Batumi, Georgia

Maria

No Internet connection in my room at the Bakuri Hotel, so I sat in the lobby as guests came and went. Maria, the hotel manager, asked me where I was from and we started talking. “I don’t really like Americans,” she said. “They only think of themselves. We don’t mean anything to them. How many Americans even know where Georgia is? I manage two hotels; this one with 28 rooms and another one with 48 rooms. I make 600 Lari (about $375) per month. My assistant makes 250 Lari (about $156) I’m single so it’s enough for me to live on. Everyone in my family has a job so we’re doing okay. But we don’t have any money, or time, to travel anywhere. Our president, Saakashvili, is doing a good job. I plan to vote for him in a couple of months. You see a lot of construction in Batumi, some very interesting buildings, right? Saakashvili is very smart. He’s working hard try to make Georgia more attractive, but his presidency is really about reclaiming South Ossetia region for Georgia. The 2008 war was devastating for a lot of people in Gori [Stalin’s birthplace] but not here the war didn’t really affect us. Saakashvili is right, South Ossetia belongs to Georgia. There are only three million people in Georgia, but we have our own language that is completely unique from any other language in the world. Some say it’s the most difficult language in the world to learn. We were interrupted by a group of guests (four men and four women) who seemed anxious to join the conversation. Although they all contributed, I’ll summarize as though one person was speaking. “We’re from Iran — on vacation here. We can drink in Georgia, which we can’t do in Iran. In Iran, we must wear the hijab, but here we don’t have to. If we had a choice we wouldn’t wear the hijab in Iran either. People should be free to dress as they like. When we’re abroad the government doesn’t care if we drink or if we dress like westerners, but it’s dangerous for us to talk about politics. My effort to engage them on the nuclear standoff was futile. They then left to enjoy the freedom they don’t have in Iran.