The weekend of the 8th I stayed in the village. On Saturday afternoon I went to Poti with Kenneth and his family. The main purpose was to visit the bazaar and purchase a few essentials. By essentials I mean pizza ingredients. We made a plan to make real pizza for our families on Sunday afternoon. What they call pizza is nothing like pizza. It has no tomato sauce, it has mayonnaise instead of cheese and I’m not sure what the dough is made from but it just isn’t right. I also caved and purchased the wireless Internet modem while I was in Poti. After a bit of trouble I finally got it working and now have internet at home.
On Saturday evening Kenneth and his family were going to a wedding in Gulian(a nearby village) and because I had been hanging out with them all afternoon I ended up being invited to that too. It’s about a thirty-minute drive and we squeezed six of us into the car. Not an unusual feat in Georgia. Upon arrival I looked around and my first thought was that this doesn’t look too different from a funeral. The only difference I noticed was that instead of lots of crying there was lots of music and dancing. The wedding ceremony was being held in a different city but the party was in someone’s front yard under a big tent. There were enough seats set up for 300 people. Yes, you read that correctly: 300 people in someone’s front yard under a massive tent. There was also more than enough food to feed that many people. I don’t know how it works but somehow they manage it. The party consisted of lots of toasting to everything, loud music, lots of food, drinking and dancing. Kenneth and I were also asked to come to the front and be introduced as their American guests and then they played some Michael Jackson songs just for us. I had a really great time and even made some new friends. It is difficult to go anywhere in Georgia without making at least one new friend.
That Sunday my host mom and sister (visiting for the weekend) headed to Poti. They woke me up momentarily to ask if I wanted to go too, but I politely declined and then fell back asleep. I really wanted a nice day of rest. I woke up, had breakfast, watched some TV, did some laundry and had an all around bum kind of morning. I had to make an adventure to the store to add more money to my phone so I could use it. I ended up having to go to the store closest to Kenneth’s house so I just stayed there and we started to make the pizza. We found a recipe online for dough. It was an adventure in cooking because we were guesstimating measurements for everything: water, yeast, flour, salt. While we waited for the dough to rise we cut up tomatoes and threw them into a pot along with some other spices to make our own pizza sauce. It doesn’t really exist here so you have to make it from scratch. Kenneth’s host mom was watching us the whole time and whenever something was dirty and I took it to the sink to wash it she immediately jumped in to clean it. As much as you might want to clean up after yourself it just isn’t possible.
We spread the dough out, put the sauce on top and topped that off with cheese (suguni cheese which is only made in the Samagrelo region) and peppers. We turned to put it in the oven and remembered that it was a gas oven so cooking at a certain temperature was not an option. Lots of checking and rechecking while it was cooking to make sure it didn’t burn. It was finally ready and I would have to say that it was the best pizza I have had in a long time. It was a very thin crust but I’m okay with that. We also had some traditional Georgian food to go with it and of course there was wine.
Overall I would say that I had a very successful and fairly relaxing weekend. It wasn’t at all boring but then again I spent a lot of time outside of my house and that makes all the difference.
The week following my weekend at home was mostly uneventful except for a last minute decision to head to Ozurgeti to help Clare celebrate her birthday on October 11th. It is about 35-40 minutes from my village. Kenneth asked his host Dad if he would take us down there, we even offered money to help cover the cost of gas. That idea was accepted but in the end Kenneth tried to give him the money and he wouldn’t accept it. Her birthday party was being held at a restaurant in Ozurgeti, there was a lot of food but there wasn’t anyone else in the restaurant. It was like a large private party. There was even some singing and other music for us to enjoy. Naturally this lead to some dancing. I’m really glad we made the spontaneous trip down for her birthday.
On Wednesday afternoon Kenneth and I went to Supsa to try and buy train tickets for Thursday night to Tbilisi but we were told that the ticket office wasn’t open, but would be open in the morning. I then made the trip to Supsa the following morning (no school for me) to buy our train tickets. Everyday is an adventure in communication but this was a big adventure. I eventually gave up in trying to communicate with her on my own and I called the TLG(Teach and Learn with Georgia) hotline. They help with anything and everything that you can’t figure out on your own. In the end I bought two second-class tickets for the overnight train to Tbilisi for just 11 Lari. This trip to Tbilisi was going to be just the beginning of a weekend trip to Armenia. I'll have to write more about that later because it deserves more attention than I can give right now.
Also I have received more good news from home. My brother and his wife are expecting a baby in June. I'm very excited about this. Congrats to both of you!
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