A Sunday Smile

A lot of people keep asking me what I do on my weekends in a village in Georgia and most of the time I kind of give them a blank stare and in my head I am thinking “Well I know I did something, I know something happened, but it’s kind of a blur.” Most of the time I just hang out with the family and do what ever they are doing, but today I made a point of documenting it. 

I woke up a little after nine or so this Sunday morning to the sound of a car pulling out of the driveway and I knew that I had missed the weekly trip to the bazaar, not super upsetting as I have nothing to buy, but it’s always good for some photos. I got dressed and stumbled into the kitchen. My host mom made me brunch and I sat around for a bit checking Facebook and reading BBC News. (I just got my own internet on my laptop, so I’m super excited.)

At about 11:30 I decided that maybe I should take a walk. The weather today was amazing. It was one of the first sunny days we have had in about a week and it was around maybe 10ºC, 50ºF. All I know is that I didn’t need my coat to be outside. I called one of my fellow volunteers and chit chatted about random things for about twenty minuets or so. I got off the phone with her and walked around waving at all my fellow villagers who all know me by now and love me. They are like “Yo, teacher Emily! What’s up?” or something like that. There weren’t many people out so I ended up back at my house around 12:30 and again checked Facebook. 

The street my house is on. 

The street my house is on

Around one, my host mother took me to one of her friends houses for coffee. The woman has two adorable children. One is about four maybe and the other one is about a year old. They were watching some horrible Georgian children’s DVD, that was basically them taking Disney movies putting them behind some Georgian child singing. Oscar winner, I think not. I couldn’t look away the whole time though. It was so horrible. Like public TV horrible. We were there for about an hour or so socializing, drinking our coffee, and eating apples coffee baked goods.

When we arrived back home there were four random men in our back yard. I stood taking pictures and when my host mom went by I asked in our Emily and Bella talk “What are they doing?” and Bella was like “Making cha cha (Georgian moonshine) of course! What else?!” She showed me to a little outdoor room full of huge blue plastic barrels. Some were full of wine and now they were filling one with this new concoction. From what I could gather it is made of sugar, water, grapes, and most likely something else, but don’t ask me what. I stood taking pictures and at one point my older male family member who lives with us took out his gun and tried to shoot a bird.

 Kind of like Maine really. Also the whole make your own booze thing that has just caught on in the states has been going on here for years. Win for Georgia! I kept taking pictures, until one of the guys kept looking at me like I was crazy. I’m sure in his head, he was thinking “Dude this is normal, you do this back in the states, right? Are you going to watch us plant in the fields and take pictures this spring too?”

Making sure the Cha Cha mixture is correct.

Pouring the sugar water for Cha Cha

Cigarette smoke 

Sterring the Cha Cha

So I went back into the house and went back on my laptop and posted a blog and talked to some people. One of my fellow volunteers was mad that I was taking photos not getting the recipe for cha cha. Clearly you need visual aids for such things.

A little after 4pm my host mother and I set off for what I was told would be coffee and cake. It was an all women’s supra, for what I have no idea. It seemed that all the women from our part of the village were there, in one of the women’s house. It was a small rustic type place. One woman kept talking to me in German, I understood some of it, but everyone just kept laughing. We were in a room surrounding the wood stove and I sat there kind of wondering when we were going to have coffee after about forty-five minuets or so. I kept watching the adorable baby that was there. That was enough to keep me entertained.

Georgian Baby!

I was then told to go into the other room and there was a long table filled with fruit, chocolate, and cake. The group of about 15 of us sat down and dug in. I was seated next to my host mom and the lady who kept speaking to me in German. She was a gem really. She had enough gold teeth to make any rapper jealous, and kept pouring me shots of some liquor that tasted like chocolate covered cherries. (We are new best friends for sure)

The cake was massive with bright pink and green frosting and kiwis and oranges on it. I was more them pleased when it was served to see the the pieces were easily four or five centimeters thick at the edge. Before I had my first bite I reminded myself, that this was Georgian cake not, American as I tried to do with food when I travel. It always makes it better. The cake part of the cake tasted like home made from scratch American cake. The frosting on the other hand tasted more like whipped cream. I think it maybe a hold over from harder times here, where there wasn’t much sugar or it was too expensive. Then again when is it not hard times in Georgia? Over all I enjoyed it. The fruit was a great touch and I do love my food coloring nice and strong! I was also happy to see when I looked around that almost everyone had finished their cake. These were my kind of women! Not afraid to eat, like those women back in the States, who are like “I’ll just have a shaving of that cake if it’s glutton and sugar free or perhaps you have some dirt I could just eat, but make sure it’s organic dirt.”  

We also toasted different things like adorable babies, Georgia and America being best friends, siblings, and of course loving everyone who was in the room. Yay for sisterhood! 

The German speaking woman was decently buzzed when all was said and done, announced that she had to go, because the cow needed milking and she had to do it. This made me giggle so hard, maybe it was the liquor but I think it was because this was the most amazing exit statement I have ever heard. I think I am going to use it when I get back to Maine. “Sorry I can’t stay late at work tonight. I have to milk my cow.”  We then excused ourselves as well.

We got back to the house around six and I have spent the rest of my night eating dinner, watching TV with the family, listening to music, and reading notes written by sweet people. This is how I spend my weekends. 

View walking down my street.