We are now looking to buy a place just outside of Tbilisi and keep it as a vacation home for the next 5-7 years with eventual plans for retirement there. You are all welcome to visit!
Returning here was among the hardest things I have ever done. I cried as the plane lifted off from Tbilisi. I have already called back to Tbilisi to speak with a friend there. I did not want to hang up the phone.
So, in short, Georgia was a life-changing experience, beyond all words, for me.
My husband has agreed that we will purchase a place outside the city and have a caretaker, through a very good friend I met there. There are many street dogs in Tbilisi and it is very sad. They are hungry. Every evening and morning my son and I took food and bought food and fed the dogs we could find. I fell in love with a small dog there and I kid you not, I am going to ask my friend to find that dog and move it into the place we buy and the caretaker will care for it.
There are many poor people.It was the most powerful experience of my life to stop and give someone the equivalent of five dollars and have them hug you weeping in thanks. (I always pointed upward and told them to thank God.)
In spite of the poverty I felt more at home there than I have ever felt here. It is incredibly inexpensive there and the food is incredibly good. I have been to the Mediterranean before and have always loved the climate. I also love the winding streets, the architecture, and the way that everyone seems to be Orthodox. Policemen stop and cross themselves as they pass churches. Not one person was unkind or unhelpful. I was never afraid, but always felt incredibly loved and in the arms of God. I found it easy to get around and find anything, and we went to liturgy every morning, after walking into town feeding dogs along the way.
I felt as if I had returned home, though I have never been there before. The people love America and Americans and Georgia is on the way to becoming a great country. Which is why we are going to buy a place now, before it becomes too expensive. Things are rapidly changing and for the better.
Just to give you an idea of the prices there, I once walked into a small store with a bill that was roughly equivalent to 10 dollars, and they could not serve me because the bill was so large and they did not have change.
I took the equivalent of 35 dollars to donate at a church and the man there said no one there would touch so much money with their hands. So I put it into the church box. The people are incredibly pious and devout. There are new churches being built everywhere. Life is very simple and delightful, with hardly any complexities as we have here.
I went to the monastery, Bodbe, in Khaketia, eastern Georgia, and brought home water from a spring at the site where St. Nina reposed. I had never had spring water before, and it was delicious. I drank as much of it as I could and stuck my head into it as well. (It is where I spent time with the Abbess, Mother Teodora.)They have a bath you can use to get into the water and offer you robes and slippers to get in, but I was nervous about undressing there, as there were other people at the spring too.My friend Nino came with us and brought her son, Beka, and they did bathe in the water. Mother Teodora said there have been miraculous healings. Beka is three years old and is believed to be "different" from other children.
I was also given some oil from a tomb at a monastery in the ancient capitol Mskheta. I brought some home for our priest to use to anoint sick people.
I took many pictures and brought home many things. I spent every cent I had there and gave money to people right and left. I never paid for anything without paying at least twice as much as they asked.
I am still suffering from terrible culture shock at my return. There were many Americans there and they all loved it as I did, but we did laugh together at some of the Georgian ways. One American told me the white lines in the center of the road were only a suggestion, and that is very true. They have no street signs or street lights and the driving is very unique.
Gee I hope that answered your question. :-) Our plan now is to study the language for the next year and save to return in the spring again. By then we hope to have a place purchased and will begin taking things there to leave.
St. Nina! How blessed are you. Thank you for sharing this news of your journey and your plans.
Thanks for sharing this info. You are making me want to pack up and visit Georgia next week!
Sounds like a wonderful trip, Marmema. It also sounds like driving there is rather like driving in Greece. The white lines and the speed limits there are similarly mere suggestions. You'll be interested to hear that my aunt and uncle down in the village have hired a Georgian woman to act as a housekeeper/cook as my aunt has become quite frail. She has been there two years living in the village and she has learned Greek. She told us that the village is like paradise compared to Georgia where in her area the income is about $25.00 per month. She said there is no money and little food, in the winter no heat. Children apparently are starving to death if they don't freeze first. Apparently the men send the women off to Greece to work so they can send money home and they sit around their villages getting drunk. She didn't paint a very pretty picture save with regard to the Faith which she described as strong and vibrant. She certainly loves Americans and said that was a sentiment shared by other Georgians, though she did say perhaps they could use more economic development expertise and loans rather than military aid, at least at the level she believes we are sending it.
I'm so glad to hear you spent time at a monastery and met with the nuns. Orthodox nuns are just about the most wonderful people on earth! We spent a delightful time at the monastery outside our village with "our" nuns. All we did was laugh nearly the whole time. One of the nuns offered us coffee or tea in the arkondariki. My wife asked for tea and off the nun went to prepare the tea and coffee. She was gone quite a while and when she returned, she gave my wife a cup of "mountain tea", explaining that she was sorry for the delay but she had had to climb up the mountain a ways for the tea! As my wife began to tell her how that had been unnecessary and was really too much, all the nuns burst out laughing as of course the sister had only been kidding. They also gave us a sweet and a small glass of their homemade mint liquor which was very light and delicious. Anyway, a visit with the nuns is always a highlight of a trip to an Orthodox land.
Good idea on getting a piece of land...even better to learn the language! I got my land finally registered and leased it to a farmer for 3 years for 60 euros! As we walked back to the village square from the farmer's house, my uncle leaned over to me and said I should be careful carrying around that kind of money!
Welcome home!
Congratulations on your new home!