a day in the life of a rural Svanetian woman

While waiting for good weather on our hike from Mestia to Ushguli, we spent a day with a family in a small Svanetian village. This gave us ample opportunity to observe their way of life, talk with them about their life and ours, share food and drink. The family consists of grandparents, their two adult sons and an adult daughter, and the daughter of the youngest son who died a year ago in an electricity accident. The wives and children of the two sons were away visiting relatives.

Imagine Djeneti, the name of the grandmother and heroine of this blog entry, as a lady of about 65 years old but seeming quite a bit older, dressed in black from headscarf to socks. She has the size and the aura of an Italian nonna, and moves about the kitchen and the house slowly but without ceasing. She mourns her dead son constantly, except in moments of watching the daily soap operas, when her laughter shows what she must have been like before this heavy blow of fate.

This is the day we witnessed of Djeneti, starting before 7am and ending at 11 or 12 pm:

before breakfast:
- make fire in iron stove
- feed pigs, chickens and dogs
- milk cows and start making cheese and yoghurt
- make fresh bread in the stove
- cook cheese to make another cheese called sulguni
- prepare breakfast for the family (various cheese dishes, bread, jam, yoghurt, coffee, tea)

in the rest of the morning:
- wash dishes
- mend clothes
- chop wood (though this is mostly done by the men)
- prepare lunch (lovely meat pastries: flat and round, about the size of a plate, with spicy and steaming veal meat pieces inside)

in the afternoon:
- bake cake
- take shower
- watch various soaps on satellite TV
- prepare dinner (a soup with meat, potatoes and fresh herbs from the garden, various cheese dishes, bread)

after dinner:
- wash dishes
- do laundry by hand
- milk cows
- boil milk to make sour cream