Harvest

Harvest started in late May with cherries, but the full force of it started when I got back from Thailand in August. I’ve been living with Ramazi’s family long enough now that they didn’t protest to my helping out with different things, and I got to help a bit with harvest.

The first food to be picked was cherries. We have a few cherry trees at my house, but Ia’s brother has a ton, and we went to his house and picked quite a few. I have a funny story involving eating too many cherries and public transportation. I’m not going to describe it here, but if you’re interested ask me about it.

Next to be harvested was corn, and harvesting all of Ramazi’s corn crop took about a month. We started late August and continued through mid September. The process was as follows. First the corn stalks were cut and laid in piles in the fields. When the whole field was cut we would borrow our neighbor’s bull and cart, and go down to the field, load up the cart, and bring the corn back to the house. This took forever because a cartload was only a tiny portion of any given field, some of the fields are about a mile away, and Ramazi lives on a hill, so going back to the house always took forever. For the two largest fields, Ramazi hired another neighbor’s dump truck to carry all of the corn back. Once the corn was at the house we took the cobs out of the husks. The good corn was separated from the bad. The good is used throughout the year for fried corn bread and the bad is used for animal feed. The cobs are stored in sheds that mice can’t get into, and as they are dried the kernels are taken off to be made into corn meal. As for the corn stalks, they were stacked, dried, and eventually stored to be used for cow food during the winter. I helped with pretty much everything except for cutting down the stalks. Neighbors also came to help, and they were always given a meal afterwards. This happened with us to when we went to other people’s houses to help out. It was nice to actually be of use after my family not letting me help with anything all spring. Also, my Ramazi and Ia are both slightly allergic to the corn stalks, so we got to take frequent showers.

In the fields with the corn, sunflowers, beans, and squash are also planted. People in Georgia LOVE sunflower seeds and are always eating them. I helped harvest these as well. The seeds are taken out of the flower for people to eat, or left in the flower for chickens, and the sunflower stalks are dried and used for burning. Squash was ready at the end of September and in early October, and the beans were ready in early October. I didn’t help harvest either of these, but both are used for both human and animal feed.

I was very excited for October, because that is when grapes are harvested and wine is made. One weekend, we all went down and cut the grapes that Ramazi would keep and use to make wine for himself. We spent a few hours cutting grapes off the vine. Ramazi told me that his vines are about 80 years old. The grapes were put into big bags, and later hauled up to the house to be made into wine. The very best grapes were kept apart for eating. Once the grapes were at the house Ramazi and I went to some neighbor’s places to borrow their equipment to make wine. (Borrowing different things happens a lot here. For example, Ramazi has a machine that grinds corn kernels into corn meal, and a bunch of neighbors come to our house and use it). The first step in the wine making was to crush the grapes. We did this by putting them through a hand crank grinder. Once they were crushed they were put into a big container thing to be pressed. While the grapes were being pressed all of the juice was collected and stored into huge container. The next day, the juice was filtered, to get out any grape skins, etc., and put into multiple containers where it will go through the process of turning into wine. While the grapes were pressed we also drank quite a bit of the juice. The left over grape skins were kept and stored to make Tchtcha, which is Georgian grape vodka. Ramazi made about 300 liters of wine for his family for the next year, and hopefully I’ll be bringing a bit of it back to America.

The rest of Ramazi’s grapes were picked and sold in the city. We had help from neighbors cutting the rest of the grapes, and the next day we helped them cut their grapes as well.

There was, and still is, a ton of fruit to be picked and harvested. Raspberries are everywhere in the village, and I enjoyed eating them whenever I went to hand out at the river in August and early September. Figs were another early fruit. I’d never had an actual fig before, and was delighted to have more than I could ever want. There are fig trees everywhere. I ate a ton of figs but many were also picked and made into jam. We have quite a few pear trees at my house, so they have been picked and made into jam or juice as well. Pomegranates and apples are also everywhere.

Walnuts and hazelnut trees are also common. There are tons of different dishes that have sauces made with nuts so a good nut harvest is essential for good Georgian cuisine. Ia has also been picking a ton of wild mushrooms lately, which are cooked and seasoned.

