Life, Death, and Election Day

The Republic of Georgia never ceases to amaze me, and this past weekends events have continued that trend.  Like all things in Georgia plans are subject to change, and I ended up not leaving the village of Akhuti.  My host dad informed me (through a difficult translation with the neighbor girl) that we had plans for the weekend and that I should stay.  I was kinda bummed but figured what the heck I’ll see what this little town has to offer. 

Saturday morning after breakfast my family went to another neighbors house for a somber early luncheon.  It turns out that one of my students Anastasia’s grandpa had passed away and they were having a prefuneral lunch.  It was a nice event and it seemed that many of the men from the village were there to help out.  The lunch and preparation of everything really enforced the community aspect of Georgian village life.  After the lunch I returned home while my family went to the church.  They then told me that they would pick me up at 9:00 and we would go to the supra.  I though that it was another funeral related event, but once again I was wrong.

The nighttime rolled around and my host dad and I walked about 15 minutes past the neighbors house to the supra.  It turns out that we were invited to a Georgian wedding, and it was quite the time.  There was lots of food, wine, dancing and celebrating for the new couple.  Traditional Georgian musicians played for part of the feast while Georgian dance was preformed.  The dancing was quite the spectacle and it was great to see what everyone had been talking about first hand.  It concluded with the lead girl placing a cup of wine on the ground, doing the splits, grabbing the cup with her mouth, and then drinking it without using her hands.  Very impressive. 

After that concluded there was much more wine and more modern dancing, with everyone getting involved.  The party lasted until 6:00 in the morning, and believe me everyone was having a good time.  The Georgians must have drank through an entire barrel of wine and then some that night. 

The next morning (as every morning) I was woken up early by the sun shining in my eyes.  My host dad is up, and I’m very much sure that he was still drunk.  Now we went back to the funerals house where they had the body on display and had another somber lunch.  It turns out that that day they would finally burry the grandpa at the cemetery on the hill.  After the lunch we all returned to take some much needed naps and showers.

Finally Monday the Election Day rolled around.  It was quite interesting to see how everything was handled.  The vote was held in an old Soviet concrete building that I had honestly though was abandoned.  It turns out that it was the only thing available (even though they have a brand new school that had the day off) and the broken windows were not to be minded.  The ballots were just pieces of papers that people would circle their selection on, then dropped in a clear box.  It was jam-packed and it seemed that everyone came out for the vote.  As of right now both sides are claiming victory, but I believe that the Georgian dream party (the opposition) may have eked it out.  In the coming days I’ll try to find out what any fallout from the election is.  All in all it was a great 3 day weekend, and I am very glad that I chose to stay in the village this time.