The neighborhood

When we first arrived here, we noticed how the people hang around outside. Many nights, it’s like a social gathering that us westerners would have to plan weeks to “organize”. But, being together, children playing, socializing with neighbors is part of their every day life. Many just sit outside their homes and watch the day go by. And they don’t move around the city like us westerners do either. It would be normal for a family to live here from generation to generation. Imagine the closeness they feel to each other. Families of multiple generations living together. In our culture, that would mean putting the “assisted living homes” out of business! What a concept – taking care of each other!

These pictures were taken the first few days of our arrival back to Tbilisi. I thought “how beautiful” when I saw the shoes outside our door. In this culture, you don’t usually remove shoes, the kids were on their best behavior! Madison wanted to make a fort and the girls got inside. They giggled a lot and these girls are teaching Madison Georgian. Madi likes to play soccer outside with them or just hang around. One day, Madison showed them her paper airplane. Mother’s were looking at it like they’d never seen one before. So we gave Madi some paper and she showed them how. They spent hours racing their paper airplanes down the street.

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