So far, things with my host family have been really great.
I’m really fortunate for several reasons. Firstly, I’m in a city. A small city,
but a city none the less. I was kind of hoping for a village placement, I had
been mentally preparing for no hot water, no running water, outhouses etc since
I signed up and here I am in a house 15 minutes walking distance from the
downtown area, indoor bathroom where you can even flush your toilet paper, hot
water and a washing machine. The only modern convenience we don’t have is a
stove. They have a small gas burner, something like an oversized camping stove,
which they seem to use to cook everything. Not to say it’s really nice and
modern here, but it’s much more than I was expecting.
I’m also lucky because the aunt that lives here speaks
fairly good English. She has a very difficult time understanding me, but she
can communicate with me quite well and explain all the things going on around
me. The father can also speak some English. While it’s not very advanced, it’s
enough to communicate. My host mother doesn’t really speak a word of English,
but since I’ve arrived, she’s picked up 4 or 5 words and she seems to be eager
to learn more. She’s always a bit apprehensive around me because we can’t
really communicate well, but hopefully we’ll get to know each other better
soon. I’m also living with two children, an 8 year old girl and a 12 year old
boy. They are both great and we communicate with a mix of Georgian and English.
The girl has kind of adopted me as her new best friend… or new favorite toy,
I’m not sure which, but she points to random things and tells me what they are
in Georgian. I’m afraid I’m a poor student for her, I’m kind of in word
overload and my mind is not soaking up anything. I’ve picked up the following
phrases which I use to communicate everything:
It is good: kargia
It is bad: Tsudia
Beautiful: Lamazia
Car: manqana
I am…: Me var
Where is …: sad aris
My: chemi
Hello: garmajova
Nice to meet you: sasiamovnoa
I do know more than this of course, I did have 5 days of
language classes, but these seem to be the only words that will come to me
quickly enough to use them. Hopefully I learn quickly but I’m just in overload
at the moment.
My house seems to be layed out in a similar scheme to most
other Georgian houses I’ve seen in the neighborhood. Two floors with the
stairway to the second floor outside. There is an indoor stairway, but it’s
very steep and ladder-ish and feels quite awkward to use, especially if you
have anything in your hands. My room is by far the nicest in the house. They
clearly recently renovated the room for guests. Newly wallpapered walls match
the new curtains I have a big double bed and two wardrobes. I plan on buying
some hangars because at the moment all my clothes are on shelves. The other two
bedrooms are a bit sad looking. The kids room has two twin beds shoved together
and you need to cut through the parents room to get to it. It doesn’t seem as
though there is any electricity in those rooms. They gave me a flashlight to
cut through those rooms to use the bathroom at night because if I were to use
the outdoor stairway to go down, the front door would be locked. There are two
other rooms in the upstairs, but they seem to be rather a work in progress. One
is completely empty and full of dust, the other is full of scrap wood. They
told me that they will put electricity in those rooms soon. The downstairs is
nice with a kitchen cabinet area and a sitting room area with the TV. Off of
that room is the large living room with a piano (I’ve been told that pianos are
rather like a piece of furniture here with most people owning one) and sofas
and a table. No internet or computer, but they said that we will get internet
for the house (or for my computer?) soon. Here you can buy the usb drives that
use internet through the phone network. The device is quite expencive though
(two different companies, about $100 USD and $50 USD respectively) plus you
need to pay for the monthly service, and the price varies depending on the
useage of course.
The house also has a yard with an overgrown garden and a
large metal structure that seems to be for growing grapes. Most houses have
something like this in their front yard. The back yard has a sink (no sink in
the bathroom, they’ve told me that this will be moved into the bathroom soon
too) and a small house for storage plus several lines hung for drying laundry.
There are gates which lead into the neighbors yards and it seems that neighbors
are always coming and going from our house. It’s a nice community atmosphere
here and it’s the sort of town where everyone knows everyone. As we took a walk
around town we bumped into all sorts of people whom the family knew. This was a
student, this was a teacher, this was the son’s mother, etc etc.
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