A couple photos of #2 Public School, Nukriani

You and me, we're TLG

It’s the beginning of another week. It’s surprising to recognize it’s only the second week of school; it already feels like it has been much longer. I’m finding a rhythm with my co-teacher, and we’re seeing daily improvements in just about all of the students.  

This past weekend TLG organized an excursion for volunteers to Kachreti to harvest grapes, make wine, and eat traditional foods. Saturday monrning hopped on the Tbilisi Marshutka, and after only about half an hour I was dropped where a small road met the highway. The driver pointed down it and waved off my inquiry as to how much I owed him as he pulled back onto the road. A little ways down I found a man and asked him “Koleji, saad aarees?” (Where’s the college?). He pointed down the way towards some larger buildings. When I walked through the gates into a beautifully maintained campus, I was greeted by the director of the professional college. I was the first to arrive. We walked by some small flower gardens and I was sat me down at a table in front of a beautiful basket of grapes and pomegranates. We drank coffee and she described the school to me. It’s a technical and vocational school with somewhere between 300 and 400 students, starting as young as 16. They have vineyards, field crops, bees, and livestock, as well as programs in foreign languages and business.

Other volunteers from Kakheti started arriving a little after 10am, eight or ten of us in all. We sat around the fruit and ran through the requisite questions- where are you from? How long have you been in Georgia? Do you know so and so? How’s your host family? Your school? Etc. It was a couple too many people to really get to know each other, but nice all the same. Around 11:30 we got word that the volunteers coming from Tbilisi had arrived. I was expecting to see a handful of volunteers, maybe twenty, so it was a little bit overwhelming to see fifty something English teachers all off the Tbilisi bus, as well as a couple TV cameras!

We were herded toward the vineyard, given knives and buckets and we started to cut grapes from the vines. It was nice to have some way to keep my hands busy confronted with so many new faces. Between the grape leaves I met a couple new people. “What’s your name? Where you from? When did you get here? Where you living here?” All the preliminaries get a little tedious. I filled up a couple buckets pretty quickly and one of the TLG staff told me to stop working so hard! The buckets were emptied into a large woven basket on a donkey-drawn wagon and brought over to a small house containing a trough to stomp them and an underground vessel, or quevri where the wine will age. I pulled on some boots and helped squash grapes for a while. Of course the TV cameras didn’t want to miss the Americans getting busy in the work.

Now it was time to eat and to drink. There was a generous spread of all the typical fare. There was fresh khinkali and wine made by the first group of TLG volunteers just about exactly a year ago. I took on the role of tamada, the toast master as a number of teachers had gathered in one area. The TV folk overheard and wanted to film me toasting Georgia- “Sakartvelos Gaumarjos!” Music and dancing got underway, some folks started up a game of volleyball, and the feasting and toasting continued. Tim toasted the ground, which supports us, upon which we dance, from which comes all the delicious food we eat, the wine we drink. One of the many I proposed was to delicious food, not just to new foods that we have come to love in Georgia, but also the foods of our own families that we miss  and the foods of our heritages, whether from Singapore, or France or India (all represented around our table). And Tom made a toast that struck home for all of us on that day: to TLG. Even with all the dysfunction, all the times they drop the ball, the grand misallocation of resources, ultimately those involved in TLG are mostly doing good work, work that is helping Georgia along the path to development. We drank for the common ground the program gives us here, the new friends we have that would not be a part of our lives were it not for TLG.  And we drank for all those involved with TLG, the administrative staff, the people who organized this fantastic day of feasting, the host families, the teachers, and perhaps most importantly the students, who will be the future of this country. Giga, one of TLG’s directors was there to hear our words and also thank us. Sooner or later it was time to make our way back to our respective dwelling places, but not before promises were made to new friends to meet up for hikes or more gatherings around good food. All in all it was a pretty fantastic day. And of course, today in school my celebrity status increased as everyone informed me they had seen me on TV!

First day at #2 public school in Nukriani

Thursday September 15^th was the first day of school here. I received an email indicating that I did not need to start at the school until Monday the 19^th, after an introductory meeting with the director and the regional coordinator, but as Neli, Zaza’s mother works at the school I was happy to go along and see where I’ll be for the next couple months. The school is about a ten minute walk from Zaza’s. It’s a large, two-storied concrete building just off the main road. The walls of the rooms were painted along the bottom third with a bright, cheerful spring green, but otherwise, aside from some old desks and chairs the classrooms were pretty bare. I met the teachers; all women except an older man who teaches “sport”. I met the director, Manana, and found out that it would be the next day that I would be moving in with their family! It’s a pretty small school: 110 students total for grades 1-12. There was an introductory assembly where everyone stood around the large room on the second floor. Four girls performed the school’s hymn with the music teacher on piano. Some awards were given out for a music competition that must have taken place over the summer. I was invited to introduce myself, which I did simply in Georgian: “My name is Chris. I am from America. I am your new English teacher.” And then in English “My Georgian is not very good yet, but I am looking forward working here and to meeting all of you.” The first graders spoke individually, something they had prepared- some were shy to the point of tears, others confident to the point of shouting. These students received special laptops courtesy of the Saakashvili administration. Some more remarks were made and that was about it for the day. The atmosphere in the school is warm and intimate- the classes all have less than 10 children and everyone seems excited to have me here. I’m looking forward to my time here.

