Saturday morning, within the span of less than 3 hours, all 150 kids were gone, and we were headed down the hill to finally indulge in a meal that consisted of more than bread, butter and potatoes. Here I am down in Tbilisi again, looking back the last three weeks zipped by in a hot flash.
There were a couple things about Buckswood that weren’t awesome. For some reason it seems that on most beds I’ve seen here, the sheets are barely big enough to cover the mattress, so one inevitably wakes up lying directly on the mattress with the sheet rumbled up and twisted on the side. This is the way most mornings started at Buckswood. The mattresses on the bunk beds sat on loose slats- once I took one to the head from the bunk above! The quality of the mattresses themselves wasn’t too hot; the springs inside were diabolical. I would wake up in the morning feeling like someone punched me in the back, and twisted my neck. Even though the bed was often a welcome sight after an exhausting day in the summer heat, braving entry to the room was a task in itself. The smelly socks, shoes and sweaty T-shirts of eleven 15yr old boys provided a rather shocking olfactory assault, even with both large windows open.
After the 7:15 wake up, I could look forward to the first meal of the day at Buckswood, characterized principally by sliced bread. Sometimes it was hard-boiled eggs and bread, other days it was cheesy pasta and bread, sometimes it was fresh buns and bread, some days there was one piece of bread with a slice bologna, a wilted piece of lettuce and some red and white condiments, and then more bread. Lunch was watery soup and bread. Dinner was hit or miss. Sometimes there was pasta and meat sauce, sometimes a beet and potato salad, but always… lots of bread!
Another element at the camp that was uncomfortable in a different kind of way manifested itself in the skits the kids put, either at the morning assemblies or in the evenings. Time and again homosexuality arose as a comic subject. It was pretty tame and not too homophobic, just typical teenage-fare, but at the final performances there were two shockers. The teachers had been charged in helping the kids to prepare a final presentation. As part of one skit, kids reenacted the beginning of their lessons at Buckswood which included sharing three things about themselves in English. So there in front of all the students in teacher-sanctioned (maybe even crafted?) skit, the first thing this fifteen year old boy says is “I do not approve of homosexual relationships.” This was followed by some ‘comic’ rendering of a ‘gay’ student in the classroom getting offended or something. I know Georgia still has a long way to come in terms of such things, but still, I was surprised and offended that this teacher thought this ‘joke’ was appropriate to share in front of the whole, especially because even taking off my hat of semi-political-correctness, it wasn’t funny.
The next piece that followed that evening was a little more intense. A game was presented where a scenario was written on a large piece of paper and held behind an unknowing volunteer. That volunteer would then answer questions about whatever it was that was written behind. The demonstration was hilarious: the paper said, “The boy who peed his bed last night,” and a clueless Victor answered leading questions with a rather hilarious result. But the second scenario came with a poster that read “The boy is a gay,” and there followed a painful round of shockingly inappropriate and homophobic questions. Again, while I was expecting to encounter a good deal of homophobia here, I did not expect to encounter it in this manner, with authority figures condoning and maybe even promoting such attitudes. Pretty disgusting.
All this aside life at Buckswood was a blast. It always made me smile when walking around I heard the accented melodies of Lonesome Valley, Country Roads or I’ll Fly Away, songs I taught the kids in my music club. I taught them the game “Big Booty”, and they went nuts! All over the grounds we would hear games starting up ‘Biiiiig Booty, big booty, uh huh…’ I was shown up in the Texas Hold Em Tournament I organized; while I could impress them with my shuffling, I was quickly eliminated when I sat down at the final table. I also organized a camp wide game of Clue. I made cards with nine suspects (the nine activity leaders), nine weapons, and nine places around Buckswood. One person, place and weapon were chosen at random and put in the evidence envelope. The rest of the cards were distributed to the leaders and we stationed ourselves around the grounds, making kids (organized in their house-teams) perform tasks or challenges in exchange for seeing cards that they could cross off their list. It was a success, with everybody getting involved, screaming around the grounds, passing balls, singing songs, acting like cows, spelling words and so forth, all in exchange for information about the murder!
The children there were inspiring. They were so excited to be at the camp, and so ready to take advantage of every opportunity available, so ready to have fun. Students were given a chance to perform at morning assemblies and it was a real treat to see some traditional dance and to hear Georgian folk songs sung, and also played on the panduri (the three stringed ukulele- like instrument), and on the salamuri (a traditional Georgian recorder-like instrument).
As part of the program we were to nominate eight candidates for a fully funded, two week trip to the UK. It’s a tremendous opportunity for these kids, especially those who come from the villages, and it was exciting to have a hand in choosing them, but at the same time it was an impossible decision- I wanted to send all 150!
As much fun as the days were, it was definitely tiring and a day off once a week was much appreciated. At the end of the second week we decided to try and make our way to the Tbilisi Sea and have a little BBQ. I had been there with John, so I knew it would be a bit of hike taking public transit, but everyone was game. We bought our provisions (sausages, bacon, fresh bread, fruit and beverages), and made our way out to the edge of the large reservoir just outside the capital. We found a beach area, and headed back into the trees to find a location to make a fire. It was gross- trash everywhere: plastic bags, cigarette butts, condom wrappers, toilet paper, and best of all, human feces! We finally found a spot (as far away from the pile of shit as possible), I was able to clamber up a tree and break off enough branches for a fire which we started with ripped up receipts and an empty cigarette packet. The bacon-wrapped sausages roasted on a stick and eaten in the fresh bread were amazing! A group of shirtless Georgian soldiers waved us over and forced glasses of Kakhetian wine on us, poured out of a 20 liter jerry can. A couple of us went for a swim. It was a great day.
Before I knew it, the time was gone and we were sitting up on the fourth-floor balcony, looking down onto the valley lit up by the lights of Tbilisi, socializing and reminiscing about the three-weeks now gone. I got a couple of the Georgian English teachers to teach me some more Georgian songs, and the drinks took us into the wee hours. Around 4am I suggested, half-jokingly, that we climb up to Udzo, the nearby monastery on the hill top to watch the sunrise. To my surprise the two teachers, Mari and Tea, thought this was a fantastic idea! So we set out as the sky began to get light. It turned out to be more than Mari had bargained for and halfway up, she was ready to quit. But with some of my words of encouragement and some improvised songs to keep her mind off aching legs, she kept going and all three of us made it to the top to see a glorious morning breaking. The two of them were ecstatic. Mari said “I feel as though I have never lived before today!” A really nice way to end the time at Buckswood. All kinds of folk were already up and about when we made it back a little before 7:30 am on the final day. The kids were shipped out and the activity leaders headed down to a nice little restaurant where we indulged in a feast of salads, khinkali, mtsvane, kebabs and wine.
Back at Buckswood a couple hours later the new activity leaders for the next intake of kids were gathered and we met with Keti and Anano (TLG Summer Team staff), who informed us that we would be paid an extra 250 Lari for our time at the camp. Awesome, right? A couple of the new leaders wondered if this was before or after tax, and proceeded to make smart, conceited and entitled comments as they found that the rise in salary would be 200 Lari after tax. I was grateful that I wasn’t staying on to work with the new folk. I try not to judge books by their covers, but still, sometimes first impressions are pretty telling.
Pierre, Gary and I laughed about the impending ego-war ahead at Buckswood as we drove down into Tbilisi together. Checking the balance of my Georgian Liberty Bank account, I found that I have been paid for this month and finally reimbursed for my flight over. TLG is paying for my hostel this weekend. Monday I’ll attend a training session for teaching the police and that evening I’ll meet my host family and drive with them to Sighnaghi. Life is good and the adventure continues!
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