Way of life. Way of laugh

"Never before I have been laughing so much as during these 3 months" /Kadri Runnel/

Love affairs

In Georgian GLEN we have some love affairs. Its hard to resist temptation. Why resist.

Good-bye event failed

Yesterday we invited all Georgia GLEN people for our good-bye party. (Yeah, 3 months are over...). So what we proposed was Tbilisi baths + wine and afterwards Restaurant. The level of fun was undescribable. As in all GLEN events, you know. Someone told me this morning that restaurant people at some point started to take the decoration off the shelves next to which we were sitting, so we dont accidentaly break it. Fun.

The only problem next morning was that I did not remember actually saying good-bye to anyone. At 10 o' clock Justs showed up at our place. Later Ieva came and said she does not remember if she said good bye to us yesterday. After a while I received a message from Nadja "i dont remember saying goodbye to you so we have to do it again". So, our good-bye event failed.

The Seminar: Aftermath

Driving home after a small seminar after-party. Do it Georgian way!

The Seminar: Action

We held the seminar. With help of some friends from Latvia and Estonia.

With help of Power Point, so much beloved by GLEN. By the way, Kazbegians liked it! I know that Tutors and Facility Leaders (or Lead Facilitators?) of GLEN prep sems won't believe it, but Kazbegians were able to concentrate their attention to the PP for 2 hours! And asked for more afterwards :)

"Coffee table". Possibilities to get hot water for coffee can be limited in Kazbegi, therefore, we decided to concentrate on "instantly drinkable" liquids. This time we were lucky, and the coffee was also there. (Can't see in the picture, though).

The Seminar: Preparation

On October 1st we organized a seminar for Kazbegi people. We were really busy traveling around before that, and I came back to Kazbegi only 4 days before the seminar. Since the seminar was our own initiative and nobody from our partner organization - the municipality - seemed to show any interest care about it, we had to inform the Kazbegi people about the fact that the seminar is going to take place.

So we went to municipality hoping that maybe they can prepare and print the announcements today and post them in Kazbegi and surrounding villages the next day. As we arrived to municipality, it turned out that they have no electricity at the moment. However, we were told that announcements will be still printed today and also posted today. They used a typing machine to prepare the posters. Even two - one of them typed blue and the other one black. "GLEN" had to be written by hand, since the machine had only Georgian letters.

So far so good. Next day I called our contact person in the municipality to find out how it was going with the posters, and she said: "We already have them in 3 villages around Kazbegi. We posted them in Kazbegi yesterday as well, but this morning they were gone. But now we are making nicer ones on a computer, since now we have electricity and they will be posted within an hour". We also managed to spot some of the posters :)

Lazyness

As several people have remarked, I have been lazy not writing the blog for a month. Thats the bad thing. The good thing is that I can afford it. Why not :)

We are very tired

We just finished 3 hour hike to one of the oldest churches of Georgia some 50km away from Kazbegi. In order to get married it is necessary to crawl 3 times around it. I am only one unmarried of 4 of us – so I will have to crawl around alone.

After very hard climb we are very tired. And happy of course J We have a friend very funny driver. But he didn’t let to take Sharik (dog) with us today because he stinks.

Esam pavisam saguruši

Tikko pabeidzām 3 stundu kāpienu uz vienu no Gruzijas vecākajām baznīcām 50km no Kazbegi. Tai esot 3x jārāpo apkārt, lai drīz apprecētos. No mums 4iem esmu vienīgā neprecējusies – tā, ka būs jārāpo vienai.

Pēc ļoti smaga kāpiena un pāris aliem esam pavisam saguruši. Un laimīgi, protams :) Mums ir draugs baigi jautrais šoferis. Viņš gan neļāva ņemt Šariku (suni) šodien līdzi, jo viņš smirdot.

