirror, not a ripple to be seen and offered a very calming effect. We must return with our camera. While Mike and Cassandra took a run on a trail, we walked along another trail for 30 minutes then met up and they gave us a ride home. As Mike was turning left onto our street, one of those crazy Georgian drivers tried to pass us on the left. Mike had his signal on. We came very close to a very bad accident.
We changed clothes and Gia picked us up at 1:00. On the way over to his place, a driver ran a red light and slammed on his brakes just in time to avoid hitting the car next to us which would have hit us if the accident had occurred. Another crazy Georgian driver. Gia’s apartment is located in a large building and his was on the top floor, I think it was the fourth or fifth floor. The central stairway was in very poor condition. The landings were tile and many of the tiles were broken or missing. The steps were rough concrete. Ron explained to me that people own the apartments but the common areas such as the stairway fall into a category of where there is no owner and consequently there is no maintenance. The apartment building were constructed in the soviet era where the state maintained the common areas. Once that went away, people were given title to the apartments, but there is no legal mechanism for making collective repairs to common areas like the outside of the building, the roof or common systems, like heat or electricity.
This is typical of what I have seen in other buildings. Inside he had a lovely home with beautiful wood floors. Tiko had prepared a supra, a feast. The table was set and filled with traditional dishes: chicken, chicken in walnut sauce, salmon, olives, vegetable salad, stuffed grape leaves, a plate of cheese, spinach with walnuts, chicken salad, eggplant with walnut sauce, bilini, several breads, chatchapuri (bread stuffed with a salty cheese), corn grits with walnut sauce, fresh fruit, and a plate with three or four dessert breads. They was more but this is all I can recall. Gia said she had been cooking for two days but it was the New Year’s tradition. She is a wonderful cook. I could have eaten all the bilini she had made. They are a thin pancake stuffed with meat and onion. Remember that those who fast eat no animal products so Tiko is fasting and their two daughters fast the traditional two days a week: Wednesday and Fridays. So much of this meal was for Gia and the two of us.
We met Gia’s family: his mother who lives with them, Sopo, the eldest at 15 years old, Salome who is 14 and Wako who is 10. I forgot to mention chacha was served (homemade vodka), homemade wine (red and white), champagne was offered, coke and water. Ron and I ate heartily but the others hardy ate at all. Later Gia got hungry and ate a bit. Tiko nibbled and ate the grits with the walnut sauce along with Gia’s mother.
It is a rainy day here and very dark and gray. Yesterday I asked Nino, our housekeeper to tell me about the traditions of the Georgian Christmas. (Thanks, Dana) I discovered that Georgians do not give gifts at Christmas (Jan 7th) but at New Years. Yikes, I thought to myself, Ron has been baking and freezing holiday bread to give to colleagues at work as well as Gia, our driver, Elza, our language teacher and Nino and Zura, Nino’s husband who does yard work for us. We had planned to give gift baskets with Ron’s raisin walnut rye bread, cranberry cookies I had baked and frozen, chocolate bars and cranberry candies both from Oregon. In addition we had some scented soaps and mixed nuts. Ron made bread last night and got up at 4:45 this morning to bake two loaves. This bread has to be baked inside a Dutch oven so it is one loaf at a time. I woke up at 5:00 and read in bed thinking surely I will fall back asleep. No such luck so after awhile I got up and joined Ron in the kitchen and made some coffee. We managed to put together five gift baskets before heading out to class. Ron will bake more bread this weekend and give his ‘gifts’ next week to his colleagues.
Back to the traditions here. Apparently New Year’s Eve and Day are a big deal here. Like at home it is a national holiday. And like at home, drinking is a big part of the celebration so driving here at night is worse than normal. We both have observed more erratic driving than normal during this season. It just gets crazier and crazier. Nino told me on Christmas Eve the devoted go to the churches and stay there all night until the next day around one o’clock in the afternoon. They do not eat, drink or sit for that period of time. I am too old for such traditions. She said her brother-in-law does this at Christmas. She said the churches are packed so those who chose not to stay all night go into the church Christmas day, light candles and leave as it is so crowded you can’t do anything else. There is literally no room. Georgians do have Christmas trees and have for a long time apparently. Nino grew up having a Christmas tree but she said they did not exchange gifts. Now gifts are more common but they are not given at Christmas and just on New Years and I think mostly this tradition is for the children. Nino said they put the gifts under the tree. Many Georgians now have artificial trees. One nursery I am aware of had real trees but they cost a small fortune, starting at over $100. I have spied some people selling small trees (some were branches mounted on a small piece of plywood) near the fresh markets but not large lots like we have in the US. Speaking of trees, there are no paper bags here at any of the stores. It is plastic or nothing. Small bakeries that make bread only either just hand you the bread with nothing or give you a piece of newspaper if the bread is hot. Some have plastic bags but I often see people carrying bread totally unwrapped or packaged in any way. Countries as old as Georgia have no forests left so paper is scarce and expensive. I could find no tissue paper for the baskets for example after trying several stores. I forgot to ask Nino about Jan 19th which is the Epiphany, another national holiday.
Wikipedia says:
Epiphany (from Koine Greek ἐπιφάνεια "appearance", "manifestation") is a Christian feast day which celebrates the revelation of God in human form in the person of Jesus Christ. It falls on January 6 or on a Sunday close to that date. January 6 in the Julian Calendar, which is followed by some Eastern Churches, corresponds at present to January 19 in the Gregorian Calendar, which is the official civil calendar in most countries. On this day, Western Christians commemorate principally the visitation of the Biblical Magi to the child Jesus, i.e., his manifestation to the Gentiles.
