The chorus of hello's begins in the morning as kids walk past my house on the way to school and it doesn't let up until I get home that afternoon (with the hello's exchanged for goodbye's). And that's the only two words the majority of them know, so they say them over and over just like a pet parrot, except the budgerigar we used to own had a larger vocabulary and bathed more often. Anyway so I trudge along to school on roads that are slowly destroying my feet while kids say hello and pigs lie about in the mud. It's a 40 minute walk to school but some days I stop at a place halfway where one of the maxi taxi things picks us up and takes us the rest of the way for free. It sounds like a good deal but you have to understand that a good thirty people or more cram into this thing and the road is more like a dried up creek bed than a road, so it's not the most enjoyable ride. I imagine it's a similar comfort level to the peak hour train on the Auschwitz line. So sometimes I walk.
Right, so then we get to school and everyone piles out of the marshutka like the endless line of clowns coming out of the little car at the circus. I don't think I've ever opened the gate because someone always opens it for me and I make my way inside where there are more hello's, a couple of how are you's and the odd goodbye given by a confused first grader. All the teachers and students are very friendly and welcoming despite the language barrier. Even the English teacher doesn't speak it very well so the communication can be a problem. But they are all happy I'm there. On the first day they asked me to raise the flag in front of all the students, teachers and parents, but this might have only been because Georgians are a short bunch and I was the only one who could reach the handle on the flagpole.
As for classes, they range from very boring to very fun. I get a little annoyed when my co-teacher "corrects" my letters and pronunciation (heppel is apple), but when I get to run some games it's good fun. The class sizes are small (mine range from 5 to about 12 students) but even if they were larger it probably wouldn't be a problem. They have a lot more respect for teachers here. They open doors for us, stand up when we enter the room, offer us their chair to sit on if we don't have one and so on. They also dress up! Big time! There's no uniform as such, but the boys all wear a long sleeve white shirt and usually a black vest, while the girls wear nice dresses, stockings and usually have a flower or something in their hair. Initially I thought it was only a first day thing but several weeks on most of them are still looking very sharp. So yeah, the kids are great and that keeps me going when I'm bored out of my skull in class some days when the teacher is repeating the alphabet for the tenth lesson straight.
The most amazing thing is that the novelty for them still hasn't worn off after all this time. I don't quite get the blatant staring as much any more, but everything else is still there. Even though there's hundreds of people in this program, my school hasn't had a volunteer before and most people in the village have never met a foreigner before, and certainly not one from Australia.
I could go on about school but I still have to write about a few other things and when there's an even-money chance of a blackout any minute I want to get this posted sooner rather than later. I am exaggerating a little with that. Last week blackouts were rampant but I think that was due to the rain. This week has been great weather and the power hasn't gone off once.
Trips:
- Grand Final weekend my family took me the famous wine-making region in eastern Georgia known as Kakheti. We arrived at their friends' house on Friday and I immediately walked into the centre of town to see if I could get an Internet Cafe to open early for the Grand Final. The obliged! Unfortunately this is a land where time matters about as much as the Swiss Navy and when I arrived in the morning nobody was to be found. I did manage to get onto a computer by halftime though and enjoyed a wonderful hour of the Colliwobbles before going on a day of exploring Kakheti with the families.
- That night we drank...wine! Another friend came around for the little supra and I was soon the subject of another toast. I heard the line I had only read in guidebooks: Guests in Georgia are viewed as gifts from God. It was a nice toast followed by some sampling of wine, cognac and the skewered kebab delicacy from Kakheti. That night I threw up on the bathroom floor.
- I also noticed something that night that I hadn't realised before; Big Nick eats like Homer Simpson! He sits down and grabs something in each hand and just shoves them into his mouth as if the cheese bread is going to try and run away from him.
