pre-service training, continued. may 2013 in khashuri.
130505 sun 5:15pm
it’s easter in georgia (christian orthodox). it’s been an awesome day. the family and i, along with some friends and neighbors, all went to the family plot in the cemetery… and had a party. haha. lots of food and drinks… there on the table meant for such an event. the cemetery is full of these tables and benches.. and most of them were occupied throughout the day by many families gathering to pay respect to their loved ones and celebrate their lives. it’s pretty cool. :)
130506 mon 4:15pm
this country’s people are so very affectionate. i constantly observe family members kissing each other. just randomly. they could be talking and then abruptly, one’s lips will reach the other’s neck, and the other’s lips will reach somewhere along the former’s jawline. and smack, smooch, muah. :) i love it. aunts, nieces, mothers, nephews, uncles, sisters, fathers, brothers, etc. very loving society.
along these lines, lana asked me yesterday if i wanted a massage. i was like, “um, yes?” and at night before i went to sleep, she came in to my room with body powder in hand. told me to take off my shirt and lie facedown on my bed. and she proceeded to give me an amazing back massage. 13-year-old girl with apparently lots of experiencing massaging others. with no other incentive than just to please. aww! soo loving!
130507 tues 8pm
speaking of georgian hospitality… i don’t know how it happened, but as i was about to eat dinner tonight, i just had this really uncomfortable feeling in my stomach. like, eating anything on the table would make me vomit. queasy, not unlike motion sickness, and worse. i was with lana, her best friend tako, and my host mom nazi. i put my hand on my stomach and made a sad face. i didn’t want to eat anything, but i didn’t want to leave to go to my room right away, because i wanted to at least just spend time with them. but ha… i think i really alarmed them. because nazi, at first suggested that lana buy the borjomi mineral (fizzy) water for me. i said no, so she just immediately started making her concoction for stomach aches, which is cold water with lots and lots of honey. she stirred it up for me, and told me to drink. it was gross. but she insisted i finish it. i may have made things worse, but i downed that thing. because she took the trouble to make it. and theeennn… she also got the plastic basin from the washroom and said she wanted to put my feet in warm water. and before i could say no, she boiled some hot water in the electric heater. and while that boiled, she got the peace corps book for host families, and CALLED THE PEACE CORPS DOCTOR! what. my head was still trying to process this while lana poured the boiling water and cold water into the basin to make warm water. and she told me to put my feet there. so i did, while nazi finished her phone call to dr. marina. after she hung up, she said for me not to worry (yeahhh… i wasn’t)… and that i should just lie down in bed (which i had planned to do). hahaa… by that time, my feet were immersed in warm water (QUITE lovely actually!)… and then she (nazi) hovered over me and MASSAGED my belly for FIVE minutes!! haha… ohh my goodness, it was so funny. and the other two were just watching. soo hilarious. all i wanted to do was go to bed from the beginning! and yet, i somehow got all this georgian care for the sick. but finally, they let me go up… and now i’m lying in bed with the lights turned off. i don’t even care about my homework. i just want this stomach to feel back to normallll.
oh man. i was told that getting sick at some point after arriving in country was a rite of initiation for pcv’s. but i really didn’t want it to happen to me. i was convinced my stomach was strong enough. well. whatever. this hasn’t grown to a full-blown anything. just an upset stomach. this. doesn’t. count.
130508 wed 12:30pm
oh man… i think i’ve been initiated. it grew into a full-blown something. my stomach was hurting the whole night, and i couldn’t really sleep well. and in the morning, i went to the toilet, and yup, loose stool. diarrhea, yeah! ugh. and i had this headache because i didn’t sleep well. and it just hurt to stand up. i called dr. marina, who prescribed me to take some pepto bismol from my medical kit and excused me from class today. so i am currently still in bed, at noon. what’s funny is that lunch was supposed to be here at my host family’s house today. i called zura to excuse myself from class, and he said that yup, lunch would still be here. haha. so my cluster’s coming in about 45 minutes. and i am not even changing out of my pj’s to greet them. nor am i eating with them. i have no appetite.
130508 wed 6:50pm
finally did my language homework. language class has so far been going all right. i’m sort of getting it. it helped that i jumped all in with the alphabet from the start. i learned it, and i never wrote things down phonetically in the english alphabet. that forced me to read kartuli better than a classmate who has written everything down in the english alphabet. i don’t know why he does that; it’s double the work!
but as far as grammar is concerned, it’s already getting complicated. just pluralizing things is a headache. and why do they freakin use the same word “es” / “is” for so many things?? “he/she/it/this/that”?? so annoying. but whatever. i just have to study.
and oh! pronunciation! hardest part. it’s really hard to distinguish their three different “k’s”. ka, Ka, and KH. ? and two forms of “t’s”. and etc etc. very throaty language. i just need to practice.