Ron and I have noticed a marked increase in the meat being sold on the street. We assume this is for the celebration of the New Year. Orthodox Christians however do not eat any animal products when fasting. Fasting started three weeks or so ago and will end the day after Christmas, Jan 8th. We have seen lots of small pigs minus their innards hanging from the stands set up near the fresh markets. The entire pig is bought and cooked whole we assume. Pork is a main meat source here. Although other meats are consumed: sheep and cows are other main meats. Georgians eat a lot of chicken and often they are sold with the feet and occasionally with the head. Yuck! Since these products are raised on small scale farms they do not endure the processing that we have in the US. So chickens are their natural color which is much more yellow than ours which have been bleached.
That sums up what I know about Georgian traditions for the Christmas season. So Ron will get off from work around 2:00 apparently when the ministry closes for the holiday. He was given two gallons of Georgian wine presented in plastic jugs. Glass is another rarity here. Most Georgians make homemade wine and chacha (vodka), and put it in plastic jugs. Since it is cold and rainy we will probably build a fire and call it a day. I will be cooking this afternoon as I leave for five days in Paris on Sunday. Ron is a competent cook but doesn’t usually bother when he is alone. Being the classic worry wart, I cook up a few meals that he can eat while I am away. I will meet my friend Andrea after she completes a Buddhist retreat outside of Paris. I am excited about seeing some great art while there. I don’t have anything else on my agenda but I am sure we will pack in a lot in the time we have. She got us a great room at a hotel in the heart of things.
Tomorrow Ron and I will probably do some more exploring in our neighborhood. If the weather is cooperating we want to try to find the lake that is on the other side of the ridge above us. I hope that our little funky movie house will be open and showing a good film. Our good friend James in Charlottesville read in the blog about the wooden seats and sent us tushie cushions! Yeah James! I think it will be a quiet weekend for us.
Ron got home at 1:30and said he was one of the last to leave the building. Gia came in with Ron and invited us to his home to meet the rest of his family tomorrow. So we will walk in the morning and go to Gia’s in the afternoon. What fun!
January 1 2010
We went to bed shortly before midnight but got up when the fireworks started about 11:50 and they continued until about 12:20. We are truly amazed. It was as though every one in Tbilisi had bought a large supply of fancy fireworks. The sky was filled in every direction yet this was not a ‘sponsored’ display but individuals shooting off sky rockets, etc. When you think about how expensive fireworks are and how poor most Georgians are it was even more impressive. They continue tonight but on a much smaller scale.
We slept in today and had a leisurely breakfast. Afterwards we decided to take our walk. It was another glorious day here with blue skies and bright sunshine. First we went down a street near us that we were curious about then headed up the hill to try to find the lake that we knew was somewhere over the ridge behind our house. On the way up we were looking over a fence to try to find the rushing water we could hear from the road. A car stopped behind us and it was our friends Mike and Cassandra from the Embassy. We had met them in DC when the four of us were at the security training that we were required to take. They were heading up to the lake and offered us a lift. The lake is quite large and beautiful. It was a mirror, not a ripple to be seen and offered a very calming effect. We must return with our camera. While Mike and Cassandra took a run on a trail, we walked along another trail for 30 minutes then met up and they gave us a ride home. As Mike was turning left onto our street, one of those crazy Georgian drivers tried to pass us on the left. Mike had his signal on. We came very close to a very bad accident.
We changed clothes and Gia picked us up at 1:00. On the way over to his place, a driver ran a red light and slammed on his brakes just in time to avoid hitting the car next to us which would have hit us if the accident had occurred. Another crazy Georgian driver. Gia’s apartment is located in a large building and his was on the top floor, I think it was the fourth or fifth floor. The central stairway was in very poor condition. The landings were tile and many of the tiles were broken or missing. The steps were rough concrete. Ron explained to me that people own the apartments but the common areas such as the stairway fall into a category of where there is no owner and consequently there is no maintenance. The apartment building were constructed in the soviet era where the state maintained the common areas. Once that went away, people were given title to the apartments, but there is no legal mechanism for making collective repairs to common areas like the outside of the building, the roof or common systems, like heat or electricity.
We met Gia’s family: his mother who lives with them, Sopo, the eldest at 15 years old, Salome who is 14 and Wako who is 10. I forgot to mention chacha was served (homemade vodka), homemade wine (red and white), champagne was offered, coke and water. Ron and I ate heartily but the others hardy ate at all. Later Gia got hungry and ate a bit. Tiko nibbled and ate the grits with the walnut sauce along with Gia’s mother.
Sopa speaks perfect English and it an extremely articulate and bright young woman. She actually talked to us the entire evening. Wako, their son relaxed after a bit and once he got going he couldn’t contain himself. He had a million questions. He had us all laughing throughout the day and evening. Sopa talked about art, literature and geography and was knowledgeable about every subject she introduced. We were blown away. We found out later that all three children are in a private school and study English 8 hours a week. .
While we were there, three cousins came over and their mother who is Gia’s brother’s wife. I should mention that Gia is always serious with us and rarely cracks a smile. A couple of times he has laughed but it is rare. It was such a delight to see him with his family in his environment and see him relaxed. The funniest thing that happened was when Ron was taking Gia’s photograph, he asked Gia to smile. Gia looked at the camera and said with his usual straight face ‘ha ha’ then burst out laughing having cracked himself up. Ron caught it so you can see Gia smiling. I couldn’t stop laughing. All in all we had a wonderful time with Gia and his family. His children are so sweet and delightful. Ron and I told Gia that today was the highlight of our time in Georgia. We were quite touched by the whole experience. We left at 7:00 after having arrived around 1:20 or so.
