This Must Be the Place

I took a little blogging hiatus there so I could have lots of things to tell y'all. Also, I’m lazy. Let's get to it…

Monday, September 15 was the day my fellow (education) volunteers and I have been waiting for since we first arrived in Georgia 6 months (!!) ago - the first day of school. After enjoying a hearty breakfast and ensuring I looked extra dapper, I embarked on my five minute walk to school with thoughts of didactic grandeur. I arrived in the courtyard amidst a throng of students, parents, and teachers, only to be told by my school director that in a few minutes she would address everyone present and introduce the new teachers, who would also be expected to say a few words. The realization that I was about to spontaneously address hundreds of Georgians produced an internal panic, and I quickly tried to put together a script in my head. To make matters worse, the two other new teachers were introduced before me and launched into legitimate monologues about their backgrounds and how excited they were to be there. After they were finished I immediately forgot everything I wanted to say, and all I could manage was an embarrassingly paltry introduction before limping out of the spotlight. The good news is I'm pretty sure nobody in the audience thought twice about it. The director proceeded to finish her speech and then the morning processions ended with a welcoming/induction ceremony for the incoming first graders, who were all dressed in their finest black and white.

And thus school, and essentially my real service as a Peace Corps Volunteer, began; however, my work as a teacher technically didn’t begin immediately, as the first two weeks of school were supposed to be an observational period. During that time volunteers were supposed to attend all of the English classes each day and decide with which classes and teachers we wanted to work. My school is small and only has about 200 kids and 3 English teachers, so I was able to observe all of the English classes by the end of the second day of school. A lot of other volunteers have much larger schools and require the full two weeks to observe all of their English classes. By the end of the first week I was able to create my schedule, and I began my teaching duties the second week. I teach the second, third, fourth, sixth, eighth, ninth, and twelfth grades. That might seem like a lot, but the second, ninth, and twelfth grades only have English class twice a week, while the third, fourth, sixth, and eighth grades have English class three times a week. So while I teach seven grades, it’s only 18 lessons per week (four on MWF and three on TTh). I work with all three of the English teachers at my school, and my average class size is probably about 10 students, which I’m very grateful for, especially when I hear fellow volunteers complaining about class management issues in their 30-student classes.

My role in class thus far has been primarily as a text reader and pronunciation expert, which can be a little frustrating at times. It’s easy to feel like I'm not having a significant impact, but on the other hand I would have been extremely naïve to think that I was going to waltz into my school and revolutionize the English-teaching game. I’ve quickly realized that it’s the tiniest of victories in the classroom that matter, as well as what I can achieve outside of the classroom. One project I’ve been involved with is the National English Spelling Competition, or NESC (http://nescge.wordpress.com). A Peace Corps Volunteer started NESC about three years ago, and since then it has become a registered NGO in Georgia as well as a legitimate national competition with support from the Georgian government and other agencies. The competition has two age groups, grades 8-9 and 10-12, and students can compete at the local, regional, and national levels. I’m an Assistant Regional Coordinator for the Mtskheta-Mtianeti region (where I live) and have been involved in spreading the word about the competition to schools in the region, getting those schools registered for the competition, and conducting training for teachers on how to run the local round at their respective schools. The local competitions started this past Monday and end on Sunday. All registered schools hold their own competitions for their own students, and two winners from each age group at each school will advance to the regional competition, which will be held in mid-November. Two winners from each region in Georgia will then go on to the national round in the spring. My director and I have been holding practice sessions after school to better prepare our students, and I think a few of them have a good shot at advancing to the national round. 

So, some other things I’ve been up to…

I went back to Gomi the last weekend of September to visit my old host family for the first time since training ended. I was of course brought around to various neighbors’ houses to drink wine and chacha the second I arrived. That night we had a large supra and we all watched the finale of one of my favorite Turkish soap operas, Shavi Vardi (Black Rose), but it was kind of a disappointment. The mother of one of the main male characters had been holding a shotgun to her son for like the past three episodes, and the finale ended with her still not doing anything! Total letdown. If you’re looking for some other Turkish soap operas to get into (and really, why wouldn’t you be?), check out Qalbatoni Dila (Ms. Morning) or Didi Saxlis Patara Diasaxlisi (The Big House’s Little Housewife). The former isn’t currently airing, but the latter is a new show that I watch every night after dinner with my host family. Anyways… the next day I met up with my friend Alan who was also back visiting his Gomi host family, and we went around to all of the other Gomi host families and hung out at each of their houses. They were all super excited to see us and we had a great time reminiscing about the good ol’ Gomi days.  

