On with the Show

After several bouts of uncertainty and postponement, our school play finally went up this Thursday, but not before it almost deprived me of my sanity. You will know, I assume, that I am not generally one to bellow, but by two o’clock on Thursday afternoon, my throat was definitely sore. I’ll spare you all the details, but I can’t resist one example of what I had to deal with. The singers insisted on having microphones, which I grudgingly consented to, only to learn that the man who would run sound wasn’t planning on coming to work with us until the morning of the show. I know how many potential problems there can be with mics and sound systems, but what could I say? Then, with the show scheduled for two, he didn’t show up until twelve. Thus, we found ourselves still sorting out the inevitable sound problems with ten minutes left before the scheduled curtain time. Fortunately, the show started about forty minutes late, since at that point I hadn’t even talked to the person who was going to run the lights.

After the time I’ve spent in this country, none of this should have come as a surprise to me, but in my experience, mounting a theatrical production is a case where organization and planning really do matter, and the absolute lack of them was maddening. Still, I really can’t complain too much, since in the end the show was a great success. We had a large audience of students, teachers, parents and guests, many of whom came up afterward (and in the following days) to tell me how much they enjoyed it. Most importantly, the kids in the show were all really proud of what they’d done.

After the performance, I would have loved nothing more than to go home and get in bed, but the day’s excitement was far from over. The powers that be had decided to celebrate the play’s success by having a relatively large (50 people) supra at our house, which Marika, Kravasha (Paata’s mother), and several neighbors and fellow teachers had been working hard to prepare for the past two days. This too had its obstacles to overcome, including a clogged woodstove, a dry well, and a table that broke about twenty minutes into the supra under the weight of all the food, but in the end it too was a success. I realized that despite the large number of people in attendance, I knew most of them at least a little, and that thought helped give me the energy to get through the evening. Among the guests were a couple of the singers from Polikarpe Hubilava’s ensemble, who had sung in the play, and so I got to sing a few songs with them, too.

Paata finally succumbed to the pressures of the week and didn’t feel well enough to go to school on Friday, which left me to cover the day’s classes, some with help from my other co-teachers and some alone. I wasn’t sure I was up to it after everything else I’d gone through, but I made it somehow, and was extremely happy to get home for the weekend.

Saturday I went into town and spent the day with other volunteer teachers, a perfect release from the stress of the week. We had a big birthday party for two of them, which involved roasting a pig and a chicken, as well as some really good pumpkin cake. I also finally found out about my flights home, and can now report that I am scheduled to arrive in Burlington at about 11:30 pm on the 26^th. Many of the other volunteers are leaving around the 20^th in order to be home for Christmas, but I’m glad that I’ll be staying for the end of classes, so I can have plenty of time to wrap things up and say goodbye.