03/10/2010

I had Friday off as I wanted to go to Batumi. The previous night the rain had come in and when I woke up in the morning I thought it was still raining hard; it wasn't, it was water running down the mountains all around me. This heavy rain caused a bit of destruction to the roads, making crappy roads crappier. I got to the place where I catch the last Marshooka of the day and hear it going past despite me being early for it, despite it usually being late. I stood around looking like a lost puppy wondering what to do with myself when my host father turns up and by coincidence a truck comes down the road. He hails them and they give me a ride to Keda. From there it's not as big an issue getting out. Merisi frustrates me like that; I'm down on options for leaving the village at 9:25 in the morning. At times it does feel like I'm living on a small island.

From Keda to Batumi was a straight shot. It amazes me the difference in passenger loads from Merisi on the last trip out on a Saturday compared to a Friday mid morning trip from Keda. Still someone sat next to me in the front despite there being plenty of room. It's kind of like when you park your car in an empty parking lot and someone parks next to you making it awkward to get into your car.

Once in Batumi I again head to the water as I lose my sense of direction in the central city. It's too hard to see major land marks with the buildings being a tad too close together and a tad too high; by the port you know where you are because of the waters edge and you can see the Sheraton at most times as well as some clock towers. I pull out my phone and read the text I got from the insurance people who recommended me two dentists. One street wasn't on the map

so the other dentist won by default. I'd been putting this trip off for a few weeks as I'd been waiting for pay day. I'm just glad nothing happened in the mean time. I'd almost taken the right amount of cash with me and probably would have if I didn't need drugs, doctors or dentists. I did however fall short and had to bite the Bank of New Zealand credit card withdrawal fee of $7.50 NZD as I was 15 GEL short of paying for my hotel.

While I'm walking I wanted to see if anyone wanted to go to Turkey. It's not really a go, and as people remind me we're not supposed to leave Georgia for the first three months, a provision that was added after I arrived. I'm not really a big fan of the bait and switch; I don't think I would have objected to signing it back home, but here I have no option but sign the new contract and I'm sure I would of had to pay for my flight home come any disagreement; I'm sure that is text book duress. Anyway, I figure they already screwed up on the first clause of their side of the agreement so I'm some light give and take wouldn't hurt anyone.

I'm getting side tracked here but I'll give my favourite example of a contradiction:

The employee shall:

3.1.7 Not use alcohol, toxic substances or drugs at work

3.1.20 Do not offend the cultural environment, local traditions and viewpoints of the host country (town) with his actions and everyday life aspects

I've heard of some people here having their school principals serve drinks to the TLG people at school, sometimes before noon. Is it offensive to turn it down? I'm glad I haven't been put in that position yet. I think I might give up the stuff until I get 100% (which I'll talk about later) and probably meat as well, for reasons mentioned earlier.

Where was I? Right, nobody wanted to go to Turkey, but one of the guys happened to be in Batumi at the same time and happened to be very close to where I was. We intersected each other within 5 mins, found the dentist and found our bank, which happened to be the first bank on the planet that doesn't have an ATM. I guess it's a good thing I love bank fees.. The dentist has a quick look at me, with gloves; already a promising sight over Kutaisi. I get an

appointment for 3pm and we then set off for a hotel. I pick the same one as last time as it was decent and at a good rate. The whole process of getting a room turns into a nightmare as Titus, my friend whom I am with, wants to make sure we get rooms for everyone else who is coming. I think it works out to be 9 people. I'm not really sure, but I ended up just resigning to calling the help line to translate as the lady who is trying to book us in has worse English than my Georigan. It also didn't help that it would have been a little confusing to explain to another English speaker.

After that I go see my new dentist. For those counting at home, my last four trips to the dentists have had different dentists. It takes an hour and a half, lots of drilling and some bungled needle work but really it was a huge job. I can't help but think that I hope this doesn't kill my wallet. I'm at one of the fanciest dentists in town, I reason this as there are heaps of dentists but the insurance people only gave two recommendations, I get gloves, anaesthetic, twice (it tastes horrible by the way) and 90 minutes of labour (including me waiting by myself for the drugs to kick in). The grand total? 40 GEL. I know I rip on this country for many things, but some things briefly make up for it for a while.

