The final days… to be continued…
The lesson here seems to be, don’t fall so far behind in writing! I think I’ll still be catching up while back home, but perhaps I’ll finish while waiting at the airport in Tbilisi. I’ll do my best. The countdown is here – two more days of school and ten days until I leave the village for Tbilisi. I’m going to try to do a quick run-down of what has happened, though I’ll follow up with more details.
I am now the only foreign teacher left here in my area, though there are others in surrounding towns. I am working on finalizing everything to school, trying to prepare them with lessons, supplies and ideas as much as I can. This week is final tests for my students, which I spent quite a bit of time writing and editing, two versions for each class (to hinder cheating, a big problem here, from my experience). The third and fourth graders just took their tests, and I think it went well but will find out when we correct them today. Neither Ema nor I were there during the test; only the school director and the Georgian teacher, who don’t know enough English to help the kids out with anything.
Last Thursday was the concert that I posted video of just yesterday. I was told about two weeks prior to that about a concert in Tsalenjikha, and that they wanted me to sing in it. I was nervous – I’ve never sang in public before other than at church and with the Swedes, and they’re always nice to me, so I don’t mind doing that. I had a little stage fright, but I was alright once we got going. What gave me the stage fright was the fact that two days before the concert, they told me that it was a contest, and which place did I think we would get? In any case, I thought we did alright. And we ended up with third place! (Probably because I’m a foreigner – in Georgia that seems to somehow give me preference)
Right after the concert (in a Sound of Music-eque post-concert government command) I was to be transported to Tbilisi, or rather, to meet all other volunteer teachers there. The ceremony was on Friday, where we received certificates of completion of our program. The Prime Minister of Georgia and the Minister of Education both spoke, and one teacher from each region spoke about their experience in Georgia. It was a lot like graduation, the only difference being that we didn’t have to wear caps and gowns. It was actually quite nice, and it was good to reunite with everyone before we all leave. Here’s a picture of my certificate, but they are printing me a corrected copy before I leave.
Concert
Although I haven’t had time to write lately, I wanted to leave you one more video of Georgian singing – this was for a regional music competition we had last Thursday, and we took third place!
Georgian karaoke
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJZu2M-VSn8
In my last post, I spoke of the graduation supra back in May. Here is a video taken by one of the teachers, of me singing a Georgian folk song about love, Suliko. Enjoy!
On Celebration and Mourning (May 16th – 19th)
Graduating seniors
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After the trip to Kutaisi and Racha, I went back home and to school. I found out that a good friend of the family’s had died, and so Thursday (May 17th) of that week was a funeral. Funerals are really awful here – much more depressing than in America, and they last much longer. I am glad that I was able to be there for the family, though, as I had gotten to know them fairly well over the course of my stay in Tsalenjikha. The man had lung cancer, so the death was not unexpected, but of course it was still a terrible loss.
In Georgia, when someone dies, it is tradition to keep the body in the home (fixed up, and in the coffin) for 5-7 days, at which point they have the burial followed by a large supra. When someone dies, you are supposed to wear black, refrain from dancing, singing, playing music, eating meat for, I think, 30 days. It might be more than that. Women who lose a husband wear black headbands and scarves for the rest of their lives, to symbolize the eternity of their marriage. While the body sits in the living room, the women must sit here with the weeping family, while the men walk through and eat and drink with the other men in the family (I figured this out after watching a bit, as my male friends who teach here have had such different funeral experiences than I). When this is finished, the body is brought to the cemetery to be buried. At the burial site, the family says their last goodbyes to the body, the coffin is covered and put in the ground, and each person much take a handful of dirt to put onto the coffin. After this, there is a supra, which for this funeral was at the restaurant in town. Unfortunately, my host father’s birthday coincided with his friend’s funeral, so we did not celebrate his birthday. The best I could do was to wish him a happy birthday that morning and toast to his birthday (5oth!).
The day before the funeral (May 16th) was a birthday party in the village. Little Akuna turned two years old, and everyone came. I had a good time playing ball and other games with the kids in the yard, and talked with the parents quite a bit, too. We had sort of a picnic supra to enjoy the nice weather; they brought the tables outside onto the porch. This was my first experience drinking out of the traditional bull-horn that they use for special occasions here. I didn’t, however, finish all of the wine in the horn, because I’m not as seasoned of a wine drinker as the Georgians (you have to drink the whole thing at once, and wine is stronger here). I enjoyed the company of all of the people there, and it was a perfect evening for a picnic.
Friday, May 18th was the last day of school for the 1st and 12th grade students. The little ones leave early to enjoy the beginning of summer, and the seniors begin their tests that they need to be admitted into universities here in Georgia. They test in all subjects: math, biology, chemistry, physics, foreign language (English, Russian, or German), Georgian language and literature, geography, and history. The exams began on Monday May 21st, but before this, the students went out to celebrate the end of classes. After school, teachers, parents, and graduating students gathered in the 12th grade classroom for a supra to congratulate the 5 seniors on all of their hard work and to wish them success in the future. After this supra, the seniors left to celebrate their newfound freedom by driving around in a car for the rest of the evening, waving Georgian flags, and yelling/cheering out the car windows. All night I heard this from my window – honking, yelling, excited seniors driving back and forth many times.
The following day, Saturday May 19th, was another birthday party! This time, we celebrated my co-teacher’s husband’s birthday, at their home in the evening. It was a very nice little party, and I spent some time singing with Ani and playing with Nini. I also learned more Migrelian. Overall, it was a fun evening.
Racha trip
Hello readers! I have so much to tell you! I am beginning by including pictures from my trip to Racha, which was on May 13th. I will tell you about my trip in this post, and will continue writing posts to update you until I fall asleep. I am able to do this tonight because my village gave me too many cups of coffee. Very good, because I need to catch you up on lots of stuff.
We left off last with Saba’s karate, the English club play in Tsalenjikha, etc. After the play on Friday night, Stephen and I went to bed late after cooking and hanging out with my family, and woke up early to go hiking in my village so that we could catch early-afternoon marshutkas from Zugdidi to our destinations (Stephen went home, and I went to Kutaisi). My marshutka was fairly empty and comfortable most of the way; as comfortable as marshuktas are here, anyway. It took a bit less than 2 hours to get to Kutaisi, where I found a hotel for the night and bought the first thing at McDonald’s since arriving in Georgia in September (an ice cream cone). From there, I found a hotel, did some bargaining until I got the price that I wanted, and then settled down for the night. I met some great Georgian friends in the hotel – the workers – who talked with me for a long while and made me coffee and tea. Georgians are so friendly to foreigners, especially Americans, and once they find out that you are an American, they sometimes tell all of their friends. This is how supras have begun in some instances. In any case, it was a great place to stay for the weekend.
I chose this hotel because it was close to the McDonald’s. That sounds like something an American would say, right? Anyhow, McDonald’s happened to be the meeting place for our TLG excursion the next morning (Sunday May 13th), so I thought it best to be nearby, since I know neither the city nor the public transport system there, and we were to meet at 8 AM. I woke up in plenty of time, got to McDonald’s where everyone was waiting, and since the drive through was open, I stood in line there and bought a coffee. There were 25 English teachers there for the excursion, and most of them were living right near or in Kutaisi, but there were several stragglers like myself on the trip, also. I chose this trip (out of 10 choices for our free excursion) because I would probably not have gone there without a guide, it being so far away and in the mountains.
