Kai Gogo! // კაი გოგო!

So, I happen to be living in a village where there has been one previous volunteer. Let’s call her “Tatiana.” From the first day I arrived, no one would let me forget that Tatiana was the original foreign celebrity, and everyone knew and loved her. “Do you eat meat? Tatiana was a vegetarian.” “How long will you stay? Tatiana was here for three months.” And the most common and repeated phrase: “Tatiana --- Kai gogo!” (Tatiana is a good girl!) usually supplemented by “…Oh, you can be a kai gogo too, Sarah.”

Now, after a few days, I began to realize that practically EVERYONE is a kai gogo. All the women I meet are introduced the same way: “Sarah, meet Nana --- Kai gogo.” “Have you met Natia? Natia is a kai gogo.” And now I’VE had to get used to being referred to as a kai gogo whenever I do anything remotely pleasant (like hold a door for someone), or say anything in Georgian (even “ki,” which just means “yes”). But I still had this nagging association with Tatiana, because she was, of course, the original kai gogo. How could I live up to those standards? I felt intimidated, to say the least.

Which is why today was so great: I sat down with my host mom to an afternoon meal, prepared by chopping a whole fish into fist-sized pieces, frying them with the skin and bones still on, and then letting them chill to just below room temperature. Not really my cup of tea, but I tried it for my host mom. It wasn’t as bad as it looked, and after I ate a few bites, I got a “kai gogo” from her. Then she gives me a spiel in Georgian and I hear the name “Tatiana” again. I look up and ask:

“Ra? Tatiana?” (What? Tatiana?)
“Ho, Tatiana, Skolashi, Mastsavlebeli --- Tsudi gogo.” (Yes, Tatiana, at the school, the teacher --- BAD GIRL.)

I was shocked! Tatiana is the kai gogo, right? I ask again:

“TSUDI gogo??? Ratom?” (Bad girl? Why?)
“Saatchmeli, ara. Vegetariani. Tsudi gogo.” (Food --- she didn’t eat anything. Vegetarian. Bad girl.)
“Ho?” (yeah?)
“Ho. Da bane ara --- no wash! Tsudi, tsudi gogo.” (Yeah. And she didn’t shower. Bad, bad girl.)

To this I just made a funny squinched up face, and a mental note to up my hygiene regimen. Feeling a bit more better about myself, I changed the subject by explaining that I wasn’t drinking coffee because I had burned the roof of my mouth the day before (which I expressed by looking up the word “burn” in the English-Georgian dictionary, miming the word for “yesterday,” saying “soup,” and pointing to the roof of my mouth). We laughed, and I got another “kai gogo.” I love my host mom. I love being the kai gogo.

Happy Valentine's Day,
Sarah