I've found one good reason not to live in Georgia for any longer period of time (unless you have a vast network of friends and relatives who are employed in many different businesses): that reason is the complete lack of service when something isn't working and you need it to be fixed.
When I first came, there was a problem with the ethernet-cable at the flat. Small side rant to that: I knew it was a problem with the cable right away, since the laptop didn't even register the connection when I plugged the cable in. The guys who were helping us out (friends and neighbours, basically), insisted for a long time that the problem was with the computer because settings needed changing. Which is true - you don't get an automatic IP-address for any network here, it needs to be entered manually. But first you actually need a network to connect to. "There's no problem with the cable, it is new" they said and it wasn't until we went to another flat and plugged their ethernet-cable in that they realised I was right, because there my computer actually found the network and we were able to connect to it after entering the IP-address. Women aren't supposed to understand shit about computers I guess? I obviously don't even know enough to use the correct terminology, but I am capable of drawing the unbelievable conclusion that no blinking lights by the ethernet port = cable likely isn't transmitting anything!
Anyhow, the man who had supplied the cable was called and asked to come and fix the problem. "I am very busy and will come tomorrow," was the answer. Ok. He didn't come the next day, so he received another call. "I'm terribly busy and will come tomorrow," he said. Rinse and repeat for about five days, then he stopped answering our calls. Instead, we got a "good acquaintance" from a nearby internet cafe to come by for the 10 minutes it took to fix the problem.
Next, the air-condition at the office isn't working. It's brand new and hasn't been working since they first got it. Now it's summer and a fan and open window just isn't enough to deal with 30-degree heat, especially not when the office windows are facing the sun for most of the day. So they called a man to come over and have a look at it. Since the AC-unit was bought in Tbilisi, he couldn't fix it immediately, but would order the necessary spare part from Tbilisi and have it fixed as soon as the part arrived, which would be "tomorrow". Off he went with the receipt for the AC, and now we haven't seen him for over a week. He was offered the double of his usual rate to fix it quickly, and then completely stopped answering calls (before they paid him, mind you). It made us wonder what sort of business he was running, turning down easy money for what, laziness? Turned out his mother had died, which he told us when he finally answered the phone again. He will come again "soon" and fix the AC. If that's an excuse, it's pretty stupid. If it's the truth, why not just tell a bunch of humanitarian workers, who would definitely understand, that your mother just died and could they please wait? My bet is that they won't get the AC fixed before I leave.
Finally, today we came home after a day in a village to find that the electricity in the flat wasn't working. Someone had managed to switch it off by accident (someone who had been trying to switch their own back on). The electricity man was called. "I'll be there in an hour." An hour and a half passed, no electricity man. "Oh actually, it's weekend and I'm in my village, I don't think I'll be able to make it." So you were never going to come in the first place, were you? Why say that and waste our time? After some chasing around of people in the neighbourhood, S's mother acquired the key to the, uh... locked thingy where the electricity thingies are (my English vocabulary is seriously lacking when it comes to these technical terms) and now have electricity again.
On a different note, the village we went to was pretty nice. These relatives of S. have a huge property - lots of fruit and nut trees, plus a small pond with fish in it. A small, cold stream is flowing past the house, and there's a shady forest area next to the house that they and the neighbours have cleared up and planted flowers in so that it's a nice, shady garden to sit in when it's hot. They also have pigs, cows and horses.
When we arrived, the man of the house offered me to ride - great, I thought, it was after all five years since last. Then it turned out he wasn't offering one of his own horses (they're not broken in, they're mainly used for breeding), so he went to borrow a neighbour's horse. Ok, a little awkward but fair enough, trotting around the giant field outside the house might still be fun. But it turned out to be limited to the fenced-in yard in the end. Still, it was nice to sit on a horse again, and nice to get acquainted with the type of horse they have here. They're actually ponies, not horses, and seem pretty even-tempered. It might be the heat that makes them so docile, though. It was around 30 degrees in the middle of the day and the horse was quickening its pace considerably every time we went in the direction of "home", so I can imagine the poor thing just wanted to get back to slacking with his horse-, pig- and cow-friends.
Now I'm definitely tempted to rent horses for some of the mountain-exploring in the last weeks of August...
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