The Simple Life (sans Paris and Nicole)

August drags on so there is little to report on this week. An average week for me looks something like this: Monday- respond to any emails from the week before, study Georgian, rest at home; Tuesday- laundry, Georgian lessons, buy lunch somewhere I’ve yet to visit, hang out at the library (those librarians and I are quickly becoming friends, help teach English club with the other volunteers in Poti, end the day at the beach; Wednesday- go visit other volunteers nearby and get to know another city; Thursday- same as Tuesday without laundry and the beach; Friday- finished up any leftover work and get to my weekend plans as quickly as possible. Come September first this will probably all change, but for the time being it is a pretty nice schedule.

My monday walk took me out to the nearby lake

On a cultural note this past Wednesday was the Day of Transfiguration, this is the day the Orthodox Church commemorates the transfiguration of Jesus. It is called ფერისცვალება (peristsvaleba) which literally means “change of color”. There are different traditions and stories about this date depending on the region you are in, but this dates is looked to as the beginning of the seasonal change in Georgia. Somewhere in the mountains some ice drops into a lake and the weather starts to change (I’m fuzzy on the details). Given that it has been so wretched hot here in Poti, I have been looking forward to this day, and GUESS WHAT!? It has gotten A LOT cooler here. Wednesday was about 100 degrees and since then the temperature has dropped off. I don’t know what it is, some sort of Farmer’s Almanac tradition most likely, but I have never been happier about an obscure August day in my life. Hopefully you can all have your ფერისცვალება soon.

This weekend I had a meeting in Tbilisi so I decided to travel in the day before and visit my host family in Skra (I also stayed a day later and was able to attend the local LDS Church on Sunday in Tbilisi). A trip back to the village was everything that I was in need of. I left the village just 6 weeks ago, so I wasn’t expecting such a warm welcome- but I underestimated my family for sure. My time in the village was spent making food, eating, and just spending time with the people I care about- it was wonderful.

Village Life vs City Life

In PC Georgia a majority of the volunteers are placed in villages where the need is more apparent. I was quite surprised to receive my assignment to work in a city. While I had been afraid of being isolated in a remote village, but the thought of being placed in a city hadn’t crossed my mind. Given the differences between the two I thought I would provide a brief comparison of Georgian life in both.

Skra is a village of about 1,200 people, it is also the main village in its area and houses some of the support functions (government, medical, school, etc.) for smaller surrounding villages. Most of the work in Skra was agricultural based. Skra’s main cash crop is the cherry and during the end of June to beginning of July people come from all over to buy and distribute their cherries, I’ve seen Russians, Turks, Armenians, and Azeri all in town to buy cherries. Most families make their living from this time of the year. There are endless orchards surrounding the city, my family alone sold over 1 ton of cherries. Other local sources of income include teaching, small stories, and other small commercial businesses. A lot of men also work outside of the village doing manual labor, military, or other jobs in various parts of Georgia. 

The grapes are coming in, harvest will be in October. I definitely won't miss out on this!

In Poti the economic activity is a lot more varies and a lot less dependent on agriculture. There is a large bazar where people from the surrounding area come to sell their good, there are various stores and agencies, and most of all there is the port. I would guess that an easy majority of the people in Poti have employment for or connected to the port’s activity- import/export, logistics, etc. The standard of living is probably a little higher in the city as well, with more people enjoying more luxury items, for example I’ve heard of houses with central heating (come winter I will befriend them). Another difference would be the fact that it is more common for both men and women to have a job here than in the village. My host father is the manager of a gas station and my mom works for the municipality.

The schools are another major difference. Skra’s school had less than 100 students and 3 English teachers who basically worked part time. Poti has 12 schools with my school having about 625 students and 6 English teachers each working full time. The school in Skra was an old run down factory from the Soviet era- the basement and third floor were both unusable. In Poti my school is also almost 100 years old but it has been recently renovated. Also students and their parents assist in decorating the school to give it a happier ambiance. 

Making tonis puri (Georgian bread) the dough cooks on the sides like tandoori.

One of the main prides villagers have in their way of life is that it is nearly 100% natural. My family had a cow which they used for milk, cheese, and cream. They grew their own potatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers, and various fruits. They were raising 3 pigs and almost 40 chickens for meat and eggs. My mom made Georgian bread (tonis puri) weekly, about 40 loaves for 5 days (they eat A LOT of bread here). They also had a large stock of homemade honey, jams, and the ever boasted wine. In just the day I was there we had two different jams, fresh bread, homemade cake and cheese bread, peach juice, and they even killed two chickens and prepared them both for lunch and dinner. You’d be hard pressed to find some food item that hadn’t originated from within a kilometer of our home. My family is up around 6 am every day taking care of chores. That is not the same story in Poti. Here in we buy our bread from the man down the street, we buy fruits to make jam (occasionally we have enough fruit on one of our trees but it doesn’t appear to be very often), there are more options to grab a bite in town, most of the food we eat is purchased at the store or bazar. While it’s not on the same level as life in the USA, it is definitely not the same as the village either. 

There were 39 chickens, now there are 37... 

The amenities of the city are definitely an improvement to the village, however the size of the city makes it more difficult to feel a sense of community. There is also no way that you could ever become the well-known local celebrity that many people in the villages tend to become. Here I am more anonymous and inconspicuous- that is until I try to speak Georgian and come out sounding hopelessly lost. Many people are much too busy to spend time with me, yet this isn’t too bad since the options for entertainment expand past what we have in our house, like what happens in the village. 

My host dad pondering life (or probably just looking at the pigs)

In the end I am glad that I am in the city long term. I have more access to resources and opportunities for work that I would not have in a smaller village. However, I have to also deal with larger class sizes, less community, less space, less delicious cooking, and less generous hospitality (note- city people aren’t inhospitable). These are two very different Georgias with different needs to be addressed. Hopefully I will be able to find ways to help them meet those needs. As the year goes on I am sure that I will also get busier like many of the city people; however, I will also find time to escape to the village like so many people here do when they need a break.