written by Birgit Bosio, MCI
Being part of international projects offers you the great advantage of getting to know new cultures. For me it was the first time travelling to Georgia and I was only partly prepared. I had read a few blog posts and found an interesting podcast about the country. One of them dealt with the Georgian supra, but I did not have the time to listen it before going to Kutaisi for the first Enricher Hubs trainings on Sustainability Thinking in the tourism industry. Therefore, I was not aware of the Georgian culture of supras.
What is a supra? A supra is a Georgian feast, a party, a big dinner. To this means you get to try and eat a lot of different Georgian specialities. But it is much more than just a culinary experience. At the beginning, the tamada is appointed, a toast master. What follows is a huge list of toasts which have a certain order. The first goes to the tamada him-/herself. The second one is the toast for peace. Looking at Georgian history, this is an essential issue. Many more toasts follow. For the family, for friends, for the women, in our case for the project coordination, the participating universities and countries and so on. Interestingly, not only positive things serve as a toast, also thinking about all the people who have died in the Ucraine war, are also thought of. The tried to remember all the toasts the next day and made it to 23, however, me might have forgot one.
But a supra is not just a large meal with many toasts and lots of Georgian wine, it is a holistic experience when people all of a sudden start playing the guitar and singing. It seems like they must have been practicing for a long time, but it turns out, they just like to sing the same Georgian songs. And in the end, we even got to experience some original Georgian dancing. We learned that kids in Georgia often attend music and dance lessons.
Beeing part of a Georgian supra was my absolute highlight of this week and made up experience authentic Georgian hospitality. Thanks to our fabulous tamada, David Gegetchkori, and Tamta Dedmetradze, for the whole organisation. Now we understand what David meant when he was saying, we will get to know Georgian Gastro Terrorism. Akaki Tsereli State University has been an excellent host for the start of our first training. We are already looking forward to the next training in presence in Gagauzia, Moldova at Comrat University and more cultural experiences.