Into Sopeli

Jet lag has consumed much of the time we could be adventuring, so the first week here has been quiet. We did rally one day, however, to visit G’s grandmothers in their villages. We started out on the wrong foot, however, and since my sense of humor failed to make it over on the flight from Minnesota, I was at a disadvantage.

One thing to remember about Georgia is that nothing is ever easy. We got going early for a jet-lagged new family, but late for G’s parents, who were waiting impatiently to get on the road. G had had a conversation with them some time earlier wherein it was decided that we would all go to the village together to save money on gas. So they were waiting. With huge amounts of stuff. When we finally made it to their house with Sophie in the car seat in back, they were a bit agitated. After loading everything into the SUV, Irina and I got into the back on either side of Sophie’s car seat and Soso got in front. A lovely smell of some combination of mold and cigarette smoke wafted from the bags in the back and Sophie squirmed and struggled to find peace for a bit of much-needed rest, but to no avail with her grandmother and me right there to look at. But we were on our way and I hoped the lull of the drive would help her to sleep. Or so I thought.

As we began to drive away, G’s parents informed us that we needed to stop to get some adult Pampers for G’s grandmother. Not a big deal, except that Irina only knew one place to purchase them and it was in the opposite direction next to the train station. We had to maneuver through bumper-to-bumper traffic for 45 minutes to get there, dodging gobs of people on a Saturday at the train depot bazaar. Not to mention the smog.

When we finally made it, of course there was no place to park. We eventually decided to just drop off G’s parents so Irina could walk to the shop and Soso could inhale some much needed nicotine (he won’t smoke inside with Sophie - thanks God!) and found a parking place further up the road. G quickly stepped out to smoke himself and buy some water (the village water isn’t good for us to drink) and I was left in the back seat unable to nurse in such cramped conditions, staring out the front windows as women haggling over bizarre second-hand clothes. It was reminiscent of the plane ride from Minneapolis, but worse.

As I mentioned earlier, I had no sense of humor at the time and steam started to come out my ears. G was doing his best to make me happy, but a peck on the cheek with an, “I love you” hardly fit the bill. I finally composed myself enough to get the babe out of the car seat and took her to sit in the front seat. I think that was around the time G called his dad to find out what was taking so long (it had been over ½ hour) and learned that his mom was now shopping for potatoes. This is how Sophie came to ride in my lap in the front seat for the long drive to Sopeli (for those of you new to Georgian terms, Sopeli is the Georgian word for the country). Sophie was a star in my lap, watching the world go by until she got tired and dozed off to the bouncing of the car, waking briefly and the falling asleep again for the whole drive there. In retrospect, we decided that the next time it might be better to simply give G’s parents money for gas.

When we arrived at the house in Bodbe, it seemed deserted and lonely. A huge difference from the Bodbe house I remember. Maybe it’s because they’ve just come out of winter, but more likely it’s because Inge, the old caretaker, passed away, leaving a void as big as the house itself. Babo, however, remains the same. The new caretaker is nice enough and keeps an immaculate house. But did not come out to welcome us as Inge had done so many times before.

So we went in and hugged Babo and G’s mom yelled at her for not wearing her diapers and then gossiped with the new caretaker about how the second caretaker was no good and had drinking and fish-eating parties at G’s parents’ expense right there in the house. And G and his dad quietly stole away to the car where they looked under the hood and nodded their heads knowingly at each other. And Babo and Sophie and I sat and watched it all going on around us. G’s mom fried some potatoes for lunch, we ate, and then were on our way (I had told G that I wanted to leave before it got dark).

Before we left, I befriended a turkey who was patrolling the driveway. The family bought him last time we left, vowing to kill him and eat him upon our return. They ball him Baloo, after G’s nickname here. He was a beautiful bird and I took altogether too many pictures of him. He paced back and forth, wary of me but not afraid. His feathers made a wonderful scratching sound as they dragged on the cement. He’d take three steps with his hard feathers down for a 3-beat tchtchtch and then pause. Then three more steps and pause. Back and forth, eyeing me carefully. I enjoyed his quiet company.

And off again to another village. This time to G’s mother’s village. In the car on the way there, we had a big “discussion” about whether or not we should actually visit. G’s mom was against the idea, as she was still upset with her mother for never visiting her in Tbilis or coming to our wedding. Plus, she said, she had no gift for them, and it’s wrong to arrive at someone’s home without candy or chocolate. I argued that G’s grandmother would likely want to see G and meet Sophie more than she might want chocolate, but Ira would have nothing to do with that. We ultimately found a store to buy some chocolate before heading to Maria’s house.

When we arrived, Nana (Ira’s sister-in-law) pulled her 3-year old boy Lexo to the back of the living room where buckets of water sat atop a wood-burning stove, which was heating the house and the water. Nana proceeded to wash Lexo’s hands and face so he could be presentable for the company we were. After making her boy presentable, Nana set about getting some homemade cake (the best I’ve had yet in Georgia) and compoti (peach preserves) for us to nibble and drink. I did more than nibble and she sent a whole cake home with me for later. While Nana was in the kitchen dishing up my traveling cake, G’s grandmother was out back choosing a huge jar of compoti to send along with us as well. Needless to say, my weight loss program has yet to begin here and I appear to be regressing into a weight-gain program as I eat my way through Georgia.

While we were eating, Lexo fell in love with Sophie and wanted to hug and kiss her for our entire visit. We had to take care not to let him pull her out of our hands. We took some family pictures, played with Nana’s boys and were off. I pulled rank and Sophie rode in my lap in the front seat again all the way home to Tbilisi.