George,

Hope all is well back in C'ville -- I'm following as best I can on your website. Not much time to write right now (I have no internet access - so must borrow the use of someone else's computer) but I wrote the following little essay on life here as I know it. Enjoy (but it does sound a bit depressing):

I’m writing this from my new “office” in the “Institute of Marxism and Leninism” in downtown Tbilisi. It’s a monstrous Soviet-style building with huge marble columns and great halls. If it sounds good, it isn’t. It’s a bleak, dreary, dark building where the workers walk around with sour expressions and seem to do almost no work. In the middle of the great hall is an empty plinth upon which Lenin stood until the USSR collapsed around 1990.

The office is on the floor belonging to the Georgian Central Election Commission, where absolutely no work goes on, even though the upcoming Parliamentary elections (the main reason I’m here) loom closer and closer.

The office does have lots of windows, which is good because the two little bulbs hanging from the 14-foot high ceiling would offer precious little light by which we, the outsiders here, could function. It’s a bit hot in here because we have to keep the door closed – just down the hall is the men’s bathroom, which emits a smell to remember. It hasn’t been cleaned since communism fell, and hasn’t had running water probably since Stalin died. But we did solve part of our smell problem this afternoon when one of my office mates spied the dead mouse under my desk.

But it’s nice having a desk. My old office was in an apartment rented by IFES in a relatively quiet neighborhood. We were severely overcrowded there – my workspace was the roughly 2’ by 2’ corner of a dining room table. I shared the table with two (sometimes three) other workers, all Georgians, and a rather large desktop computer. There was no printer there but I don’t know where we would put one if we had it.

My dining table mates were Giorgi, Giorgi, and Natia. These are not to be confused with the other Giorgi and Natia in the office. Well, it made it easy to remember names when I first arrived. It seems that at least 50% of the guys in this country our named Giorgi. They don’t call it Georgia for nothing.

Tbilisi

Tbilisi is a rather interesting city of about 1.5 million. A river runs through the middle of it and, except for a small level area near the river, both sides are essentially huge hills with the city rising up them. It’s a curious mix of modern, nice apartment buildings with Soviet-era tenement housing, of glass-fronted boutiques and electronics stores with grocery stalls in the middle of the sidewalk. There’s an old part of town with Turkish baths dating back to the middle ages and there are many churches – mostly Orthodox. The main avenue is lined with sycamore trees and populated with street beggars (usually about 7 years old) who grab your arms and won’t let go until you give them something or yell at them in Georgian. There’s a substantial moorish-style Opera House and a few other picturesque buildings, but it’s not going to make it on a list of great capitals of Europe. Or is this Asia? The matter is open to debate. We are probably less than 300 miles from Iran – a little further to Iraq – and this area has always been seen as the place where East meets West. Yes, Istanbul has that moniker as well, but I think it more objectively fits here. However, the people are firmly European in appearance (this is the Caucasus) and there’s only a small population of Muslims here.

The People

According to the guidebooks, the people here are the friendliest on earth. While that may be true in other parts of Georgia, I certainly haven’t seen it here in Tbilisi. I learned how to say “Hello” and “Good Morning” the first day I was here and was using it when I passed people on the street. Rarely did I get a response, and I soon discovered that nobody greets strangers on the street, nor for that matter anywhere else. You have to be in a true social setting before you see much friendliness, and even then it’s a bit reserved.

The worst part of the city and the people are the drivers. I may have seen worse, but these are the most idiotic and rude. People drive as if they’re wearing horseblinders – pull out into any street without looking either way, back up if you want to, drive on which ever side of the road you wish, and oh, by all means attempt to pick off any pedestrians that might set foot on the pavement. I talked to one American who was so afraid to cross the main street that she hired a cab to take her from one side to the other.

Life here runs on a somewhat different timetable than I’m used to. For one thing, the country seems to be in the wrong time zone, so the sun doesn’t set until close to 10 pm. The common workday, for those who work, is 10 to 6. Restaurants don’t open until 7 pm and most people don’t eat until about 10. They don’t go to bed until around 2 am and get up around 9. It’s taken awhile to adjust to this, but I always was more of a night person.

I had good intentions of learning some of the alphabet and language but haven’t gotten very far. Since the language is not related to much of anything and is only spoken here, most expats don’t even try, since they can’t use it anyplace else. I’m still learning a little here and there but continue to be stymied but certain letter combinations (like “tkh”) that my mouth does not know how to make. All last names here end in either “e” or “i” and it’s so much the rule that my business card says my name is “Heilmani.” Whatever.

One blessing, or curse, is that the literacy rate here is very high – much higher than the U.S. And there is great interest in the arts and culture. The main street is named for a poet, and ballet and opera are big. But this means that there are a lot of very intelligent people who have no use or outlet for all their knowledge.

Politics

Georgia is yet another example of why the fall of communism isn’t all it was cracked up to be. Before the fall people were poor, but they had jobs, they had income, they had security. Now, unemployment is high, and most jobs pay next to nothing. The salary for school principals is $15 a month (but never mind – they haven’t been paid in six months). The U.S. and others have pumped a lot of money into the place, but it seems to have gone into a black hole.

The average person is totally cynical about politics, democracy, and the power of the ballot. I think this is because the politicians do virtually nothing but figure out new ways to make money of their political status. There are a variety of political parties, but they are weak on loyalty and even weaker on providing any kind of platform that promotes the welfare of the people. The ruling party split into several factions a couple years ago, so now pretty nearly everyone claims to be part of the “opposition.” But the opposition is very quick to be loyal to the government when offered any sort of carrot. The biggest political issue since I’ve been here has been the composition of the election commission. People are going hungry, electricity and water are iffy, Chechnyan rebels are at the border, and all Parliament can talk about is the composition of the election commission? This is too bizarre. They even had a big protest demonstration last month over this issue, which ended with speakers demanding the resignation of the President.

Well, that’s it for now. It’s time to go take my shower by candlelight. Highly romantic. Hopefully, this letter will continue in the near future.

Jim Heilman (electronic mail, July 17, 2003)