A New Year in Muganlo

So I would have to put this right up there as one of the weirdest and worst New Year’s Eves of all time for me. Ok, so maybe not the weirdest or worst, but awkward would be a good word for it.

The day itself was weird. My family was all off doing different things and I was just in my room all day watching movies. My host-dad was in bed with a fever, my host-brother was off with his wife and kids at her parent’s house and my other host brother was just farting around shooting off black cats all day in the garden and finding ways to terrorize the chickens. My host-mom of course was preparing a feast for the 8 of us to enjoy at midnight.

At 11pm I decided to go down and see what was happening in the hour leading up to the New Year. My older host-brother was still not back (off drinking with his friends) my host-dad was still in bed and the only activity was the host-family sitting around the TV watching a bunch of singers perform various Georgian and English songs. The best/worst of the bunch was the horrible covers of late 70’s classics from America. Why they were singing disco tunes I still have no idea. Dancing Queen? Really?

At five minutes to midnight my older host-brother got home and we all went up stairs on the balcony to watch the Muganlo fireworks show. There really wasn’t a show, just everyone in Muganlo shooting off fireworks at the same time. (I’m going to try and put a video of this below). It was actually pretty cool to see our village and all the villages up in the hills lit up with fireworks all at the same time. After a snowy and rainy day it had cleared up and the full moon was awesome. But, after my family shot off our three Roman candles, we all just kind of stood there in silence and watched the show. The actual stroke of midnight passed and no one said anything and it was kind of like a non-event. I think I was the only one who actually noticed.

After freezing for a few more minutes, we all went back down stairs and got ready to eat. My host-brother almost took my host-sister-in-law’s head off with a champagne cork. I tried to get him to let me do it, but he was all, “No, no I got it.” My host-mom was laughing at him after most of the bottle foamed all over him and the floor post bad opening job. No real loss in my opinion. The New Year’s toast was with some of the worst champagne I’ve ever tasted. However, the food was good and we all had a decent meal.

I had saved most of my Christmas gifts for the family for New Year’s since they don’t do Christmas and I didn’t want them to try and fake it. I gave the younger kids Pez dispensers and actually had some fun showing them how to pull Batman’s head back to make candy shoot out of his throat. The 4-year-old didn’t really know what to make of that at first but he liked the candy. I did feel kind of bad though since it was past midnight and I just gave two hyper active kids each a roll of flavored sugar. And, yes they both ate all the Pez that was in there. Oh well, not my problem. Everyone liked their gifts.

After the meal was over, it was just really quiet and everyone was just watching the TV. My host-dad is usually the one to organize the family and get everybody doing something and since he was in bed, there really wasn’t anything going on. My older host-brother had left again to go join his friends drinking all night and the kids were going nuts. (Hopped up on sugar no doubt). So, at about 1:30 I called it a night ad went to bed.

New Year’s Day started off nice because everyone was sleeping in and there was absolute silence in the streets. No car honking, no trucks rolling through the mud, nothing. I slept till 11am. Lunch was leftovers from the night before and still better than the usual soup. But, there was a surprise in store for me…

Now keep in mind there is no real “store” in Muganlo. Nowhere to go out and buy anything other than your basic food stuffs and some candy. My youngest host-brother had somehow managed to acquire this little gift for me from somewhere as a New Year’s present in appreciation of all the gifts I had given the family the night before.
Now what I’m going to do with this ceramic swan I have no idea. For now it’s sitting on my window sill with some other trinkets I’ve accumulated here. I thanked them for it and was all smiles when I got it, not because I instantly loved it but because I was trying to fight back laughter. Now as I sit here in my room all I can think of is the line from Billy Madison, “Stop looking at me Swan!” Hey, again, it’s the thought that counts.

Anyway, I wish I had time and the energy to describe all the things that went on last night at that dinner, but it was just weird. Here’s hopping that the last night of 2009 is no indicator of how 2010 is going to be.
In other news we haven’t had water at my house in almost a week now. Bath night is tomorrow and if there isn’t water I may just be making a trip into the office in the capital to take a shower on Monday. It’s worth a four hour round-trip to get a hot shower.

Happy New Year Everyone!