Shobas Gilosavt!

Shobas Gilosavt!

Merry Christmas from Georgia to you all! Carissa and I are celebrating with our host family and are staying in Akhaltsikhe for the day. It should be a really nice time to spend with the Kimeridze family.

Sunday morning we met with Barry and Carolyn, some friends of a friend of Apple. They've been in Tbilisi for 2 years now, and are helping with some local projects. They have 6 children, and it was really nice to spend time with them and their family. They both were in Tbilisi for about 6 months in 1992, which is an extraordinary accomplishment. That period of Georgian history was exceptionally turbulent – right after the civil war, street fighting was still sporadic, shortages of everything (food difficult to find, breadlines, etc), extremely high crime rates... Living through that period of Georgian history is a testament to their dedication, and frankly, their tenacity. It was quite inspiring to hear their stories. Georgia today is NOTHING like what it was 15 years ago. The country has made amazing strides towards progress, and has come such a long way from where it was.

It's a blessing to be able to find food, medicine, internet, stable electricity and gas, marshutkas and buses that run (relatively) on time, bazaars that have stocks of consumer goods – I can't even explain how different things were 15 years ago here. Georgia has pretty much completely rebuilt from the ground up, and frankly, it's nothing short of miraculous.

On a completely different note... Christmas here is such a different experience than Christmas in the US. Counting last night, I have seen a grand total of 7 advertisements featuring 'Tovlis Papa” (Santa Claus) and that's pretty much it. It is by far the least commercialized Christmas I have ever, and probably will ever, spend. Ahaltskihe has a few small lights up, and 1 store has a Christmas tree in our town (that I know of). It's such a difference than the American Christmases I've been a part of for the last few years. In Tbilisi, it's much more prevalent, but here in the boonies, it's a non-event. I think it helps that the Georgian Christmas is on the 7^th of January, but I'm taking it all in stride. To be perfectly honest, our stack of presents is extremely tempting, but I think we'll successfully make it to tomorrow night before we open them.

C and I still haven't decided if we're going to work tomorrow or not – I think we will, but we plan on coming home at 3 rather than 6. I'm going to cook something, and we're going to enjoy our Christmas evening quietly. We managed to pick up a 'sampler' of Georgian champagne, so it'll be fun to taste them (they have the very small “1 glass” bottle here – so we bought 3 different ones to share with the family). We'll let you know how the quality is. :-)

Merry Christmas to all... and to all a good night! Call us if you get a chance!