130512 sun 7pm
at ann’s host family’s house. ann and nora are sleeping. i was ann’s guest for the night when our group did the cluster exchange. :) any trainee could visit another trainee in another village. nora was anneke’s guest, but um… nora had to come over to ann’s at 7am because apparently anneke’s family was taking her to their village at that time. haha.
anyways… last night was awwesssommme. seriously the best party i’ve been to all year. haha.
last night, ann and i went over to aaron’s with the expectation of picking up everyone else to go to the soccer field and either play some frisbee or volleyball. but we got to the house, and everyone (aaron, anthony, kirk, von, anneke, brenna, and nora, along with some of aaron’s host family and family friends) was seated around the table, lavish with food and drink. aaaand we ended up staying there the entire niiight. drinking. singing. dancing. it was so awesome. i think it was the first time i actually allowed myself to drink. because i was with my fellow trainees… and aaron’s family is pretty liberal. and generous!! “tchame! tchame! dalie dalie!” “eat! eat! drink! drink!” we played some american music and we saaaang journey’s “don’t stop believin”… and then they played some georgian music and we daaaanced! traditional and modern. i danced for hours. there on the upper deck/veranda/balcony/whatever you call it. it was big space for all of us AND like ten of aaron’s family and neighbors. haha. all of us (trainees) were pretty serious about our georgian traditional dance! haha.
this morning, after a funny wake-up exchange between ann and me, nora came over at 8. we had an awesome breakfast. then all the others, survivors with some hangovers, came over at like 11, chilled for a bit… and we all started our way to the river. there was a frisbee a few were throwing around… aaaand nora got it stuck on a roof. oh my goodness, so hilariously awesome how we got it back. aaron and kirk stacked themselves up, and kirk reached up with a ginormous tree branch brenna pulled out of somewhere… yup that did the trick. later, we got the frisbee stuck in someone’s back yard. and we had to ask some kid to get it for us. haha.
we tried to find the river, but i just don’t think it was meant to be. so we ended up walking all the wayyy back to khashuri. i feel as if we walked for days. but along the way, we found pastures of grass and flowers. and an abandoned soviet building, which we definitely scaled a high wall just to enter. we didn’t realize it was part of a compound which had a functional building as well and which was guarded, and some guards found us… we thought we were in trouble, but we realized they were just befuddled as to how we even made it inside. haha. oops.
yup, walked for days, and ended up at the café in town, where we met up with a few of the others in our group for a birthday celebration. :)
i just wrote on ann’s facebook wall:
i must say… cluster exchange at osiauri this weekend was preeeettyyy darn epic. impromptu supra. including nine of us?! impromptu modern-and-traditional dance party. with the whole neighborhood?! and what made my day: aaron-no-bones dancing.
impromptu hike to the river/“what river?”/let’s-just-walk-to-khashuri which led to adventure-calling abandoned buildings and flower-filled pastures.
moo and sh*t and eat and milk
moo and sh*t and eat and milk
and stare
and stare
and stare til you go away.
didi madloba, princess ann! and to your whole family! especiallyyy for the fig preserves!
cc: aaron, brenna, anneke, anthony, nora, von, kirk.
and oh!
“oh my gosh, someone’s trying to break in!!” / “why does ann sleep like that?”
haha
7am wake-up call. cc: anneke / nora. :)
and.
that. darn. frisbee. cc: kirk.
130517 fri 9:45pm
a cool thing that happened today:
i was walking home tonight as slowly as i could walk, tired as i was after a long day and a long week. on the street before i turn into my own, there is a bench on the right side. as i was nearing it, a group of five kids scrambled out of the house across the bench and ran across the street to sit side by side on this bench. they looked at me and all said hello. :D i was so pleased that i had a mini-conversation with them in english. they asked me my name, i answered and asked them the same. they asked me how i was, i answered and asked them the same. all of them were very smiley. and when i said bye and walked away, i heard gleeful giggles behind me. very cute.
i knew they ran to that bench specifically for me, and it touched my heart that they had maybe waited for me to pass by on my way back home. i know because a day or so ago, i had mindlessly walked past that bench, and i heard someone count 1, 2, 3 (“erti, ori, sami”), and then they all greeted me in unison, “hello!” haha. i was so taken by surprise. but quite pleased and amused as well. how very sweet!! :)
130519 sun 2:35pm
i… love… georgian bread. puri. i just purchased my first two loaves, fresh off the oven. haha. it’s an oval-shaped bread. thick all around the rim, with a crater-thin center, kind of like a racetrack. almost crispy crust, super soft tender inside, enough salt for taste. best when warm, but still great at room temperature. haha, i love it. i think it will be my staple for these next two years. pretty awesome because bread shops are ubiquitous around here. and it’s cheap! from that shop, one loaf was 60 tetri, which is the equivalent of probably less than 50 US cents. (i think 1 US dollar is currently 1.65 lari.) i’m excited to have a go-to food already!
