A day in the life...

After school today I met with my conversation group, and we talked about our normal days - what a normal day is like for them here, and what a normal day was like for me in the U.S. (did I ever have a normal day??) Anyway, as I was walking home I realized that I have shared all sorts of stories of random happenings and my thoughts of cultural aspects of life here, but I haven't yet written about my daily routine. I've been here long enough to have established some semblance of a routine, so I will share it with you now.

I run in the morning before school every other day. On mornings that I run, I get up at 6:45, dress, and am out on the road just before 7. I run 30-40 minutes on the main road. It is still dark, so my keen night-vision comes in handy! I have to treat the road like a trail, running on my toes to absorb the shock of the stones and dips from the pot holes. Most of the animals are still sleeping in their cozy barns or pens, so I don't have to worry about running into a cow or pig in the road; although, I have scared a few pigs who must have been out late and had to sleep outside their gate on the sidewalk. It's really funny to see them run like mad, bouncing off the fence, trying to get in their yard to get away from the scary human running by them. They squeal as if they are being stuck with a pitchfork! When I get back home, the sun is just coming up, and Tea is already in the kitchen getting breakfast ready. After a hot shower (thank God I have hot, running water at my house!!!), I sit in the kitchen and have a lovely breakfast. Tea is an amazing cook! I tell her everyday that she is wonderful and that she should open her own restaurant! She feeds me more than I can possibly eat - fresh homemade bread - often just out of the cookstove - with home-churned butter, khatchapuri (cheese-filled thin bread), fresh cheese and fresh eggs fried together (if the hens laid eggs that morning), local honey, homemade yogurt, coffee, and sometimes chocolate. I finish getting ready for school, and at 8:45, I leave the house.

It takes about 10-12 minutes to walk to school. The 10-15 minutes before school is the busiest time on the road - and the traffic is mostly foot-traffic! Most of the kids and teachers walk. I like seeing the little knots of students walking arm in arm down the road. Seeing the groups converge on the school building from all directions makes me think about the importance of education for these kids. They are coming together from their little corners of Shamgona to learn as much as they can so they can make something of themselves in the future. These kids are bright, determined students (well, most of them!) in a country that is developing rapidly. They should have good opportunities for good jobs when they are out of school. When I arrive at the school gate, the students who saw me walking are lined up outside the gate (usually at least 15 students of all ages) to say hello and welcome me to school, then they all follow me though the gate and walk me to the front door. I feel like the pied piper without the pipe!

School starts at 9:00, and is over at 2:20. There is no lunch hour - just six 45-minute classes back to back with a 10-minute break between each one. Mondays I teach three classes, Tuesdays I have four classes and a conversation group after school. Wednesdays I teach four classes. Thursdays I have five classes and a conversation group after school. Fridays I only teach two classes in the morning, and then I am finished for the week. The hours that I am at school but not teaching I am able to do lesson plans for the following day or study some Georgian.

I often walk home with students who live in my direction, so we get some extra English-practice in -- or we have a mini-lesson in Georgian as they teach me how to say things that we walk by. On Monday and Wednesday I am home well before 3, and on Tuesday and Thursday, not until 4. Fridays I am home before noon. Tea always has lunch ready when I get home. Again, she has more food on the table than I can possibly eat - the ever-present bread and cheese, butter, fresh curds, fish, potato salad made with carrots and pickles, pickled cabbage, mandarins or apples, honeycomb, something I always forget the name of in Georgian - a sort-of pudding made of corn flour and grape juice (it's delicious!), and hot tea -- today she cooked some local mushrooms with some hot pepper pesto she made - it was amazing!! Tea and I usually get a chance to talk during lunch and afterwards. I am so glad that I am able to help her improve her English. She was so nervous at first to speak, and she had a hard time understanding me, but every day she is getting better at understanding and speaking. In less than three weeks, she has made marked improvement.

In the afternoons, I spend time reading, drawing, taking a walk, and studying Georgian. Elene usually accompanies me when I draw and when I study Georgian. She helps me write the Georgian letters and read - she is a good teacher, and she demands perfection! If I mispronounce a word or write a letter backwards, she clucks her tongue with a sharp, "Ara!" ("No!") and makes me do it until I get it right...... except for some pronunciation. There are a few of the letters that I cannot pronounce - one of the K's (კ), one of the T's (ტ), the GH (ღ), the QKH (ყ), one of the TS's (წ), and the TCH (ჭ) are impossible! No one can explain to me what the things inside my mouth are supposed to do to make the sounds - everyone just says the sounds louder and closer to me! I tell them that I can hear the sound, but I don't know how to make my mouth make that sound! I may get them someday; I may not!