Sunday, December 27, 2009
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.
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.
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.
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.
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Friday Dec 19 2009
After our language class that ended at 2:30 we went shopping for a light fixture for hanging over the dining table. We tried a different shop and didn’t see anything we liked. Choices are limited here and of what is available many are butt ugly! So we went back to the shop we went to last Friday and discovered our light fixture was on sale plus we got to use the dip card so we got a 40% markdown between the two. We came home and hung out for awhile then went out to eat at a new restaurant we had heard about. We took a taxi to Vong, an Asian fusion restaurant. It was a very sophisticated décor, very subtle and understated. We were THRILLED to discover they had a no smoking section! A first here for us. We ordered a Thai chicken soup. I had salmon as my entrée and Ron had a balsamic steak with spinach sautéed with fresh ginger. I thought I had died and gone to heaven. It was every bit as good as anything we have had at the good restaurants in Portland. I was so excited to have such a fine meal, I suggested we split a dessert: fried bananas with caramel sauce and vanilla ice cream. YUM! Afterwards we walked around the neighborhood to see what was there and discovered several more restaurants that looked good (Mexican, French and Italian). Vong was very expensive for Georgia and about the same as a good restaurant in the US. But it was worth every penney! We will definitely return.
We finally got our tickets for our trip back to the US in March. It turns out we will not be able to go to the east coast to see our kids due to a travel restriction with the feds. Bummer. Treasury bought Ron’s ticket and we got online immediately for my ticket. My ticket cost $1500 and his costs almost twice as much. His has all the options to change and cancel with no penalty plus his cost more because it is handled by a travel agency that has a contract with the Feds. Lucky me is all I can say to get the ticket for $1500. I am going to Paris in January and my ticket cost $660. Paris is three hours away. When you compare that to what I am paying to go to the US it is an outrageous amount but guess what ? It is the cheapest ticket available and it will take me 15 hrs to get to Paris. If I took a shorter flight without the 8 hour layover in Minsk, the price jumps to $1200 and goes up to $2400 for the three hour flight.
Saturday
Today we went on a three hour walking tour of Tbilisi. A woman named Marika lead the tour and lucky for us we were the only people on the tour. The weather was spectacular, sunny and almost warm. We started at Freedom Square and worked our way through old town, seeing the remnants of the original city wall. There was a statue along the way (there are statues all over Tbilisi) and there were two older women sitting next to the statue. We asked if we could take their photos and they agreed if we would send them a copy. We agreed to bring them a copy as we learned they are there every Sunday. They were delightful. One was resistant as she didn’t think she was dressed well enough.
We visited the National Museum which is under renovation but there were two exhibitions. One was embroidered icons done by a man. There were exquisite. They take 3-7 months to make depending on the size. The colors were so vivid and the detail was incredible. I would love to own one but doubt that I could even approach affording one. We met the artist and asked our guide to tell him how much we enjoyed seeing his work. The other exhibit was archeological finds from Tbilisi. There were some wonderful pieces from the 3rd century B.C. We went to the oldest cathedral in Tbilisi, 6th century. During the Soviet era, all the frescos were plastered over and they turned this cathedral into a museum of atheism! What the hell would that look like? We are one strange species. We also went to a mosque and Marika said during the Soviet times they turned one of the mosques into living quarters and her relatives lived in one. She said, ‘Imagine having ceilings seven meters high’. We also passed two synagogues. She said there has never been a problem with the different religions here. I told her the rest of the world has much to learn about tolerance and perhaps Georgians could teach lessons. We ended up at the mineral baths. The Georgian word for warm is tbili which is where Tbilisi gets its name. The story of the discovery of Tbilisi is that the king was hunting and shot a pheasant and when he found the pheasant it had fallen into a warm spring and was fully cooked when the king arrived. Sounds like an urban myth to us.
After our language class that ended at 2:30 we went shopping for a light fixture for hanging over the dining table. We tried a different shop and didn’t see anything we liked. Choices are limited here and of what is available many are butt ugly! So we went back to the shop we went to last Friday and discovered our light fixture was on sale plus we got to use the dip card so we got a 40% markdown between the two. We came home and hung out for awhile then went out to eat at a new restaurant we had heard about. We took a taxi to Vong, an Asian fusion restaurant. It was a very sophisticated décor, very subtle and understated. We were THRILLED to discover they had a no smoking section! A first here for us. We ordered a Thai chicken soup. I had salmon as my entrée and Ron had a balsamic steak with spinach sautéed with fresh ginger. I thought I had died and gone to heaven. It was every bit as good as anything we have had at the good restaurants in Portland. I was so excited to have such a fine meal, I suggested we split a dessert: fried bananas with caramel sauce and vanilla ice cream. YUM! Afterwards we walked around the neighborhood to see what was there and discovered several more restaurants that looked good (Mexican, French and Italian). Vong was very expensive for Georgia and about the same as a good restaurant in the US. But it was worth every penney! We will definitely return.