The first week in October I attended a birthday celebration of Goderdzi Chokheli in his hometown, which is about an hour northeast of where I live. He’s a famous novelist, film director, and scriptwriter from my region who died in 2007. My director was classmates and good friends with him (he attended high school in my town), and she wants me to help her translate a novel of his into English. My director, five or six teachers, and about 20 upperclassmen and I all left school a little early to travel to the party. There were probably about 300-400 people at the jubilee, with dance and musical performances by ensembles from all over the region, as well as some of the best beer and meat I’ve ever had. 

The best khinkali around next to the finest mystery meat I've ever tasted

Monday, October 7 was Teachers’ Day in Georgia, and we had a big supra at school after classes were finished. All four (including me) of the male teachers were present, and about 18 female teachers attended as well. There were, as per every supra I’ve ever attended, exorbitant amounts of wine and food, and we feasted for two hours in what I think was a science classroom. Many of the teachers took turns giving toasts, and I was urged to make a toast in English, which my director then translated into Georgian. One of my main language goals is to be able to give a decent toast, an incredibly important tradition in Georgian culture. 

One of my favorite activities I’ve been doing in Georgia is judo. My town has a judo club/team and I’ve been going to practice for a little less than a month now. I’ve been picking it up fairly quickly due to my wrestling background, but the older kids still destroy me. I usually spar with kids who are around 17-21 years old, but they’ve all been doing judo a lot longer than me and I get tossed like a rag doll. My muscles had quite the adjustment period at first. Everyone is also in much better shape than me, but I have two awesome coaches and they're always on me about doing physical activity when I’m not sparring with someone (just to be clear, that's not why they're awesome). We have climbing ropes, resistance bands, and a pull-up bar to work with, which is more than enough to get in shape. Also, apparently “tripping” in judo is just kicking someone really hard in the shins, and my shins are far from accustomed to the beatings they’ve been taking. I’m thinking about starting Van Damme’s palm tree-kicking training regiment from “Kickboxer” to better prepare my shins.

Our judo room/gym

I also go to dance lessons every week with the twelfth graders, which has been a lot of fun. Most Georgians attend dance classes at some point in their childhood, and it’s a big part of Georgian culture. I’ve been learning some pretty sweet moves, and I might even dance with the seniors at their graduation. I always try to do what the dance instructor is doing, but I never know if she’s showing male or female moves. I’ve had a couple incidents where one of the boys will come up to me and be like, “Hey... not for you…” There’s this one sixth grader that usually comes to our dance practices for some reason, and I’ve had some after-class mini-lessons with him as well. Sometimes my host brother will also teach me some moves before dinner, but he gets frustrated when I don't pick them up as quickly as he'd like after he shows them to me at lightning speed. It's hard being chastised by a seven year old, but it won’t be long now until I'm a dancing machine.

A few weekends ago I went apple picking with my host family, host cousin and uncle, and a friend of my host cousin. We drove to a village about 10 minutes away and I don’t know if someone in my host family owns that land or not, but we picked apples from what seemed to be four or five pretty random apple trees off to the side of a random road; we also picked a ton of walnuts. We were out there for a good four hours on a gorgeous day.

My host brother Nika

My host grandma. Legend of the apple picking game.

Nika with a shirt full of walnuts

The fruits (and walnuts) of our labor

I spent this past weekend in Tbilisi for Tbilisoba, which is a celebration of the city. Many of the major cities in Georgia have similar citywide celebrations, but I’m not exactly sure of the reason for the celebrations. Then again, do you really need a reason? There was a half-marathon in Tbilisi Saturday morning that some volunteers ran, but I opted for the more celebratory and less physically intense activities. I was with a group of volunteers in a large park where there were loads of carnival games, multiple stages set up with concerts going on, and a “Wine City” area with free tastings and bottles for purchase. There was one really good band playing covers of the likes of Metallica, ACDC, and Rage Against the Machine, and we sat around drinking cheap wine and champagne for a while. Overall the festival was a blast, and I'm excited to go to Telavoba (Telavi's celebration, another large city) in a couple weeks. 

Well, that’s most of what’s been going on in my life. Be back soon. Hopefully. But definitely at some point… დროებით!