Well, yesterday I entered the real world of Georgia. It turns out I am in the K'akheti region, the Q'vareli district, and the village of Ch'ik'aani. They had our host families meet us at the hotel, all of them on one side of the lobby and all of us on the other, by calling out the host family and volunteer, having them meet in the middle. Most people hugged and kissed cheeks--a common greeting in the country (and I should note here that unlike the Russians, who kiss thrice, and the Greeks, who kiss twice, they kiss just the once)--but there were a few entertaining exceptions. The most notable was when one of the volunteers, who had been hugging and picking up all of us to say goodbye, did the same to say hello to his new host family, eliciting much in the way of red-faced laughter by the surprised family.
Anyway, I met my host mama ("father," ironically, in Georgian) Gia (i.e., Giorgi or George) and his brother Nik'a (i.e., Nik'alozi, or Nicholas). It was probably a two-and-a-half hour drive or so, through some absolutely gorgeous landscapes, before we arrived in the quaint little village near the foot of the Caucuses where I will be living. It was a good trip--we spent the time talking about each other (boy, am I glad for those Georgian lessons we had at orientation), explaining what various things were in English or Georgian, and finally talking about the Church and some of the various holy relics and sites they have here.
We finally got to the village about 4:00 or so and I met my host deda (mother), Maradi, my host da (sister), Salome, and my host dzma (brother), Lasha, and we had a small supra of fasting foods. Variously throughout the evening I met more of the extended family, had some good food and ghvino (K'akheti is known as the wine country of Georgia) and drank to or made probably about 20 toasts, in total. The people here are wonderful.
The actual home I'm staying in is pretty huge--one story plus a basement for making ghvino (and for other things, I think,but that's mostly what I saw). Their yard is really nice, too; I wonder if I ate anything they didn't grow themselves. They grow bananas, pomegranates, persimmons, grapes (of course), blackberries, apples, walnuts, chickens (and thus eggs), pigs, cows, and a LOT more of the like. They have an outdoor "Turkish" toilet, but an indoor shower--I guess I'll see how well that works tomorrow. Dinner consisted of an eggplant/pomegranate dish which was completely delicious, some pickled plant of some sort with onions, fried fish which I assume were caught by Gia (and didn't taste at all "fishy," despite them almost certainly being river fish), lots of p'uri (bread) with a few different spiced tomato dips, jug after jug of homemade ghvino, and so forth. It was absolutely delicious. To finish the day, I did small compline with my host siblings (in English) and went to bed.
Well, my host family is feeding me yet again (it's a fairly continual process), so I guess I'll talk more later.
In Christ,
Teopile/Theophilos Porter
Anyway, I met my host mama ("father," ironically, in Georgian) Gia (i.e., Giorgi or George) and his brother Nik'a (i.e., Nik'alozi, or Nicholas). It was probably a two-and-a-half hour drive or so, through some absolutely gorgeous landscapes, before we arrived in the quaint little village near the foot of the Caucuses where I will be living. It was a good trip--we spent the time talking about each other (boy, am I glad for those Georgian lessons we had at orientation), explaining what various things were in English or Georgian, and finally talking about the Church and some of the various holy relics and sites they have here.
We finally got to the village about 4:00 or so and I met my host deda (mother), Maradi, my host da (sister), Salome, and my host dzma (brother), Lasha, and we had a small supra of fasting foods. Variously throughout the evening I met more of the extended family, had some good food and ghvino (K'akheti is known as the wine country of Georgia) and drank to or made probably about 20 toasts, in total. The people here are wonderful.
The actual home I'm staying in is pretty huge--one story plus a basement for making ghvino (and for other things, I think,but that's mostly what I saw). Their yard is really nice, too; I wonder if I ate anything they didn't grow themselves. They grow bananas, pomegranates, persimmons, grapes (of course), blackberries, apples, walnuts, chickens (and thus eggs), pigs, cows, and a LOT more of the like. They have an outdoor "Turkish" toilet, but an indoor shower--I guess I'll see how well that works tomorrow. Dinner consisted of an eggplant/pomegranate dish which was completely delicious, some pickled plant of some sort with onions, fried fish which I assume were caught by Gia (and didn't taste at all "fishy," despite them almost certainly being river fish), lots of p'uri (bread) with a few different spiced tomato dips, jug after jug of homemade ghvino, and so forth. It was absolutely delicious. To finish the day, I did small compline with my host siblings (in English) and went to bed.
Well, my host family is feeding me yet again (it's a fairly continual process), so I guess I'll talk more later.
In Christ,
Teopile/Theophilos Porter
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