We finally got our tickets for our trip back to the US in March. It turns out we will not be able to go to the east coast to see our kids due to a travel restriction with the feds. Bummer. Treasury bought Ron’s ticket and we got online immediately for my ticket. My ticket cost $1500 and his costs almost twice as much. His has all the options to change and cancel with no penalty plus his cost more because it is handled by a travel agency that has a contract with the Feds. Lucky me is all I can say to get the ticket for $1500. I am going to Paris in January and my ticket cost $660. Paris is three hours away. When you compare that to what I am paying to go to the US it is an outrageous amount but guess what ? It is the cheapest ticket available and it will take me 15 hrs to get to Paris. If I took a shorter flight without the 8 hour layover in Minsk, the price jumps to $1200 and goes up to $2400 for the three hour flight.
Saturday
We had planned to go to the flea market. We spent the morning around the house. Ron is baking his wonderful rye/raisin/walnut bread for Christmas gifts. By the time he was finished, it had started raining so we built a fire and studied for our language class. The sun came out around 3:00 so we walked to the grocery store and then to the stationery store and came home a new way, discovering another good grocery store but because it isn’t a chain., we doubt that they would take the dip card which saves us 18% VAT (value added tax). It would be a good choice if we only need a few items. We watched a DVD of an Israeli film in the evening.
Sunday
Today we went on a three hour walking tour of Tbilisi. A woman named Marika lead the tour and lucky for us we were the only people on the tour. The weather was spectacular, sunny and almost warm. We started at Freedom Square and worked our way through old town, seeing the remnants of the original city wall. There was a statue along the way (there are statues all over Tbilisi) and there were two older women sitting next to the statue. We asked if we could take their photos and they agreed if we would send them a copy. We agreed to bring them a copy as we learned they are there every Sunday. They were delightful. One was resistant as she didn’t think she was dressed well enough.We learned about the civil war in the early 1990’s which lasted two weeks in Tbilisi only. It started the last week of December and ended two weeks later so they say the war was in 1991-92. There was an opposition to the first president (Georgia gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991) and the war was a result of the opposition wanting the president to resign. Apparently much of Tbilisi was damaged or destroyed in that two week period. The current Marriot was riddled with bullet holes at the time. This is when the Betsy Hotel came into being as there was no place for visiting dignitaries to stay in the downtown area. She owned a large house and offered to have people stay there. The current Betsy Hotel is in a different building and Betsy no longer owns it although she can be seen there frequently.
We visited the National Museum which is under renovation but there were two exhibitions. One was embroidered icons done by a man. There were exquisite. They take 3-7 months to make depending on the size. The colors were so vivid and the detail was incredible. I would love to own one but doubt that I could even approach affording one. We met the artist and asked our guide to tell him how much we enjoyed seeing his work. The other exhibit was archeological finds from Tbilisi. There were some wonderful pieces from the 3rd century B.C. We went to the oldest cathedral in Tbilisi, 6th century. During the Soviet era, all the frescos were plastered over and they turned this cathedral into a museum of atheism! What the hell would that look like? We are one strange species. We also went to a mosque and Marika said during the Soviet times they turned one of the mosques into living quarters and her relatives lived in one. She said, ‘Imagine having ceilings seven meters high’. We also passed two synagogues. She said there has never been a problem with the different religions here. I told her the rest of the world has much to learn about tolerance and perhaps Georgians could teach lessons. We ended up at the mineral baths. The Georgian word for warm is tbili which is where Tbilisi gets its name. The story of the discovery of Tbilisi is that the king was hunting and shot a pheasant and when he found the pheasant it had fallen into a warm spring and was fully cooked when the king arrived. Sounds like an urban myth to us.
After our tour, we grabbed a bite at Entrée, a French eatery along Rustavili Blvd. There is a lot of street art along this road.. My feet were way tired and I needed to sit for a while. Well after a light bite, I thought we should indulge since we were in this wonderful bakery with all those yummy French pastries so we split a chocolate tart/cake like thing that was too good to be true. On the way home, we saw a good view of the Caucus Mountains covered with snow. We took the subway back to home and I have been resting ever since. Ron is downstairs baking more bread for Christmas gifts. He will now have four in the freezer and have four more to go. Since Christmas isn’t until January 7th, I think he will make it.
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!
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!
Saturday, December 12, 2009
How Bazaar
December 6, 2009
Today is Sunday. Friday night Ron and I went to the Sheraton to help IWA oversee the set up for our bazaar. We came home around 10:00 p.m. On Saturday I left the house at 6:45 a.m. and went to the Sheraton to help vendors, and Embassies unload and direct them to their tables. All the Embassies in town participated. They sold items from their respective countries, including food items. There were probably close to 100 other vendors who sold everything under the sun that was craft related: lots of items made from felt which is huge here, prints of paintings, typical Georgian souvenirs, quilts (we almost bought one but realized it was too small for a queen bed), jewelry, enamel which is also huge here, hand made clothing, rugs, ceramics and the like. In addition, a number of Embassies held a food court so participants could sample foods from around the world. The sushi was gone is a flash! The only food vendor left after 4:00 was the Georgian vendor and she endured until the end at 6:00. Ron and I bought two prints from a painter and a beautiful huge panoramic photograph of Svaneti in the Caucasus region. I bought some orange marmalade from the British Embassy, a print from Bridie, an IWA member who paints beautiful watercolors. I got some hyacinth bulbs from the Dutch Design Garden table and I treated myself to an amber necklace.