- This weekend just gone I took another trip, this time to Kutaisi (Georgia's second biggest city) to meet up with a few other volunteers for a birthday. After gorging on McDonalds I made my way to a guest house with the others where we were planning to stay. Guest Houses are the way to go in Georgia. They are just homes of friendly families who have a little bit of extra space and for a bed and some food you'll rarely pay more than about $10-15. We were shown our room and had just sat down on the beds when we were informed that we were invited to come and drink "a little wine." "Greg," I said with a little trepidation as we sat down at the table, "those horns weren't here before, were they?" I was referring to the giant cow horns that Georgians like skulling wine and cha cha out of for some occasions. Although, to be fair, they always skull their drinks whether it's in a horn or not. Anyway, a little wine turned into a brewery open day and the old bloke who owned the place put on a hell of a show, dancing, doing party tricks and playing show and tell with 200 year old daggers that have probably seen more action than the St. Kilda schoolgirl. This was on the Friday night. On the Saturday night when we got home he was in bed, "sleeping" as his wife put it because he had too much wine, so in what may have been an effort to make up for that or maybe it was just his routine as a Georgian male, on Sunday morning when we woke up he dragged out the horns and did it all over again. If this guy was living in Australia his family would be forcing him to go to meetings. I am not kidding when I say that I walked out of the bedroom at 9am to watch the rugby, yawned, and was handed a shot of cha cha to go with my breakfast. Followed by wine...and wine...and wine. But do not mistake this for complaining! I hope to go to Kutaisi again and stay there, and reccomend their place to anyone else going there. They are a wonderful family and love meeting tourists and are clearly not doing it for money. We were charged only for the bed but were constantly fed and watered during the time we were at the house. One more tale of the famous Georgian hospitality!
Village:
- Despite a great weekend I was feeling a little sick of alcohol in a way I never really have before. Before Kutaisi there has been my younger host brother Gia's birthday where I was "lucky" enough to be in both the adults and the childrens supra. Yes, the children had wine in their supra too. And the day before that a neighbour had invited me in for some wine as I walked past his home after school. And a couple of days before that was the episode in Kakheti. So I took the unusual step of deciding I would not drink alcohol for at least a week. I was somewhat optimistic at this as I had heard of other volunteers doing the same. Well, I lasted all of 48 hours. I was walking home with a couple of girls from school and I said I couldn't wait to get home to have some water as it was quite hot. They then insisted that I come in to their house and they would give me some water. Honestly, I should have known better. I was greated by the whole family and given the best seat in the house while the girls fetched me water. Then the father asked me if I'd like a little wine (he said those exact words!). I said no way, thankyou, and that I was fully aware that a little didn't mean a little in Georgia. He then duly poured me a glass and began toasting. Two hours later I managed to escape with my resolution in tatters, a renewed headache, but hey, yet another great time with an awesome new family who I'm sure I'll get the pleasure of spending time with again.
- Although that seems like a great note to end on, there are just a couple more things to add. The first is that the children here are all very interested in Australian Football. The other day me and my host brothers took my footy down to the local soccer field and a six on six game of Aussie Rules was played in this most remote village in this most remote country. I think it would be fair to say that was the first game of footy on Georgian turf. The skills weren't great at first, and they consistantly tried and failed at bouncing, but by the end of the evening they had stopped throwing the ball, were kicking goals and tackling well and I don't think it will be long at all until we see a Richmond talent scout down here in Natanebi.
- The last note is yet again alcohol related. At the end of each month I have to give the family a little bit of money for food and utilities and stuff. It's in my contract but apparently they weren't told and didn't understand what it was and said they didn't need it. I said that's fine but I insist they take it, and I made an off the cuff comment that they should just buy a bottle of cognac for themselves with it or something like that. Well, all things considered that was a pretty moronic thing to say. They DID go out and buy a bottle of cognac, my host dad Big Nick DID get bitten by a dog and had to have a rabies shot meaning he can't drink alcohol now for two months, and that DOES mean that the cognac is now to be shotted by me with nobody else to share it with. I'll choose my words more carefully in the future.
Well you are now up to date! Obviousy that's not everything but hopefully it gives you some sort of an idea of what life is like here. I'll try to get some photos up shortly.
Until next time!
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