Georgia: First Impressions

Gamarjobat!

We’ve been in an intensive orientation session for five days now, and the levels of both excitement and fatigue in the group are steadily growing. We’re staying in a residential school building on the outskirts of Kutaisi, the capital of the Imereti region where we will be placed (we go to our host families on Friday). We have three hours of Georgian language classes in the morning, then four hours of other subjects in the afternoon, including teaching methodology and intercultural learning. From my perspective, the language classes have been more useful than the others, particularly since we’ve been told that our host families may have a very limited knowledge of English.

We’ve been living in a pretty well insulated bubble so far, which may be good in terms of letting our bodies adjust to the food, the water and the climate here, but also leaves us feeling that in a way we haven’t really arrived in Georgia yet. That will all change in a couple of days, of course, but for the time being, here are some first impressions:

• Despite our location in a fairly urban setting, there are often dogs, cows and chickens within sight of the front door.

• There are lots of good combinations of bread, meat, cheese and spices in various forms. Unfortunately, many of them contain cilantro.

• Having experienced firsthand the driving habits of bus drivers in Tbilisi and Kutaisi, I have no complaints about the program rule that forbids any of us to drive while in the country. Nino, our orientation director and Mother-Hen-in-Chief, says her belief in God is renewed every time she gets out of a motor vehicle alive.

• Georgian is hard. I’m making good progress with the alphabet, but conversational ease is extremely slow in coming. Yesterday’s crowning achievement: “Shvid saatze k’ontsertze mivdivar. At saatze sakhlshi viknabi.” (At seven o’clock I’m going to the concert. I’ll be home at ten.) Today’s: “Tu sheidzleba, me minda kartopiliani khink’ali da upamidoro salati.” (Please, I want meat dumplings with potatoes and a salad without tomatoes.)

• We spend an inordinate amount of time in group meetings talking about toilets. Many volunteers are not familiar with concepts such as dual-flush systems and putting toilet paper in the trash, and this leads to a fair number of technical difficulties.

• As we were warned early on in orientation, waiting in line is an unknown concept here. The first time I went to the store, I waited my turn, only to have a man elbow in front of me without so much as a glance in my direction.

We did break out of our bubble briefly last night, when we went to see the 12th century Gelati monastery, about 20 minutes away. This is a complex of buildings, including a church covered with magnificent wall paintings of saints and angels (which were kind of hard to see, since it was dark), and the oldest known academic institution in the country. It is also the burial place of King David the Builder, one of Georgia’s most famous and revered rulers. I’m looking forward to seeing more churches in other places, preferably in the daylight.

***Updates since first writing***

I wast interviewed on film (not sure who for) yesterday about the program, and what motivated me to come here and teach. The reporter tried to get me to say something political (there is some opposition to to the program within the country), but I did my best to be positive while avoiding saying anything sensitive. Also, last night after we were done with our last meeting, a bunch of the trainers and I ended up singing a Georgian song we all knew (Aralo, a.k.a. Imeruli Maqruli) out on the front steps. Definitely a highlight of the week!