The mountains in Racha are the highest in Georgia, part of the Caucasus mountain range that I can see from my window in Sakalandio. Though we didn’t go to the highest of the Racha mountains, they could have fooled most of us, with some of the amazing views we saw from the road. So as you can imagine, the road up these mountains was a long, steep, and bumpy one; we traveled via the old Soviet roads (read: no longer maintained) that were built for easy access to factories in the mountains, which were primarily mines from what I could tell. Luckily, our marshutka was the special TLG marshutka, meaning that it was new and very comfortable. It took about an hour to get all the way up the mountains to the church and then to the lake.
And now, about the photos! I learned a lot about the history, having an English-speaking tour guide. If you guys have questions to ask, write them here, as I made sure to get the guide’s email in case of further questions, or if I should forget information.
Nikortsminda church was built in the 11th century, one of many churches commissioned by King Bagrat III. Each window around the dome has a unique design on its frame – the designs are of different grains grown in Georgia, and very delicately carved into the church. On the inside of the church are paintings from the 16th and 17th centuries, as the cathedral had to be restored by another King Bagrat III, of Imereti (a region of Georgia), this time. The writing on the walls is all in old Georgian, meaning only historians and church elders can read it, besides the occasional older people in the village who know the old alphabet. The church, along with others in Georgia, was hit a number of times by wars and earthquakes, but has survived besides the subsequent need for repairs. Apparently, the Turkish invasion was very present here, which can be seen in some of my pictures where the faces are chiseled out. Although I knew that the Muslim religion does not allow faces to be shown, and had seen this same lack of faces in other churches in Georgia, I never had made the connection until our tour guide brought it up. It occurred to me that this was probably the origin of the term “defacing.”
In the church are many scenes from the Bible painted on the walls of course, and one wall that primarily depicted judgement day in a very Dante-esque style (which makes sense, perhaps, considering the period in which the frescoes were painted). There was also a room that looked much newer, but I am not sure in which year it was built/restored.
While we were there, there were men working to dig up the yard around the church, which happens to be filled with human bones. There were piles of bones that had been dug up, some of them sitting in old flour sacks along the church yard. I discovered this as I was following the tour guide and almost tripped over a femur. I wish that I knew how old the bones were, but I am thinking that we may never find out, because these men seemed to not be a team of archaeologists.
Well, that is most of the history part of the travels to Racha. The rest of the day was spent picnicking by Lake Shaori, a giant mountain lake in the area. It was beautiful, and the water was freezing, but in the refreshing sort of way. Some of us decided to go swimming, against the advice of the Georgians. None of us got sick as predicted, because it was a warm, sunny day and we dried out quickly. I had forgotten my swimming suit, but that didn’t stop me from swimming – I just jumped in with my clothes on, and so did a friend of mine. Once I got knee-deep in the water, I just had to keep going!
On Karate and Puppies and Plays
I know it’s been ages since I’ve last written – so lots to talk about. First, I’m including pictures from Saba’s karate competition in Tbilisi, and of our puppies at home. And, a photo of the new fence, as promised. The next post will have photos of my trip, so I figure I’ll keep those separate since there are quite a few.
This past week (from Wednesday to Friday, first) was filled with school, tutoring, preparing lessons and the like. Sadly, my host father’s good friend Dato has just passed away from cancer – he had been sick for a long while, ever since I met him. The funeral will be tomorrow (Thursday), unfortunately enough, also my host father’s 50th birthday. Hopefully we will be able to celebrate the birthday a day late, or something like that. On Thursday night, I received word from TLG that I had been signed up for an excursion to the Racha area, which would leave on Sunday morning from Kutaisi to go to the Nikortsminda church and to Lake Shaori. You can find these places on Google maps, as Google has so nicely added places besides Tbilisi to their map of Georgia since my arrival here in September.
My friend Stephen came on Friday to see the play in Tsalenjikha. This was, perhaps, the excitement of the week for my family, and they had been talking about Steveni since his last visit. We planned to cook for my family, since he knew how to make curry, and we just combined this with pasta, which turned out very well together. My family really liked it, especially my host dad – he loves anything spicy.
Before making curry to add to the supra, Stephen and I went to the play, along with Tatia, Tamuna, and Saba. It began at 4 PM in the Tsalenjikha Theater, and had a great turnout! Almost every seat was taken. The play had some really interesting and neat parts to it, but most of us felt that, overall, it went on for much too long of a time – about 2 1/2 hours. The original estimate, from my friend Matt, was 45 minutes, but apparently they decided to throw in about 15 extra musical acts at the last minute. The music was awesome, but the poetry dragged on a bit, which much of the script was comprised of.
I suppose that I had better explain a bit better, what this play was all about. It is a play written in English, by one of the Georgian English teachers in town, Elene. She told me that it took her only about one month to write the whole thing, which seems pretty incredible to me, since I think it would have taken me at least three. She must have worked at it full time. The play is about the life of a famous poet from Tsalenjikha, Terenti Graneli (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terenti_Graneli). There is a museum in town that my friends and I visited earlier this spring, dedicated to this man. Many of his writings were banned by the Soviet Union, from what I understand – it was clear why this would happen, after watching some of the more political scenes of the play. The man ended up in an insane asylum, and killed himself. Here is a picture of Graneli: http://jazzmena.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/graneli2.jpg
Much of the play consisted of lines from his poems (sometimes difficult to understand, as poetry doesn’t always translate well). It was very interesting; being in English, I understood most of what was going on, but there were some scenes that were, more than anything else, very confusing interpretive dances. The students did a very good job in the play, and my three friends (other foreign teachers) stood up at the end to recite each a Graneli poem in Georgian. Because they all live in town (and I don’t) and because they started rehearsing in the winter months, I was unfortunately left out of the fun, but I enjoyed watching the play so didn’t feel too badly about not having a part. My village is determined to put me in the spotlight once more before I leave, playing guitar and singing Georgian music. I look forward to it – I only wish I had more time to practice lately (that’s what I’ll be doing this evening).
My camera does not like the lighting in the theater, but I have a friend whose camera got some very good video footage of the play; when I get that, I will put videos on YouTube and post the links (primarily of the musical numbers). Some of the music was very Georgian, some very Broadway-esque, and a few that were somewhere in between.
Now I am being whisked away to a birthday party, so I will hopefully get back in time to post about my travels to Racha (one of the most beautiful places I have ever been).
Current events update
As my last post was very lengthy, I left out a few important things that have been happening in this part of the world. First of all, there was an earthquake in Tbilisi a few days ago – a very slight one, so although they felt it there, there was no shock here. So, I still have never experienced an earthquake, for which I am thankful. I wanted to make sure to say that it did not hit here, and that I was just fine, in case any of you saw this on the news, though it may not have been newsworthy back home.
Secondly, over the weekend there was an explosion in Yerevan, where I traveled over my Easter vacation. I was not there for this, of course, but there were many people who were badly burned – saw them on the news being wrapped in bandages and being taken by ambulance to get wound care. What happened? There was a political demonstration in the main square. Someone was giving out balloons, filled with helium, and there was a person who lit his cigarette too close to all of these balloons, which caused the explosion.
