Soccer Boys

Sometimes two other guys, Lasha and Dato, show up to sing at my little church, Jvartan Maghleba. At first I didn’t have such a high opinion of them because I pegged them as Georgian lushes, too into their party scene to care enough to show up at church and sing with us regularly. I was right about this judgement, but now I’m partying with them so everything is fine!

First of all, I began playing soccer on monday nights after karate with Lasha and his extended gang of buddies. We play fast indoor soccer, six on a team, ten minute games. On the benches, the next teams are smoking and hopping around, waiting for their turn to take on the winning team. There must have been four teams there last week. I’m not that bad, but I’m not that good; some of these guys have amazing footwork which allows them to dance while the rest of us stumble.

Sunday, Dato’s baby girl became forty days old, what? Cause for celebration of course! The boys invited me, and we all went out to Dato’s parents house in the city suburbs, where a massive supra was laid out for thirty-five. Singing began even before we sat down to table.

Lasha was tamada -toastmaster; he brought our attention to these toasts (incidentally the word for toast, sadghegrdzelo, means ‘for long days’): Toast to our hosting family, big toast (i.e. drink a massive glass to the bottom, pass it to the next guy) to Dato’s baby girl... collectively we probably drank her weight in wine.... and many more of the traditional toasts to Parents, Children, Deceased, Life, and the best of all, to Friends, in which toast I was particularly honored as a new ‘dzma-katsi,’ ‘brother-man.’

Turns out Lasha, Dato, and two or three of the other singing boys there were all singing in Tbilisi’s most famous boys choir. This group of about fifty boys and teenagers learn some of Georgia’s hardest folk songs, play instruments, and sing in trios. Of course, they’re singing in a western tuning style, and their director is a famous soloist for the Rustavi Choir who have a very westernized sound, but nontheless, I was happy to accept one of their cds with the accompanying autographs! Now the whole gang of them are in their late twenties, most of them with one or two toddlers.

Lasha’s fiancee was there, and in a rare moment, he leaned over and said, ‘well, what do you think of my choice?’ I said, ‘what?’ But then I got it, and paid the appropriate compliments to his fiancee. Later as she held Dato’s baby, he smiled with pride and said, ‘now doesn’t she look good? As soon as we’re married...’ Folks start families over here around twenty-two, twenty-three, what I would consider young.

I thought three hours at the supra table was going to be good enough for us, but no, it was Irakli’s birthday, and he had to rush off early to be at his own birthday supra. Later we had to join him, and the night went on and on.

Once you’re involved, there is no backing out, but after a few glasses of wine and continued singing, who wants to leave? In fact, as inibriation progressed and time stood still, my singing buddies became more and more excited about me being in Georgia, singing songs, learning their crazy old language, drinking toasts to friendship late into the night... good times.