Frozen again

I wanted to go outside and hike today, but the weather was miserably cold. Instead, I stayed inside. I read and wrote. I showered. I drank a lot of coffee and danced with Eka to bad pop music on this “Popbudzk” television station. The station is Polish, I think, and they play music videos. They always seem to have different themes, and today’s was 100 best women vocalists.

Eventually, though, Bakari called. A friend had leant him a truck for the day, which is a pretty big deal, so we drove off into the Caucasian mountains as far as we could. We stopped to greet neighbors and drink mineral water. We towed a car out of a ditch, and I saw icicles bigger than I am. When we were about 9 km from the Russian border, we turned around and went back to Oni. There, we picked up Magda, Vera, and Dato and drove in circles around Oni. They talked about how the man whose been pursuing Magda has to back off because it was just discovered that they’re 3^rd cousins. They talked about a boy from here who just won a national wrestling competition and so will go on to represent Georgia in European tournaments. They talked about the lives of their neighbors, and then they got bored. When Magda, Vera and Dato left, Bakari and I went to visit his uncle Gio. We watched a little bit of a documentary about an Italian journalist killed in Tbilisi (back during the days of their first president) for writing an expose about organ-thieves in Chechnya. Then we watched a bit of a different documentary, this one about the Russian invasion of 1801.

When we were watching TV at Baka’s house later, the same documentary was on. His mother blinked a few times and then shook her head and told us that during her childhood “Occupation Week” was a time of mandatory celebrations and ceremonies…not memorials. The Azerbijani television station had a pair of red carnations in the corner of the screen to mark their occupation, which occurred at the same time as Georgia’s. I always was told that using even numbers of red flowers to mark sober events was a Russian custom, but I guess after 91 years it isn’t always clear whose traditions are whose.

The rest of the evening was lighthearted enough. We watched a film called “Autumn in New York” which was dubbed into Russian. Baka and his mother took turns translating the Russian into Georgian so I could follow the plot. Then it got late so I went home.

As Baka walked me home, our conversation became a bit strange. While we’d been at his house, his mom had asked if I go to church here. I said that I do, and she asked if I knew that I’m forbidden to go when I’m on my period. Baka cut in and said that he and the priest had discussed this (!!!) and that I’m not held to that rule because I’m not orthodox. His mother asked why I would go to church then, and I cut in to answer that there is only one church in Oni. She shook her head and went back to the film.

Then on the walk home, we started out talking about how violent Tbilisi was back when Baka was a university student there. Somehow, from there we got to a place where Baka was telling me that Georgians resisted the Roman empire because of their inherent strength, that they’ve survived as one of the oldest countries in the world because of their strength and their orthodoxy, and that Turkish and Russian people are terrible. I was a bit taken aback. One of our first conversations had been about how the people in these countries are not the same as their governments, and so we find that we love the people and hate the governments. Georgians are remarkably strong people, and they have a beautiful, ancient culture to be proud of. But, they aren’t old as a country. They’ve been occupied almost constantly for the last 500 years! And I really don’t think that God cares much for man-made land divisions, extreme nationalism, or bloody wars waged in the name of pride. Finally, I have (and understand how some other people have) problems with the governments and ruling people in Turkey and Russia. I can also understand how the way people from a distant custom reason, communicate and interact can be disagreeable to an outsider at times (ahem…). But how does one just dismiss two entire nations of people? I said that I happen to disagree, and his answer was that the only way I would disagree was if I didn’t know the Turks or the Russians. I wanted to ask if he’s met every person in both countries and found each and every one of them to be a monster as he claims. I wanted to tell him about my friends from both countries and how sincerely I love them. But he is thoroughly convinced that all of Georgia’s neighboring countries are out to eat up his homeland, and that the favor of God—their role as the chosen people—is what protects his countrymen. Arguing was useless. I shook my head and said good-night.