Perhaps the most interesting thing to mention, as it is closest to me, is that there was a bomb planted by a government building in Zugdidi (the city that is nearest to me). The bomb was luckily found and neutralized before it could do any damage, and supposedly they arrested the man who left it there. This man was an Abkhazian citizen, from the territory that was once a part of Georgia but is now (with the help of Russia) on their own, though their independence is not yet recognized by any country other than Russia. There is also a conspiracy theory that the Georgian government planted the bomb.
Meanwhile, there is talk about putting missile defenses in Georgia, which the Russians see as a threat, and are trying to get NATO to sign a contract saying that these defenses will not be used to harm Russia. So politically, things are very interesting here right now. In the fall, there will be a parliament election, and the following year will be the presidential election. Most Georgians really like Saakashivili, and the media portrays him as a great guy. Ivaanashvili is his opposition: the Georgian billionaire who also has French citizenship, which may impede his ability to run in the elections if Saakashvili doesn’t change things. Ivaanashvili’s son is a pop star, so he has written some music to support his father’s campaign. Although I am leaving in just over a month to go home, it will be interesting to see how all of this turns out.
Mom for a weekend
Thursday night, Tatia, Saba, and Khatuna (my host mother) left for Tbilisi, not quite sure when they would return – the predicted day was Wednesday. Before they left, we had a little supra for them, though it wasn’t much fun since they both had stomachaches and did not want to eat anything. Tatia and Saba really liked the gifts, but I felt badly about them being sick on their birthdays. Anyhow, they left shortly after the supra to go to Tbilisi – Tamuna and I rode along to the bus station with them. Thus began our long weekend without a mother in the house. (unfortunately, I have no pictures to add, since I lent my camera to Tatia to take photos and video of Saba’s karate competition)
In the morning of course, we had school, which went quite regularly. I have the first lesson on Fridays, so it was an early morning, and I was a little sleepy from staying up late the night before to take the travelers to the station. Khatuna had made quite a bit of food ahead of time that could be reheated and become easy meals for us, but I knew that it wouldn’t last for too long with 4+ men plus Tamuna and I, eating three meals per day, so after school I went to town to buy some groceries. It was somewhat tricky to think of American foods that I could make from the supplies at our market (not much, since so many ingredients that I am used to using for cooking at home are not sold in Georgia). I bought potatoes, eggs, apples, meat, tomato paste, pasta, etc., thinking I’d make hashbrown potatoes with scrambled eggs, and some sort of spaghetti with meat sauce, and who knows what else.
In any case, I didn’t need to start cooking until Saturday, which was nice. However, I still was in charge of cleaning, heating up food, making coffee and fires, taking care of Tamuna, and the like. Friday night, we had eight of us for dinner, since the neighbors came to visit, too. As I was working in the kitchen, it occurred to me that they don’t have a single potholder (or anything of the sort) so I crocheted a set for them while I was waiting for the food to heat up. This is something about Georgia that most of us foreigners notice (maybe it’s just in farm homes?), that Georgian housewives have hands of steel. They can stick them in boiling water or on searing-hot pans and not wince a bit. I, on the other hand (the one that doesn’t like to be burnt), am a wimp on so many levels, in comparison to people here. Perhaps this comes with years of burning themselves – they have lost all senses in their hands.
On Saturday morning I woke up to find everyone already up (and I didn’t wake up late, either). Anyhow, my host sister made sweet pasta for breakfast, and after I ate, I cleaned up the table. Since the food that Khatuna had left for us was practically gone, I began thinking about what I would make next. We had a chicken in the freezer, and I had potatoes: the verdict? Roast chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy. It turned out pretty well actually, and my family really liked the whole thing. There was one bite of potatoes left at the end, and a little bit of gravy. There were two or three little pieces of chicken to go with this. I was really glad about this! We also took out crazy straws to add a bit of fun to the meal, perhaps to the annoyance of the working men who were eating with us, but they were very cool about it and sipped their pepsi from their curly straws. I decided to make peanut butter cookies after dinner, which Tamuna helped me with – stirring, rolling the dough into balls, and pressing them with a fork. They turned out really well, and they certainly didn’t last long, either.
I stayed up late cleaning up after all seven of us ate dinner, took some time to talk to my mother on Skype, and went to bed. I succeeded, this time, in waking up before my family, so I made scrambled eggs and such, which they also seemed to enjoy. Tamuna and I decided to go into town, to buy groceries and to have some girl time for the day – kind of a “sisters” day. We did manicures, went to a play rehearsal, bought more groceries, at ice cream and other tasty snacks, talked to friends, and finally went home to find all of the cookies gone and that I noticed that I needed to make more food. I began the spaghetti sauce task, while roasting another chicken for lunch, and preparing dough for a pie crust. Meanwhile, the men were working and Tamuna watching TV inside. Before lunch, I managed to finish the dough, and to sautee the onions and garlic for the sauce. We had seven again for that meal, and so there were lots of dishes to be done.
After all of this, I began cutting apples for the pie, and combining ingredients for the spaghetti sauce. I finished everything just in time for dinner, which was another big turnout, of course. The pie was saved for the next day, as I had promised to bring pie to my school to share with the teachers. After I cleaned up again, I was able to go up to my room to talk to my family on Skype, and fall fast asleep. In the morning, I was woken with a surprise – the travelers had returned on the night train from Tbilisi! Thank goodness – I was pretty worn out from the weekend. I truly appreciate my host mother and all mothers (especially you, mom and grandma), and as it is that time of year, Happy early Mothers’ Day to all of you out there who are mothers!
Saba won third place in his karate competition! He did very well, but was beaten by two kids in his age group that were much larger than himself. He got a nice medal and a certificate – he was so proud. My host mother bought glasses for the first time (for reading). Tatia didn’t need new glasses according to the eye doctor, so she came back just the same.
Birthdays!
The following post was mostly written on Thursday, May 3rd (posted now, because I have been massively busy, which will be explained in the post after this one):
Today is a big day at our home – the fence is nearly finished, and there are two birthdays! Tatia is now 13, and Saba is 9 years old. It’s pretty cool that they have the same birthday, in any case. There will be a little supra tonight, and I found good presents for them, after some long, hard, thinking. I made Tatia this purse out of plastic bags (see below), and also gave her a brand new soccer ball, since she loves soccer and different fashion things so much. For Saba, I found a really cool big remote control car at the market, and he loves it! I thought for a moment about getting him a skateboard and helmet, but figured that it might be too much of a hazard on the roads here.
Plastic bag crocheting
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Tonight (or tomorrow night, no one is quite sure yet), Saba, Tatia, Khatuna, and maybe Beso as well, are going to Tbilisi. Saba has a Karate competition, and Tatia needs to go to the eye doctor. That leaves Tamuna and I, maybe uncle Kakha, and my friend Stephen is coming to visit again for the weekend. Stephen and I are going to do lots of cooking, and we are both looking forward to it. Living with host families, we find ourselves lacking cooking opportunities.
