Georgian Hospitality

A recent article listed Georgia as the third most hospitable country in the world. All my research of the country echoed the recurring themes of "Georgian kindness," and "the warmth of the Georgian people." Yet upon finally getting here and actually interacting with people on the street, I found it was  just the opposite. The first few days were very strange because I noticed no one smiled. I'm a pretty friendly person to strangers on the street, and will at least shoot people a smile, or a head nod if they happen to make eye contact. But everyone here walks around with a very stoney face - no expression, no looking at other people, no acknowledging other human beings exist. I found it all a little disconcerting.

And then, after having a few phrases under my belt, I noticed that the second you actually initiate a conversation, especially if you try in Georgian, folks just light up, and become incredibly animated. Having made it to my host family's house last night, I finally understand the meaning of "Georgian hospitality."

My family lives up a cobblestone street off of another rubble strewn road off one of the main thoroughfairs in Telavi. The upstairs is currently under construction (I get one of the new rooms when it's finished!), but the rest of it is very warm feeling, very homey. Especially the kitchen, which is hilariously where I have spent most of my time. My host mother, Maghka, is this really vibrant woman who doesn't speak English - she only knows a few words here and there. Naturally, upon finally meeting her, I was so nervous and excited that any Georgian I learned over the last week just went straight out of my head. Conversations right now are a weird mix of me slaughtering Georgian, just straight up making words I think COULD be Georgian (adding an -i to the end of most things seems to work well), and lots of gesticulating. When I get back Stateside you will want me to be on your charades team. However, I have gotten a lot of bonus points for keeping a little notebook where I scribble down words I'm learning using the Georgian alphabet, even if I do need help discerning a few of the p's, k's and t's still. Ani, the 11 year old daughter, and her younger brother Goga, are currently at their other grandparents house in a different village until the construction is done, but I spoke a little with Ani on the phone, and it sounds like she has a pretty good grasp on English. It will be nice to have her around, especially for those times when elaborate acting is needed.

In the four or five hours after my arrival to Telavi, I had four meals, numerous hugs, and several cheek kisses, mostly from the neighbors who kept dropping in. Georgian hospitality is outrageous - we even ran into a Polish kid who is backpacking across Georgia and needed a place to stay for the night. He was asking us if we knew where a cheap hostel was, and Maghka instead invited him to stay with us. So currently this family, whose house is under construction, kids are in another village, and both parents work, have taken in not only one foreigner, but two, neither of whom speak their language. They've fed both of us full meals, and always insisted we take more. We both have numerous blankets, pillows, and I bet if we needed clothes they would help us with that, too.

It's strange to me that the private circles of Georgians are so completely different than the public face they put on. For a group who is so welcoming and open with their house and belongings, they look completely unapproachable on the street. In fact, we were told in training that smiling at strangers, especially girls smiling at boys, is considered "flirtatious." It was slightly horrifying to find out that the first few days I was in Tbilisi everyone probably thought I was some crazy loose woman who was trying to lure men into my bed with a smile. It also explained why a couple times some men followed us for a short ways, yapping at us in Georgian or Russian. I basically just ignore everyone now, which turned out to be a lot easier than I thought it would be. Public outings, especially if I'm by myself, are way less stressful now that I don't have to worry about social graces on the street.

Telavi unfortunately is currently under some cloud cover, as are the Caucasus mountains to the northeast of the town. Hopefully it will clear up by sunset so I can get a picture of the view outside our door. It's sort of stupid how every time I turn around it's another perfectly picturesque scene. The Caucasus are ridiculously impressive. They basically just jut a straight 11,000 feet up from the floor of the plains. The front range, which we can see from Telavi, go above treeline, and the highest one around here soars over 18,000 feet. I don't think I'll be doing that much trekking around in the high mountains, but some hiking definitely needs to be in the future. A few fellow TLGers were talking about possibly taking a trip this weekend and exploring around Kakheti, so hopefully that means mountain adventure time!

Either way, pictures to come when the weather clears up a bit!