Farm Life

I've been with my family now for about 5 days and my favorite activity is sitting at my bedroom window watching the chickens and cows wander around the yard. Teklati, the village where I live, is very tiny. I've been getting to know my English teacher and she says the school only has about 150 kids. I live with the principal and another teacher and they're the sweetest people I could ask for. Their son, Papuna, is 3 years old and absolutely adores me. I have no time to myself because if I'm ever in my room studying Georgian or reading, he comes in and yells at me in Georgian. I've learned to say, "Ara, Papu! Erti tstuti, me vstsavlob! Tsadi!" Which translates to, "No, Papu. One minute, I'm studying. Go!" It sounds rude, but that's just how they speak. Instead of saying, "I would like.." at a restaurant, it's, "I want." From what I've learned of the language I really love it. Very different from anything else, and its closest linguistic relative is Basque, which isn't even really similar. So for those who doubted the country of Georgia and its language, doubt no more.

I really do love living on a farm. The way the towns work here, from what I've seen, is that they pop up around natural springs. In Teklati there's a huge field surrounded by one row of houses on all sides and the field is sort of communal. There are horses and cows wandering around on it and the natural spring is where people go to get their water. When standing at the spring, which is actually underground so it has to be pumped up, I can see nothing but a flat field in front and at my back is the row of backyards which are currently all growing corn. In the distance on all sides is mountains. I'm at an internet cafe right now, otherwise I'd post pictures. My family doesn't have internet so it's difficult to put any up.

I'm living on a farm in the most basic sense of the word: they have 6 cows where they get their own milk to make cheese, about 50 chickens where they get loads of eggs (and I think meat, yikes), more than one huge field of corn, an enormous garden which includes various types of gourds, melons, fruit trees (pears, figs), grape vines (for wine and grapes) and lots of cucumbers and tomatoes. They make their own bread and every meal consists of 90% their own products. It's absolutely wonderful. I love how slow it is and how much time we spend just calmly reading or making dinner or watching the chickens in the yard.

Right now I'm in Senaki where I'm meeting two fellow English teachers, both from America, to head up to Zugdidi for the weekend. We might also check out the Black Sea coast a little more. It's an interesting life, but I'm very quickly getting used to it and can honestly say it might keep me longer than I was expecting. Not to mention the coffee is the best I've ever had and drunk out of tiny china cups. How can you get better than that?

Hopefully I'll post photos soon!