My fight with food poisoning is over for now, though I’ve heard this is prime food-poisoning season, so I’m not going to be surprised if it happens again. It’s also prime mosquito season, and TLG emailed us with good advice about avoiding malaria and mosquitos in general. Like, don’t eat too many salty foods, because that attracts mosquitos (good luck with that one, in this country). I’ve been getting pretty bit up lately at night, though I’m thinking that’s mainly the spiders that live in the corner of my room. I catch the mosquitos biting me only in the daytime, of course, but it’s enough to remind me to take my anti-malarial medicine each week.
Lots of stuff is starting to grow. The trees have figs on them, though they are far from ripe. The grapes outside my window are beginning to grow (they’re very tiny, but there are little grapes on the vines). Strawberries are now coming ripe in some people’s yards. Unfortunately, this lovely weather also brings lots of lovely big bugs. I’ve had to learn to live with them, but I don’t particularly like it. For example, they live in the corners in my bedroom, in the bathroom (indoors and out) and everywhere, it seems. But, there is no keeping them away. We leave the door and windows open a lot in the warm weather, and there are no screens. It’s not terrible, just a little itchy when they bite me.
The frogs have quieted down a bit, now that the population has been thinned out by the frogs who try to cross the road. The ducks don’t seem to like the frogs, either, as I saw one take a frog in its beak and fling it into the grass. Guess it got in the duck’s water-drinking spot, or something. There are always frogs and snakes, though. I’ve seen a few snakes cross in front of me, and some of those dead on the road, too. Supposedly there might be some poisonous snakes in the area (according to the internet), but the locals say that they’ve never been bitten so they are not sure. I figure I’ll refrain from playing with the snakes, and I should be okay.
Weekend update
We recently had elections at our school for the Tsalenjikha School Parliament, and so the winner will be going to meetings in town with the winners from the other schools. This was mostly, I think, a lesson for the students on how elections work in Georgia, and particularly since there is a Parliamentary election coming up this fall (Presidential election will be the following year, in 2013). It was interesting to me as well, being a foreigner who has really only studied American governmental processes. The students did very well: each candidate said a short speech, the voting was very fair, private, and official, and one of the candidates even tried to up his votes by giving candy and flowers to the voters.
My host father is building a new fence for the yard, and I will post pictures once it is finished. He has been working for 2 days, now, and today it is quite far along. I imagine that it will be finished in the next day or two. Tatia, myself, and two of the other American English teachers in the area became sick with some sort of food poisoning last night/this morning, though we can’t quite figure out what it was that caused this. One of the teachers from the town school had us (except for Tatia) over for dinner, so we were wondering if that may have been what caused the illness in the three of us. In any case, the food that she made was very delicious, and she worked so hard on the meal that none of us dare tell her that it may have made us sick. I am feeling much better now than I was this morning, though my stomach is still pretty raw.
Over the weekend I saw some friends of mine who are teachers, but spent most of my time with my family, working on English, playing games around the house and outside, and the like. I’ve been trying to decide what to get Tatia and Saba for their birthdays, which coincidentally are both on May 3rd. They may be gone to Tbilisi for that day, though: Saba for karate, and Tatia to go to the eye doctor. Tamuna and I will be all on our own, so I’m excited to be able to do the cooking.
Sakalandio election
Fishing, hiking, swimming, and puppies
Well, I’m not sure if summer is in America (been seeing predictions of snow in the PA area), but it’s certainly here in Georgia! I am a bit sunburnt, because I’m loving the outdoors perhaps a bit too much. With the hammock in my yard, I find myself doing lots of work there, and when I’m not working, I’m playing outside with our little puppies. The puppies have just started to crawl out and visit me, so it’s been fun having some extra company. Of course, the other dogs are a little jealous of the new attention that I’m paying to the puppies.
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Last week, I spent tons of time working with my host family on English. Having been gone for so many days, and especially since it had been Easter, no one had done any work on English over the weekend, so we did some catching-up. And lots of my time was spent telling people here about my trip to Armenia, as most of them had never been there, let alone out of the country at all. The only unfortunate part about my spending lots of time outside is that I seem to have some sort of allergy to all of the beautiful blossoming trees. I’ve been a bit sniffly for the past month or so, though it certainly isn’t a cold or anything like that.
One of my students has been very adamant that I must come to visit and stay at his home, so I took him up on the offer yesterday. His aunt is actually the music teacher at the school – the one who is teaching me to play the guitar. We had the most adventurous walk home, to begin the adventure out properly. He thought it would be fun to go back to town by following the river, but on the other side of the river, so off the main road. Well, there was not a path to follow at all, but while that made things tricky, it did not deter us (a 15-year old boy and myself, and you can see how ridiculously daring and adventurous I can be).
Lizard friend
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walk to town
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On the way home, we had to hop a couple of fences (bonus points for be being in nice clothes and not ruining them), cut through a stranger’s yard, and ford a few streams. We also stopped to go fishing on the way. Levani taught me to fish without any pole, spear, net, etc. – by moving rocks and grabbing unsuspecting fish. I didn’t catch any fish this time, but Levani caught 4 fish and a little crab, which we stuffed in a plastic water bottle I had along with me, added some water, left the top off, and carried it back. The fish didn’t live long, but the crab stayed alive for most of the rest of the night. We also saw some neat lizards on the way home, which were a beautiful bright green color, and fast moving.
Our walk to town
Our walk to town
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Waterfall on the way
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We finally arrived in town, at Levani’s home, where his mother greeted us and gave us a bite to eat. Then, Levani wanted to go fishing (he lives right beside the river), so I went along again, this time planning to have more success in catching the fish. Well, he still caught most of the fish, but I did get ahold of one! Enough for me to say I’ve successfully been fishing by hand. Altogether, I think we got about fifteen fish, though no more crabs. This time, in the river, Levani brought a fork to spear the fish, though he didn’t have two spears, so I waded around and tried to find fish the best that I could. We also had a little net in which to keep our spoils (much better than the water bottle). Here are a couple of photos of our endeavors:
fish! (well, tiny fish)
Levani waiting for the fish to come by
Noah’s land
Our trip to Armenia was an adventure, indeed. I ended up going to Zugdidi for the first night (Wednesday night) and staying at the hostel there, before we left the next morning. We took a marshutka to Tbilisi; this turned out to be our own private ride, which was quite comfortable (besides the usual near-death driving strategies of the marshutka driver). In any case, we arrived in Tbilisi in one piece, and stayed in the plush Marriott hotel (Thanks!!) in Freedom Square, where we had a marvelous view, and met up with friends:
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We left for Armenia the next day, after having exchanged some money for American dollars (needed to purchase the visa at the border) and made our way to the marshutka station. We ended up just missing the 1 PM marshutka, but a nice Armenian man with many gold teeth offered to give us a ride there for 40 lari per person, in our own car. This was great, because we were able to get better pictures along the way, stop more often, and not feel as though getting there in one piece was such a gamble. Also, being crammed into a vehicle for 5 hours with people you know is generally better than with strangers, in my experience. Luckily, my friends knew Russian, because the Armenian man didn’t speak any Georgian (and my Russian is so basic, it isn’t helpful at all). It was a great trip over there, and I have many pictures of the journey to share with you:
When we finally arrived in the city of Yerevan, it was still light, but it took us about 2 hours to find the hostel where I had reserved space, despite having directions written down and asking for help several times. The most frustrating thing about being outside of Georgia for me was not having the use of our cell phones (couldn’t call to ask for directions, and it was also very difficult to meet up with friends who were staying at different places in the city). Anyhow, by the time we found the hostel, we were informed that the beds we had reserved were not available, and that they would have to put us in a private apartment about a 30-40 minute walk from the hostel (for the same price as we would have paid for the bunk beds). Here are some pictures of the luxury apartment we ‘got stuck with’ for the weekend (we were really suffering):
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The best part was, that the place came with a great view of the city, and of Mount Ararat, where Noah’s ark is said to have landed so many years ago. As God promised, there was no flooding so big as this since that day, and in fact, there was no rain in Yerevan for the entire trip. The bigger mountain in the picture is Ararat, and the smaller one is known as “Lesser Ararat.” These mountains are actually in Turkey, though Armenia calls everything “Ararat” (cognac, beer, and many other businesses and brands).
