I have 3 weeks until I leave Manglisi and begin the long journey home. I have a lot to do in that time. I have to finish my application to Michigan (lots of work still left to do there), visit Stalin’s birthplace of Gori, say goodbye to friends I will miss very much after they leave Georgia, buy Christmas gifts, get into the Christmas spirit, hopefully finish teaching my 1st graders the alphabet, and spend more time playing in the snow with my host family.
It has snowed a few times this week, so the ground is a mix
of crunchy, glistening snow, and icy patches that allow you to skate sans
skates. Thankfully no one makes fun of
me every time I eat it on the way to or from school because my boots are slick
and my balance is bad, especially with 2 bags.
This is a frequent occurrence.
Tonight I got to enjoy it while slipping and sliding with my host
sisters and a few of their friends as we played on the street. Falling was half the fun, especially when it
resulted in a pile-up of casualties.
Moments like that, when I can’t feel my toes but I can see a clear,
starry sky, make me so thankful for my village life.
I also love that in my classroom, home, and life here, I am
interacting in a mix of English, Georgian, and Russian. My Georgian is inching along, and I find I am
using it more and more at home. I truly
think the hours each night we watch Telemundo telenovellas dubbed into Georgian
is helping my listening skills a lot.
That, and watching Misha’s daily appearance on the news.
However, the confidence I had in my language skills was
shaken a bit this weekend when I went to visit my Peace Corps friend Chris. He lives in Ninotsminda, a “regional center”
in Samtskhe-Javakheti, which is inhabited primarily by Armenians. So, most people speak Armenian or Russian
rather than Georgian. The Georgian they
do speak is a bit different than the Georgian I’m used to. In addition, many conversations are a mix of
multiple languages, so whenever someone on the street would stop and talk to
Chris, I would pick up a few words and generally feel confused. He would then assure me that plenty of the
conversation was in Armenian, which I don’t know a word of. His host mother is Georgian and speaks
Russian well. He also has a Georgian living
with him who is doing a different version of my program. This year the government started sending
Georgians, most fresh out of college, to minority communities to teach Georgian
there. His Russian is imperfect, so
between him and Chris’s host mom, who spoke rapidly, I found myself slightly
confused during the Russian conversations and totally lost in the Georgian
ones. It made me realize how much I had
gotten used to hearing my family, colleagues, and kids speak Georgian. Imagine going from the Midwest to the New York City if you didn’t know English well but had been
mostly exposed to a Missouri
accent. Even though I generally use
Russian for most conversations, I say things like “thank you” in Georgian,
since I can say such simple words with confidence. While in Samtskhe-Javakheti, we went to visit
some other Peace Corps volunteers in a nearby city. I kept saying my little words in Georgian and
then realizing that Georgian was not the right language to use. The experience made me far more aware of what
language I was using and the patterns of speech I had gotten into at home in
Manglisi.
The visit also made me ready to come to America. Since both of us miss Mexican food and dream
about Taco Bell, we made burritos for ourselves and Chris’s host mom/Georgian. I have not made a real meal since July, so it
was an interesting experience. It was
also delicious, and I stuffed myself. Through
hours spent watching TV because it really was far too cold to venture outside,
I remembered what American TV was like. As
much as I love my new friends and the conversations we have, it was nice to be
able to talk about my life pre-Georgia and have someone actually know what I
was talking about. Of course, I’m sure
instead of appreciating this when I am home, I will bore all of you with
stories of Georgia
that, no matter how hard I try, I can’t make you understand. Then I’ll go back to savoring all the food I
miss and catching up on TV shows that I haven’t seen. Still, it reminded me of how much I miss all
of you.
I had a great time visiting Chris. It was really cool to see two other
homestays, and while I would like having things like an indoor toilet or a
warmer room, I was quite happy to come home as well. Manglisi looks rather pretty in the snow, and
I’ll put up pics that (kind of) prove it eventually. While my students drove me crazy with shouts
of “Miss Hannah” when I had to teach a few classes alone this week, I do
generally like my students. I liked how
shocked some of my 6th graders were when I whipped out the Georgian
words for “fast” and “slow” in class.
“Does she know Georgian?” they asked my co immediately. They, and all my other students, were in awe
of my new American mechanical pencil. I
was in need of a pencil to correct their workbooks, so Chris gave me one from
his collection. I don’t think they have
mechanical pencils here, at least not in the village, so the kids first thought
it was a pen, and were a bit distraught about me writing in their workbooks
with a pen. When I told them that it was
a pencil, they were shocked. Some of my
6th graders asked to hold it.
Who knew pencils could be so cool?
My favorite class this week was with my teachers. I started an intro English class for my
colleagues 2 weeks ago. Last week a loss
of power and general cold canceled the class, but I had about 7 teachers show
up this week. It’s at the end of the
school day, so I don’t really know when to end it. I ended up teaching well beyond a regular
class period. It was so much fun with
enthusiastic students. They don’t all
get it easily but they actively try, and they ask questions when they don’t
understand. It’s also nice because I get to completely mash up English,
Russian, and Georgian when I’m teaching them.
I really like getting to explain things in Russian and was quite pleased
when I remembered the Russian word for “vowel”.
I always have a tentative idea of what I want to teach them each week,
but they then tell me what they want to learn, which is great. A lot of them learned German in school, so it
is fun when they compare the German to the English. I’m not sure that I convinced them that
“danke” and “thanks” are related, but they were more convinced of the
similarities between the days of the week.
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