I really can't be bothered recalling my entire time in Batumi, so I'll try and cut it short. I leave the dentist, there's now three of us. We trudge round looking for some Armenian restaurant, we walk a loop around town. I take over and take us for pizza on the other side of town, it's near where she was looking for, we still get pizza as I've only eaten stale bread and tomatoes for breakfast by this point. We eat, meet random TLG people from another group at the pizza place; it must be some sort of magic Western magnet. more of our group arrives, I give directions and we set off to meet them. We meet them. More arrive, I double back to pick them up. We waffle about at the hotel. We head outside. Third person here meets some old Georgian who speaks French, which is only significant because she speaks French. They get excited to speak French in Georgia and he takes us to an Armenian restaurant, which I think was the same one we trudged around the other end of the city for. All I can eat is ice cream and at 3 GEL it's worth it. Somehow I have to pay 20 GEL for my share of the meal, I feel conned. At some stage before the meal half the group left us. They rejoin afterwards and I follow Titus to the casino as some American girls are fun to be around and some I just want to suffocate with an American flag, we had three of the later in my group. I figured I'd enjoy myself away from their presence.

I didn't gamble as sports gambling is more for me. I watch for about 10 mins then head back to the hotel as I know what to expect from the toilet there. I'm doing my best to use Western style toilets while I know my body is giving me grief and even it wasn't I'm not excited to squat over a hole in the ground.

I hear from Titus that two of my favourite Adjara Mountain Men were in town. I thought they were going to go to a cave city but that plan was as stable as mine to Turkey, so I ended up hanging out with them as creepy French guy was with Titus when I found him. The three of us Adjarians got a beer, then moved bar and found a bar of last resort, a disco bar and had the worlds oddest beer. The beer was fine, but watching these people dance in this loud smokey room was just messed up. We leave some time afterwards and go back to our respective hotels. I get back to the hotel and grab my mattress on the floor - yay; still for 25 GEL I guess I could do a lot worse.

The next morning the effects of the beer have done a number on me and I feel like I'm shitting firey puddles, I pass up breakfast with the larger group and meet up with the other two. I also my stomach as an excuse for not wanting to stay a second night, I had many reasons, but this would be the hardest to contest. It was mostly not my choice of people to stay with, not to say they're bad people, not at all, but with forgetting to take shorts and having my third consecutive weekend in Batumi I thought it was time to go. At breakfast we meet some more people from TLG from the first group and we're told how easy it is to get to Turkey from here. One guy told us visa prices for Canada and how it's free for New Zealanders. I was amazed that he picked up I was a Kiwi, but it turns out he's met the other fabled Kiwi and the mention of New Zealand was an amazing coincidence. Eventually we leave them and I spend the rest of the time looking around Batumi with George and Phil, my fellow Adjarians and killed the day until the last ride home. In that time I managed to go to the Stalin museam which was in a place he lived...for two months. The guy seemed a little too excited for Stalin but I guess everyone needs a hero. In true fashion I didn't have my camera with me so again no photos.

On the way out I managed to get in the wrong Mashooka, but this error is realised before this and my actual one left. I just assumed the one marked for Keda would carry on to Merisi. Damn Keda and it's multiple rides in.

That night I got a surprise call from Dad, which was nice. I'd fallen asleep so it was well timed as I had things to do before bed.

Today I was going to try and go for a walk somewhere, but it's been raining all day, so my best option has been to stay in bed and watch movies and read.

04/10/2010

It's still raining. Somehow it is raining harder than yesterday; I never understood how that worked, I'd always assume the intensity would drop over time.

I forgot to mention two things yesterday: I found out on Friday that they listen to our calls and presumably read our text messages. I always heard the echos and assumed it was a patchy network, but last night I heard other noises, which sounded like a land line hand set being dragged, you know, like a scraping sound. And I guess that seeing as I use government internet that they probably read this too. But maybe I'm being paranoid. I don't know; I'm just more annoyed that we suffer because they're short staffed, yet they have resources to have English speakers manning our inane calls. I hope they're bored to tears doing it. The whole thing just reeks of insecurity; it has a nice throwback feel to before the fall of the wall. I guess it's like I'm living a history lesson, which is the perfect segway for my the other thing..

It came to my attention during my call with Dad that I've failed to illustrate how little there is to offer in this village. Excluding the village doctors office, the historic village (reference for my family here) seems futuristic by comparison. There's a post office which would set up an amazing race to get to New Zealand. I think if I mailed something now it's possible I could win by two months; it really seems the place where you would send a telegram, if they they had phone lines. All I know is I can top up my cell phone there, eventually. There is something below the doctors clinic, I haven't worked out what it is, it is hardly ever open, it might just be storage. The first place I walk past in the mornings is still a mystery to me. I think it doesn't sell commodities. Then there is the store with a coke chiller that only has Miranda and beer. I did discover a store behind the school which has actual variety, it's like a dairy, but a bit shit. And in front of the school is the place to get smokes.

11 weeks to go. Time to get up and say hello 30,000 times.