I still am amazed when I am given the opportunity to experience hospitality here.
It's incredible stuff.
This weekend two friends and I went to another city where we got to stay with one of my friend's friend's mother (follow?). Shania* was going to be at work when we arrived in her city, so she told us that she would have food waiting for us and that we should just let ourselves in to the apartment with her daughter's key.
So we did.
It was a miniscule little one bedroom (by American counting. Here it's called a two-room), on the fifth floor (no elevator) of an aparment complex that could be mistaken for any other cement apartment building in this country. It was small and decorated traditionally- the odd glitter wallpaper, an elaborately eccentric chandelier in the low ceilinged main room, all corners crowded with stuff (including large jars with pickled tomatoes and cucumbers in one room and a row of plants in the other), a wardrobe along one wall with a fold-out couch opposite in each room, and a teeny-tiny kitchen with a humming chest-high refrigerator and little table.
True to her word, she had food for us... and then she called my friend to say that she was going to come home from work early to fix us more food if we needed it (we really didn't). She came home and even though we had already eaten the wonderful plov and a cucumber tomato salad she had prepared-- she made us sit down and have tea and cheese sandwiches and chocolates with her.
We then left to scope out some of the city... in which we walked and got lost and walked and got lost and finally found our way again. At about 8pm I wanted a pick-me up in case we got lost on our way home, so we got some coffee and dessert. (I thought it was a good idea.)
And then we went back to Shania's apartment... and she had prepared a "light" evening meal for us. Now, I was not expecting to eat again after my coffee and dessert. However, after all the work that she had done to prepare us special pancakes and millet porridge and tea... well, I couldn't very well say no. Right?
The next morning, Shania had to leave early for work. However, she still stayed up that night (after she would not let us help her clean up the supper dishes), and made us these complex stuffed peppers to eat for lunch the next day. Yeah.
The next day we had a fairly busy day of walking a lot and getting lost a lot. It was a good day though. We came back for a late lunch of those stuffed peppers, and then we had a little hour nap. Shania came home while we were resting, and even though we explained that we were going to someone else's home that evening and that we were sure that they would feed us, and she did not need to make us anything special (we were not wrong!!)... she still kept asking us what we would like for an evening meal.
After talking with her, we left to go meet another family that were friends of friends. They did not know us at all, but because we were friends of friends, they gladly welcomed us over. (There is a great responsibility in becoming someone's friend- as I am slowly coming to truly appreciate here! It's serious business.) So when we finally rolled back to Shania's place, we were stuffed full of cake, fruit, chak-chak, cheese sandwiches, special dacha-grown yellow tomatoes, and lots and lots of tea... but Shania kept offering to cook us something! Finally, nothing would satisfy her except that we have another cup of tea before bed.
Ooof.
But all that is nothing.
On Sunday morning, she got up early to fix us a breakfast of buttery porridge and dried fruits. Then she not only took us to the bus stop, but she made sure we got on the right bus and paid for our fares. She came and tried a Sunday group with us, even though it clearly was not something she would do if we were not her guests. Then she took us walking to see the Flower Festival downtown- and kept calling us, "her girls" :D
Then we hurried back to her place (she again paid our bus fare), where she had prepared another batch of delicious stuffed peppers that were piping hot when we ate. She also had made these delicious egg salad type stuffed tomatoes that were a yummy cool contrast to the cooked bell peppers. (The tomatoes were the most flavorful tomatoes I have ever eaten- Shania proudly told us that her 'sister' had grown them in her dacha.) We washed this repast down with yet another cup of her special herbal tea. (The food descriptions are so fancy- even though they were culturally fairly bland and oily- that I feel that they deserve the term 'repast'- don't you?)
Regretfully it was then time for us to leave her.
So she quickly found some old little glass jars and filled them with honey from a larger glass jar (I know honey is not cheap- so this was a generous gift.) Also, I had commented on how much I liked the semi spicy kind of salsa that she had brought out that afternoon to go with the stuffed peppers; so she packed up a jar of that for me as well.
Then Shania donned her trench coat and small silk scarf, and walked us back out to the bus stop where we picked up our bus for the 3.5 hr ride back home.
Not only did she do ALL this.... but she invited us back. REPEATEDLY.
And I thought I knew all there was to know about hostessing....
