Blind trust and toasts.

After teaching my one class of the day last Wednesday, I headed to Gurjaani to celebrate my friend Megan’s birthday supra style with her, her host family, and some other TLG friends. As I’ve mentioned before, the most popular mode of public transportation are marshutkas and that is how I intended to get there and back. Although they’re insanely affordable, they don’t operate on a strict schedule and stop running around 6 p.m., but I was prepared to travel an hour and a half each way for a couple hours of midweek fun! Seeing as how I still haven’t graduated to complete independence, one of the drivers at my host mom’s office drove me the 25 minutes to Telavi to put me on the right bus from there. I hadn’t been to Gurjaani before, so although I’m confident I would’ve managed on my own, I’m positive I wouldn’t have done it in such a timely manner.

I’m climbed in and took my seat in the back, popped in my headphones, and enjoyed the 50-minute ride. As we got closer to my destination, the man sitting next to me asked if I spoke Kartuli (Georgian), and I did a yes/no headshake and said t’sota (a little). He then said, “Dutch?” and I shook my head. I told him I was an English teacher in Akhmeta and he got a big smile on his face and told me he was a principal at a school in Gurjaani. What I gathered from the rest of our broken Kartuli/English/charades conversation was that he has 2 homes, one being in another town, and his school hasn’t received an English teacher yet. I was able to tell him where I’m from and that I was going to Gurjaani for my friend’s birthday. When we arrived at our stop I asked the man how much the marshutka ride was and he shook his head and showed me his money. He motioned for me to get out and then handed the driver his money. We climbed out and I tried to pay for my ride but the man refused to take it! The language barrier makes it very difficult to argue, and I've learned by now that I wouldn't win, so I repeatedly thanked him and shook his hand. Then, with the kindest smile, he said, “Nice to meet you. I love you.” I held back my laughter and told him it was very nice to meet him as well and we parted ways. “Love” seems to be quite the popular English word amongst Georgians, and even in our training class we were taught to say love instead of like (ie.  I don’t love cheese). In America, this could have been very creepy, but here, it was an act of pure kindness and appreciation.

I met all my friends at the café and we had a table full of food and wine and in no less than an hour, so were we. In traditional supra style, there were many toasts, in both English and Georgian, and even the occasional Russian translation. Then came the cake with American and Georgian flags side by side, and fruit plates with firecrackers flaming from the center. Although the cake was beautiful, I was very excited about the kiwi, orange rings, and quince slices…which seem to be quite the popular fruit out here that we expats are no so familiar with. I was hoping my plate of fruit would deter them from giving me cake but instead the server just forked my quince, handed it to me, and replaced my fruit with cake. This time laughter wasn’t as easy to hold back as we were all given slices the size of our heads! The music started and dancing began, but shortly after, my host brother called and it was time for me to head back home.

cake :)

insanely large slice of cake.

He spoke to Megan’s host dad to tell him where I needed to go and then host dad relayed the information to host uncle (who’s a taxi driver), who then drove me down the road to one of his taxi friends where I hopped in a taxi for Telavi. We drove for about 20 minutes in silence when my brother called and told me to give the phone to the driver where a short conversation took place in Georgian. 20 minutes later, the taxi pulled over to the side of the road where Giorgi was waiting for me. We greeted each other, I paid the taxi man, and about 5 seconds after he pulled away, a driver from the office pulled up to take us the rest of the way home. Wow. I managed to travel about 60 km without really taking part in the conversations of where I needed to go. I simply trusted these four men, three of whom I just met that night, and went where they motioned for me too. When I step back and think about it, we teachers have given a lot of trust to people we only met three weeks ago, including each other. It may sound crazy but from my experiences so far, they continue to earn it.

I arrived home, feeling happyJ, and was ready to relax for the night as it was only about 8 p.m., but then Fati came in the house and shouted, “Rachel, I’ve come to get you! Let’s go!” So I threw my boots back on and ran out of the house with no idea of what was going on. We arrived at the office where all my after school comrades were in the middle of a supra…apparently it was Man’s Day and they were celebrating all the men that worked with my host mom. So I joined in for more food, wine and fun. I sat in between the Tamada (toast master) and Fati, who translated most of what was said but I was still in the dark for some of it. However, I think I’m starting to understand a bit of what’s going on around me. Although I can’t technically speak Georgian, I pay a lot of attention when they talk, so I feel I’m starting to understand the meaning behind what they’re saying even though I don’t understand the actual words.

The next thing I knew my host mom requested that I give a toast…in Georgian. I laughed, thinking she was joking, but the entire table went silent and everyone looked at me…they weren’t joking. I looked at Fati to rescue me, but she just grinned. So I did the only thing I could do. I picked up my wine glass and started putting together the few words I knew into the shortest sentences possible, ironically using the word “love” a lot. Although I’m sure it wasn’t much better than my 3^rd graders English, the entire room listened to every word I said, nodded in agreement, and some helped me with a few words I didn’t know. I wrapped it up by raising my glass and they all clapped and cheered. I did it! My host mom had a smile from ear to ear and Fati gave me a big hug and said she was so proud. I was quite proud myself, however, it’d be unfair to take all the credit…I had a few glasses of wine to thank for that performance :).