Right now the sun sets around 5:30. I think that time is going to get earlier for a little while yet - but when the sky is clear, the sunsets are lovely. The trees around the house are mostly hazelnut which are short, skinny trees, so the majority of the sky is open. The sunsets seem to go mostly unnoticed by everyone but me - a couple of times I have pointed out the brilliant pinks and purples to Tea. Elene practices naming the colors in English. When the sun goes down, the damp air gets especially cold, so Elene and I go inside to continue whatever we have been doing - reading, writing, drawing, or language-learning. Inside, the warmest room is the kitchen - a small room with a wood cook-stove, a table, a couple of chairs, two benches, and some cupboards with a countertop. There is a TV in the corner, and today I noticed that it is sitting on an electric stove! The stove is not used - Everything that comes out of the cook-stove is wonderful, so I wouldn't change a thing. In the kitchen, the TV is almost always on. Tea doesn't watch it much - she is always busy - but "our grandmother" (as Tea calls her) does. Most of the programs she watches are Georgian-dubbed Spanish telenovelas! If I listen carefully and read lips, I can understand most of the Spanish underneath the flat Georgian dubbing. The programs are eccentric and over-the-top dramatic. "Our grandmother" is very into them - she talks to the TV while the programs are on - it's quite entertaining! During commercial breaks, she always looks at me and says "Tchame! Tchame kargad!" ("Eat! Eat well!")

Around 7:00, Tea makes me more food - "tea," she calls it. So I sit with her at the table and eat again, have more hot tea, and talk some more. I like the time that we have to spend together talking. Tea is very nice and she is a good teacher. She has only been teaching for a year and a half, and she is eager to become better at motivating her students. Her teaching style is a lot like mine - informal and relational. We talk a lot about education, and how to get through to students. The Georgian system leaves much to be desired, but that is a topic for another post!

Between 8 and 9, I wash up and say goodnight to the family. In my room, I put things away from the day and get things ready for the following one. I check my email and facebook and write my blog post. Before I go to bed, I often do some crunches, push-ups, and yoga poses. So much sitting around makes my back hurt, and since I am not rock-climbing at all, I want to do a little something to keep some strength! Between 10:30 and 11, I am ready to cocoon myself under my pile of blankets to keep warm for the night. And as long as the dog doesn't bark too much, I fall asleep fairly quickly to get up and do it all over again!

Today

Well, my attempt at the power of positive thinking didn't work. Even though I kept telling myself not to fall prey to the feeling, I'm sick. I have what I think is a cold - my nose is runny, I'm sneezing, and my chest burns when I cough. That last part has me slightly worried. The climate here is very different from what I am used to - it's damp and chilly - not the dry cold of Pennsylvania winter. The smoke in the air right now is not helping my breathing nor sinuses, either. It's tree-pruning time in the hazelnut orchards (which everyone in the village has), and any small branches that can't be used for anything are piled and burned in the field. The leaves that fall from the trees (it's still sort-of autumn here) are also swept up and burned in the front yards. For the last few days there has been almost constant smoke in the air - not real thick, but enough to be affecting me. I've been ingesting more hot tea with honey than any other liquid, and the neighbors' mandarin orange trees are laden with fruit, so I have vitamin C galore! I am praying that does the trick! Being sick is wretched anywhere, but being sick in another country really sucks!

A few days ago I emailed TLG in Tbilisi to ask them if they could put me in touch with other English teachers who are living in my general area (it will be nice to have some conversation at a normal rate of speed and get to know others who are here teaching) - I also told them a little about my village and school and how wonderful everyone here is. Well, it seems that the extensive communication is the same everywhere in Georgia - not just in the village. This morning when I went to school, the director of the school thanked me over and over for the nice things I had told the Ministry of Education! TLG had forwarded my comments to the Ministry of Education who forwarded them to Zugdidi's Educational Resource Center who called my school director and passed on my comments. All the teachers were thrilled to hear that I had sent a good report to the Ministry of Education. Although that wasn't my intention, I am glad that they know I am happy with the school and my job. The director had other news to pass on to me, too. The police had called her yesterday after talking with me and asked her to have someone who speaks English ask me if I would take my walks further away from the Abkhazian border. They want to keep me safe. I promised to stick to the Georgian side of the island and walk on the other river instead of the border-river.