We’re now into the first week of November and harvest almost over. Only a few fruit trees are left to be picked. Also, lemons and oranges should be ready in the next few weeks. The harvest was a large part of why I stayed in Georgia for the second half of the year, and it turned out to be every bit as interesting, educational, and entertaining as I hoped it would be.

Thailand

In my contract with TLG it states that upon signing for a full year, the employee is granted a round trip plane ticket to and from his own country or a location that would be of equal or lesser value to his own country, to be paid in full. I decided that since I was already abroad, I should use this opportunity to go somewhere that I might not be able to go otherwise. After being inspired in a non-western architecture class my senior year to visit the Angkor Wat temples in Cambodia, I decided that a trip to Southeast Asia was in order.

To be perfectly honest, I knew absolutely nothing about SE Asia, other than what I had learned in my architecture class. I assumed that the whole trip would take place driving on dirt roads through jungles. To my surprise, Thailand turned out to be extremely touristy. In fact, it was overwhelmingly touristy compared to anything I had experienced in Georgia. To give an idea, the tourism is similar to Americans going to Cabo San Lucas or Cancun in Mexico. I was OK with all of this, and looked forward to an easy trip.

I got off the plane and shared a cab with a French guy to Kao San Road, the main backpacker area. There are tons of hostels and hotels in this area that cost between five and ten dollars a night. I decided to look for Bamboo Guesthouse, which was recommended by a friend back home, and was about a ten minute walk from Kao San. After asking around I found it and checked in. It was in a quiet neighborhood but still close to the touristy areas so I decided it would be good. After checking in I spent the rest of the afternoon walking around the area and trying to acquaint myself with everything. I was amazing to find out that in the Kao San area Thai people were probably outnumbered 20 to 1 by westerners.

Over the next few days I met some people in the hostel and they gave me information on different things I could do while in Thailand. The first thing I did was to buy a copy of Lonely Planet Thailand: Living on a Shoestring. This was a great find because I was on a budget (I had budgeted for four weeks only to find out from TLG that they had booked my flight for a six week vacation) and that was what this book was written for. I also did a lot of walking around Bangkok. Although many people expressed their dislike for the city, I was delighted to be there and found it to be extremely clean and free of litter. This was a nice change from Georgia.

In the few days I spent in Bangkok I met a few people at the guest house I was at. One was James, an outspoken black guy from Compton, who had been in Bangkok for nine months teaching and was heading back to America in August. I also met a few Europeans who were in Thailand for all of the tourist attractions and pointed me in the direction of the beaches to the south and learning to scuba dive. I decided to go with a guy from Belgium, but the busses were all sold out, so I left for Koa Tao the next day, intending to meet up with the Belgium guy.

From the small amount of research I did, an overnight bus and ferry ticket seemed like the best way to go. There are about a million travel agents to choose from on Kao San Road, so I went to one that I head had good prices. The bus wasn’t the most comfortable, but on the way there they showed the movie Superbad, which made everything go by a bit faster. At about four in the morning we arrived at a port, where we had to wait for a few hours before finally getting on the ferry to Koa Toa. We arrived at the island at about 10AM.

The Belgian guy had decided on Ban’s Diving School, which is the biggest diving school in the world, and we had planned to meet there. I ended up not finding him, and decided myself on a smaller and slightly less expensive school, Sunshine Divers. For a bit less than 300 dollars, I got four nights in a private bungalow, all of my scuba diving lessons, and the open water level certification for scuba diving. My diving class consisted of myself, another girl, and our instructor. The first day our class was in the pool, learning to use the equipment. The second and third days we were in the ocean. I saw some beautiful fish and a huge sea turtle. Going to Thailand I had no idea that learning to dive was even an option, but it turned out to be one of the highlights of my trip.

