Having not slept well, I stayed in bed until about 10 when Francesco called to confirm our plans to travel to Rukhi (a village bordering Abkhazia with a ruined castle). I have been invited to Rukhi with a police officer later when the weather is nicer, so we decided to meet at 1PM, talk with his host family, and make a Plan B.
His host sister came with us luckily. As she skillfully navigated her way through the market stalls directly to where her father and mother own a stall, I followed like a puppy. I have yet to not get lost in the market.
We asked Francesco's host mom for another suggestion, and we settled on Kortskheli (a village 7km outside of Zugdidi with a church and monastery). His host mom noticed me looking at the hair dye. Having had my hair dyed last week, I showed her the box top from the color I used. To my great surprise, she gave me a box of the same dye, and very generously refused to let me pay for it.
After very little encouragement, we talked her into leaving her husband at the stall and coming with us to Kortskheli for the afternoon. Again to our great surprise, she hired a taxi and refused again, to let us pay for it.
We stopped by her sister's house very briefly as she handed her a bottle of something which would later become clearer. The taxi inched its way up a surprisingly snowy embankment as Zugdidi has absolutely no snow on the ground anymore. It came to a stop in between the monastery and the church. We first visited the monastery which I'd imagine is absolutely gorgeous in spring as the trees and brush from the garden were still visible over the mounds of snow. We were invited into the monastery to listen to some nuns sing. As we exited, we were greeted by a guest of the monastery who spoke very nearly perfect English.
Natala showed us around the 17th century church explaining its history and how it had been defaced by the Russians during the Soviet times.
We headed back over to the monastery as we had been invited back for tea. From the monastery grounds, it is possible to see the Black Sea.
We headed inside and had a nice chat with the nun who invited us earlier and Natala. Francesco had loads of in depth questions about Orthodox Christianity and how it fit into the Byzantine empire and questions about churches and Russian reactions. I just let him go... Haha.
After talking for a while, the nun gave each of us a biscuit baked at the monastery and two candles to remember the monastery by and invited us to come back anytime. Very very kind!
Afterward, the bottle of mystery liquid came into play. It was wine. We stopped at a cemetery to pay respects to one of Francesco's host mother's relatives.
We then headed back to Francesco's host family's house where Francesco and I talked for a while. By the time I realized what time it was, I had been invited to stay for dinner.
I ended up making it home just before dark and just after Francesco's house had lost power.
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