A Visit from Home Prompts Reflections on the Idea

I was talking with a friend yesterday about leaving Georgia and our futures, and she said that Georgia felt like home.  I have definitely been thinking about that, even if the thoughts have not crystallized thus defined in my brain.  In many ways, my life in Georgia is not as comfortable as life in the West, but there is a comfort in the familiarity of it now.  I knew I could wait until a week before my friend came to visit to ask my host mom for permission for my friend to stay because it would be shocking for a Georgian to refuse a guest (of the same gender in terms of overnight guests).  I can tell by the landscape approximately where I am on my marshrutka rides home from Tbilisi.  I can apparently sing along to a Justin Bieber song, which would never be possible in America.  I can leave my possessions on a marshrutka without fear of them being stolen.  I understand most of the strains of conversation in my family.  Tea with cheese and bread is now extremely comforting and salads of tomatoes and cucumbers seem more normal than Caesar salads.  I have come to understand, at least in the ways I can, in the subtleties of life here.  There are still times when I feel as though I will not understand Georgian culture, but they often stem from not being able to fathom the why behind something or how Georgians endure what they endure, instead of a surface-level shock at customs and practices. 

Now that my days are numbered, I find myself clinging more to this little patch of earth. I feel as though I am clenching my fist around grains of sand, which slip through my fingers even more the stronger I try to hold onto them.

I had a delightful 2-hour impromptu visit to a colleague that shed a lot of light on who she is and how she’s interacted with me this year.  It made me regret not taking more of an interest in her before and also further clarified why my school does not feel as welcoming as other schools.  The teachers are always nice to me, but more and more, I find myself doing my own thing.  This colleague described the “collective” she had experienced at her other schools previously.  The Russian word works much better than the English, but in essence, my school lacks the community that is often present at other schools and other TLGers have described, mostly in that they are included in events.  My school does not have a lot of events or parties or even impromptu gatherings, and I’m more often than not totally clueless about said events when they do occur.  Granted, I am probably gone for most of them, but my school just isn’t that way.  It made me realize that my colleague, seeing that lack, was reaching out in order to be welcoming but also to reach out to someone else whose life existed beyond the small village we both now call home.

I also have realized how much I have come to love Tbilisi. 

This is the door that welcomes new arrivals at the airport.

 No, it lacks the flash of most major capitals, but I love its ancient buildings and run-down bits more than the newly rebuilt sections of town.  I smile when I see its monuments at sundown, take great joy in counting how many Orthodox churches I can see from a rooftop, and love that I can navigate certain parts of the city better than I can almost any stretch of Springfield.  I have realized that Georgia’s beauty to me is in its rundown, undeveloped ruggedness.  When international corporations splash their billboards along roads outside of the big cities, blocking views of unadulterated mountains and valleys, I think I will weep. I see that future in my lifetime, and I hope that Georgia does not lose that untamed quality that has preserved life from another era.  Yes, Georgia must modernize, but I hope that it does not do so at the expense of its history and natural splendor.

Old and new in Tbilisi

Old Town Tbilisi

As I knew it would, having my best friend come visit me gave me fresh eyes to understand how familiar and dear Georgia had become to me.  Before I went to the airport, a friend at my hostel told me she had a friend coming in about the same time.  She had described me to him and described him to me (Asian-North American) and figured we could split a cab, since otherwise he was just going to sleep at the airport until the buses started running.  I was more than happy to oblige, especially since it meant I had someone to talk to while waiting for my friend’s delayed flight.  It also seemed so very Georgian, or totally normal here but something that would never happen at home.  I will miss things like that, when the world feels very small in very good ways.

On the first day, I took her to Mtskheta, the ancient capital, and had my friend there be our tour guide for the day.  We hiked up to Jvari Monastery, since the climb makes the church that much more impressive.  It was easier than I remembered, and the walk down was aided in its loveliness by the kilo of fresh cherries we had bought in Tbilisi.  Then I introduced my friend to lobio and let her taste lobiani in its homeland.  We got to play the ever familiar “hurry to get the 6pm marshrutka home” game I play every week, and then I showered her home.  As we lay in bed, she turned to me and said, ‘I don’t know how you do this’, which I thought was funny since I had just thought about how impressed I was that she was handling everything so well.

