Gaumarjos!

In case you have been MIA for the past 7 weeks and weren’t aware of how great Georgia is, I thought I’d just tell you one more time- it is fantastic! This past week has been another one for the scrapbook (which will probably never be made). Plus tomorrow is the big day, we will finally receive our site placement assignments and know where we will be placed in country for the next two years, starting in July. However, you’ll have to wait until my next update to hear more about that.

This past week was full of toasts, something which Georgians take very seriously. I mentioned in my last post that I had just been to a birthday party for a 5 year old where everyone made toast to him. Although I can’t understand everything perfectly I can understand the sincerity and well wished made with each toast. Whenever they take time to make a toast to me, my work in Georgia, my country, family, parents, siblings, grandparents, deceased loved ones, and ancestors; I know that they mean what they say and that they really do wish to show their respect. This deep respect, kindness, and gratitude is something that I highly admire in Georgia culture- even if I’m not drinking with the toasts.

With our small understanding of Georgian culture, we knew that it would be important for us to make our LCF (language teacher) Naili’s birthday on Thursday the best day possible since she would be forced to spend it with us in Skra rather than with family and friends back in her hometown. We bought flowers, practiced our Georgian singing and toasting, bought a cake and planned an amazing day.

Birthday lunch

First, we gave her our flowers with a card and sang our best rendition of the Georgian happy birthday song during class. Next we made some toasts to her in Georgian during lunch. Finally, we had a mini surprise party for her at my house. We invited her over to play games with us so that she wouldn’t have to be stuck at her host family’s house all night. When she arrived we surprised her with cake, khatchapuri, and watermelon. She was so happy. Then to continue to tradition we all took turns making toasts in English to her. She is one of the main reasons we have all had such a positive and wonderful experience here in Georgia so far. She has taken on so many roles for us and done everything imaginable to make sure that we were well taken care of and adjusting to our new lives in the Peace Corps. It was a wonderful night, and of course she made a great toast to all of us and our families.

Cheers to a great LCF!

Now onto my weekend!

This weekend was deemed out Cultural Trip experience. Which basically meant that Peace Corps was letting us leave town Saturday afternoon to visit any one of Georgia’s amazing destinations. A group of ten of us decided to make the journey out to Sighnaghi, the Georgian City of Love- and it cast a spell on me.

The Georgian city of love

We have all been looking forward to our first true experience away from Peace Corps duties so that we could relax and unwind. Fortunately by now we are all well enough versed in Georgian that we were able to navigate the transportation system to arrive in Sighnaghi without incident. With even more luck we were able to find our wonderful little guest house just as the rain was beginning to come down. The nice lady who owned the house showed us to our room, which she had prepared by placing 10 twin size beds inside- not what we were expecting. Luckily the room also included a dining and living room so we could spread out. We settled in and then wandered around the picturesque town until we found a place to eat and settled in for hours of eating, toasting, and chatting- just like Georgians (but so much louder). Following dinner the revelry continued late into the night in our guesthouse. It is amazing to see how quickly we have gone from strangers to friends in a matter of weeks all because we are on the same crazy journey.

90 mins in the back of a cab was well worth it!

In the morning we were treated to a homemade Georgian breakfast from our host and spend hours staring at the view from our room before we finally were ready to explore the town. Not knowing what there was to do in town we strolled the park and cobblestoned streets looking at stores and churches. Finding fantastic vistas and more old things whose history we’ll never understand. Along the way we decided to visit the old wall and city gate. We had seen it many times from different angles so we assumed walking to it would be easy. The whole experience ended up much more complicated and reminiscent of my terrible outing on my 25th birthday.

The view from our guesthouse 

One of many wonderful Sighnaghi scenes

Most of the crew

My trusty clustermate and sidekick, Alex

 At one point I found myself climbing a hill wet from last night’s rain and covered with thick underbrush. With fewer cuts and scrapes than expected I was able to reach the top only to find that my princess was in another castle aka the path to the gate was nowhere to be found. UGH

I glanced down the way and could see the rest of my group climbing on top of the old wall so I figured my best chance to rejoin them would be to do the same and walk the narrow ledge down to where they were. Needless to say, it was not so easy. I am amazed and the tenaciousness of plant life when left to grow as it pleases over hundreds of years. There were numerous thorny plants and bushes I had to navigate my way through while remaining conscious of the fact that my walkway was only 1 ½ wide and the drop was steadily increasing.

When I finally caught up to everyone else my legs were well scraped and I was greeted with another predicament. My ledge had come to an end and there was an opening in the wall- just not the gate we had been looking for. Now was it was my turn for tenacious and creative maneuvering. I had come too far to turn back and ended up too high to fall down to safety. While my new moves weren’t the most graceful, I managed to straddle the archway and traverse the gateway to other side. Then I walked the narrow balancing beam like ridge to get to a point where I could dismount with my remaining dignity. Mission accomplished, and only a few incriminating and embarrassing pictures were taken for proof.

The real city gate that I had to work so hard to see

The rest of the day went by without any major incident. We ate more food, saw more sites, and FINALLY figured out how to find the dang city gate (which ended up being a stone’s throw from our guesthouse). We boarded our Marshutka back home with 16 seats and 18 people including two nice Georgian nuns. It is always interesting to see how these trips turn out. In the end we were welcomed home in true village fashion- 7pm rush hour…

Rush hour traffic

P.S. I should also say that I learned, and two fellow trainees suffered the consequence, that you should never hold in a sneeze- just take my word for it!