Ron helped with counting the money along with several other men who had volunteered or had been volunteered by their wives. There were four shifts and Ron helped to two of them and stayed until the end around 9:30. I was on the collecting detail so Mikki and I went to each food vendor at 12, 2, 4 and 6 to collect their money. All the Embassy food vendors donated money to the IWA as well as the Embassies once they covered their expenses. The vendors simply paid for table space. We took in something like 67,000 lari. I think that is around $54,000. This money will be used to help various individuals in need here. As an example I think I already mentioned a three year old girl who needs a cochlear implant and two years of hearing and speech therapy. IWA will be helping to pay for her expenses. We got home, bleary eyed and very weary and heated some leftovers, eating dinner at 10:00p.m. before taking hot bath and falling into bed.
This morning we woke up and didn’t move for a while. Around 8:00 we got up and had breakfast then I went back to bed to finish my book and take a nap. Ron woke me up around noon and we had lunch with his freshly baked loaf of caraway rye. Yum. We took the subway to the bazaar where you can buy anything. It is a rabbit warren of a place, crowded little passageways with thousands of tiny stalls about two people wide and one and half deep. The clothes section has clothes hung high and items can be retrieved using a pole with a hook on the end. It is totally claustrophobic. Ninety percent of the clothes and shoes are…black. We decided to try some of the coffee here so bought a small amount and will grind it in the morning and see what we think. I am pretty sure I will not be able to find decaf here much less Swiss water process decaf. What a fantasy that is! We also bought some thread and we bought oats, hoping they are not quick cooking oats. We will know when I make the next batch of granola. Our last purchase was some small drinking glasses that we will use as traditional Georgian wine glasses. Things at the bazaar are cheaper than in the stores but some things I can’t find in the stores so the bazaar is the only alternative. There is also a lot of junk at the bazaar, low quality goods. Because of the crowded conditions and the low quality it is not a place where I would bother to shop on a regular basis. We were curious to explore it and today we felt contented to have meandered through and bought the items we had not been able to find anywhere else. On our way home from the subway we passed by a vegetable stand where we have shopped twice. After we passed by it the owner came outside and yelled ‘friend’, I turned and realized he was pointing to Ron so I told Ron to stop and turn around. He walked back a few steps to the shop and he was invited in to join the men in a round of drinks (homemade) wine. This is a perfect example of the Georgian hospitality. Ron drank a small glass and we were on our way. None of the Georgian spoke English which made the gesture all the more charming.
Friday Dec 11
Happy Chanukah!
I ground the coffee we bought at the bazaar and won’t bother again. Thank goodness for the internet! As for the oats, apparently we left them on the counter at the bazaar because we couldn’t find them once we got home.
I have started paying more attention to how Georgians drive. Elza, our language teacher said Georgian love their cars so much that the word for cars is considered an animate object as opposed to an inanimate object which determines verb usage. That in itself is an interesting fact. This week I observed two lanes of traffic heading in the same direction stopped at a red light. A driver went to the left of the car in the left lane so that he was actually over the mid road line and into the oncoming traffic lane. Since two lanes of traffic to his right were stopped for the light, he turned in front on them to the right!!!!!! I have seen that happen several times since then. Near our house is a complicated intersection and I am always mystified as to how it is supposed to be negotiated. On Sunday when we were trying to cross the street with the light in our favor I discovered that cars that want to turn left against opposing traffic would get in the lane next to the driver in the left lane creating a lane that doesn’t exist and turn left against a red light since the opposing traffic is stopped. I hope that makes sense. What is means is that as a pedestrian even with the light in our favor, we can get killed by a ‘creative’ driver. Gia told us the story of an American who had lived here for several years and drove his own car. You apparently have to drive like a Georgian to survive here. The American has over $800 in traffic tickets from when he last went home and drove in America. That should give you an idea of how Georgians totally disregard the rules of the road as we know them.
I had two forays with Lala into looking for fabric for tablecloths. We ultimately found something quite suitable very near our house after spending five hours searching. It is a high end store that caters to upper income folks and carries expensive bedding, curtains, bath towels and the like. We were delighted to end the search and happy with the find. Lala had done some looking on her own and had spied the fabric earlier in the week.
Yesterday when I was out running errands with Gia I noticed the hills around town are dusted with snow. So far none has fallen in the valley where Tbilisi is located. We took in 13 enlarged photos to be framed this week. These are photos that Ron had taken when we visited the botanical gardens earlier in November. The house is big and most of the walls are bare. The quote for 15 pieces (we had two prints to be framed also) was 179 lari which is $107. We couldn’t believe it and we were told they would be ready by 2:00 the next day. Well you get what you pay for. The mats are a little thinner than ours, I think. The frames although they look like wood are plastic and the backing is primitive with string that is stapled to the frame. But they serve the purpose of filling our walls with beautiful photos so I am not complaining.
Today is Sunday. Friday night Ron and I went to the Sheraton to help IWA oversee the set up for our bazaar. We came home around 10:00 p.m. On Saturday I left the house at 6:45 a.m. and went to the Sheraton to help vendors, and Embassies unload and direct them to their tables. All the Embassies in town participated. They sold items from their respective countries, including food items. There were probably close to 100 other vendors who sold everything under the sun that was craft related: lots of items made from felt which is huge here, prints of paintings, typical Georgian souvenirs, quilts (we almost bought one but realized it was too small for a queen bed), jewelry, enamel which is also huge here, hand made clothing, rugs, ceramics and the like. In addition, a number of Embassies held a food court so participants could sample foods from around the world. The sushi was gone is a flash! The only food vendor left after 4:00 was the Georgian vendor and she endured until the end at 6:00. Ron and I bought two prints from a painter and a beautiful huge panoramic photograph of Svaneti in the Caucasus region. I bought some orange marmalade from the British Embassy, a print from Bridie, an IWA member who paints beautiful watercolors. I got some hyacinth bulbs from the Dutch Design Garden table and I treated myself to an amber necklace.
