Trip 2015-16. Day 127. Georgia, Zugdidi. Грузия: Зугдиди

Within only a couple of days I went from a sense of total safety to one of absolute insecurity. First a local guy treated me badly. Then I got robbed and lost a significant amount of money. Traveling in Georgia, I now feel like I am a real daughter of the place – frustrated, lost and with a complete lack of direction.
In Israel, as I know it, almost everyone thinks that he deserves something or is worth something. In Georgia the feeling of shame and meaninglessness prevails. The traditions are strong and even proud single caucasian men will let their sisters and mothers wash their socks and underwear. I got to know a man whose sister, hanging tens of socks to dry, told me “he doesn't wash them, he throws them away and we buy him new ones”. And she laughed... The widows don't let their sons exhaust themselves by doing any kind of housework and married women often say “men bring money and women should cook for them”. Their husbands and brothers and brothers-in-law and cousins and sons would sit around the table and smoke and drink and wait to be fed...
Carrying all their tragedies from past to present, the Georgians don't know anymore what they are, why they are, where they are heading to. Most of them have never traveled. Even those who have the means are too afraid to pack a bag and take off. Their land is rich, their mountains are stunning and their rivers are abundant but they seek eternity in the church. They forgot how to fly but they want to leave...

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