Late this afternoon, Tea and I walked to a neighbor's house to pick some mandarins. I think her name is Irma - she has a beautiful garden with lots of agave and palm trees in the front of her house with four or five mandarin trees as well. Irma gave us a bucket and when we had filled that, she brought out a large bag for us to fill. She picked oranges with us, chatting away with Tea. When the bag was full, she invited us to come in for some "compote." (A drink made from whole fruit that is boiled with a little sugar and then put into large jars with some of the fruit.) She led us inside the lower house and sat us by the fire while she bustled around setting out tea-cups and saucers, spoons, sliced up oranges, peaches from the compote, and the compote juice in a pitcher. As we sat at the table, she apologized for not having a larger spread to put out for her guests. Georgian hospitality! They love having guests, and they will do everything in their power to make their guests feel welcome. I am on the receiving end of this generosity and hospitality daily. And it's not a front - it's not surface - each person is genuinely happy to give anything they have to anyone who needs it. The sense of community is a way of life here (it even beats the Mennonite sense of community!). The need for each other is strong - the village is more like one great family, functioning for the good of the whole. I'm sure they don't even think about what they are doing, it is a natural part of life for them to share everything with everyone. Why is it that those who have the least are willing to share the most?

Some random thoughts and stories from this weekend

Friday night Tea and Koba caught the train to central Georgia to go to a family member's birthday celebration. Elene stayed with some other relatives here in Shamgona. Leban stayed at the house with me and "our grandmother" (as Tea calls her) as the "man of the house." Tea had arranged for her sister-in-law (I think), Teona to stay at the house also to take care of the milking, etc. and to make sure I had something to eat. But Teona speaks no English! So Lika (the university student who lives up the road) who speaks a little English brought her Georgian/English dictionary over and stayed, too. We talked as much as we could with long pauses while one or another of us looked up a word and tried to formulate the simplest way to say what we wanted to say. I made a couple of mistakes - at one point I said that I was going to the "magida" (table) instead of the "maghazia" (store). Grandmom looked very confused. It didn't dawn on me what I had said until I was halfway down the road!

At one point yesterday, Lika and I walked to her house to see her little brother - a cute, shy little 3-year-old named Goga. We sat at the table in the main room, talking with Lika's mother and grandmother, eating hazelnuts. Suddenly Lika's grandmother got up, came over to me, took my face in her hands, told me in Georgian what a nice girl I am, and kissed me several times on the cheeks and neck. I must say that that was the first time I've been kissed on the neck by an old lady! But the longer I'm in Georgia, the more sure I am that it won't be the last! That seems to be pretty common, and next time I'll try not to be so shocked.

Lika and I brought a bag of fresh hazelnuts back to the house. We opened them all by tapping each with a pointy hammer on the kitchen floor and then sorting the nuts from the shells. Then Lika roasted them in the wood stove, rubbed off the dark, papery skin, and served them warm with honey (from Zaza's bees) drizzled over them. Two such simple things straight from nature match in flavor perfectly!

Yesterday I took a walk for about an hour and half - most of the pictures that I posted yesterday were taken then. On my way out of town on a road I hadn't walked on before, one of police trucks drove up behind me and stopped. The driver started talking to me - I realized that he was asking me if I spoke any Russian. I told him no, and said in Georgian that I only speak a very little Georgian. He asked where I was going and if I wanted a ride. I tried telling him that I was just out for a walk to enjoy the day, but I couldn't remember the word for walk. I got my point across, though - he seemed to understand. He said that they were there for my security and didn't I want a ride? He knew a couple of words in English - "security," "zone," and "border." He said something about being close to Abkhazia, and then said (along with some charades) that he didn't want me to be taken and carried off to Abkhazia. I tried telling him that I am not afraid, but I couldn't remember the word for afraid, either! (Darn it, I need to study more!) I told him that I would just walk back - We introduced ourselves to each other then - of course they knew who I was, and their names were Eduard and something with some "z's" in it! These Georgian names are so difficult for me to remember! They were satisfied enough that I was headed back home.