Social experiments

do you know khinkali? it is a georgian dish, a meat inside of pasta. pelmeni in Latvian.

there is a special way of eating it in georgia. you eat it only with your hands, without using a knife or a fork. you bite a little hole in the khinkali, then drink liquid out of it and then start eating. you never eat the tail-ends, but leave it on the plate. georgians usually order at least 30 khinkali. i can eat 4 of them. may be 5, if especially hungry.

we found a great khinkali-place tonight in tbilisi. there they also served home-made wine. first we ordered 12 khinkali and a liter of wine for three of us. then we decided to make a social experiment and ordered
(1) half a liter of wine (this is rediculous in georgia, because normally they order at least 2 liters)
(2) three more khinkali (also rediculous)

the waiter looked strangely at us, however after 15 minutes we got what we had ordered.

then we thought of more social experiments
1) to order 150 mg of wine (a normal amount for wine in Latvia)
2) to eat all the tail-ends of our khinali
3) to order two more khinkali, after we have eaten our three
4) to order two more khinkali, after we have eaten our three, and then ask the waiter to bring us the tail-ends of khinkali from our neighbours' table
...all of this of course was accompanied by a lot of laughing...
5) to give a "present" to the neighbours table - one khinkali on a separate big plate!
we did not do this, however, believe it or not, soon we received a present from the neighbours table - another liter of wine....

A Day Of Our Life

each day of our life begins at 7 o'clock in the morning when our alarms ring. then there is a short time-out and the day continues at 8.30 - 9 o'clock when we wake up.

then we enjoy breakfast (initially prepared without electricity or gas)

and we can start working
1) in the office

2) do some fieldwork


3) gather information on what kind of information is available for tourists in kazbegi currently



4) explore hiking routes and other tourism objects in the area



5) gather information on accommodation places in kazbegi and surrounding villages



when we feel that enough of work is done for today we either
1) read or write
or 2) watch movies
or 3) spend time with georgian people
or 4) try to get rid of georgian people
or 5) drink wine in candle light
or 6) discuss philosophical and existential issues
or 7) wonder about georgia

several of the mentioned activities are sometimes done simultaneously.

A Real Post

hello everybody!!

so this is a real post, not an sms-post, apart from the last couple of weeks. today we (me, kadri and kristina) arrived in tbilisi for a party. an internet party. in kazbegi village (our home) :) there is no internet at all. indeed, it would be strange if there was, because there is also no electricity, no gas and no water. well, sometimes there is. most of the time, actually :)

to be honest, we enjoy absence of internet, as well as absence of electricity in the evenings, after the sunset. this is how we see it (sunset) from our window.

What isn’t like in EU here?

Today morning after 9 days in Kazbegi we had had once everything: electricity, gas and water. So we were listening music, boiling eggs and washing our clothes. What isn’t like in EU here?

Čem ņe Evrosojuz?

Šorīt pēc 9 dienām Kazbegi pirmo reizi viss bija vienlaicīgi: elektrība, gāze, ūdens. Tad nu mēs klausījāmies mūziku, vārījām olas un mazgājām drēbes. Čem ņe Evrosojuz?

New slogan...

We got a new slogan for the GLEN: The Project is not the most important. Survival is the most important!

Tikko iestājās elektrība!

Tikko iestājās elektrība! Svētki! Gāzes joprojām nav, bet arī nevajag- tikko attīstījām griķu pagatavošanas metodi bez vārīšanas- pietiek, ja to aplej ar karstu ūdeni. Pēc pusstundas ir ēdami! Vēl- esam jau ciemā slavenas. Šovakar uz Manoni mājām bija atnākuši cilvēki, kas gribēja ar mums runāt par mūsu projektu. Viņi nav pirmie mūsu "draugi". Vēlāk zvanīja agresīva sieviete no pašvaldības, aicināja uz bāru dzert alu :). Atteicāmies.

... uzlādējām telefonus

... uzlādējām telefonus. Mums gan elektrības joprojām nav. Šodien satikāmies ar pašvaldības cilvēkiem. Būs interesanti, izskatās!

