On Sunday my cluster mate Casey and I were preparing for our mid-training language assessment and freaking out a bit about it (at least I was). My host grandfather came into the room excited about something, when we came downstairs we found a couple of bicyclists in the backyard. The man was from South Africa and the woman from the Netherlands and we were all a little shocked. They were riding from Turkey to Azerbaijan and were passing through Georgia. My grandfather found them at the highway and invited them over for lunch.
Having 4 foreigners from 3 continents over for lunch is pretty rare in my little village so my host family really did it up. We sat down with the couple (who spoke no Georgian) and my host grandparents (who spoke no English) to a fabulous meal and proceeded to translate back and forth.
I’m surprised at how well the conversation went. In part because I lucked out having Casey with me because he happens to be the trainee who happens to know every food item in Georgian so we could explain to our guests what they were eating. In general though, we didn’t have a lot of trouble going back and forth. It’s amazing what you pick up in just 5 weeks of language but, at the same time, it wasn’t a very complicated dialogue. The couple complemented the food and offered their thanks; my host grandparents welcomed them and served the food and wine. Casey and I explained all the toasts my grandfather made (to our guests, to the family, to peace; usual stuff) and communicated the couple’s gratitude. Our biggest task was interdicting the refills of their homemade vodka (“chacha”, awful stuff) and thinking up excuses to explain to my host grandfather why they couldn’t drink.
After a successful lunch my grandparents held an impromptu demonstration of Georgian folk dancing which they persuaded all of us to join in on. Casey and I wrote up a cheat sheet of Georgian phrases to get them through the rest of the country, explained a few cultural points and gave the couple the name of a good hotel in Gori. After a few pictures we said our goodbyes and they continued on. Peace Corps is one of the few jobs where you can come from America, work in Asia, have a woman from Europe and a man from Africa over for lunch and get really loaded with your grandparents while technically being on duty. We blew off studying for the rest of the day but felt pretty prepared for our language assessment all the same.
[Supplemental: Casey and I did fine on the test, I score in the top group.]
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