First weekend in the village

First, I need to make a few corrections. It’s “Teona”, not Teola. And it’s “Nazi”, not Nezo. I mentioned that names are giving me some trouble, and it’s no joke. Anyone can introduce themselves and I’ll have to fight the urge to tilt my head and give my best puzzled-dog face.

I’ve been able to spend a lot of time around the house these past few days, and Nazi has been very kind. She makes breakfast and lunch for me, does the dishes, and doesn’t allow me to help. She actually gets a fussy tone if I start to do anything to help. Here she is peeling potatoes for my lunch.

Nazi peeling potatoes for lunch

And this is what I see after she calls me to lunch.

a typical lunch in Zeghduleti

There’s some cold chicken, Katuleti with tomato sauce (kind of like salsa but totally homemade), bread with kuchamachi spread, baderijani (eggplant), tomatoes, yummy fried potatoes, fish, and cheese. Ask me if I feel guilty, go ahead, ask me!

I’ve mentioned that they farm mostly everything they need, and it’s the truth, although they do have lots of other food products because they have a few “stores” (I’ll explain later). Here’s what I saw in their courtyard on Saturday morning.

Like most Georgians, they also make their own wine. I’ve seen so many homes (in the village, and in Gori) with their own grape vines stuffed into small spaces. They’ll just erect these structures for the vines to grow and cover the property. When the grapes are ripe, they pick them, stomp them, store the juice to complete the process later.

Grapes grow all around the front yard of the house

Nazi hauls these huge buckets of grape juice to the cellar and pours them into huge containers. She looks tiny, but she's very strong. She never whines, and it seems she is always working around the house.

Here’s a shot of their front gate, and their tiny store that gets regular business from people in the village.

Their store front next to the gate, and the home behind the fence

The funny thing is that you’ll find a dozen of these tiny stores in the village, but I guess my host family sells some good products.

uuuhhh...okay...nobody here speaks English anyway

And a few pictures of the family and friends…

Teona, Grandmother, and Nazi

Khatuna, Teona, and Tea

Nazi

Giorgi

Teona

I have lots more to share because I went into Gori today. I won’t be starting school until they arrange for introductions at the school. I’ve been asked to wait for a phone call. This will give me some time to study Georgian language! More later…