This morning I went for my weekly long run - an hour run - out of town and back. I had noticed a spring that was piped out of the ground on the other side of the river toward Zugdidi last weekend when I ran, and I asked Tea about it. She said that the water is very good and clean. (I have not been drinking the well water from the house yet except in coffee or hot tea. I want to get used to it slowly, so I've been buying mineral water every day.) I decided to try the spring water today. I took my water bottle with me on my run and filled it at the spring. It was good water - and I'll find out soon enough if it is clean enough to not make me sick - I drank a whole bottle of it.....so far, so good! On my way back into town, I again received some roses from the police and a mandarin orange from a lady in the street. Running is becoming an exercise in nimble feet to keep my footing around the stones, potholes, and animal droppings as well as dexterity to hold onto fruit and roses without getting stuck by thorns!

Something that I noticed today as I walked back from the store: I am getting used to things here. The look of the houses is not so unique. The animals in the road are beginning to feel less novel. The occasional horse-drawn cart going by and the chickens or turkeys that have to be shooed out of the house don't feel so foreign. It's progress, but that means that the second phase of culture shock will hit me sometime soon: annoyance and irritability with things that are different from my "norm." I am hoping that knowing the mood will come and knowing that it will be temporary will make dealing with it easier than it's been in the past when I've had culture shock! I've had some pretty significant negative cycles in moves that I have made, but I never thought about the validity of culture shock when moving from one place to another. Part of our training week centered on dealing with culture shock, and I have learned a lot about the symptoms and how to deal with it. I hope that I put my new knowledge to use so I have an easier time of the negative phase this time around before assimilation into the new culture happens!

Week three of teaching starts tomorrow - my goal this week (aside from teaching well) is to learn the rest of the names that I don't know. That's a lot of names! I'll let you know how I do!

A few pictures from my walk today

Today was a lovely day. The sky was blue and the air was warm enough to not wear a sweater. I took a nice long walk and took my iPhone with me which has been relegated to just a camera/iPod with some apps that still work with no network (wifi doesn't exist out here!). I shot a few photos of Shamgona to share along with a bit of a description of each one - and a story or two.

The last few persimmons in a persimmon tree. The autumn leaves are about the same color as the fruit.

More autumn leaves on the road

The kiwi trees are laden with almost-ripe fruit

These little piglets were rooting around with their mother
(who doesn't look that big in the picture, but she was huge)
and there are a few geese under the tree.
This meadow is just in front of the river-border with Abkhazia.

This is the border of Georgia and Abkhazia. The river is very narrow and shallow.
I don't know if the rocky wasteland on the Georgian side is from the conflict a couple of years ago or not.
I do know that the area was bombed at that time.

Looking the other direction along the border.
Earlier I saw a man wade across the river to Abkhazia.
The snow-covered mountains are part of Georgia called Svaneti that
I am hoping to be able to see while I am here.

I loved the way this fence is constructed like a basket -
the pruned clippings of the hazelnut trees don't go to waste.

A typical gate into a hazelnut orchard

This is my favorite stretch of road in Shamgona. It is beside the river, so it is very quiet.

This little stand of trees is along my favorite stretch of road.
There is a stone table in the middle of this wood that I like to sit on
and read or work on my laptop or just watch the animals come ambling by......

.....like this pig.

Speaking of pigs - no, this one is not dead; it's sleeping -
do you know what happens when a sleeping pig is startled awake?
Hilariousness!!! The pig jumps up, hooves clawing at the ground
to get away as fast as possible and squealing as if it were just tasered.
As it runs along the fence, it continually bounces off it;
maybe its running with its eyes closed.
The running, squealing, and bouncing go on for a good thirty seconds
before the pig finally realizes it's not in any danger.
Then it stands there with its sides heaving at the effort.

This is Tea's buffalo. Yesterday when it was waiting for Koba
to open the gate for it and the cows, it decided to wander around
the graveyard that is just across the street.

These cows are on their way home. And you can see the condition of the road....
and this spot is not that bad compared to other sections!

So that's a little bit of Shamgona - my temporary home!

Things you may not know about chickens

This morning while walking to school, I saw something I have never seen before in my entire life: a chicken in a persimmon tree eating a persimmon. I think I actually stopped for a second to see if I was actually seeing what I thought I saw. Sure enough, perched precariously up about 15 feet, was a chicken. It clumsily grasped at the narrow branch it stood on to stretch up and peck at a lone persimmon on the otherwise bare tree. I thought chickens didn't fly..... how did it get up into the tree? I've only ever seen them flap around and hop up on something a few feet off the ground - but this chicken was perched 15 feet up. I know chickens can't climb....that's just absurd, but I wanted to know how the chicken got up there. So today I observed chickens and learned a few things.