The next day, I showed her around Manglisi, which was more a chance to catch up and talk like we always do than much of a tour.  It was a wonderful day nonetheless.  My host mom made mchadi that night, which was a special treat.  We had gone into the kitchen to say hello to my favorite neighbor and her daughter and found the cornmeal cakes sitting there and were told to eat.  I was pleased by this surprise and in general pleased that, although they did not interact a lot and I had to play translator, my host family and friend seemed to be happy with one another.  I then took my friend to school.  I tried to include her a bit in the first lesson and realized that most of my friends probably do every day what she was doing, sitting there (bored) until the teacher includes them in an activity.  It made me thankful that I was able to teach the majority of my lessons.  I also appreciated my friend’s presence because the fifth graders were very well-behaved, which is rare.  Classes were shortened, so I was surprised by the bell, since it was International Defense of Children Day (apparently that’s a holiday here but not enough of one to call off school altogether).  Then, I should have had a break, but instead we went to 2^nd grade, so my friend got to see the chaos that rules the school, and how I have no clue as to how most things will go until they happen.  The 2^nd graders were great as usual and invited us to attend their carnival later that day.  Since we now had extra time and no one ever invites me to anything, I agreed.  We ran home and then came back a bit refreshed.  My 2^nd graders are one of my favorite classes, so I loved watching them play games, dance, and try to make khinkali.   

The girls had to ask the boys to dance for the "White Dance".

The boys had to try to make potato khinkali.

 We snuck out in time for us to pack and eat some tea, bread, and cheese before grabbing the 1pm marshrutka.  I showed my friend the most important cathedral in Georgia, Sameba.  It’s shiny and new, but I still like it.  Then we met up with friends and got our marshrutka to Kazbegi so my friend could get a taste of the Caucasus mountains.  Since Georgia does not mesh well with plans, I had no place for us to stay that night, but even before we had left Tbilisi, we had negotiated a homestay.

Our homestay turned out to be wonderful.  We could see Mt. Kazbek from the house and had plenty of room.  Dinner that night was delicious.  When we told our host that my friend was a tourist and we wanted her to try chacha, her face lit up and she procured for us a half-full bottle of homemade chacha, to which we introduced my friend.  I was also so pleased that she got to see why I have loved Georgia, as we stayed up until almost 2am sitting around the dinner table chatting.

First shot of chacha

We got up early the next morning to climb to Gergeti Trinity church, by far my favorite church in Georgia.  I love it because it seems like a Georgian church ought to.  The light pierces the dark of the church, slicing it from a high window, creating a beam straight to the door, as if God himself was beckoning worshippers to enter.  I would have taken a picture, but the holiness of the church does not allow for cameras, cell phones, pants on women, or any leg at all, just reverence and awe.  The darkness, divine smell of beeswax, unintelligible incantations of the priests, and quiet adoration of devout worshippers give the church a holy presence I have not felt anywhere else in Georgia.  Perhaps the sacrifice made to reach it or the natural beauty surrounding it help. For whatever reason, I was glad to return and pray in a church where my prayers feel like more than just a flickering flame in front of an icon.

Gergeti Sameba Church

By the time we got to the Gergeti church, Mt. Kazbek was shrouded in clouds, but the views were still stunning.  We enjoyed them for a while and decided to keep on trekking, as we had risen early so that we could hike to a nearby glacier if possible.  After another hour and a half, my friend’s feet were killing her, and a few of us were starting to wonder if it was worth it.  When it started to hail, we staged a mutiny, and all but two of us headed back.

The marshrutka back gave us some friendly Georgians and an overly friendly (read aggressive and annoying) Georgian to chat with. We had to decline an invitation for khinkali (dumplings) and pretend to sleep to ward off unwanted attention.  About an hour away from Tbilisi, the annoying Georgian found a new crop of foreigners to talk to, as several newly-minted TLGers got on our marshrutka.  I got to talk to one of them for the rest of the ride.  Her three weeks of Georgian experience made me realize how far my understanding of the culture had matured.

Thus back in Tbilisi, we had time for the baths, the one thing my friend had expressed interest in trying.  We all were also in need of a good cleansing.  So, the three of us girls headed to the baths.  I knew the best baths were closed because construction had ripped up the street in front of them.  I also knew that the public baths were little better than public showers, so we were all willing to shell out a bit more cash to indulge in the luxury of the Royal Baths.  For 50 lari (about $30), we got a private room for an hour.  We paid a bit extra for a scrub or massage, which basically meant an overweight Georgian woman in pajamas took a rough mitt and scraped off my top layer of skin and then rubbed something that frothed with bubbles over me.  My friend tried the massage, and although she described it as being violated in ways she had never been violated before, she enjoyed it, and we all considered the hour a great success.  We then attempted to eat at a restaurant which had lobio (bean) khinkali, which blew the minds of all of us when we heard about it.  Khinkali are usually filled with seasoned meat, but potatoes, mushrooms, and cheese are also possible.  Sadly, the place was packed, so we stuffed ourselves at the Russian place nearby.  Exhausted, we called it a night.