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After a good night’s sleep at our comfy home in Yerevan, we ventured out into the city (after I made the initial venture to get food at the supermarket for breakfast – scrambled eggs, fruit, etc.). We wandered toward interesting buildings and through beautiful parks. Many, many places in the city, including these parks, had restrictions on taking photos, which limits what I can show you here, but I did have a few accidental photos where I was not supposed to, before they told me to put the camera away. Perhaps the neatest thing was what they call the “Cascade,” which is a giant monument atop a giant staircase. In the summer, there is water running down these stairs, but it wasn’t turned on yet. We did not realize that there was an escalator to get to the top (also museums on the inside, where the escalator was), so we made it with hard work, sweat and a few short pauses, to what seemed to be the top of the world, or at least of Yerevan. Here are some pictures of this:
We also went to the Armenian Genocide museum, and you can read more about this genocide here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenian_Genocide
It was very sad, but I am glad to have gone, in any case. It is terrible when anyone is killed for their beliefs: 1.5 million Christians were killed in this event, which took place right around WWI. I haven’t got any pictures from inside of the museum, but I’ll show you a picture of the holocaust monument near the museum.
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And here are some pictures of other buildings/sights in the city that were interesting… photography was not encouraged in many places, but I got away with a few photos that I am perhaps not supposed to have.
Anyhow, most of the weekend was spent walking around the city and seeing these many sights, exploring, and we even met some Armenians who took us out at night, so we saw the Armenian dance party scene (at an underground bar called “That place,” which caused some confusion as to where we were actually planning to go). On the whole, I found Armenian people extraordinarily friendly and happy people, and it was interesting to be in a new place, though I wished I would have learned more Armenian from the trip – not that I’ll ever have a reason to use it again, but it would have been something else to add to my compilation of [potentially] useless knowledge.
Armenia was overall more modern than Georgia, from what I could see, which I think maybe is because of their better relations with Russia. Both countries have the same Soviet-style buildings and factories and such, but Armenia has gotten farther with improvements. In Georgia’s defense, I think that Georgia has improved at a much more rapid pace in the past 5-10 years. Even since my arrival, I have seen constant small improvements. It will be interesting to see what the next elections bring (Parliament this year, and the Presidency next year).
Our trip back was on a marshutka, which we filled with TLG volunteers. It was a fun ride, as we took a different route than we initially had taken into Armenia when we traveled by car. We went along several gravel roads for some reason, taking us through tiny villages and such (which I didn’t take pictures of, because they looked exactly like Georgian villages). And then there is the fact that I have mentioned before, that marshutkas are usually a more thrilling ride, with many twists and turns that you’re not so sure you’ll make it through. We made it to the border (back to Georgia), where we waited for a long time for everyone to clear the border crossing. Once we arrived back in Tbilisi, we went back to the Marriott, and relaxed for most of the night, worn out of walking, stair-climbing, and traveling in general. I managed to take a swim in the pool there, which felt great – I have definitely missed swimming. I can’t wait to go back to the sea before I leave, to enjoy the water there. It should be warming-up enough for swimming in the next couple of weeks.
Easter and surprise supras
To those of you back home, I hope you had a happy Easter! Of course here, Easter is this coming weekend, as most people in Georgia are Orthodox Christians. I was partially planning to stay at home for the Georgian Easter experience, but it dawned on me that this may be the best time to do some traveling, as we have a week vacation from school. Several of my friends and I are going to Armenia for the break, to Yerevan, specifically. We will be seeing cool historical churches, museums, etc., and of course Mt. Ararat, where Noah’s ark landed after the flood. We are going by marshutka to get there, which will be only slightly less comfortable than the train, but much less time spent traveling and more time to enjoy the trip. I will post updates as I am able, especially since most hostels have wireless internet that I can use. I have school today, and will be on my way to Zugdidi tonight to begin the adventure.
Our morning jogging club is still in full swing. Though I hate waking up so early, I am always glad that I did once I get going. I took a nap this morning after the run, since I don’t have classes until the third lesson today. I have spent the last several days working almost full time on tutoring, though we had no school on Monday because it is the April 9th memorial day. In 1989, the Tbilisi massacre took place on this day, and so it is a holiday here to remember those who died in the anti-Soviet demonstration in Tbilisi. We spent part of the day cleaning up their grandparents’ graves – weeding and raking, and trimming back the rose bushes. I don’t mind outdoor work like this, so I helped out.
On Saturday, my host uncle had a birthday supra, so I’ll include pictures of this. It has occurred to me that, though I talk about supras here often, I don’t know that I’ve ever posted any pictures of supras. It was a fun party, and we spent the night in Akhalkakhati, at grandma’s house. We actually didn’t tell anyone that we were coming to the party, because we wanted to surprise him for his birthday.
Summer!
It is so warm today that it was almost burdernsome to walk to town! Yesterday was beautiful – about 75 and sunny, so I took a walk toward Obuji, a village just south of mine, though I hadn’t ventured in that direction before now. It was a gorgeous walk! Many blossoming trees, frogs, eagles and hawks, and I also found a cool abandoned monastery up on a hill. The monastery was much farther and more difficult of a walk than I anticipated, though it was entirely worthwhile. Part of the walk I had the company of my students, but people here don’t usually enjoy walking – they only walk if they must. My host sister, Tatia, enjoys walking/running for exercise, so we’re beginning to jog every morning, weather-dependent. Another teacher friend of mine was going to go with me, but was sick yesterday. I am glad I went when I did, rather than waiting for today.
The edge of Obuji is about a 5-minute walk from my home, and the center is another 30 minutes. They have a museum there, of a famous Georgian poet, so I went to see his old home, where his writing desk, cabinet, saddle, and many original writings and photos are housed. There is also a church, though it isn’t much to see now since it is being fixed. They have a school and a library, though the lady at the museum who I spoke with told me that their previous volunteer teacher has left, and they have no foreign English teacher there now. It was actually a little less of a walk than that to Tsalenjikha, so I was disappointed not to have found a potential new friend there. I continued walking past the center, and went far up into the hills, where I didn’t find much other than beautiful views and homes. I did see a very large greenhouse (something I hadn’t found before now in Georgia) in the hills.
