Hostel to Hotel to Buckswood

It seems like it’s been ages since I last wrote, but really it’s only been a little more than a week. In that time however, it seems a whole has changed. I was picked up from the hostel where I staying on the morning of July 6^th. We made our way to the Bazaleti Palace Hotel outside the city center. My key to room 421 didn’t work, but my knock was answered by a large balding man with glasses and a friendly face. Jack is in his early 30’s originally from San Francisco and spent the last 5 years teaching in Warsaw, Poland. We would be roommates. The first day of orientation was pretty relaxed. Most of us needed to complete a medical check (a blood test to ensure we didn’t have HIV, and a urine test to ensure we weren’t addicted to drugs). I decided to skip out on the walking tour of old Tbilisi and made my way by marshutka to an English-language bookstore on Rustaveli where I met John and worked on my Georgian for the afternoon.

The marshuka system in Georgia is somewhere between a bus and a taxi. While they have set routes, there are no set stops. People wave them down, and climb into the converted minibuses, shout out when they want to stop and pay the 50 tetri (about 35 cents) upon dismount.

I made my way back for an early-evening group-meeting with the training coordinator, Tamara. With nothing else planned, the rest of the evening gave us an opportunity to get to know each other a little bit. Jack, I mentioned. Cathy was also from the Bay area, just out of college, and had been to Georgia before visiting her boyfriend. Ally and Anna were both near my age and both from Seattle. Jennifer, born in Ghana, raised in NYC seemed about the same age as Jack. She spent the last year or so teaching in Micronesia. Erik was from Texas, also just out of school. Reeka from Colorado spent some time teaching in Korea and came to Georgia via Western Europe. And of course there were the two guys from the UK; Chris from Scotland and Ben from England. In the next couple days the ten of us spent many long hours in a warm hotel conference room, listening to information that was sometimes relevant, and mostly tedious. We looked forward to the breaks where we could indulge in the instant coffee and pastries provided by the hotel. (It seems Georgian’s don’t often drink coffee brewed directly from the ground beans- rather disappointing). I was informed on the Friday that I would need to leave earlier than anticipated for the summer camp. So while it was sad to say good bye so soon after meeting these people, and just as I was beginning to build some friendships, I was happy to escape the spastic Georgian lessons and the endless lectures about Georgian customs and stereotypes.

I missed the last two days of the 5 day training because apparently it was very important that I be at Buckswood Summer School on the 9^th of July to help get ready for the arrival of the second stream of kids on the 10^th. The TLG Summer Team drove me up to the campus in Tskneti, in the hills above the capital. I sat down in the dining hall where I was offered hot khinkali and shots of chacha and vodka. The afternoon was spent hanging out, and the only work I really did at all was to make some nametags in the evening. It was all pretty unclear to me just what I should and would be doing, and the people who seemed most in charge were the other TLG volunteers who had been there for the last stream. I was exhausted from staying out late the night before, enjoying the last time with new friends, and I found myself asleep pretty quickly.

Kids arrived the following morning, and the pace began to pick up. By day’s end I was worn out from playing soccer, basketball, volleyball and ping pong with all kinds of enthusiastic kids. It has felt really good in the past couple days to be physically active, to play hard, to sweat and to feel tired at the end of the day. The schedule is suiting me just fine. Wake up is 7:15, breakfast at 8:30, and after the 9:15 assembly, the time is basically mine to do with as I please, until their classes finish up around 3pm. I’m on basically until lights out at 11pm, facilitating the creation of posters, refereeing matches in the sports tournaments, and generally trying to keep kids smiling. It’s good times. I have a cohort of about 17 teenage boys and girls in my House of Chaucer. There’s a really great feeling camaraderie as they cheer each other on in their respective activities. They’re really smart kids, and it’s rather enjoyable to hang out with them.

The other eight TLG volunteers have proved to be a fun crowd. Willis, a Russian lit major from Nevada has taken charge, in a way that I find hard to take serious. He clearly takes his position as “Activity Manager” pretty seriously, and doesn’t miss an opportunity to flex authoritative muscle in a style very different from my own. Victoria is from the Philippines, and doesn’t look her 27 years. She also has taken on a leadership role among the staff, and her style is much less abrasive for me. She takes the work seriously, in an earnest way, but does not need to demand respect with same forced tones Willis employs. Kiyoshi is a soft spoken chain-smoker from Vancouver. He has a bit of hipster style and a great artistic sense. He seems like someone worth getting to know, but is definitely more comfortable as a listener. When I first met Ben he was super stressed, and not exactly friendly, but in the past couple days we’ve found common ground in our immaturities and I can feel that we might become pretty good friends. Elaine, Timothy, and Pierre all started with me in the second stream. Pierre from South Africa is older and super laid back. We get on well. The other two, both from the states are both super weird, but in over-articulated and socially awkward ways that are kind of great.

While it is a pretty sweet situation, there are a couple things that aren’t ideal. I’m definitely not improving my Georgian in a meaningful way here, and while there’s time off every day, it’s not like I have a weekend to go visit Reeka in Kutaisi or Chris in Batumi. But I’m definitely not complaining. It’s great to be running around, it’s great to be working with kids, and it’s great to be busy. I’m going to try and show up here in as positive a way as possible. Everything else will come in time. Now in a dorm full of 14 and 15 year old boys the snores and heavy breathing has begun to fill my ears. My eye lids start to feel heavy, and tomorrow will be another fun-filled day. So that’s all for now…