013-05-2012

 9:48 AM

Letter to a Friend,

This is a bit of a long-shot but I have a friend who is going back to the states in a few days and I might actually reliably get a letter through … IF I can find a stationary store in time to get an envelope (in the city) and IF I can figure out the stamp situation.

I got your message finally a few days ago on a “hub day” in the main city when we all got together to have meetings and get our rabies boosters.  It made my whole day.  I haven’t had any contact with anyone, really, since I left orientation.  I wanted to answer you, but I didn’t have any real time and now my computer is dead.  The adapter I brought is the right shape, but the plugs in this house are very old and they are too small.  Charging it with a smaller, borrowed adapter makes me nervous because I don’t want to forfeit the surge protection.

As for the mail here … there isn’t much of a postage system—most people in the villages don’t have postal addresses.

12:00 PM

I have a whole, whole new appreciation for what is actually clean and what is dirty.  I just finished washing 2 weeks of laundry by hand.  My host mom very quickly realized that I very, very little idea how to really wash clothes by hand … and no idea at all how to do it without a sink.  She thought the whole thing was pretty funny.  She kept coming down do ask me if I was tired yet …  I said I wasn’t tired (of course!), but … I forgot to wash my towel so now she’s heating more water on the stove.  I wanted to explain that I was using it as a bath rug and that my other towel is still clean, but how?  I’m dreading the thought of handwashing even one more thing.

12:40 PM

Towel is very clean now.

… Everybody is going into Telavi (the main city) to meet up for a social. I don’t think I’m going to go.  I want to stay here and bake bread with my host mom.  I don’t really like Telavi, anyways, mostly because every time I go I have to sit through hours and hours of meetings.

There was a crazy thunderstorm last night, too!  The kind of storm everybody wakes up talking about … even for here.  We’re at the base of the Caucus mountain range and we get thunder almost every afternoon.  Tbilisi (the capitol) is flooded.  It’s terrible, but, even so, I don’t think I will ever get tired of the sound of thunder.  As a side note, I have never lived—or been—anywhere where the mountains from a distance look SO big.  Maybe it’s because we’re in a valley here and not in them?  They literally disappear into the clouds.

8:00 PM

About 8 cups flour

2 Tbs salt

1 Tbs yeast

Mixed with warm water until wet and sticky but not runny

RISE 2 hours

Punch down

RISE 1 hour

Then bake at a high temperature

Then lower

(bake time roughly 25 minutes)

After making bread, let me just say that I didn’t realize what a luxury warm bread is.  That wonderful  smell of melting butter.  Enjoy your toast for me.  Or your bagel.

Love,

Al

PS: This letter did not get to my friend.  No clue when I’ll be able to get mail out.

07-05-2012 6:00 AM

I’ve been trying to learn to be quiet here in the mornings so that I don’t wake my host mom up.  This exercise is not going well.

Al 06-05-2012 5:30 AM

I am finding very small things the most comforting because they are routines I can hold onto.  Making my bed, cleaning my room, brushing my teeth, putting my floss by my bed, waking up early at the same time.  These things are still the same.

06-05-2012 6:00 PM

I’m exhausted.  I’m not sure if my head hurts more from trying to understand so much Georgian or from the muggier weather or from the strange bed and pillow.  I went to a Supra dinner for the holiday of St. Giorgio.  I have never felt so unable to communicate.  I understand now why a girl ran out of our Spanish abroad program in tears one day.  I mean, then I knew it was because she couldn’t understand, but now I understand.

Sometimes not understanding frustrates me so much.  At the Supra everybody was talking and laughing and I was totally clueless.  Georgian better hurry up and be my third language.

Love,

Al

06-05-2012

Dear Grandma Weez,

You shouldn’t have worried.  I don’t think it is possible for me to have gotten a host family that reminds me more of how wonderful it is to live with you.  I live with a lady about Mom’s age and her mother.  Nino and Eli.  I already love them.  During orientation the staff told us a lot about Georgian culture—about huge dinners and being pushed to eat and drink as a way of welcoming a guest.  I was nervous about being put on the spot.  Instead, though, they did exactly what you would have done.  They fed me until there were positive I wasn’t hungry, gave me a glass of wine (or a shot, rather, Georgian style) … and put me to bed.  And I was so grateful.

The power went out halfway though dinner and we laughed and ate by flashlight.  Also!  They make their own bread, have their own honeycombs, and make their own wine and it is all so good!  They promised to teach me how to make bread and when I come home, I will teach you how to make bread like a Georgian!

I wish that you could see their home and gardens.  They have beautiful irises and flowerbeds and chickens.  A neat and orderly (big!) veggie garden, and perfectly tended grape vines.  I wish you could see it so much!  You would absolutely approve!  If you grew up in Georgia, your house would look just like this.  I know it.  Maybe it’s because everything is so clean and organized.  My host mom mopped before 10 am this morning and I felt right at home.

We have been busy trying to communicate.  I managed to tell them that at home in the states I live with you, but oh my gosh!  It was a feat!  We have been laughing a lot.  Miss you.  Love you.

Love,

Al

PS: I put my floss by my bed.