The next day, I had made plans for three of us to go to Gori and Uplistsikhe, an ancient cave town near Gori.  Time and tired feet meant we only made it to the Stalin museum and the Cake House in Gori.  I got to play tour guide, since the actual tour guides were busy with actual tourists.  When I had gone in December, my friends and I made up half the visitors at the museum.  On Sunday, the place was full of tourists, which was rather surprising.  My friend, who does not share my love of things Russian and Soviet, did not seem nearly as intrigued by the museum and Stalin’s private rail car as I was, but I enjoyed taking her nonetheless.  

Finally got my picture on Stalin's toilet!

It seemed like I would be a bad tour guide not to show her this facet of Georgian culture.  I was also quite pleased to notice a banner that stated that the museum, which was full of Soviet glory, is going to be turned into a museum of Stalinism.  The museum, aside from what my friends and I like to refer to as the ‘cupboard of repression’ largely ignores anything but what are seen as glorious deeds of one of the worst slaughterers in the 20^th century.  That will be changing, another sign of positive steps away from Georgia’s dark past.

We ended my friend’s visit basically where my Georgian journey began.  I took her to the restaurant next to my orientation hotel.  We went to say goodbye to a few friends who leave shortly and to eat with others.  We went to that restaurant for sentimental reasons but also because they have a live band that plays Georgian music in an atmosphere of old Georgia.  I’m not sure how much my friend got out of the experience other than Georgians will go to dinner at a restaurant to dance.  I was reminded how much I love these aspects of Georgian culture.  I made her do a Vakhtanguri with real Georgian wine glasses and we introduced her to a bit more of toasting culture. 

 After dinner, we finished the night sitting on the rooftop of another friend’s hostel and admired the view of Old Town Tbilisi before crashing.  I will miss that view a lot.

I have already said goodbye to four good friends and am not looking forward to the many more I will say goodbye to in the next few weeks.  I do like that it means more hugs hello are coming my way, but the closer I get to leaving Georgia, the more I want to return sooner rather than later.

Kazbegi and the start of School (for real this time)

So, I should correct something I said in my last blog.  Kazbegi is the highest point in Eastern Georgia, there are 2 higher points in Western Georgia.  Regardless, it is something that every guidebook says is a must-see for Georgia. 

So, I love planning trips and have taken it upon myself to do most of the organizing for my friends and I when we travel.  The thing about Georgia is that the culture works really well with not planning.  Advance reservations and the like are possible, but usually are more expensive than the opportunities that just crop up.  So, my planning amounts more to researching options and going with whatever comes.  Thus, when a marshrutka driver told us that for an extra 5 lari, he would drive us from Tbilisi to Kazbegi and stop along the way at interesting sights, we agreed.  There was at least one site I had wanted to see but did not know a good way of getting to otherwise.  Our first stop was Ananuri, where I had wanted to go. It is basically an old fort, ruins.  

 There are 2 churches, one of which looks totally abandoned on the inside.  You can see the steeples of both in the pics above.  The site has a nice view of the Aragvi river (also shown), was built centuries ago, and provided a nice opportunity for some light climbing.  More pictures to come when I have high-speed internet or gain a lot of patience.   

After that, we stopped at a cool mural that was dedicated to the friendship of Russian and Georgian people (obviously a bit old).  The mural is cool, but the awesome part about it is that railings underneath that allow you to take in the spectacular mountain views. 

My group in front of gorgeous mountains

We also stopped at a point where the mountain turned orange due to some special mineral in the water.  Water still softly flows down the mountain, and the rock has ridges due to the continual flow.  Watching the water flow down was mesmerizing and calming.  We also got to climb on the mountain a bit, because the surface is not slippery, despite the look of it.  The water was not too bad, either.  Of course I tried it, as my standards for cleanliness have declined across the board since arriving in Georgia.

Doesn't this look like you'd slip and fall easily?  You won't!

After that, we finally made it to Stepantsminda, which is the village by Kazbegi.  It used to be called Kazbegi as well, but Georgia changed the name a while ago, so people will call it either name (a frequent occurrence in post-Soviet society).  A friend of our marshrutka driver had a guest house, so we decided to stay there since it was cheap enough.  Since the weather was cooperating, we headed up to the church on a nearby hill/mountain.   

I climbed to the church on top of this hill.  Not sure I could ever do it again, but it was awesome.

The church was beautiful and what I expect out of good Orthodox churches-dark, quiet, and smelling of beeswax candles.  They even enforced a dress code.  The real beauty of the church, however, is the view of Kazbegi.  