Ron helped with counting the money along with several other men who had volunteered or had been volunteered by their wives. There were four shifts and Ron helped to two of them and stayed until the end around 9:30. I was on the collecting detail so Mikki and I went to each food vendor at 12, 2, 4 and 6 to collect their money. All the Embassy food vendors donated money to the IWA as well as the Embassies once they covered their expenses. The vendors simply paid for table space. We took in something like 67,000 lari. I think that is around $54,000. This money will be used to help various individuals in need here. As an example I think I already mentioned a three year old girl who needs a cochlear implant and two years of hearing and speech therapy. IWA will be helping to pay for her expenses. We got home, bleary eyed and very weary and heated some leftovers, eating dinner at 10:00p.m. before taking hot bath and falling into bed.
This morning we woke up and didn’t move for a while. Around 8:00 we got up and had breakfast then I went back to bed to finish my book and take a nap. Ron woke me up around noon and we had lunch with his freshly baked loaf of caraway rye. Yum. We took the subway to the bazaar where you can buy anything. It is a rabbit warren of a place, crowded little passageways with thousands of tiny stalls about two people wide and one and half deep. The clothes section has clothes hung high and items can be retrieved using a pole with a hook on the end. It is totally claustrophobic. Ninety percent of the clothes and shoes are…black. We decided to try some of the coffee here so bought a small amount and will grind it in the morning and see what we think. I am pretty sure I will not be able to find decaf here much less Swiss water process decaf. What a fantasy that is! We also bought some thread and we bought oats, hoping they are not quick cooking oats. We will know when I make the next batch of granola. Our last purchase was some small drinking glasses that we will use as traditional Georgian wine glasses. Things at the bazaar are cheaper than in the stores but some things I can’t find in the stores so the bazaar is the only alternative. There is also a lot of junk at the bazaar, low quality goods. Because of the crowded conditions and the low quality it is not a place where I would bother to shop on a regular basis. We were curious to explore it and today we felt contented to have meandered through and bought the items we had not been able to find anywhere else. On our way home from the subway we passed by a vegetable stand where we have shopped twice. After we passed by it the owner came outside and yelled ‘friend’, I turned and realized he was pointing to Ron so I told Ron to stop and turn around. He walked back a few steps to the shop and he was invited in to join the men in a round of drinks (homemade) wine. This is a perfect example of the Georgian hospitality. Ron drank a small glass and we were on our way. None of the Georgian spoke English which made the gesture all the more charming.
Friday Dec 11
Happy Chanukah!
I ground the coffee we bought at the bazaar and won’t bother again. Thank goodness for the internet! As for the oats, apparently we left them on the counter at the bazaar because we couldn’t find them once we got home.
I have started paying more attention to how Georgians drive. Elza, our language teacher said Georgian love their cars so much that the word for cars is considered an animate object as opposed to an inanimate object which determines verb usage. That in itself is an interesting fact. This week I observed two lanes of traffic heading in the same direction stopped at a red light. A driver went to the left of the car in the left lane so that he was actually over the mid road line and into the oncoming traffic lane. Since two lanes of traffic to his right were stopped for the light, he turned in front on them to the right!!!!!! I have seen that happen several times since then. Near our house is a complicated intersection and I am always mystified as to how it is supposed to be negotiated. On Sunday when we were trying to cross the street with the light in our favor I discovered that cars that want to turn left against opposing traffic would get in the lane next to the driver in the left lane creating a lane that doesn’t exist and turn left against a red light since the opposing traffic is stopped. I hope that makes sense. What is means is that as a pedestrian even with the light in our favor, we can get killed by a ‘creative’ driver. Gia told us the story of an American who had lived here for several years and drove his own car. You apparently have to drive like a Georgian to survive here. The American has over $800 in traffic tickets from when he last went home and drove in America. That should give you an idea of how Georgians totally disregard the rules of the road as we know them.
I had two forays with Lala into looking for fabric for tablecloths. We ultimately found something quite suitable very near our house after spending five hours searching. It is a high end store that caters to upper income folks and carries expensive bedding, curtains, bath towels and the like. We were delighted to end the search and happy with the find. Lala had done some looking on her own and had spied the fabric earlier in the week.
Yesterday when I was out running errands with Gia I noticed the hills around town are dusted with snow. So far none has fallen in the valley where Tbilisi is located. We took in 13 enlarged photos to be framed this week. These are photos that Ron had taken when we visited the botanical gardens earlier in November. The house is big and most of the walls are bare. The quote for 15 pieces (we had two prints to be framed also) was 179 lari which is $107. We couldn’t believe it and we were told they would be ready by 2:00 the next day. Well you get what you pay for. The mats are a little thinner than ours, I think. The frames although they look like wood are plastic and the backing is primitive with string that is stapled to the frame. But they serve the purpose of filling our walls with beautiful photos so I am not complaining.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
sick, sicker, better, and a relapse
Nov 29 2009
Tomorrow is our 24th anniversary! How did that happen? Just the other day we were kids, sort of…it was a busy week. Monday was a Georgian holiday. We had lunch with our neighbors, Joakim and Ireni who live quite close by. Yoakim works for USAID and he is from CA. His wife is Georgian. Laurie and Jock Conly were also there. It was a beautiful sunny day and we had a Georgian feast with many delicious dishes.