i also love khatchapuri, which is bread with cheese! that is also ubiquitous. probably the favorite national food. sort of like a pizza, but the cheese is in the middle, and there’s no tomato sauce. although… in some versions, the cheese can be on top (with an egg!). it’s actually the first georgian food i came to love. but eating that everyday would probably be an unhealthy choice.
i also love lobiani, which is the same bready crust as khatchapuri, but instead of cheese in the middle, it’s baked beans. really good as well. :)
i think georgians’ favorite food though is khinkali, which is basically the chinese dumpling. however, it’s usually made with meat, so i don’t eat it. however! yesterday, because i want to experience georgia, i ate one. it’s ok. i don’t care for the meat or the soup.. it’s really salty, and i really don’t feel all that great after i eat meat. oh well.
i have also come to looove the simple combination of cucumber and tomatoes. kitri da pamidori. cucumbers are always peeled and diced, tomatoes in wedges. always served with an optional dash of salt. and my host mom makes the best salad. those three ingredients, with cilantro, onion, a green pepper, and olive oil… sooo goood! yum.
if i can live on these simple foods alone for the next two years, i wouldn’t really mind.
130522 wed 11:20pm
yesterday was the one-month mark since staging in philadelphia!
today was the one-month mark since our flight from jfk!
and tomorrow will be the one-month mark since our arrival to georgia!
we’ve mentioned it, and we all can’t believe it’s only been one month. it feels much much longer. such a short time, but we’ve done so much since then that philadelphia seems like a lifetime ago.
130525
my name in kartuli:
lady vanesa reyes
ლედი ვანესა რეიესი
(ledi vanesa reiesi)
130526 sun 10am
i should mention something about my technical training to become an english teacher here. ha.
we just finished our second week of practicum. the first week (last week), we were at the public school all five days; this week, it was only three, thank goodness. in khashuri, the teacher trainees living in khashuri did it together in school #6. four class periods. four of us (anthony, alex, mary and me), four counterparts (the full-time georgian english teachers: nana, lela, manana, and diana). that worked out the first week for us, because we each just latched on to one counterpart. in the villages, the education clusters (5 or 6 of trainees each) sometimes only had 2 or 3 counterparts, so they had to share teachers among themselves. last week, the first day was just for observation. the second day, we were able to do an activity for a little bit of the class. and then the last three days, we team-taught. last week, i believe we had about 7-10 classes each. this week, i think we had 6 (two each day).
interesting time. it was great to see the students. i co-taught grades 2, 6, 8, 9, 10, and 11. classes ranged in size from 11 to 30, the median probably being 22. the 6th graders were all really great. so motivated, eager to learn and show their knowledge, always raising their hands. (“mas! mas!” … short for “mastsavlebelo” which means “teacher”.) it was awesome to see. and it felt lovely that most of the students (across all grades) were genuinely friendly to and curious about me. they asked the questions they have memorized: “what is your name?” “how old are you?” “do you like georgia?” haha. i tried to answer all their questions.
some students were not as motivated, especially the older ones. a lot of them do not have the same skills in english as the younger ones. and i theorized that that’s because the mandatory english curriculum really only started five years ago. the younger ones started their english education at an earlier age, when it was easier to grasp. and i don’t think it really helps matters that perhaps the older kids started english from books that were supposed to be at their grade level, not their skill level. yeah, that doesn’t make sense. but that’s just one of the things that already irk me.
i was not all that impressed with the counterparts, at least the ones we worked with. they hardly lesson plan. when they do, it’s just a few minutes before class. they go by the book for the duration of the class. they hardly ever do activities outside of it. they don’t inspire the kids to learn more, to have fun with learning, to think outside the box. they already have a defeated attitude. they say that the kids don’t understand the material, and they never will. “it is very hard teaching this class.” but while they say that, they just keep trucking with the damn workbook, without even checking for students’ comprehension. it’s as if their goal is to finish the book by the end of the school year, not for actual students learning. they don’t make sure students pronounce words correctly, they don’t encourage students to practice speaking, they don’t check if homework is correct. it’s already kinda frustrating. and it makes me want to make sure the students i teach will learn very well from my efforts. i will work so hard to make sure the kids want to come to my class and that they learn.
so i’m about to head out for three days out of khashuri. going 1.5 hours south to akhaltsikhe in the samtskhe javakheti region, close to turkey and armenia. i’ll be job shadowing one of the current pcv’s for two days of her work week. (it’s the first time we G13’s are separating from each other.) hoping i can learn a few things to become an effective english teacher here!