Kazbegi-where Prometheus is allegedly chained for giving fire to mankind

The peak is finally visible in the clouds.

 It was gorgeous; pics don’t do it justice.  Having hiked up the hill/mountain to get to the church to see the view made it that much sweeter.  The next day we scrambled around some 13^th century towers (or at least that is how old the friendly old villager told me they were) before heading back to Tbilisi to make sure we got our marshrutki home.  On the way, we met some sheep.  There were a few goats, but sorry Julie, I couldn't get out my camera fast enough to snap a pic of them.

Yesterday I finally started teaching!  I have 2 co-teachers, and I should never have to teach classes by myself.  After TLG teachers last year complained about the poor quality of the English textbooks, the Georgian government instituted a new reform that bought new textbooks (from a Western publisher!) for grades 1-6.  As these are the grades that have the Macmillan books, these are the grades that TLG teachers are assigned to.  Thus, I currently only have about 13 hours of work a week, since that covers all grades 1-6 in my small school.  5 of the grades are with one teacher and grade 6 is with another.  Yesterday I got my schedule (thank goodness, as a schedule was promised by TLG but seemed doubtful on the ground).  I am hoping to add some older classes and extracurricular clubs to this schedule, but for now, I’m just wading through the status quo.  Yesterday I tagged along for 4 classes.  My first class, full of adorable 4^th graders, almost all had books.  The situation went downhill from there.  In one class, only a handful of kids had books.  In others, about half.  One of my co-teachers has a teacher’s edition, the other co-teacher has basically no access to the books, and I am supposed to get a book somehow.

As most of the grades have never had English before, we are starting out very basic, on the alphabet.  Yesterday I mostly observed and tried to stay awake.  Today I got to be more involved, even teaching my 6^th grade class, totally on the fly of course, but how hard is it to introduce the alphabet?  I really like this class despite the difficulties it presents.  Apparently, the 6^th grade was previously split up into 2 groups, with one having all their classes in Russian and the other all in Georgian.  I have no idea why they did that or why this year they decided to combine the 2 classes into 1, but they did.  To add to the fun of that, the Russian group has already had a year of English while the Georgian students don’t know the alphabet yet.  So, the half of my class I could communicate with easily already knew the lesson, and the other half was struggling through.  This kind of disorganization and slightly chaotic learning environment isn’t all that atypical.  One of my friends still does not have a schedule (nor do any teachers in his school), despite the fact that he started almost 2 weeks ago. 

My teachers seem to be pretty good teachers (have yet to see the rote learning so fabled), but their English leaves something to be desired.  Sometimes communicating is difficult, and I almost find it easier to speak to other teachers in Russian.  The good thing about this is that there is much for me to do, and I certainly feel that I have a lot I can add to the school here.  I just wonder if the language barrier will prevent my co-teachers from becoming good friends like my colleagues in Izhevsk were (if any of you are reading this, I miss you all a lot!).  That said, the kids are generally adorable and should make teaching pretty fun, especially since I only have to keep their attention for 45 minutes.  This feels like nothing after having gotten used to the 80 minutes at UdGU.

The only other troubling aspect of teaching is another one that is teaching me about how America’s policies have shaped my views.  Having gone to school in a society that was so far removed from corporeal punishment that we even worry about laying a hand on a child in a positive way, it was very strange yesterday to see teachers actually lay a hand on their students.  The students were being little punks, and I would have liked to slapped them, but in that way where I know I never ever would.  My co-teacher did not slap them but did pull one kid’s very short hair and box his ears.  What was more disturbing was the fact that when this boy or another troublemaker got caught, they would throw their arms up to protect their face, as if they were expecting to be hit.  I’m hoping I don’t see any actual violence, but even what I saw shocked my American sensibilities.  I was really bothered when I gave one kid an evil glare and he threw his hands up around his head, as if he thought I would strike him.  This is obviously a big cultural difference, but I abhor the idea that I would ever actually harm a child, even if he deserves to be punished.

I am also getting to know (a little) some of the other schoolteachers.  Those that can speak Russian are very friendly, and they encourage me to get better in my Russian (although they say it is great) and my Georgian.  Hopefully I can find a Georgian tutor soon.  One of them, a PE teacher, today showed me the gym and said that if I want to play volleyball or basketball sometime, she’ll have my host sisters tell me when.  I like this idea a lot.  I also like that she and others asked if I played basketball, because there is also the stereotype (which I fulfilled as a child) that tall girls play basketball.  She also talked about how awesome my twin host bros are at basketball, generally extolling my host fam’s athleticism. 

In short, so far, I don’t know what I’m doing a lot, but I like going to school.