Pārtiekam no gurķiem, tomātiem un arbūziem, jo navne gāzes, ne elektrības. Visās 3 ēstuvēs piedāvājums vienāds: 3 veidu gaļa un hačaputi, to pēc 3 dienām vairs negribas :) Tikko mājās beidzās arī ūdens :) Telefonus lādējam ēstuvēs.

Vakar Kazbegi ciemā izcēlās skandāls. Kāda sieviete paziņoja, ka mēs bijām paredzētas dzīvot pie viņas, un Manoni (pie kā mēs dzīvojam) viņai atņēmusi 50 Larus (~15 Ls) dienā 3 mēnešu garumā. Tas ir 4x vairāk, nekā maksājam Manoni un tur neesot dušas un toletes. Skandāls liels, visi kliedza viens uz otru. Mēs izliekamies par muļķiem- eiropiešiem un ieturam neitrālas pozīcijas :) Manoni ir ļoti lādzīga saimniece! ...

sms news from Elina

... we just charged our mobile phones. But we still don't have electricity in our house and whole village. Today we met with people from the local municipality. It looks that it will be interesting!

We consume cucumbers, tomatoes and watermelons because there is no gas and no electricity . In all 3 local food shops ('cafes') menu is very similar - 3 types of hacapuri and meat - after 3 days you don't want it anymore :) Just right now also water finished in our house :) We charge our mobile phones in those food shops.

Yesterday in Kazbegi village some scandal happened. One woman announced that we were supposed to live at her place and Manoni (our host lady) has taken of her 50 Lari (~20 Eur) per day for the next 3 months. It is actually 4 times more expensive than we are paying now and there isn't toilet and shower. Big scandal - everybody was shouting at each other. We are pretending like fool Europeans and keeping neutral positions :) Manoni is very good host!...

sms ziņa no Elīnas

... kopš esam Kazbegi, te nav elektrības :) Bet mums tas patīk. Tikko pabeidzām mēbeļu pārbīdi mūsu miteklī un tūlīt sāksim atzīmēt. Pa dienu bijām Sameba. Ir izbeidzies Gruzijas telefons ...

Tbilisi market

Fighting against flies that attack chicken. Georgian solution: waving plastic bags tied to a stick.

Hands and legs. Alive or not, does not matter..

After this kind of views we felt like drinking some wine. To be honest, we felt so already before these views) ;)

...and we left with a liter of wine in Nabeghlavi plastic bottle in my bag.

A bakery in Tbilisi

"Please, come in," the guy said as we curiously stopped next to his bakery. We did so, and after a while got out with several pictures of the fascinating georgian bread oven and a loaf of fresh bread - a present.

The second day of the rest of my life

..started at 5 o'clock in the morning when I woke up from finding myself in a taxi driving from the airport to Tbilisi at 140 km per hour. I glanced at the driver, but he looked as if he was having a good time and had been doing this for the last 14 years. This made me calm again, and as we entered Latvian Consular office in the middle of Tbilisi in the middle of the night, unfolding our matraces was the only thing we did before going to sleep.

Now we are preparing for going to Kazbegi. When a couple of weeks before coming to the project I told the guy in Latvian Consulate that we, three girls, are going to Kazbegi, he laughed and asked if I was kidding. Now (as he probably realized that I was not) we had a one-and-a-half-hours-long lecture on now to survive in Kazbegi. Mountain people are the nicest Georgians, but they are also the most dangerous ones. Women in Georgia are saint, still we have to beware from evil intentions of locals.

But the first day of the rest of my life was August 1, when I for the first time in my life became an unemployed person for undetermined time. This feeling... I recommend it. In despite of my strong belief that my job was the best job I could dream of. This (in the picture) is how I mentally felt and actually spent time on this day (thanks to Latvian former GLENies)