On Thursday we had a traditional Thanksgiving dinner at the Culpeppers. There were 20 of us present and I can remember six Americans and I think the rest were from Great Britain who thought it was a great tradition to have a day of thanks. Patty’s dinner was delightful as always.
We only had one language lesson as the two holidays were on our language days. On Friday we had our traditional Friday night date: dinner and a movie. We walked to our neighborhood Italian place. We had eaten there once before and after our second meal decided it wasn’t that great. We then took the subway to town and saw Inglorious Bastards. I asked to come home in a taxi as I discovered on Friday after a visit to the medical clinic at the Embassy that I had bronchitis. I got some heavy duty drugs and will return on Monday to see how I am doing. We want to avoid pneumonia at all costs. Saturday I had no energy so I stayed in bed the entire day. Ron made the meals and did the clean up. You can see why I am still married after 24 years with a man like that! I am not sure if it was the codeine cough syrup or just fatigue but I slept a lot in between reading my book. The contractor came and hung our new wooden blinds and they really dress up the place. They were very efficient and were done within a couple of hours. I was supposed to staff a concession to earn money for IWA on Saturday night but had to cancel when I realized there was no way I could go out and stand up for an hour. Ron had an invitation to a Georgian dance performance which he said was incredible with about 50 dancers at times on stage. He said the crowd was like rock fans: yelling, whistling and applauding during the performance.
Today I felt much better so after lunch we headed out for carpet shopping. It was our third day in a row of sunshine and I have to admit I LOVE sun in the fall and winter. We took a taxi to Old Town where we had visited a particular shop before during a lecture/tour a few weeks ago. We managed to buy four carpets: two small ones for each side of our beds, one for the bedroom and one for the living room. We were quite pleased with our finds and the price.
From here we walked to the main town square and took a taxi to La Maison Bleue Studio, a decorative textile shop with wall hangings, scarves, etc. We found a wall hanging we liked which has a quote from a famous Georgian poet Shota Rustaveli in The Panther's Skin: "Kindness triumphs over cruelty always. The person without intimacy is his own enemy". We will hang it over the mantel. From here we came home and rested and studied our Georgian. I do not feel prepared for tomorrow but that’s the way it goes some days.
Monday November 30
We managed to get through our language class with no great disaster. The physician’s assistant said my lungs were better and continue to take it easy and that I that need any more antibiotics as I was on the mend. Yeah!
I came home to help Nino order some clothes online then headed over to Patty’s where a group of IWA women were working on Saturday’s big bazaar. We worked the rest of the day and I left when it was time to pick up Ron after work. We came home for an hour or so and then headed out to celebrate 24 years of marital bliss. We tried a new restaurant and it was in Old Town. We dined at 24 Rue Chardin and had a great meal. We came home and stayed up too late working on our computers.
Tuesday
Today Lala came over and we took a taxi to a part of town where there are fabric stores. The traffic was very bad so we got out of the taxi and started walking. We stopped in several shops and found one that had linen for the tablecloths she will make for us. However they only had a very dark almost black color so we decided to look at the bazaar which was close by. We discovered why the traffic was backed up when we saw a pedestrian lying in the street who had been killed by a reckless driver. This place is worse than Sri Lanka when it comes to a disregard for pedestrians. As I mentioned earlier in a blog, the color of the traffic light means nothing, pedestrian walkways means nothing. You take your life into your hands when you cross a street here. The body was covered and there were many policemen around to direct traffic.
We proceeded to the bazaar and visited several vendors. Shopping here is a trail as each place we visited did not have enough material, the right color or the right weight of material for our needs. Once again I am reminded of the abundance we enjoy in the US. Not so in developing countries. None of the fabric is wide enough for a tablecloth so Lala will piece it so it will have a nice drape over the edge of the table. Tomorrow she will call to see if this one vendor can get the quantity of material we liked and I will go back on the subway to buy it. Lala lives an hour out of town and tomorrow is her day to stay home and sew. I am supposed to go to a Christmas party for IWA but am not sure I will be able to as Gia is tied up with Ron’s meetings and the party is some distance out of town. Most of the shops were without electricity today and we haven’t even had bad weather yet. I saw several small generators outside of some others shops. I can hardly imagine what it will be like once we get storms or snow.
Today I was trying to finish up an online order for Nino when I discovered I have no phone service and of course no internet so I called the Embassy who in turn calls the phone company who in turn calls here and speaks Georgian as I dumbly mumble that I only speak English. But the phones are now working so I hope I get internet soon. I never remember having this much trouble with phones and internet as we have here. I looked and found I had 13 emails in my outbox. Oy! Surely I will learn patience here.
I didn’t sleep well last night so I am coughing more today than yesterday. I get pretty impatient with myself and want to be well yesterday! It is a busy week because of what needs to get done for the bazaar. IWA sponsors the bazaar and all the Embassies participate. They sell items and give IWA all the proceeds after they take out expenses. IWA also has a raffle, a used book sale and a white elephant sale. Because we did not sell all the holiday decorations and crafts at the open house we will also sell those at the bazaar. Most of the money comes from table sales and proceeds from the embassies. Apparently many artisans participate and over 1000 people attend this event. All the money raised by IWA goes to community needs, often to individuals who fall through the cracks of social service agencies. This year we will help a three year old girl get a cochlear implant and the follow up therapy she will need to learn to hear and speak. Before I arrived IWA helped two people get prosthesis.