Chickens in a hazelnut orchard

Have you ever watched a chicken? In the moments between English lessons, reading, drawing, and studying Georgian (and when it's not raining) I like watching the chickens. They are funny-looking creatures. If you watch their heads, it looks like you are watching a stop-action animated character. The motion between the jerks is imperceptible. I wonder if they get headaches from the constant quick motion? Their bodies don't really have anything to do with their movements. The body is more like ballast to keep the chicken on balance as it raises and lowers its head to peck around. The funny triangle of body dips and lets the tail feathers fan up toward the sky, then lowers again, bobbing along to follow the herky-jerky head on its incessant search of something to eat. The other part that moves is (obviously) its feet. The feet don't look like they belong to the rest of the bird. The feathers are so soft and well, feathery, and then the skinny, bumpy, gnarled legs and feet plod along trying to keep up with the herky-jerky head. If you look at the two pieces, feathered and unfeathered, the chicken looks pretty frankenstien-ed together! And when they run....it's hilarious! The head is again in the lead, the feet try desperately to catch up - but what really kills me about a chicken running is the movement of its "shoulders." I've been pondering how to describe the motion, and I can't come up with an adequate description. The closest I can get it is something like the motion of a kayaker with no arms paddling as fast as possible - just a rolling motion on either side that is lacking ........well, appendages! (I know, that's not very socially sensitive, but that's all I've got!)

Family chicken checking out the dirty dishes

As I watched the chickens peck around in the front yard today I noticed a black hen that had a funny tuft of feathers on its head, as if it had on a pill-box hat with a veil for Sunday services. I hadn't noticed that particular chicken before - there are also white ones, speckled black and white ones, caramel-colored ones, and some with caramel-colored heads and shimmery gray bodies on the family farm. A few roosters strut around, too pretending they own everything. (Did you know that roosters crow at sundown and sun-up? ....and pretty much all day long.) Anyway, this evening Tea walked in the back door into the kitchen holding two limp chickens upside-down - necks freshly wrung.....one was the black pill-box hat chicken. I didn't expect to see it dressed for dinner when I thought earlier that it looked like it was wearing a hat! And here's what I learned next: if you dunk a dead chicken into boiling water, the feathers are easier to pluck. No, I didn't help!

The kitchen window looks out into the backyard where the hazelnut trees run up to the various out-buildings. As the sun was setting, I noticed for the second time today, chickens in a tree. All the chickens were flying up into the hazelnut trees and settling into the branches. That's where they sleep. Who knew?? Well, Tea knew. She chuckled at my new-found knowledge. Silly American!

Even without knowing much Georgian, some things I understand.

Every day at school all the teachers gather in the teacher's room before school and between each class. On one side of the room there is one large table with about 20 chairs around it where most of the teachers sit and on the other side is a small desk where the head of the school sits doing.....whatever it is he does! Every morning when I enter the room, everyone greets me - some with a "hello," others with a "good morning," and the rest with a kind "gamarjobat." We can ask how each other is doing, but right now that is where my Georgian runs out. (I want to learn something new to say or ask each day, but I'm still working on getting names down - I know about 75% of them so far...) If neither Lika (I just found out today her name is spelled with a "k" not a "g") nor Tea are in the room, I can't talk to everyone. But today, there was a conversation going on that I didn't need the words to know what was happening. One of the teachers (Nino) was trying to explain something to the head of the school. I don't know exactly what they were talking about, but she was getting frustrated that he did not understand what she was saying. She kept repeating something, and soon resorted to writing out something to help him see - then he pointed at what she wrote and said something that sounded very matter-of-fact. She got flustered and reiterated what she had just explained, to which he seemed to reply the same way. He wasn't understanding what she was saying, and Nino got more and more frustrated. Another teacher picked up Nino's argument, and (I can only assume) restated her words another way - more explanation followed from Nino - and I saw the moment when he finally understood what Nino was trying to tell him! His eyes lit up - he pointed at what Nino had written, said something, and everyone collectively nodded with long, slow nods and exclamations of "Ki! Ki!" ("yes"). I realized that there are some things that transcend language. 

