Another field visit

As I have mentioned before, field visits more than make up for the frustrating, irritating and tedious elements of this job. I had started the day out feeling the unpleasant aftereffects of a suspicious Greek salad compounded by a sobering home-repair estimate in my in-box this morning.

But it's hard to feel too sorry for yourself when you're on an epic tour of sites helping people who are still displaced from Georgia's 2008 war with Russia.

Also, I had the good fortune of getting paired with my favorite of the staff drivers. He has a wonderfully manly deep voice (and speaks English!), always commands the best car, drives like an action movie hero and crosses himself whenever a church comes into view.
In addition to the usual Georgian hospitality (yes, they tried to ply us with alcohol in the morning again), I received two bouquets of flowers (!) plus one of these lovely crochet roses, which I swear I was just trying to admire, not fishing to take home with me.
I also managed not to get beaned on the head while getting an action shot.

During our last stop, we visited a lovely woman who fled her village during the war and now runs a bakery. She fed us the most gooey, delicious khatchapuri I have ever had and I felt like a total jerk doing my job, which meant asking her how, exactly, her husband had died. (He wasn't killed in the fighting, but by the stress of knowing his family's houses were burning to the ground.)

Nothing like a field visit to bring a little perspective to a dull stretch in the office.