Georgia part 2

The night before leaving Georgia I decided to get up early in order to check some roads and go hitchhiking, but the same night I went to sleep late which resulted in me getting up late… Anyway I got up, saw the beautiful sky, etc etc…and I went to check my road for the day, I wanted to go to Marneuli, a place in the south of Georgia in my way to Armenia. While I was checking Mathias woke up and we decided to go and eat something, it was another hot day, but this time I was carrying everything, so walking only 3 streets down resulted in me being soaked, I had an Omelette, that was supposed to last until the next day, and the time to say goodbye to a new good friend came, we hugged and I walked towards the metro station (underground) to leave the city centre, then I walked a lot, and all the taxis(I am using a hyperbolic expression) of Tbilisi stopped to ask me to go with them wherever I was going (and some of them got upset when I said no…) I arrived to a good point and at this moment of the day it’s near 5pm, not a good sign, as it is a journey that usually takes 6-8 hours. I asked 2 cars that were stopped, one was full and the other wasn’t going that way, and the story of the day started when I asked the third car…so sit down and read.

I asked a man for a lift to Marneuli and the guy said to me “this is not America, people are going to hurt you, they are not going to pick you up” I said thanks but anyway I was going to wait for a lift, the guy was still there and he came and said to me “look son, you can come to my house have a shower, have something to eat, I guess you are tired, tomorrow you can leave in a bus” ( I don’t know if you understand the situation… he had told me that there are bad people around and now he wants to take me to his house, so how am I going to trust in him?) So, I said yes, and he asked me to put my rucksack in the boot and the conversation started…

Man: Where are you from?       
Emilio: from Argentina.
Man: oh, I have a son in Denmark and he has a friend from Argentina, so you speak Portuguese?
Emilio: not really, so from where in Argentina is your son’s friend?
Man: ehm… where are you from in Argentina?
Emilio: Jujujy
Man: oh, like my son’s friend
Emilio:….
Man: Do you work or study?
Emilio: Study.
Man: What do you study?
Emilio: Theology.
Man: oh, like my son!
Emilio:….

At this point I was feeling uncomfortable and also because he was driving in the opposite direction to Tbilisi, he drove that direction, around 10 minutes. ..

Man: can I see your passport? I’ve never seen a Portuguese passport, do you have one?
Emilio: I have, but I am Argentinian.
Man: Oh yes, show me (and he stretched his hand)
Emilio: ok… (I didn’t have any option – I gave him the passport)
Man: oh… very nice, very nice…
Emilio:….

He drove into a forest, and there was nobody there, he stopped in front of a company which worked with wood, I asked him why we stopped there (I was a bit afraid at this point), he told me that he was going to collect his wife, so he picked his mobile phone and dialled a number, I don’t know Georgian, Russian or any of the languages here, but I know when people say Argentinian, and he said it twice, when he ended the call, 10 big guys appeared! I thought…I am going to die, this is the end… as I couldn’t escape, only a miracle could save me… well, it wasn’t a miracle exactly, when the guys were coming in direction to the car a lady appeared, and she was the man’s wife! They took me to their house and he ended up being the boss of Tbilisi Electricity Company, the company in charge of providing all the power to run the electricity there.

They welcomed me with Georgian tea and typical bread, then he was calling me son, I prepared my Mate and showed them a photo album, they both said that my mom looked like a Georgian lady and my mom’s name means “I am not in it” in Georgian. The lady prepared dinner and he joked that it was crocodile meat, then when I said that in Argentina people eat crocodile they were serious, and I enjoyed. I played my charango and he wanted to try as well. They were quite happy that evening, we talked about the Soviet Union, and the Russians. Somebody knocked at the door; it was a Muslim guy asking for money, he gave him money, and then when I told him that my plan was to go to Iran and Iraq he said to me “SON, DON’T GO! They are going to kill you! You are a Christian, they will chop your head”, I smiled. We had a lot of interesting chats about a lot of things, I even helped him to water his plants (it took like 30 minutes – so you can imagine) and at night he took me to the city for a while. Then I went to my part of the house (that was another house) and I re arranged my things for the next morning.

I am so blessed to meet this kind of people, I like to learn from them, I like to hear their stories, and I want them to hear mine, I find that language sometimes is not a problem (sometimes I say), that sometimes the opposites get on really well and there is nothing to fear, but also I find that fear to the unknown is a big problem, it shouldn’t be like that, the unknown is something we need, well at least me. I believe that some people are rotten but there are a lot of good people out there ready to help you. Sometimes the “bad” people can be good, and vice versa. In this search/journey I am finding myself in the people I meet, we are so similar and so different, but that is good… if only we could all learn this… (sigh)