How Georgia taught me to appreciate small things

by Anna Cwynar

I woke up with the feeling that I had overslept. I slowly opened my eyes and noticed that it’s seemed dark outside. Is it possible that it’s still early morning? No, according to my phone it was 10:20am. Time to get up. But why is it so dark? Maybe…

I opened the curtains as fast as I could and realized that I’m right. NO sun!! Clouds are everywhere. And I could even noticed a tiny puddle close to my window. So it must have been raining during the night. Oh! What a pity that I didn’t hear the rain. Maybe that’s why I slept so well: the sound of raindrops makes me feel relaxed.

I would have never imagined how much I could love the rain.No, in Poland it was the opposite – waking up with the sun was like a promise of a good day. But here, in Rustavi, on a semi-desert, when the rain comes only once in 2 months (at least during the winter time) it made me so happy! Less dust in my room! No cleaning on Saturday! Taking a walk with truly fresh air!

I went to the kitchen and asked my flat mate whether she has noticed that it was raining.

-Yes, she replied. It made me so happy. “I want to know, have you ever seen the rain” she hummed quietly.

I started thinking about the role of water in our Georgian life in general:

·         No water more or less once in a week.

·         Boiling hot/freezing cold shower every day.

·         Bathroom and kitchen full of water bottles (in case there is no water)

·         Washing machine crying and begging for water – Hee haw, hee haw, hee haw!

Information from someone: “No water again” often totally changes our day.  Not only our plans (“How can I clean when there is no water”), but even moods are dependent on it (“I woke up and there was no water, so I went to bed again”).

One can say that living in Rustavi isn’t very comfortable. Yes, that’s true. Sometimes it’s not. But it makes us appreciate the things that we wouldn’t notice in our normal European life.

How could I experience the pleasure of a warm shower without my stay in Georgia? Would I notice that having a water is a luxurious thing and not something obvious? How about the rain: could I even imagine that it would make me simply happy?