Blog, September 2nd, 2014
Hello, My Faithful Readers:
When I last left you I was telling you about a
religious holiday here in Georgia, celebrated on August 28th, 2014.The
holiday “Saint Mary’s Day” – I spoke of in my last blog (8/27/14). I really had no idea what to expect other than
I would participate and enjoy whatever happened from a cultural perspective. I
knew there would be food; but, I had no idea at the amount of food and the
numbers of people that would come to my host family house to share the day with
us.
To begin, I slept late that day (which is unusual
for me). So, by the time I got downstairs preparations were well underway for
the event. When I walked into the kitchen the scene looked like that Keebler
cracker commercial where all the elves are busy working on various things. My
host father was cooking the pork; my host mother was putting the toppings on
cakes that she had made the day before. My host sister was making potato salad
and chicken salad. Other folks in the house were cleaning and putting the table
extension in so accommodate lots of people. Plates and glasses (tons of them)
were out and had to be washed….it just went on and on. I felt kind-a guilty
sleeping so late. I wanted to get involved but didn’t know where to begin.
I noticed that my host father was struggling to open
a can of mushrooms. He had a couple of knives and was pounding them into the
top of the can. I wondered why they didn’t use a can opener; however, found out
they didn’t have one. So, I went to my room and brought my can opener down.
Well, you would have thought I invented something really special. All gathered
around to watch me open the cans. I wanted to give them the can opener but they
would not take it. As I noticed previously, Georgian people really do like to
struggle. I was scared watching them open cans with knives but I imagine they
are used to it.
I then went to get my camera as I had to document
this flurry of activity. They were all so busy and I could feel that maybe they
were scratching their heads looking at me walking around taking pictures of
something that is fairly common for them. I did it anyway and will post some to
this blog. At one point my host mother placed the batter bowl in the sink. Wow,
there was still batter in the bowl so I saved it from the sink only to use my
finger and start eating the left over cake batter. This so reminded me of my
childhood as my brothers and I would fight over who got the spoon and the left
over batter from the bowl. My host brother and sister did help me eat what was
left and let me tell you how good it was. We were all laughing.
My host mother then kept pointing at the area
adjacent to the kitchen where they have kind-of-a-shed. This is the place where
they store fruit, potatoes and all the canned (jams, jellies, ketchup, etc). In
addition, it’s a storage area for anything else like shovels, left over
bottles, shoes, jackets it just goes on and on. Well, I went into the shed and
there was this enormous bowl of dough. The family then brought out this long board
(maybe a foot and a half wide and four feet long). This board looked like it was
decades old. They propped the board up on boxes as that is where my host mother
was going to place the dough once she molded it into loaf size. I could tell this was a practice that had
been done many times.
I've posted two photographs (see below). The first is of my host mother and me at the kiln with the loaves of dough ready to be baked. The the second is the kiln that I'm speaking of that will bake the bread. I never can figure out where to insert the pictures.
In any event, she grabbed a certain amount of dough
and molded it into a loaf. There must have been twenty-four loaves when she was
finished. Then my host father poked his head through the shed window and they
carried the board with the dough out to the kiln (out through the shed window,
as that was the area closest to the kiln). The kiln was big (I’m calling it a
kiln, but maybe it was not that but since I don’t have a better name, I will
call it a kiln). It was used to cook the bread. My host father had spent lots
of time that morning getting the kiln ready. He kept throwing something in the
bottom of the kiln that kept making it get hotter. I was wondering where they
were going to cook the bread as there were no shelves or wire baskets to hold
the bread in the kiln. Well, knock me over as my host mother then took the
dough loaves, one by one, and smashed them against the inside “sides” of the
kiln. I thought they would fall into the bottom, but they stuck like glue to
the sides. The kiln held about 15 loaves at one time. I watched in fascination
as all this unfolded.
I could not figure out how they would know the
loaves were done, but somehow they did. They had these tools (like fireplace
tools) that one tool (had a hook on the end) hooked into the load and the other
tool had a smooth end that eased the bread away from the wall. Of course it
didn’t fall because the tool with the hook had it secured. I was just floored.
As soon as the bread started to come out I noticed a couple of the neighbors
come over and some of the bread went home with them. At that point my host
parents and I dug into one of the loaves right out of the kiln. It was so good.
I can still smell the bread. This was a real treat for me as I had never seen
anything like this. They asked me if we do this in American. I said “I go to
the store and pay money and get bread.” Of course, I said it in Georgian. I
would imagine the bakers in America do something sort of like what I had just
seen done, but I’ve never seen it.
Well after that experience we all had to sit down
and catch our breath. It was a lot of work. The guests started to arrive,
mostly family but some friends. The next part of the celebration was to go to
the cemetery. The family asked if I wanted to go, but I didn’t want to. I have
never wanted to go to a cemetery, even in America. I have my own opinions about
visiting grave sites and I will leave it at that. However, then I thought that
maybe I was dis-respecting the family if I didn’t go. They reassured me that it
was no problem if I didn’t want to go. Even the grandmother didn’t go and
mainly they were all going to visit the recently departed grave of the grandfather.
After they returned we all sat down to eat. The feast was wonderful and we all
ate and drank for hours. The men toast in that quiet prayer like manner
toasting everything from family (living and dead) to the country of Georgia. I listen to the conversations and catch a
couple of words here and there. Sometimes they get so passionate about whatever
they are speaking of. Their voices drown out each other and I know they don’t
hear what the other person is saying. It is all so familiar to me. It seemed
like most of the neighbors were also celebrating. Lots of noise and singing
that went way into the night. At 11pm, the electricity went off. It just does
that sometimes and nobody seems to know why.
As is custom, everyone stayed overnight. I am glad
as the drinking does not allow safe driving (my thought) – but they do drive after events like this.
