Our adoptive family

Written in a cabin in the woods, while waiting for the rain to stop near Sairme, Georgia

Second day with our hosts. We go on a picnic near a stream, it's green everywhere. Green is the color of Georgia. I swim in the water, climb the rocks, it's fun. Nata, the 13 year old girl doesn't want to get too wet. She's been playing princess the day we saw her. She avoids cows and dogs, it could do in France but how the hell does she survive in Georgia?
She seems to like Ilona a lot though.

Ilona and Nata, at last she got into the water.

In the evening we go fishing. It's a real success this time, I caught 5 of them. Eldar hung them on a grass string through the mouth, it was quite disgusting especially with the blud flowing with the fish which was still alive. I'm still too sensitive for the world or so it seems.

Ilona trying to catch a fish

Ilona processed the fish with the help of the older lady we met first. We had another amazing dinner, visited the neigbours again and since these good people didn't have time to show us everything, we'll stay for another night.

Eldar gave Ilona a georgian sim card so they'll be able to call us and check if everything is OK every day we stay in georgia. In armenia, he said, the roaming charges kick in and they won't be staying in touch anymore. Obviously.

Eldar is the communicative one. He isn't only socially active, he also has a great georgian wisdom. In that sense, he is a true Georgian Democrat as would Zurab, the georgian truck driver say.

You may wonder what I mean by democrat in the georgian sense so pay attention closely for this word will be widely used in the future and has become an essential word in our vocabulary.

If a person is helpful, has an intelligent view on things but forces his viewpoint on us then he might be of great counsel but he is not a true democrat.

If a person has no clue about what they are talking about and still give us plenty of solutions that are not really usable then he might be of good will but this person is still not a true democrat because a true democrat has to have both feet on the ground to keeo living in a democracy. If a person loses touch with reality and constructs a democracy based on an idealist understanding of reality then his democracy will get invided by the nighbouring Russia and there will be no more democrats.

A true democrat is a person who knows how to be helpful and informative but always leaves the full choice to his counterpart. And that kind of person is Vacho or Eldar.

It is important to note that in Georgia, unlike un Turkey, we were always given a choice. We can stay but we are always free to leave whenever it suits us. They don't try to convince us to stay, they just state some arguments about why it would be better.

In the evening, dinner is amazing, as always. Georgia keeps its promises.

Vacho, Eldar and me

Ilona is crazy about the Hatcha-Purin, the local food, a kind of pizza wih cheeze inside. So tomorrow, before they leave us on our way, granma will teach her how to bake them.