I went back through the center, and continued toward home, though I wanted to stop at the monastery/church on the hill that I had seen from afar, which originally looked like an old pile of rocks when I walked past it on the way to the center. It was up a very steep hill, via a path that is obviously traveled now only by cows. It was such a rough path and steep slope, that I thought perhaps this was part of the penance of those who came here to pray. Luckily, it was a really cool sight to see, and one that many people around here had never bothered to go and see, so they thought my photos were pretty interesting. On the way back from the monastery, toward home, I met more of my students, and one of their mothers invited me in to talk and have coffee and cake. It’s always fun to talk to people in my village, and they like practicing their English with me, while I also practice my Georgian with them.
I have many discussions with my co-teacher about Georgian history and about American history, and am sometimes amazed at people’s misconceptions of America. For example, she asked me one day, how the Indian people got all the way to America from India? I had to explain to her the story of how Columbus thought he had reached India, instead of America. She was surprised when I told her of all of this, and how the Native Americans crossed the Bering Strait. I suppose I don’t know a everything about the history of Georgia, either, but I thought everyone knew that “American Indians” are not actually Indians.
I am including many pictures with this post, since I am in town and have better internet here. First, more photos from my school, and second, from my walk to Obuji.
Daffodils and dances
Lastly, I wrote about our celebrity status here. In a related note, this morning I received a beautiful bouquet of daffodils, which is going to go in my homemade vase in my room after I leave school today (it is now in a cup of water in the teacher’s room). I have gotten many bunches of flowers thus far in the early spring – violets, snowdrop flowers, etc. – so took it upon myself to make a vase out of the bottom of a pop bottle and orange construction paper left-over from a school project. I’ll post a picture of it, one of the many makeshift things I’ve put together here. Living in a place with fewer amenities makes one more creative, I suppose.
This weekend, a friend of mine came to visit from a few hours away; he had been in my training group in September. I lured him here with talk of the lovely 12th century church and the many friends we have here in Tsalenjikha. I felt bad that he came Saturday morning while it was a downpour of rain, but luckily we managed to have a good time indoors instead, and were able to see the church on Sunday morning (the rainy weather had cleared by then). We also visited a museum of a famous poet who was from Tsalenjikha, on the way to the church, which was very interesting. None of us had gone into the museum before, but having a guest there was a good excuse to go. I’ll include some more photos of our hike, though I have a friend who took many more, so when I get those, I’ll post them. My friend loved my family and my village, and told me that he could see himself enjoying living here. I have similar feelings about the place, for sure – I will be coming back someday, when I have enough money and vacation to do so.
Last night was Ani’s birthday (my co-teacher’s other daughter), so after school I was taken with them to the cafe by the market, where she had her friends gathered. We had a good time, and they worked on teaching me some more Georgian dance moves. They had me sing my Georgian music repertoire also, though I had no guitar to play with the singing. The party continued back at their home, though no dancing was allowed, because a young person in our village has recently died of cancer. I didn’t know this person because he had moved to Russia to work, but the body was brought back here to be buried and the funeral held at the family home. Funerals here last approximately a week, so there have been people in front of that home for many days. Also, when someone dies, you must not eat meat.
Apparently, my Georgian is improving, because somebody mistook me for a Georgian. This caught me by surprise, because everyone usually greets me with “hello” or “guten tag” before they even speak to me. About every few people I meet ask me if I am Russian, because I have a “russian nose.” I suppose it’s possible, somewhere way back, that I am part Russian, but I’d never thought about it before I came here.
The big thing lately has been a general shift in Georgian TV programs. The big soap opera, “La Caso de al Lado,” (or something close to that) has just ended, which we all saw coming, as they had been killing all of the characters for the past 2 months. The other soaps are so-so, but Georgia has been showing more reality TV as of late. The “Wipe-Out” show (Australia version), as well as Georgia’s own versions of the American shows “Dancing with the Stars” and “America’s got Talent.” Everyone has been watching the shows, and they are pretty great to see. I enjoy them much more than the soap operas, simply because I do not like soap operas in the least.
Paparazzi!
This week, there has been much talk about the upcoming Easter holiday, and everyone wants to take me to the service up at the Tsalenjikha church, dye eggs (only red), and have an Easter meal with me. It’s amazing how popular foreigners are in a place like this. In fact, yesterday, I was sitting on a bench in the market square with an American friend, and we were swarmed by about a dozen Georgian students, who talked to us for about 20 minutes, and then wanted their pictures taken with us on their phones. It’s really like having celebrity status. Everyday at school, I am greeted with hugs, kisses, flowers, and a welcoming yell from the students saying “Karly!” (it is quite similar to how Norm felt on Cheers, I imagine), and always a friendly “Hello teacher!” from all of the students. When I walk into the classroom, the hello is practically stadium noise level. It’s really quite incredible.
Each month, we have to write a report to the Georgian government about how teaching is going for us. They ask us questions about our teachers, school conditions, etc. and it usually is very repetitive, but useful hopefully, for the schools, especially in getting the government to help them in making repairs to the school. Some days, I think we could really just use a whole new school, since in many places there are holes in the floor and such, going right through to the foundation of the school. I am hoping to at least win the photo contest and thus gain a new classroom. I’ll share with you a little bit about what I write in my reports.
About the teachers and teaching in general (to the new or potential TLG volunteers out there), I have heard some people tell horror stories about teachers who hit the students with sticks always, never come to class on time, make the volunteer do all of the work while they do nothing, and just a general resistance to having a young American kid who doesn’t really know what they’re doing come to help them do a job that they’ve been doing for maybe the past 20 years. Personally, I have had the best luck with my teacher. She has always been very friendly, open to change, and actually asks for my opinion, or for the correct answers in grammar and pronunciation. She likes the new teaching methods, and we work very well together, like two actors who play off of one another very well. In other words, I hit the co-teacher jackpot. The other teachers in my school are also great – very friendly, helpful, and caring. Of course, we cannot communicate to the extent that I can with my co-teacher, but as I learn Georgian, and they learn a little English, it becomes better and better. The new excitement is that I know Georgian pretty well now, and I know some Mingrelian, so next they said I must learn Russian. I haven’t told them that I studied this a bit on my own, but I certainly don’t know the language in any aspect.
My school situation, home situation, and everything else turned out quite perfectly for me – I think that TLG couldn’t have placed me in a better spot. Like everyone else, I have had my ups and downs, but the ups have so greatly outweighed the downs, and I am sure someone from TLG will read this (I think they maybe check out blogs about the program), so a big thank you to them. I will be sad to leave this place in June, and I’m definitely coming back to visit someday when I have a real job, with money saved up and vacation. I will miss the people most of all, though the beautiful scenery and churches, and old abandoned Soviet buildings also.
One of our dogs just had four puppies this week, and so everyone is very excited about this. They asked me if I wanted to keep one, and I said that I’d love to, but to bring it back to America would be a ridiculous cost. There are many other new animals being born here, and certainly more on the way, as the animals have been very twitter-pated lately. Speaking of Bambi, I thought about that movie when my students were trying to pronounce the word “bird.” They want always to pronounce this as “beeeard,” and so I explained to them the difference between a bluebird and a bluebeard.