There are so many beds here; it is not a problem and everyone is safe. The next
morning the conversation starts early out on the porch.
For the first time since I arrived in Sagarejo back
in mid-July, we didn’t have any water. Other PCV have said that at their
locations (off and on) they don’t have water; but, we have been really lucky
here on the mountain. We all just sat around waiting for the water to come back
on. I am so glad that I took my shower in the morning. I am still on the
schedule of showing twice a week. It has been challenging with the excessive
heat not to jump in and take a cool shower, but I make do. Let me tell you about the shower…..
The water in the shower is not very powerful. The
shower head is maybe 4 inches from the wall so you really need to get up close
and personal with the wall in order to get any of the water trickling out. To
begin the shower you must get the hot water heater in gear. So, you turn on the
spigot in the bathroom sink and for some reason that starts the hot water
heater. The hot water is so hot initially that I had to turn on the cold spigot
to make it not scalding. That was a
mistake, as then the hot water goes completely off and you are left with an ice
cold shower. I am sure I will get the knack of this at some point. There are no hand rails or really anything to
hold onto getting in and out of the shower. There is a mirror next to the
shower head. I would imagine that is so the host father can shave. Initially I
thought if I need to grab onto something I could grab the mirror; however, on
second thought what would happen with all the glass falling on me. It is indeed
an adventure and I am somewhat thankful that I only need to deal with this
twice a week. There is an old and kind-a broken stool near the shower. I guess
that is for the grandmother to use when taking a shower. It is a risky
proposition to take a shower. On the
other hand, I have hot water and a shower. Some PCV’s don’t have that.
Peace Corps rule: Concentrate of what you have and
not what you don’t have.
Spiders, Spiders, Spiders….there are SO MANY Spiders
in Georgia. Where do they all come from? The spiders are not big, thank
goodness. I so often walk through spider webs going up or down the stairs that
I use to get to my bedroom. Now, these stairs are used countless times during
the day; so, the spiders must work very fast to spin the web. The webs are very
thin. At first I didn’t know what I was
feeling. I kept brushing my face and arms; but then, I realized that I was
walking through a web. At first it was kind-of
“yucky” but now I think I am used to it and as much as I wish the webs
were not there; it is not a big deal. (How I have grown - HA)
I got to see the U.S. Embassy recently (only from
afar). As a friend and I were driving to Carrefour in the Tbilisi Mall, she
pointed out the BIG box building that had walls surrounding was the embassy. I
was surprised at how far out of the city proper the embassy was. The building
reminded me a little of the Pentagon in Washington, DC. It had that formidable
look to it. The building was maybe four
or five stories high. The walls surrounding the building were maybe eight feet
high. There were lots of guards and you could see the area that you had to go
through in order to get through security. My friend said that at one time the
embassy was in the center of Tbilisi; but then moved. I was disappointed as I
had hoped to maybe get to see it up close; but, that is not going to happen.
As I said we were driving to Carrefour in the
Tbilisi Mall. It is an amazing mall. I was impressed with how clean and
wonderfully bright the place was. I never got past the first floor as that is
the floor Carrefour is on. The 1st floor of Carrefour is a
supermarket. I’ve been to the mall twice now and I’ve still not seen all the
products offered on the supermarket floor. The basement (or sub-1) houses everything
else – for example, towels, sheets, electronic, all kinds of soaps, toothpaste,
shampoo, etc., etc. Also, the space had clothing for the entire family
including shoes. I could go on and on….lots of STUFF. The stair case (or escalator)
One of the items that I needed was a new piece of
luggage. It seems that when we traveled to Tbilisi for our graduation (back in
July) my luggage was placed on the top of one of the vans. As a result my luggage
was damaged. I wrote to the PC and requested help in replacing it and they
agreed. So, I went out to Carrefour to pick out a new piece of luggage
comparable to the one that was damaged. I think I found a piece of luggage that
fit the bll and the PC will reimburse me. I am very grateful and appreciate how
the PC came through for me.
I’ve finally connected with a group of women here in
Georgia that either are Retired Peace Corps Volunteers or Expats (in some
fashion). It seems that over the years
these women just decided to live in Georgia and somehow connected. I only met
eight of the women in the group as the others are either traveling in the
region or back in the states or had something else scheduled during the
get-together. We went to a German Restaurant and had fabulous beer and pizza.
It was just terrific to have food other than Georgian food. There was so much
great conversation I had to have my notepad out to take notes. Everyone was
sharing information and contact information. I felt like I had died and gone to
heaven. One of my goals always was to be an “expat.” They tell me as a Peace
Corps Volunteer (once I finish service) it is very easy to get a permanent
residence card. Well, that is a long way off and I've not done my service here in Georgia, so we shall see. It is nice to know there are options.
I stayed
overnight in Tbilisi with one of the women in her apartment. It was lovely. I
had my own room and my OWN PRIVATE bathroom not 20 feet from the bedroom. Ah,
Joy! It was almost like being home J. She lives in
an area that reminds me of a cross between San Francisco and Paris. She lives on a hill (or maybe it’s a
mountain) and its very steep. It is a little community, it seems and I am going
to have to find out the name of the section of the city. I really liked it. Need-less-to-say, I had a terrific time. It
was the first time I was away from Sagarejo overnight and it felt great. I will
write more about this group as I am sure I will have many more get-togethers
with them as time goes forward.
So, whenever I start to write I always think I’m not
going to have enough to fill up a couple of pages and yet the words just keep
coming. Thank you for sharing this with me.
Best,
Catherine Lawrence, G14
Peace
Corps Volunteer/Georgia
September 2, 2014
The contents of this blog are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the U.S. Government of the Peace Corps.
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