Tomorrow is our 24th anniversary! How did that happen? Just the other day we were kids, sort of…it was a busy week. Monday was a Georgian holiday. We had lunch with our neighbors, Joakim and Ireni who live quite close by. Yoakim works for USAID and he is from CA. His wife is Georgian. Laurie and Jock Conly were also there. It was a beautiful sunny day and we had a Georgian feast with many delicious dishes.
On Thursday we had a traditional Thanksgiving dinner at the Culpeppers. There were 20 of us present and I can remember six Americans and I think the rest were from Great Britain who thought it was a great tradition to have a day of thanks. Patty’s dinner was delightful as always.
We only had one language lesson as the two holidays were on our language days. On Friday we had our traditional Friday night date: dinner and a movie. We walked to our neighborhood Italian place. We had eaten there once before and after our second meal decided it wasn’t that great. We then took the subway to town and saw Inglorious Bastards. I asked to come home in a taxi as I discovered on Friday after a visit to the medical clinic at the Embassy that I had bronchitis. I got some heavy duty drugs and will return on Monday to see how I am doing. We want to avoid pneumonia at all costs. Saturday I had no energy so I stayed in bed the entire day. Ron made the meals and did the clean up. You can see why I am still married after 24 years with a man like that! I am not sure if it was the codeine cough syrup or just fatigue but I slept a lot in between reading my book. The contractor came and hung our new wooden blinds and they really dress up the place. They were very efficient and were done within a couple of hours. I was supposed to staff a concession to earn money for IWA on Saturday night but had to cancel when I realized there was no way I could go out and stand up for an hour. Ron had an invitation to a Georgian dance performance which he said was incredible with about 50 dancers at times on stage. He said the crowd was like rock fans: yelling, whistling and applauding during the performance.
Today I felt much better so after lunch we headed out for carpet shopping. It was our third day in a row of sunshine and I have to admit I LOVE sun in the fall and winter. We took a taxi to Old Town where we had visited a particular shop before during a lecture/tour a few weeks ago. We managed to buy four carpets: two small ones for each side of our beds, one for the bedroom and one for the living room. We were quite pleased with our finds and the price.
Monday November 30
We managed to get through our language class with no great disaster. The physician’s assistant said my lungs were better and continue to take it easy and that I that need any more antibiotics as I was on the mend. Yeah!
I came home to help Nino order some clothes online then headed over to Patty’s where a group of IWA women were working on Saturday’s big bazaar. We worked the rest of the day and I left when it was time to pick up Ron after work. We came home for an hour or so and then headed out to celebrate 24 years of marital bliss. We tried a new restaurant and it was in Old Town. We dined at 24 Rue Chardin and had a great meal. We came home and stayed up too late working on our computers.
Tuesday
Today Lala came over and we took a taxi to a part of town where there are fabric stores. The traffic was very bad so we got out of the taxi and started walking. We stopped in several shops and found one that had linen for the tablecloths she will make for us. However they only had a very dark almost black color so we decided to look at the bazaar which was close by. We discovered why the traffic was backed up when we saw a pedestrian lying in the street who had been killed by a reckless driver. This place is worse than Sri Lanka when it comes to a disregard for pedestrians. As I mentioned earlier in a blog, the color of the traffic light means nothing, pedestrian walkways means nothing. You take your life into your hands when you cross a street here. The body was covered and there were many policemen around to direct traffic.
We proceeded to the bazaar and visited several vendors. Shopping here is a trail as each place we visited did not have enough material, the right color or the right weight of material for our needs. Once again I am reminded of the abundance we enjoy in the US. Not so in developing countries. None of the fabric is wide enough for a tablecloth so Lala will piece it so it will have a nice drape over the edge of the table. Tomorrow she will call to see if this one vendor can get the quantity of material we liked and I will go back on the subway to buy it. Lala lives an hour out of town and tomorrow is her day to stay home and sew. I am supposed to go to a Christmas party for IWA but am not sure I will be able to as Gia is tied up with Ron’s meetings and the party is some distance out of town. Most of the shops were without electricity today and we haven’t even had bad weather yet. I saw several small generators outside of some others shops. I can hardly imagine what it will be like once we get storms or snow.
Today I was trying to finish up an online order for Nino when I discovered I have no phone service and of course no internet so I called the Embassy who in turn calls the phone company who in turn calls here and speaks Georgian as I dumbly mumble that I only speak English. But the phones are now working so I hope I get internet soon. I never remember having this much trouble with phones and internet as we have here. I looked and found I had 13 emails in my outbox. Oy! Surely I will learn patience here.
I didn’t sleep well last night so I am coughing more today than yesterday. I get pretty impatient with myself and want to be well yesterday! It is a busy week because of what needs to get done for the bazaar. IWA sponsors the bazaar and all the Embassies participate. They sell items and give IWA all the proceeds after they take out expenses. IWA also has a raffle, a used book sale and a white elephant sale. Because we did not sell all the holiday decorations and crafts at the open house we will also sell those at the bazaar. Most of the money comes from table sales and proceeds from the embassies. Apparently many artisans participate and over 1000 people attend this event. All the money raised by IWA goes to community needs, often to individuals who fall through the cracks of social service agencies. This year we will help a three year old girl get a cochlear implant and the follow up therapy she will need to learn to hear and speak. Before I arrived IWA helped two people get prosthesis.
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