An Education in the Ways of Georgia

So, last Tuesday I was told I was moving and I was going to a meeting on Thursday with my new co-teachers and director.  On Wednesday, sick with a cold and finally realizing what moving might actually mean, I started to freak out.  I did not want to move.  My host family came home from vacation and also were quite upset to hear I was moving.  They asked if I could just say I wanted to stay.  Since I had struggled to get any response from TLG at all, of course I said no.  I had been told where I was moving and that was that.  My host dad called my co-teacher and then informed me I would not have to move until the 20^th, so at least I had a few more days at home before I had to pick up and readjust to a new host family.

My new co-teachers and directors were lovely and very gracious. They picked me up and drove almost 2 hours to our meeting and then dropped me off on their way home (I probably made them go an extra hour out of their way to pick me up).  I felt like quite a traitor to my host family as I got in the car with the people I would be working with, but what else could I do?

I stayed home this weekend to hang out with my host family/work on grad school apps.  On Sunday, I was talking with a neighbor, waiting for my host mom to get home so they could have coffee.  My host sister comes in and explains that my host mom is talking to someone they know, who is now head of the Tetri Skaro ERC (educational resource center), and if I want to stay in Manglisi, she could make that happen.  Of course I wanted to stay (especially when asked by my host sister).  My host family was happy, but I was holding out until I heard something definite from TLG.

On Monday I emailed TLG and, of course, the person who would need to decide such matters was out of the office.  My host dad made a call that day “to someone in the ministry” (this sounds so official and awesome), and he said that I would be staying.  I was still not 100% convinced but was hopeful. I had heard no more talk of how I was going to move to Tsintskaro, so I decided I would wait and see.

On Tuesday, my friend who’s teaching in Mtskheta came to Manglisi.  It was a good test run of how my host family would handle visitors (especially male visitors as gender roles are a whole different ballgame here).  Since the weather here has been rainy and cold, most of the mountains were shrouded in fog, but I still enjoyed playing tour guide of my new home.  Of course, this included me going the wrong way at least once but we went to the church and hit all the other “highlights” of town, like the bank that looks like an abandoned building, the vrosha which now is empty, the ancient church which was thankfully open even if overrun with schoolchildren, a forest of trees engrossed in a fight against erosion, the shiny new police station, and my house.  Unfortunately, the marshrutka back to Tbilisi left at 4, so it was a short trip.  While waiting for the marshrutka, I got my official TLG call saying I could stay in Manglisi.  I was quite happy and thought I might actually begin to teach.

When I got home, my host family seemed totally uninterested in my phone call from TLG.  They already knew I was staying.  They also informed me I was going to school today with the host family kids.  Thus, this morning I woke up early and watched the children go from comatose to out the door in about 20 minutes.  We went to school, which was basically what I expected, just like the schools I had visited in Russia, except less official photographs, etc. adorned the walls.  The school is also large, so I am sure I will get lost several times.  I met the director and my main co-teacher, who both seemed very nice.  They talked about how delighted they were that I would be teaching with them, even though another school had tried to take me away.  I was not supposed to teach today so was not that surprised when I was sent home after about 30 minutes.  Tomorrow we go to Rustavi for a meeting.  Of course, I have already gone through this meeting with the teachers from Tsintskaro, so I am not thrilled about enduring another drive through windy mountain roads to endure another meeting that will be repetition of what I already heard. Still, this meeting gets me closer to teaching, and I am glad I get to stay put.

For those of you who think that I am taking the easy way out by staying in Manglisi, you could be right.  Perhaps my adventurous spirit is showing signs of age. I prefer to think of it as wisdom.  Host families are a complete gamble.  I have heard plenty of horror stories about rat and scorpion infestations, host families not feeding their volunteers, outhouse holes in the ground that serve as toilets, families that want to know about every website and email you send, host families stealing volunteers’ items, etc.  Granted, most of these incidents are isolated, and some people love their host families or find a way to make things work. 

I have found a very happy existence with my host family.  They give me plenty of privacy and do not mind at all when I leave for the weekend.  They also give me lots of tea and bread.  My host mom is incredibly laid-back (especially for a Georgian woman) and rarely yells (something most Georgian women seem to do).  Although the men in my family smoke, they rarely do so inside, so I rarely have to deal with the smell (several of my friends say they feel like they live in a bar sometimes because of all the smoke).  My host sisters are a lot of fun and very curious.  My host brothers and I don’t interact that much, but their antics (mostly random chanting/singing/responding in Russian) generally amuse me.  My host grandma makes me smile on a frequent basis.  Their extended family has been so nice to me, and I really like them.  Moreover, I have already spent over a month getting comfortable, setting boundaries, figuring out how to fit into this family.  I may have had a great host family waiting for me, but I wanted to stay where I knew I had a great host family already. 

Since my host family not only said that they did not want me to leave but actually put forth effort to have me stay not only in Manglisi but with them for the entire school year, I feel very loved and truly included in their family.  My host mom told me yesterday at breakfast that my oldest host sister has decided that she wants to study foreign languages, namely English in college.  That was an obvious ego boost.  Granted, that is a smart decision for her since Georgia is making a big push toward English, but my arrival and stay with them seems to be the instigating factor in this decision.  This also means that I have a year to improve her English so that she can pass her exam with flying colors, a new goal for me.  This also makes me feel like I have some material contribution other than my paltry rent to this family.  Obviously there is some prestige to having a foreign guest, but I am not sure that alone makes up for the presence of a stranger for an entire year.  Georgians are not nearly as concerned with privacy as Americans (and especially my family) are, but still, having an American living with you changes your family’s existence a bit.

Come January when I am tramping through two feet of snow to go to my freezing-cold school, I may feel a little less pleased with this decision to stay, but for now, I am very glad that I will get to continue the relationships I have already begun to foster and I will get to enjoy a true Georgian village for the rest of the year.  Hopefully in a few days I will be able to tell of my first day of teaching.  I also have plans to go to Kazbegi (highest mountain in Georgia) this weekend with some friends, so I should have more adventures to tell of as well.