“When you grow up you tend to get told the world is the way it is and your life is just to live your life inside the world. Try not to bash into the walls too much. Try to have a nice family life, have fun, save a little money. That’s a very limited life. Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact, and that is – everything around you that you call life, was made up by people that were no smarter than you. And you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use.”
We woke up at five-thirty as the sun began to rise in order to eat breakfast, fresh homemade Georgian bread and homemade cheese, with the family we had been staying with for the past few nights. We then quickly packed and said our thank you’s and goodbyes in order to hit the road by six-thirty while it was still reasonably cool out. We cycled for a few hours, pausing here and there to take breaks in the shade, until about eleven-thirty when we found a river to cool off in for the afternoon. By that time we had completed sixty of our eighty kilometers for the day.
Here was the “church of the day” (since we pass so many a day, it’s hard to remember more than the best one).
Spending the afternoon by a river – a staple for us here in Georgia – is one of my favorite parts of the day. It’s also when I do the laundry and as long as no one is around, strip down for my bath. Today I took a nice little nap as well though it was short lived as the copious amount of ants crawling all over woke me up.
These buffalo kept us company in the river as well. It’s always a little depressing when these large fly-covered animals try and take your swimming hole! There were also quite a few cows grazing nerby and a few passerby’s on horse drawn carts.
We then set out again at four-thirty in order to complete another twenty kilometers to yet another river where we would spend the night.
Just before I put the spaghetti in the boiling water a man approached us and said “you speak Russian or English?”, and then, in his broken English, proceeded to invite us to eat with his family by the picnic table we were camped near. We ate a hearty meal of fire cooked meat, bread and cheese, and delicious peaches and watermelon. It was a lovely evening, and their twenty-three year old son was able to translate to the rest of the family so the language barrier didn’t end up being much of a barrier after all. When they took off for the night they left us with cucumbers, tomatoes, watermelon, chicken, cheese, and bread, more than enough food for two people for at least a full day. It was a wonderful evening that once again demonstrated the hospitality and kindness of the Georgian people which has become a daily phenomenon here in our lives.
Before curling up in our tent Kevin and I once again jumped into the river for a nighttime swim. Since it’s so hot we usually have to wait until the sunsets at around nine o’clock to go to bed.
There you have it, a “typical” day in the beautiful country of Georgia!