My host sister Tamuna got into a big fight on Monday with the sixth grade class over who won their soccer game. I am pretty sure that she started this fight, but it’s all a he-said-she-said sort of thing, because all of us only saw the end of the fight. There was a lot of biting, scratching, kicking, and hair-pulling, of course, and now very bad feelings between the two classes (5th and 6th). My host mother went to the school and yelled at the 6th graders, defending her daughter of course, and the school director was not happy about this. I think it has finally settled down now to just a bit of glaring from one class to the next, but it was the talk of the town for about 3-4 days.
Tatia was sick again on Monday, and had to go to the hospital. She has been very good since then, though I don’t know what they said was wrong with her. On Monday, a third thing happened – I received a package from home! (THANKS, GRANDMA!) My school director got a phone call at school about this, and she took me up to the post office to get the package. It cost 10 lari to pick it up, and I had to show them my passport to confirm that I was the correct person. It was all over town about me getting a package, and so everyone said to say hello to my grandma! (Well, specifically, they said, “Hello grandma Karly!” which took me by surprise for a moment, until I understood what they meant)
The weather has been much warmer – last night was the first time since maybe November, that I woke up in the night because I was too warm (I had to remove layers). It was a confusing sensation. The sun has been setting later, too, so I am able to stay in town with my friends until 6:30 or 7 PM, and still walk home before dark. Yesterday we walked along the river to see the abandoned tea factories in town, which turned out to be a beautiful view of the river, mountains, and forest in addition to the cool mural on the wall of the old building. Because of the nice weather, I have increased the frequency of my walks to town to four times this week, and I have a friend who is going to go walking with me more often, though the other girls in the area aren’t so keen on lots of walking. Today I am picking up a friend, another from my volunteer training group, who comes from a village a few hours south of here. He is going to stay with my host family, and see a little bit of Tsalenjikha with the rest of us. Hopefully the rain holds out.
Update and photos!
The snow never came this past week, though they continue to predict more rain and snow in my area. So far, so good. It’s been quite rainy, but there are many spring flowers appearing, and the trees beginning to bud. My students bring me lots of flowers, violets, and another flower which I forget the name of, but they are white and very pretty. I have started putting the flowers in a coffee cup with water in the teachers’ room, so that everyone can enjoy them.
I am in Zugdidi as I write this, which has been great fun. I met some of the newest wave of volunteers, who live fairly close to me, so it was nice to make the new connections. I am using the free internet (faster than mine, too) at the hostel to upload photos from our school photo contest. This way, I don’t have to use my internet bandwidth, which becomes dial-up speed when I reach my limit. The winner of the contest will get a new classroom, and strangely enough, my school director was very specific to choose a photo that made our school look in good condition. There were several nice photos that she threw out of the running because the background showed something broken or ugly in our school. I thought this was too bad, in a way.
The kids had fun taking the photos, and I am giving them to the school on their computer, so that they can print and have the ones that they want. I want to print some out and put on the wall in the hallway for the kids. I am trying a video exchange with my 6th graders, and some ESL students in America. I have sent off a nice video of my students introducing themselves, and they are really excited to hear back from the American students. It is really good practice for them, to speak about themselves and learning conversation, beyond “The red apple is on the table.” or such things.
My competitions have been going well, and sometimes I win, sometimes the students, but it is always very close. It has been an incredible inspiration for the kids to study, much better than I had even anticipated. I have also seen improvements in some of my younger kids who were not studying, now who go home and work above and beyond what some of their classmates are doing. I have been working full time planning lessons, and trying to create tools to use in my classes, and thinking of new ideas to use in teaching.
Traditional chicken pox
Well, last night was little Nini’s party. I stopped at the store and bought a barbie toy and some pretty hair clips for her, and she has a good time with them, so they were well worth the 5 lari. I enjoyed the company of friends and little kids all night, and at about 10 PM a monk from the church on the other side of town came (he is Nini’s godfather) and said many toasts with us. He did not drink, or eat meat, as it is Lent and many people are fasting. It was very interesting to talk with him for a while, and mostly to listen to what he said. We discussed many subjects, including religion (of course), history, tradition, and education.
I taught them a new American tradition; the one where when you miss blowing out candles, you have that many boyfriends. This will most certainly remain in my village. Ani has gotten the chicken pox, and so is in bed with a fever, feeling itchy. Nini is on the floor playing Snow White, because she ate a poison apple and is waiting for her prince.
It snowed yesterday, and we are predicted to get more snow later in the week, but today and tomorrow are supposed to be relatively warm. I found out that I can check the weather forecast online at accuweather.com (you can type in “Tsalenjikha” to find my forecast).
We had a long discussion last night about traditions in Georgia, and how important they are to the people here. Really, I’ve been interested in tradition and heritage since a young age, and it has defined my life in a way; thus, I appreciate that people here have such strong roots in their traditions. Anyhow, I had the “Tradition” song from Fiddler on the Roof stuck in my head for a while.
The Long Winter
This is the title of a Laura Ingalls Wilder book that I read long ago; a title that seems to fit this winter in Georgia. In any case, it has been unusually snowy and cold, and for an unusually long time for this area. My host mother says that it hasn’t been like this for maybe 20 years.
So, like Laura Ingalls would do, we sit by the fire and study and do our needlework, and dance to music (unlike L.I.W., we can play music on CDs and DVDs). Today the sun is warm, but they are predicting 2 more days of snow for our area. I would really like to find the Zugdidi groundhog and have a talk with him about this.
The other day we had guest, though my host father was in Tbilisi so I was dubbed toastmater, or tamada. I thought I did pretty well, other than that I guess for the toast to those who have died you aren’t supposed to say “gaumarjos!” I learn something new every day. I have been working on my Georgian and Mingrelian languages, of course, and the guitar lessons are coming along very well, too. I have learned several songs, and have taken to practicing quite often, since Tatia doesn’t often play.
Today, I am going to my co-teacher’s home, as her youngest daughter is turning 4 years old today. On Saint Patrick’s Day! I didn’t make pies for pi day, since I still was a little sick and thought it best not to pass that on. Speaking of illness, my host siblings have had many problems in the past two weeks being sick from food, or something else. Last night Saba had another episode of this, though his parents said it was from eating too much food. I haven’t gotten sick from whatever it is. Must be the tcha-tcha.
I am working on putting together a teaching portfolio from my stay here, which is going to consist of pictures, videos, lesson plans, etc., so that has been taking lots of time to compile. I am continuing to make flashcards and posters for my classes – I am hoping to go soon to Zugdidi when the weather is good, to buy more poster paper. I am attaching the photo contest photo that we are submitting to this post, and will include more when my internet renews next month, and I have more GB to work with. We got some really nice pictures in the process of finding the best one to represent our school.
This is the video that I took of the concert today – it is long, so feel free to scan through it and skip or watch what you like.
All three of my host siblings are sick from something that they ate (I think), though I am not sick. Perhaps it was good that I ate at school today with the teachers, instead of at home. My room is warm enough to type this without my fingers freezing off – what a wonderful feeling!
