Arriving in Georgia

Funny how each country has its own smell. As we emerged from Tblisi airport (which involved passing through one small barn of a building, having our bags screened as we exited?!) I noticed the distinct difference in the air – the smell and the feel. Fresh, and a faint smell of spice. Still warm despite the darkness. We threw our suitcases into the back of an open-backed van with a shattered windscreen and piled ourselves into a converted ambulance and rattled through the early morning hours into the city and up into the hills beyond. We arrived at Nana’s house sans electricity, found our beds by candlelight and were promised a sleep in…

Today we go to the first orphanage. This orphanage is privately managed. Until Zest started coming here it didn’t exist at all, which is really heartening. We were given sleep over our coaching session so we will be heading in with only the briefest of briefing. Not normal procedure but because everyone in our group has done a fair amount of coaching before I’m sure we’ll manage fine.