Georgia on my Mind and in my Stomach

Let's talk about food! If you know me at all you know how much I love and appreciate good. I often tell people I travel with an open mouth; Georgia has been no exception! Now that we have finally gotten out of the training center and into real Georgia the eating has been non-stop. There are 7 volunteers in training in my village and we rotate where we eat lunch each day. Each one of our host families takes turns hosting us about once a week and that means they go all out each meal.

This picture is from lunch on Tuesday, AFTER we had finished eating (look closely and you can find some Georgian peaches). You can't even tell that we have eaten. They are constantly refilling the plates and bowls with a seemingly endless supply of food. Often times there is too much food to fit on the table so they just start stacking the plates. It is all just a little crazy. Some of my favorite local dishes are khachapuri and khinkali. My town is known for it's cherry crop, so we have some sort of cherry derivative with every meal- juice, jam, raw, and candied.

There are a few minor downsides with all this food. First, they really love their salt here. It is going to take some time to adjust to the saltiness of the cheese and other dishes. Second, most foods are very starchy or dairy based. I'd normally be the last to make a remark against two of my favorite food groups, but considering I have 26 more months here I should probably look at eating a wider variety of foods. One of my justifications for my new diet is that most of it is farm to table, and by that I mean backyard-to-table. I don't think very much of what we eat has ever come from a store shelf.

Speaking from my experience with my host family; my mom milks the cow every evening and then brings the milk in and separates some for drinking and the rest for cheese and yogurt. Every night she takes some of the fresh milk and warms it on the stove for me. Warm fresh milk has now become a favorite nighttime snack. In addition to the milk she often brings me from fresh honey, with the honeycomb, to accompany my milk. Did I mention we have honey bees as well? In addition to the milk, honey, and fruit, she makes a fresh batch of bread every couple of days. Most people in town make bread outside in some special in the group bread oven thing. The smell of burning wood is ever present because of this. I think it adds a nice rustic touch to the whole experience.

Anyways back to the over eating, I am fairly certain that my most commonly used Georgian phrases are "I don't want anymore/meti ar minda/მეტი არ მინდა" "it's good/kargia/კარგია!" "thank you very much/didi madloba/დიდი მადლობა" They were wise to make us memorize those phrases early on. I do count myself as one of the lucky ones; when I say I don't want any more my family leaves me alone. Most Georgians ignore it and continue to offer more food.

Needless to say, the Georgians are a very hospitable people. They have a saying here, "a guest is a gift from God." You can tell by the way we are treated that it's not just a nice saying. They actually mean it! We are slowly assimilating into the community and moving from guests to members of our respective families. Give it a few more weeks and it might tone down some; however, in the meantime I'll just keep eating!

P.S. I haven't even touched on the drinking culture here. I will just mention that my host family has been more than accepting and accommodating of the fact that I don't drink coffee, black tea, or any form of alcohol- all of which are staples of most Georgians' diets. I definitely lucked out with this placement!