I want to repeat my thank yous to those of you who donated school supplies – I have been using them with the kids constantly. The pencils and pens, for those who don’t have, paper, for those who don’t have notebooks, crayons, to work on colors (and they are needed for the workbooks), and the handwriting whiteboards and markers have been great for the littlest ones to learn to write their alphabet. I also found that they can buy more whiteboard markers when they need in the city, as they are sold at the bazaar.
I am working on my next set of Georgian words for school, and studying the grammar on the side each night after tutoring the kids and playing guitar a bit. I have also been creating notecards and posters for the kids from the index cards and markers I brought with me (and the poster paper that I bought here in the city), which will be able to be used over and over again at my school, even after I am gone. The most difficult thing for me seems to be getting the Georgian sounds just right – the three types of “k” sounds, and two each of “t” “ts” “ch” “j” sounds. The hardest is the “k” for me. It could be the difference between talking about people, or talking about stools (the kind you sit on, to clarify). Of course, English has its own difficult sounds for these kids, like “th” and short forms of “u” and “i” which are the most tricky for my students. They also do not have “f” or “w” here, though in Russian there is an “f” sound, and sometimes they say the Georgian “v” like a “w” instead.
Is it really spring?
It has been raining all day today; well really, since I went to bed last night. Anyhow, it hasn’t turned to snow yet, and it feels fairly warm today (in comparison, or course). The last few times I thought that winter was over, it immediately began to snow, in a somewhat spiteful way. Today I have not had any lessons yet, though I have been at school for about 2 hours. The children are performing a concert here today, so they have been rehearsing all morning. I am very excited for it to begin. I worked this weekend to make all of the decorations for the concert, so it will be cool to see how they use them.
My older students did not study their words over the weekend, so I am giving them one day of leeway to still be in on the chocolate. I intend to win this time, though you never know – I may make some silly mistake and write the wrong “t” or “k.” I have memorized 52 words over the weekend, so at least my georgian is improving.
Did you know, that it is bad luck to whistle inside in Georgia? No wonder I continue to get sick. I will have to start singing more often. As I had mentioned before, I have super-talents in this country, and so people love my ‘wonderful’ singing voice. This is really giving me a big head. 😉
I also practiced the guitar this weekend, so have learned two songs – a Georgian folk song and an American song. I’m developing some pretty good blisters on my fingers.
Time for the concert to start, so I’ll update more in a little while.
Hello again, I …
Hello again, I know it has been a while since I have last written. I ended up going to Batumi last weekend with friends of mine, but unfortunately winter followed us there, and the weather was actually worse because of the wind from the sea. The joke here is, of course, that winter has followed me here from Minnesota. I really do wonder, some days.
I came back home after this weekend to find my host mom sick in bed with influenza or something similar; she had a fever for about 3 days and was very bad overall. I also ended up getting sick, though only with a bad cold, which is tapering off now. Yesterday evening, as I was practicing a Georgian song on the guitar, a guest came to our house, who I had never met before. It was a man who lives in Tbilisi, a lawyer who has done some prominent political cases in the last several years. He was originally from my village, and was back home visiting – something that he had not done since he left school here 12 years ago to go to university. This man spoke nearly perfect English, and had many interesting stories to tell. I talked with him for several hours at my home, and drank a few toasts with him.
I learned that it is bad luck to whistle inside and also to raise your glass for a toast with your left hand instead of your right. And, if you do drink wine, you are expected to drink 3 toasts, to symbolize the triune God. I have been improving my guitar skills, though I am still a little bit slow at changing from one chord to another. I have 45 words to memorize for Monday, as my word competition has spread to the other classes, too. I am sorry to report that I lost the first competition, because I memorized the wrong spellings of a few words. I will win this time! I am working hard at it.
Today is Women’s Day. It is a beautiful day, with melting, spring-like weather, and there is no school because of this holiday. I am not sure officially how to celebrate, but I have received several beautiful cards, wishes, and chocolates from people in my village. So, to all you women reading this, wherever you may be, happy women’s day! Have some chocolate, wine, a hot bath, whatever makes you happy!
Busy, busy, busy!
Our open lessons went well – it was nice to get feedback from some of the teachers. I have been spending lots of time making posters and flashcards extra for the kids, and in this process I have used up 4 of my markers. Since I am planning a trip to the city this weekend, I shall have to buy more. I have realized that my hopes of an early spring here are really just silly, as they are predicting snow and rain all weekend. Yesterday, it was raining in the morning, and then at about noon, the rain turned to snow. The snow did not stay, since it warmed up again after it stopped snowing, but it was pretty chilly here last night.
I am working on preparing for the “Love” program we are making, too, so have been creating posters and decorations for that, in addition to coaching the students. My family has been especially busy with friends and family, and I went to grandma’s house with them this week. We got to meet a cute little boy (about 1 year old) named Levani, and he was super smiley and fun to hang out with. From what I understood, he is the child of my host mother’s cousin.
I have been working hard on studying my Georgian, too. This task has a tendency to go to the back of my mind when I am super busy with school, but I decided to have a competition with my 9th graders to motivate all of us to study. We will all take their vocabulary test (a cumulative one), and the winner will get a nice chocolate bar. The boys have been studying hard, so I am glad.
Today I will leave school earlier than usual to go to the city and give some paperwork to the Georgian Ministry of Education there, and then meet up with friends and find an exciting destination for the weekend. I feel entitled to this getaway, since I really haven’t traveled much around Georgia, yet (and it’s always good to meet up with friends). Mostly, I could use a break after having worked very hard the last several weeks.
I have many pictures to post, and perhaps will do so this weekend if there is time, or else on Monday if I am busy traveling.
Yesterday was a big concert in town. Everyone went, though not everyone fit well in the theater. Like we do on marshutkas in Georgia, we made everyone fit. It was a concert for Mothers’ Day, which is Saturday here in Georgia. I could only stay for the first 2 1/2 hours, but it was still going full force when we left. It was very impressive, and I took photos and videos of the performances. Many of my students were a part of this concert.
Snow-kalandio
We have gotten more snow in the last two days, enough for me to have decided to stay with my coteacher at her house for the rest of the weekend instead of only for one night. It has been beautiful, thick snowflakes coming down, but it makes for a terribly sloppy walk home. I have been spending my weekend working on lesson plans and playing with little Nini, the little 3-year old daughter of my coteacher. I helped to milk the cows and feed the turkeys and geese and chickens, and then filled my pockets with eggs. None of them broke, luckily, and I got some fried eggs as a reward. I am going to include some school photos here, though just a chunk of them since uploading takes a while.On Wednesday, we are having an open lesson in our 3rd and 4th grade class, so that other teachers who want to can sit in on our lesson and give us feedback. I’m excited to know what they think of our lesson, though in every other respect there will be nothing different about it, since we are going to be doing an ordinary lesson (which I think we have fun and interesting lessons anyway, so it shouldn’t be boring).
My coteacher has the cutest little puppy I have ever seen – it fits in the palm of my hand and is very soft. It might come back in my pocket with me. They also have a little calf, which I will later be including a picture of with its mother – I don’t have my camera cord with me so can’t include it on this post. I am going to spend the rest of the evening watching TV, drawing, and playing games with Nini. And hopefully I’ll catch some family on Skype. Next Saturday is Georgian Mothers’ Day.
An American In Georgia 