That conversation happened this morning during the first class (which I had off), and throughout the day I noted other things that, although I could not understand the words being said, I understood the meaning of what was happening. 

Two second-graders ran into each other in the hall and smacked heads (pretty hard!). The little girl was okay, but the little boy started to cry. Their teacher took the little boy aside, looked at his banged-up forehead, and consoled him. In any language, that conversation is the same!

The laughter of teenagers - giggling, actually - when one of them tries to say something that doesn't come out right - the sheepish grin on the face of the one who made the blunder - it's universal.

Leban and Elene were playing in the main room while Tea and I talked in the kitchen over tea. The tone and the rhythm of their playing was pleasant until one crucial moment. I don't know who did what to whom, but suddenly they were fighting as only siblings can! And Tea's scolding that followed didn't need a translation!

The kitten at my house plays the same kitten-games that every kitten I've ever had plays. 

And the smiles on all the faces of my students say more than any words ever could!

The language of love and care is a universal language. Laughter, smiles, a hug, a squeeze, or a kiss are the same no matter where you go. Even when words are not understood, actions can be. I pray that my actions speak the language of care and love to everyone I meet!

In honor of the law that went into effect today.....

Georgia passed a law recently and it went into effect today: using seatbelts in cars is now mandatory! In honor of this law, I am going to write a little about Georgian driving.

Even before I arrived in Georgia, and several times during our week of training, I was told that under no circumstances was I to drive any vehicle while in Georgia. It's not that my U.S. driver's license is not valid here -- the danger is in the almost complete disregard for the rules of the road. When I heard that before I got here, I thought, "Really? I drove in Mexico - the driving can't be worse than there." Little did I know how wrong I was! As much of a risk-taker as I am, there is no way that I will drive here! It's absolutely insane. Being a pedestrian is bad enough - I'm actually glad that where I live there are more cows in the road than cars. The idea that a "pedestrian has the right of way" is a completely foreign concept even if the pedestrian is in a crosswalk and has a walk signal! If you want to cross the road, you have to become Frogger-personfied! Crossing a street that is multi-lane usually takes place one lane at a time - and you actually stand between the lanes of moving vehicles waiting for the cars in the next lane to go by. And so incrementally, you eventually end up on the other side of the road. The drivers assume that you are going to stop and wait for them, so they don't stop.

Being in a car is just about as terrifying as walking among them. I have learned to not look, otherwise my heart jumps into my throat every other minute. Lines on the road may or may not be there for aesthetic purposes only! They certainly do not contain the flow of traffic to one single direction. Cars mainly stick to the right lane, but if a car (or horse-pulled wagon or herd of sheep or family of pigs....) is going slowly, it can be passed at any point. A two-lane road can actually fit four vehicles. It doesn't matter if there is hill, a corner, or a cow in the middle of the road - passing happens anywhere and everywhere. I think that Georgians have an uncanny knack of knowing the exact size of their vehicles, because they come within fractions of an inch of another car or animal - and the brake pads here are first-rate! Cars can stop on a dime  -- (Thank God!!) -- especially regarding the cows, because they don't move. They just stand in the road and look at the car. If the cows are walking down the road, they tend to swerve along toward the cars as if they were magnetically drawn to the metal. Several times I have been in a vehicle that has had to slam on the brakes to miss the attracted animal. Today I was sitting on the front porch at "cow-coming-home time," and I was quite amused to watch three cows on their way home impede the progress of a car on its way home. The driver of the car laid on the horn, but the cows were less concerned with the car than they were with ambling along, moo-ing to each other as if encouraging each other along. It took at least 30 seconds for the cows to move apart enough that the car could squeeze between two of them and continue its journey home. Like I said yesterday, that's rush hour in Shamgona!

So back to the seatbelts.... last weekend I went into Zugdidi with my host family and a colleague. I sat in the front seat of my colleague's car, and when I reached for the seatbelt, I could tell it did not see regular use. It was completely dusty, and when I pulled it toward me, it did not come easily. The motion was sticky and rough. Everyone in the car laughed and my colleague said (with Tea translating) that she thought that was the first time the seatbelt had ever been used! From today on, if seatbelts aren't used, the driver will be fined 40 GEL (about 25 dollars - maybe - my math-skills aren't so good). If the ticket isn't paid, another 150 GEL gets tacked onto the total. Hopefully this development in the consideration of safety will eventually spill over to the way they actually drive, too!