The only CD player in Zugdidi

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On Monday morning I need to find a CD player. This is imperative. I’ve been saying for the last two weeks that I’m going to buy one for the school so I feel like I actually can’t go home without one in my possession. So, the hunt begins. I go into all the stationary shops in Zugdidi. I find any number of MP3 players and speakers, but no CD player. In the end I hit on an idea and go to the regional centre to ask our regional rep for some advice. She points me in the direction of some electrical shops at the end of the street. They tell me to go to the bazaar. At the bazaar they tell me to try the shops. I give up and go back to the regional centre. Our rep is great. I know some other volunteers have complained about theirs but the girl (whose name, in case it hasn’t become obvious by now, I can’t remember) couldn’t be more helpful. She offers to come out with me on her break and spends an hour with me, traipsing round Zugdidi, trying to find the illusive machine. Eventually, in an indoor part of the bazaar I didn’t even know existed, we hit gold. It costs me 100 Lari, which is about twice what I wanted to pay, but I don’t care. I can now go home without my metaphorical tail between my legs. I get home in the afternoon to find the place deserted apart from a man I’ve never met before who’s watching TV in the living room. Or this is what I think at first anyway. It slowly dawns on me that he’s Gio and Mari’s uncle. He then proceeds to stuff me full of food until Eka comes home and rescues me. First it’s coffee and homemade cream cakes (I am made to eat three) followed shortly afterwards by fried eggs. Eka asks me about my weekend and I tell her everything we got up to. Then she tells me that on Sunday night they had a traditional meal and drank the whisky I bought for Gala and that they waited for me. Then I felt guilty and wish I’d just come home to my family instead of staying in the stupid hotel.
On Tuesday I am back at school and I find out I will no longer have Mondays off. Bastards! How dare they pay me an above average salary and expect me to work five days a week?! We take the CD player to school and everyone seems pleased, especially the music teacher, although oddly I am asked why I bought it and I don’t know what to say except that it’s a gift for the school.
On Wednesday night we have neither electricity nor water. This isn’t actually that rare but it’s the first time it’s happened after dark. Eka tells me she suspects our neighbours haven’t paid their bill and that’s why it’s been cut off which makes me wonder how long it’s going to be off for! We are reading by candle light in the living room and Eka says we will have a ‘romantic evening’ which I thought was very sweet. Eventually, however, the lights are back on and the atmosphere is ruined. Gala is home from work so we all have dinner together and sit around chatting in the kitchen. Levan is trying to persuade Eka to make khachapuri and tries to recruit me into the argument. I don’t need persuading because (maybe I’m biased) I think Eka’s is some of the best I’ve had. Gala, on the other hand, says she makes bad khachapuri so I tell him that maybe he should make some and we’ll see if it’s any better. We try a glass of the new wine but according to Gala it’s still not ready.
Unfortunately, three weeks into my stay, the occasions when Eka says to me, ‘Anna, the water is hot if you want washing,’ are becoming less and less frequent so I go and wash my hair under the shower head. This does not go down well. When I come back with wet hair Eka looks shocked and says I mustn’t do this. I tell her I only washed my hair, I didn’t have a cold shower but she’s still not happy and says I should have asked her to plug the water heater in. I feel bad, like I’ve somehow unintentionally slighted her hospitality, but having said that the water has now been hot at least every other night since that day.
Levan gets his way and we have khachapuri for breakfast the following day. This is my favourite – khachapuri and hot black tea with fresh lime. I have already eaten too much but then Eka calls me back to the table when she takes a fresh batch out of the oven so that I can eat it while it’s still hot. I get a text from Sam while I’m at school asking if I fancy a drink later. I have no money to reply but I think it will be nice to get out and catch up with him. However, for some reason I still feel like I need to make some sort of excuse if I want to go out in Zugdidi so I tell Eka I need to go and put money on my phone (which is true). This backfires somewhat when she tells me I can do it at the village shop in Orsantia (which I didn’t know existed). Later I try again and this time simply say I’d like to go and have a drink with Sam and that he needs some help with his application for Korea, also kind of true. Eka still doesn’t seem very happy about it but I think this may be because one of the other teachers has given me a bottle of homemade wine and the plan was to go home and drink it but I’ll be home by 6.30pm anyway. I get my way and manage to get a taxi into town after school. I do this most times I go in now as it costs next to nothing. I get into town at around 1pm and the first thing I do is top up my phone. Unfortunately, because I couldn’t contact him earlier, I didn’t realise Sam wasn’t coming in until 4pm but it’s ok. I sit in the American bar taking advantage of their wifi and actually chat to some people back home. Sam eventually arrives and we catch up. It turns out he didn’t even get an interview for Korea so now I’m really worried about mine. Then, wonder of wonders, we both get texts saying we’ve been paid. This is very exciting! We head out of the bar with the aim of trying to find the city library but this proves impossible so we go instead in search of a branch of Liberty Bank. This is who our accounts are with so we don’t get charged for withdrawing money from them. We can’t actually find a bank but we do find a Liberty Bank van. I have to say that’s the first time I’ve ever taken money out of my account from a window in the bank of a van but it seemed to do the trick. I withdraw the 100 Lari that I need to give to Eka to contribute to bills, food etc. I’m actually slightly worried about the point where I give it to her cos I think it might be awkward but she just slips it away and says. ‘Ah, now you have salary.’ We sit in the kitchen and drink the wine that was given to me and it’s honestly some of the nicest wine I’ve ever had. It tastes like fruit juice. I then have my weekly chat with Ara about what we’re all doing for the weekend. I agree to go to Kutaisi even though it seems half of all the TLGers in Georgia are heading there this weekend but I suggest that we strike out on Saturday to a place called Vardzia which is an ancient cave city. Google maps tells me it’s only about an hour from Kutaisi so it should make a good day trip. On Saturday Jane has invited a load of people over for a supra so we’ll head there in the evening. As I was on my way home from Zugdidi on the marshrutka I met some students from Orsantia school who asked me to go on an excursion with them at the weekend. I really would love to do something like this at some point but I wish they wouldn’t always wait until Thursday night/Friday morning to ask me!

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