Hello, My Faithful
Readers
February 28, 2018
Volume 2, Number 03
Here we are the last
day in February. The weather has been so mild; I’ve given up on having snow.
Not going to happen. The wind at times is awesome and my view makes it even
better. I love to listen to the howling and the banging of whatever is loose in
the neighborhood. At times I think the trees outside my window are making their
way into the apartment; but, to date the trees hold their ground.
So you can see by
starting with a weather report that there is not much happening here in
Tbilisi. I am in a transition phase (I think) completing my teaching
responsibilities and searching for what is next…..
I am dealing with one
of the aspects of living in Georgia – that is, DOGS. If you remember in the
Village the dog situation was terrible. Most dogs were hurt in some way as it
seemed that cars went out of their way (at times) to hit them. Often I would
see dogs limping along or see a dead dog thrown over a tree branch (I guess to
get it off the road). They roamed sometimes in packs as most were starving and
they were on the hunt for food.
So, fast forward to
living in the city (Tbilisi). My neighbor has a dog. Since I’ve been in this
apartment I’ve heard it bark at times for the normal reasons (someone comes to
the door) or other short term events that the dog needs to bark to. My
neighbors have a home in Batumi (so I am told) so often they are not even here
in Tbilisi a lot. Overall the building is quiet. Most apartments don’t have
carpet so you can always hear people walking on the floors above; hear the
water rushing thru the pipes and just normal noise.
However, for the past
4-6 weeks; something has changed. My neighbors leave the dog alone for long
periods of time while (I guess) they go to work or school. The dog does not
like to be left alone; so, he barks, cries, moans and howls for hours on end.
One day it was a total of 5 hours. Since I live next door; it is a bit much.
Maybe this has been going on and I just didn’t notice as I work from home more
and more now and this barking dog behavior usually happens in the morning or
early afternoon. The dog is fine if people are home with him.
I went to the D.O.G
Organization (Dogs of Georgia) – a non-profit who deals with the abusive
treatment dogs get here and to try and help them; but, no help for me as they
don’t have the ability to deal with private owned dogs. So, I went to my
landlord and he said “none of my other rental clients complained – so I am not
asking them to get rid of the dog”. I was left with talking to the neighbors
which I didn’t think would help much; but, ok – let me try. I spoke to the
neighbors 3 times over the past 4-5 weeks pleading with them about the noise.
“You are NOT HERE
to listen to your dog
bark, cry, moan and howl for hours and hours”. They say; yes we know as he does
not like to be alone. They indicated they would see about getting a dog
sitter…relief, this communication thing might work!
Short lived as over
the course of time some days it was quiet and other times the noise continued.
I finally wrote a note and put it on their door and spoke/pleaded once again. It
has been quiet for the last five days; but given the history of this experience
the dog is taken care of when the family can arrange it. I just never know. I
am told there is an “Animal Monitoring Agency” here in Tbilisi. It is situated
as part of the police department. I am told that they do get results with
abusive situations; however, I just don’t want to report the neighbors if I
don’t have to. I have been struggling with this and wanted to give the
neighbors time to make arrangements; but, honestly (and I hope that I am wrong)
I don’t have much Faith that long term
they will do what is right.
The saga will continue
and I will update. I don’t want them to get rid of the dog; I just want the dog
to stop barking. I know this is not
personal to me; however, the other day (for the first time) I found cigarette
butts on my terrace. I don’t know where they came from…either the apartment
above me or from the neighbors with the dog. There are only these two options….I
am trying to stay positive as moving is not really an option.
I was at an event recently at the home of
the US Ambassador to Georgia. It was a going away party as he is retiring and
returning to the USA in the near future. It was a lovely party; about 100
people in attendance and since it was close to Valentine day the menu was all
sweets and wine.
During the party I met the Deputy Head of
Mission for Hungary. We started talking and I ended up inviting her to a
meeting of the International Women's Association that I belong to. She was
interested and we exchanged info. She just wrote to tell me that in addition to
herself the Hungarian Ambassador (a woman) is also interested and wanted
to know if I could host both.....could this be possible anywhere but
Georgia! J
I sometimes get so down here in Georgia
for a variety of reasons; but, I love making connections like this happen.
It is very cool.
So, what else is happening? My private
student (he is a lawyer) that I tutored last year wrote to say he wanted to
start lessons again. This was a surprise; but very welcomed. I almost feel
guilty taking his money as he is just such a pleasure to work with. The hour
just flies by and since he comes to my home I don’t have travel. However, this
all may be short lived because as much as he says he wants to study he often
makes excuses not to come.
This situation will come to a head soon as
from this point on if he cancels he will have to pay for the class. I plan my entire
day around being ready for him to come to his lesson and when he cancels it
throws off my schedule. This type of behavior is very typical for Georgians.