When you hop into a stranger’s car there’s no telling what will happen

Since finishing with the police, rides to Sighnaghi (and the internet) have not been as readily available. I’ve taken to hitchhiking into town. I have generally been able to get rides within ten minutes. On one occasion I was picked up by a Georgian and his wife who has been living in Australia for the last six years, on another occasion I had to push aside a large quantity of egg cartons to squeeze onto the back seek and yesterday I got a ride on a four-wheeler. But the most memorable came on Wednesday. I was picked up by a car and came to understand that the animated gentleman in the front seat was a relatively famous actor. He laughed, he sang, he stuck his head out the window and screamed, and generally played the clown. The three of them told me they were meeting friends, asked if I had plans and then promptly invited me to a supra. Soon I found myself driving in a caravan that included some Iranian business men, a relative of the Georgian president and the famous Georgian singer Eter Kakulie. It was not clear to me where we were headed but soon enough we were at a restaurant in Dedoplistskaro. It was certainly one of the more generous spreads I have been a part of here- the food didn’t stop coming. There was traditional dancing and we were treated to a rendition of a Kakulie classic: Tbiliso, sad aris. I was driven back to Nukriani later that evening with a full stomach and a new CD!

Latest News

The other day I received an email that indicated that last Friday's class was the last one I would be giving to the police officers. I wrote TLG to inquire about starting at the school and whether I could stay with my current host family. They wrote back saying that no, I will not be able to stay with my current family, and the director of #2 School in Nukriani will be hosting me. They could not inform me when I would be moving or when I'll start work at the school. While I am looking forward to a change in pace, a new environment and teaching children, I'm not excited about adjusting to a new family. There is a chance, of course, that the move will be great, but at this point it's a whole lot of uncertainty. For now I can only hope for the best...

Georgian BBQ: Mtsvadi

Most of the time here in Georgia, it’s the women that take care of the food. But there’s one thing the men take pride in, and that’s their mtsvadi. It’s generally pork, sometimes beef, cut into 1 to 2 inche cubes, often with a bit of rib-bone, and/or a nice strip of fat. The cubes are speared onto long metal skewers, maybe 5 cubes on each, and brought out into the yard. Every Georgian family seems to have a large stash of dried grapevines especially for the mtsvadi fire. A large bundle is lit, and tended until only the glowing ashes remain, any large pieces of wood removed. Over the embers they place a square metal frame on short legs and across go the salted skewers. One side of the meat is browned. People are generally hanging out under the overhanging grapes and can enjoy the delightful smells that fill the yard. The skewers are turned. And shortly thereafter they can come off. The back of the skewer is held and then using a large piece of Georgian bread the meat can be slid off into a bowl with thinly sliced red onions. Mtsvadi is generally only one of many many dishes on the table, but usually one of my favorites- the meat is juicy, and there are nice crispy bits, and enough fat still on it to help absorb the quantity of wine that comes with the endless toasting.

Somehow it's September

For the past six years or so in the third week of August I’ve found myself tired, bearded, fit and sunburnt, saying goodbyes to good friends, after epic adventures into the Canadian wilderness, and also adventures into ourselves. It was always a challenging time, as I packed up my stanky clothes and tried to recognize my growth and learnings, steeling myself for the onslaught of life in civilization, and a much less intentional community.  Somehow August has already passed! The most striking way I was confronted with the end of summer was through facebook as a couple weeks ago came the pictures from the end of second session at Northwaters and Langskib. And now friends have updated statuses to reflect the journeys back to campuses across the country. Those pictures stirred something in me, and it was only then that I really recognized my moving on from NWL. Seeing those snapshots, I missed the beauty of Temagami, having those challenges, that community. But I can recognize that it was a good time to leave. I look back with nostalgia, but not regret. I am grateful for the new adventures and challenges that I have found here. It’s nice not to have the dramatic transitions at the end of the summer, and to have different landmarks to look forward to, like the grape harvest in about a month. I’m coming to the end of Module 5 with the police officers. There have been some heavy rains and the weather has been a little cooler. I got an email from TLG informing me that I would be finishing with the police on September 20^th, and will then start teaching in a school. Summer is coming to an end, but it feels like things for me are only just getting started.