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| You might say that we are HAMming it up! |
Things that catch me off guard in Georgia:
- Cars are imported from all over the world. This means that some cars are British and the driver's seat is on the right side. This leads to a lot of mental confusion when you see a car approaching with what looks like a driver-less car with a passenger in the front seat.
- There is now set drinking age for minors. Parents often let children sip from their wine or beer. I was really caught of guard when a mom gave her 10 year old daughter some wine to drink.
- The Georgian system for counting is base 20 rather than 10. For example in English it's easy to count once you know 10 numbers, things just repeat ie. twenty-one, thirty-three etc. However, in Georgian instead of saying thirty you say twenty and ten and then twenty and eleven and so on. The number 50 is said as four twenties and ten. Needless to say I am still trying to figure out how to recognize numbers more quickly; I just hate having to add them- 4 twenties and 15 = 95
- I am not allowed to do ANYTHING helpful around the house. I am constantly trying to sneak in some way to help my hard working host mother. Most often this included washing the dishes after a meal. It only works when my mom is not in the kitchen and also out of earshot as well. As soon as she hears the sink start to run she rushes to the kitchen to shout, "iqos, iqos" meaning "leave it." Sometimes I play dumb and ignore her, the other times she wins and then shoos me out the kitchen.
- A meal of pasta, bread, rice, and potatoes is perfectly acceptable and common. I mean I love me some carbs so I never thought I'd have to be the one to ask for at least a cucumber to add some variety.
- People whom I don't know and have probably never spoken to feel the need to tell me that I am a "good boy" when I see them around the village. Good boy and good girl status is something you have to maintain, once you've been given the coveted good/კარგი status you have it made.
- Sometimes bees fly out of my toilet while I'm using it. It doesn't just catch me off guard, it terrifies me.
- If you were tuned into the news earlier in the week you may have run across an interesting story taking place in my part of the world. Late Saturday evening a mudslide dammed a river in Tbilisi which then caused the river to flood over its banks and into the surrounding area. These floods destroyed several homes, displaces many people, ruined a stretch of important freeway, killed about 19 people, and also flooded the zoo- this is the part of the story that has been most reported.
Due to the flood many of the animals in the lower half of the zoo managed to escape their enclosures. This sent lion, tigers, and bears into the streets of Georgia's capitol and largest city. The pictures looked like something out of a movie, it was by far own the most sensational news stories of the day. Slowly the police, zoo keepers, and others were able to locate most of the missing animals. Some 300 animals have died as a result of the flood and its aftermath. On Wednesday one many was killed by a tiger that had been hiding in a warehouse in the city. Other than that one incident, nothing too dangerous has been reported.
However, yesterday we caught word that there had been a potential tiger sighting in a nearby village. This immediately led to all trainees being placed on lock down in their homes. Thus after a rather uneventful week I was left with a rather uneventful weekend as we waited out the lock down. I will admit, when I accepted the invitation to serve in Peace Corps Georgia I never imagined this scenario taking place. I don't know what I will do if I run into a wild tiger in these parts, it would be too surreal and I'd probably be unable to process and sort of rational thought or escape plan. (P.S. There is still a report of hyena and one white tiger on the loose. I still can't comprehend what is going on here.)
- If you were tuned into the news earlier in the week you may have run across an interesting story taking place in my part of the world. Late Saturday evening a mudslide dammed a river in Tbilisi which then caused the river to flood over its banks and into the surrounding area. These floods destroyed several homes, displaces many people, ruined a stretch of important freeway, killed about 19 people, and also flooded the zoo- this is the part of the story that has been most reported.
Due to the flood many of the animals in the lower half of the zoo managed to escape their enclosures. This sent lion, tigers, and bears into the streets of Georgia's capitol and largest city. The pictures looked like something out of a movie, it was by far own the most sensational news stories of the day. Slowly the police, zoo keepers, and others were able to locate most of the missing animals. Some 300 animals have died as a result of the flood and its aftermath. On Wednesday one many was killed by a tiger that had been hiding in a warehouse in the city. Other than that one incident, nothing too dangerous has been reported.
However, yesterday we caught word that there had been a potential tiger sighting in a nearby village. This immediately led to all trainees being placed on lock down in their homes. Thus after a rather uneventful week I was left with a rather uneventful weekend as we waited out the lock down. I will admit, when I accepted the invitation to serve in Peace Corps Georgia I never imagined this scenario taking place. I don't know what I will do if I run into a wild tiger in these parts, it would be too surreal and I'd probably be unable to process and sort of rational thought or escape plan. (P.S. There is still a report of hyena and one white tiger on the loose. I still can't comprehend what is going on here.)
გაუმარჯოს to a beautiful country full of surprises!
Oh the bees...the bees! Cracks me up!! Only because I have never even heard of such a thing, let alone experienced it!! Sounds like an amazing place...
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