Village Living.

gamarjoba!

It’s officially been a week since I moved to the village of Apeni, Georgia!! Like my last post suggests, life is definitely different in a small rural village compared to anything else I’ve ever experienced.  The weather has been warm and sunny (about 90 degrees everyday) and my days are filled with menial activities to pass the time, so let’s just say that there’s been some adjustment on my part in order to adapt to this new lifestyle.  When I’m at the house during the day I spend time catching up on email, studying my Georgian (slowly but surely), reading some books I downloaded onto my computer before I left or just sitting in the outdoor kitchen drinking tea.  

After my host mother comes home from work we eat a late lunch and I typically join her and her best friends (Nino and Maia who live next door and across the street) for an instant coffee break/gossip session.  These neighbors don’t speak English and I don’t speak enough Georgian to join in the conversation most of the time so I just end up listening for the most part while they talk and occasionally Tamila will attempt to translate or she will ask me something and translate for her friends.  After some time Tamila makes dinner and we all sit down to eat and then sometimes other people will stop by the house either to see Tamila for health reasons or to meet the American (me!).  One of these visits included meeting the Peace Corps. volunteer in my village.  Ryan recently moved to the village last month I think and he will be teaching at the other school in town.  It’s definitely been nice meeting a variety of people in the village and attempting to communicate with them other than saying gmadlobt (thank you) when they call me a kargi gogoa (good girl).

A few cool things that have happened so far include the first family outing to Tbilisi and Rustavi this past weekend.  Beso, Tamila, Luka, an aunt named Ia and I drove into Tbilisi on Saturday morning.  This drive is awesome because the Georgian countryside is so beautiful!  But, I found it interesting that I was a little culture shocked upon returning to the capital for this brief visit.  After living in the quieter village where I hear cows and roosters daily, the hustle and bustle of Tbilisi was a little overwhelming at first.  Tamila, Ia and I spent a chunk of our time in a jewelry showroom where about 100 people had gathered to sell their gold and silver to people (it’s actually right by the market I went to on my first day in Tbilisi).  They wanted to buy a bracelet for the family member we were on our way to visit in Rustavi, she had just had a baby and they wanted to give a gift.  After looking at every booth, they finally settled on a pretty gold necklace and charm for her and we also bought a few other baby gifts at another store nearby before we drove out of the city to Rustavi. 

Rustavi is about 20 minutes outside of Tbilisi and was a major industrial center during the Soviet era.  I didn’t take any pictures of the place, but I think this Google image does a good job in showcasing what I saw of Rustavi: apartment buildings.  Granted, I barely saw any of the city, but it was weird to see only apartment buildings as you drive in from Tbilisi; big, Soviet looking buildings all with similar features.  We ended up staying for a few hours in the apartment of one of Beso’s nephews, Giorgi, who just had the CUTEST little baby girl named Giorgia (which translates to Georgia basically, pretty funny).  We toasted some wine to the baby and ate some food before heading back to Apeni.  It was actually nice to return to the quaint little village and the quietness of the surroundings.

Another cool thing was when I got to see where Tamila works during the day.  On Monday she asked me if I wanted to see it and after agreeing, we all piled into the car and drove about ten minutes and two villages over to her office, I think the name of the village is Kabali.  I’ll eventually take some pictures of the school I’ll be teaching at, but it’s basically the same size as this building.  Tamila took me inside briefly and although it was only 10:30 in the morning, it was packed with patients: young mothers holding little babies waited in line near one door and many others were seated in the main hall waiting to be seen.  It’s a family doctor’s office, so there’s a small pharmacy and several different offices depending on which doctor needs to be seen.  Tamila just has a small room that she shares with her assistant which holds two desks and a single bed for patients to lie on.  She introduced me to all of her colleagues who repeatedly called me kargi gogoa even though I just kind of stood there and smiled. 

Tamila's doctor office that she works at!  About the same size as the school I'll be working in.

This particular village has a majority Azerbaijani/Muslim population which I thought was really interesting, considering we are only two villages away and I don’t think there are any in Apeni.  Tamila actually speaks Azerbaijani as well.  I don’t really know what I was expecting when we were driving to see Tamila’s work, but the office was so clean and pretty modern for being in a rural village where people don’t make a whole lot of money.  I wished I had spent a little longer there just observing how Tamila does her job with these people.  I don’t think there were any computers used in the office, and judging by the work Tamila is currently doing beside me, all of the files are written and kept by hand.  Based on the little I saw, it’s certainly a different environment compared to the last time I went to the doctor a few weeks ago and she was taking all of her notes on a handheld computer she carried with her from room to room (and these rooms were obviously well stocked with medical supplies also).

Finally, on Tuesday it was a religious holiday for Eastern Orthodox Christians (about 90% of Georgians are this religion).  I believe it’s their day to observe the Virgin’s Assumption, but I’m just trying to piece together what Tamila has attempted to tell me with her small knowledge of English.  For the most part, Tuesday was spent cooking a variety of Georgian food.  I finally got to see khachapuri, a traditional Georgian cheesy bread, made from scratch.  Tamila began by making big balls of dough and then made a cheesy pasty concoction (sounds appealing right?) that was just shredded cheese, water, flour and butter.  She flattened out each ball of dough, placed a huge ball of cheese in the middle and then gathered the dough around this to make a ball again.  Then she turned the ball over and flattened this into a pizza crust-like shape and put in on a skillet on the stove.  After she cooked it on both sides, she placed it on a big serving dish and finished the whole thing off by melting butter all over the top of it.  Needless to say, it’s pretty fattening and obviously delicious.  And since they love nothing more than feeding me, I had two pieces right then and there that were warm, gooey and really freakin’ good.

Tamila is gathering the dough around the ball of cheese. (Also, look at her totally reppin' the gift I got her! GO BLUE!)

She then flattens out the dough with the cheese ball in the middle.

END RESULT. SO GOOD.

So yes, village life is a little different, a little slower and filled with more cows than I realized but it’s been a really great and humbling learning experience thus far.  I’m excited to go explore more of the village later this week and I think a few English teachers in the Kakheti region are going to attempt to cross the country and visit Batumi early next week.

Fun times ahead!  Love and miss you all back home!

Kelsey