Not only the students I’ve worked with; but also I’ve heard from other folks
who tutor and they experience the same behavior. So often we find that as long
as the Georgians “Say” they will do it (whatever it is) correlates to their “actually”
doing it. Geezes
My teaching at the University of Georgia
has begun and (so far) I have two really great groups. My impression (again so
far) is that they are dedicated to learning the materials. There are (27)
students in each group. During one of the classes I started to talk about “the
jury” and I faced a room of blank faces. Now, my students are 3rd
and 4th law students so I made an assumption that this information
would be known to them. I know that the jury system is not a routine part of
the Georgian legal system; however, I thought that just as basic background in
the practice of law they would have knowledge. No dice. They had no idea what a
jury was or what it did. I was stunned into silence. Seriously?
When I ask, especially 4th year
Law Students what type of law they want to practice most tell me they don’t
know yet? They will graduate in the next couple of months and yet they don’t
know what kind of law they will practice?
I just don’t understand how that can be?
Against my better wisdom I still ask these kinds of questions and have
no answer.
I’ve listed a link to an article that was
recently published about Education here in Georgia. It is a tremendous and
“spot on” article about what is happening here in Georgia. Even better, it
gives possible solutions and ways to move Education out of the sometimes
“useless” category into something that will not only help build a future for
the student and the country as well.
Listed below is another article dealing with the “Smoking”
situation here in Georgia. Effective May 1st new regulations will go
into effect. They are outlined in the article; however, I think it will be a
slow road to implement. Many bars and restaurants do have “No Smoking” and push
the smokers to the outside tables. As more tourist come into the country this
seems to be the trend. We shall see……
At present, around 1.5 million Georgians out of total 3,718,200
people are active smokers, and 15% of these are underage.
So, it is official..I bought my airline
ticket and will leave for Philadelphia on May 3rd. I have not seen
(in real time) my son and his family for about 18 months so this will be a
treat. I’ll be staying until the end of June as I also use this time (in
addition to catching up) to check in with Doctors and Dentist….and just enjoy
all the things I miss from the USA….White Bread; SEAFOOD; Delicious Butter
(cannot find delicious butter here); WaWa tunafish….ah, my wants are very small
(HA). More on this as time comes around.
So, what else…lots of eating out with
friends. Always lots of new places to explore here in Tbilisi (I mean coffee
bars and restaurants). It seems that so many open and close in a short period
of time. It is probably because there is often little planning in starting a
small business here in Georgia. It is really easy to start a business here.
There is very little regulation. You rent a store front, maybe do a little
renovation and then open the door. So often I walk by a store and think I want
to check it out; only to come back sometime later to see that is has closed….
I have posted a very disturbing picture of
an underground storefront very near the University of Georgia (where I teach). It
is a fairly new store that recently opened that sells guns, knives, etc.. Now,
I know guns are familiar here in Georgia. One aspect is the shooting off of
guns on New Years. Also, in the village I think most families have some type of
gun (I know they use a gun to shoot the pig in the head) to kill it for
Christmas dinner. However, even in the village I have NEVER seen a store that
so advertised its merchandise in the main stream areas.
This store hung in the front windows 6 or
7 (which look to me) like automatic weapons. I don’t know guns; but, I can see
these guns sure look like these assault weapons that feature so prominent in
the news in the USA. Seeing these weapons being displayed stopped me cold. At
first I thought maybe it was a toy store; but not the case. In talking with other
folks at the University they say Yes, we know about it but they think these
rifle/assault type guns don’t shoot massive amounts of bullets; they shoot one
bullet at a time….seriously? Does anyone
find this odd?
I wonder why this location as it is near
(2) Universities…..not only the University of Georgia but also Technical
University.
I needed to make sure I was seeing
correctly so I went back to the underground store with my camera. I did take a
couple of pictures before another really upsetting thing happen. As I was
taking pictures everyone in the store (I guess the owners or store clerks)
surrounded me telling me to delete the pictures. Now, I don’t understand much
Georgian but I understood that. They were all so upset with my picture taking;
they were all talking at the same time and I didn’t understand why they had a
problem with what I was doing? At some
point I thought they were going to take my camera as honestly, I don’t know how
to operate my camera other than to take pictures.
I don’t know how long this went on; but,
they gave up and walked back into the store and I walked away (really ran away).
I still have the pictures and I will post one in this blog; but, I am NOT going
to post it anywhere else. I honestly don’t want to open myself up to any grief
about this and judging from the reaction I got….these folks were not happy to
have their store publicized. Why?
It was not until I got home that I
realized this could have ended much different and I was lucky. Initially these
guys were serious about me not taking pictures; but (these are my thoughts, of
course) even if I posted a picture…would anyone be as concerned as I was to
have these types of weapons in the face of University students as they made
their way to class? To have a weapons store sandwiched between a stationary
store and an internet/fax/Xerox kiok…what can I say!
Well, these are my stories of life here in
Georgia; that I sometimes refer to as the “wild west”. The only RULE here is to NOT follow the
RULES.
All the best, Catherine Lawrence – 2/28/18
Holi, 2017 in India. An oldie but goodie photo. Nice Memory
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