The girl in my class was from Australia and on vacation with her boyfriend. They were both very nice, in convinced me to head to Koa Phangang with them for the infamous “Full Moon” party. The party is on one of the beaches of the island, takes place every month at the full moon, and has about 15000 people in attendance. Because there are so many people at the party, getting to and from the island within a few days of the full moon is very difficult. We got a last minute ticket onto a boat to Koa Phangang a few days before the party. The guesthouse we stayed at only had rooms for the night we got there. The Australian’s ended up going to another hotel, but I opted to stay where I was, sleep outside, and keep my bags in a room with a group of Irish guys. They were nice enough to invite me in and let me sleep on their floor. This was perfect for me since I didn’t want to move and was on a budget. The next few days were spent lounging on the beach. On the night of the full moon, everyone prefunked and put on body paint (don’t ask, it’s just what everyone does). After that, we headed for the party. It was insane. If there is one place where you can’t get enough people watching in it might be here. I spent the next day in recovery and the day after headed back to Bangkok.

Once back in Bangkok, I intended to leave immediately for Cambodia, and if there was time, to also see Laos or Vietnam. Unfortunately, on my second day back in Bangkok, I got a bad ear infection. I went to the doctor to see if the problem was serious. He said that it was a minor infection, and after hearing of my allergies to antibiotics, he thought it would be best for me to just take some pain meds and let my body take care of it. I figured it might take a day or two, and put off my plans to travel on until I felt better. The problem didn’t get better, and two days later there was blood coming out of my ear. I felt horrible. The whole side of my face was in pain. I could barely open my mouth to eat and every time I rolled over on that side of my head while sleeping I would wake up from the pain. At that point I decided to go to a hospital to have my ear looked at. I had a pretty big infection and was given antibiotics to take care of it. The doctor said I’d be better in a few days and I decided to wait to travel until that time. I now have to say that Bangkok medicine is amazing. I was in and out of the hospital within forty five minutes. The visit, plus the meds, cost me about 35 dollars.

Over the next few days I spent most of my time at one of the cinemas in Bangkok. Unless you live in the capitol in Georgia, it’s pretty much impossible to see a movie in English. In Bangkok a few movies that are out in America come out every few weeks. The cinemas are really nice and also very cheap. A normal movie ticket cost about three dollars. For seven or eight dollars, you could go to the VIP theatre, where you got a blanket, a huge chair, and food service without having to leave your seat.

When my ear infection was mostly better I decided to head for Cambodia. As mentioned earlier, Angkor Wat was the reason that I decided to go to SE Asia. I decided to take the 3^rd class train to the border. From the border I shared a cab to Siam Riep with two Germans. They already had a place to stay, and I decided to stay with them. We also decided to share a tuk-tuk for getting around the temples the next day. The next few days were exploring temple ruins. It was very interesting and I was happy to have fulfilled my desire to see the temples in Siam Riep. Since recovering from my ear took longer than expected I didn’t have time to travel any more around Cambodia. I had to get back to Bangkok to meet up with Camille, a friend from Seattle who works in northern Thailand, Rachel, another friend from Seattle, and Camille’s two friends, Erin and Emily.

My time with the four girls was very enjoyable. It was refreshing to see some people from home, and Erin and Emily were both great. After meeting them in Bangkok, we traveled north to Chaing Mai, which was an experience. We boarded the wrong second class train, were kicked off, and had to get on another that wasn’t nearly as nice, and was about fifteen minutes behind us. Chaing Mai was very relaxing. We stayed at Camille’s house and spent our days walking around the city. I also enjoyed some western cafes. One day, Emily, Rachel, and I went on an excursion that included an elephant ride and bamboo rafting. We also got a mini tour of the region we were in.

My last stop on the trip was at a town on the border with Myanmar. Camille worked here in the past and wanted to show it to us. It was a beautiful town in the mountains, and I could instantly see why she loved it. My time here was cut short because I was leaving from Bangkok back to Georgia the Monday after Mothers Day weekend. It turns out that Mothers Day is huge in Thailand, and all of the train and bus tickets back to Bangkok were booked until Tuesday. This wasn’t going to work, so I bussed back to Chaing Mai, hung out with Camille’s roommates for a day, and flew back to Bangkok a few hours before my flight left for Georgia.

Overall I had a wonderful vacation to Thailand. If I go back in the future I’ll make sure and budget for the number of weeks I’m going, not two less. Other than that I had a great trip. I got to see some friends from Seattle, eat some delicious food (both Thai and Western), and just relax after my first Semester of teaching in Georgia.