17th August 2011 8am Local Time
This is our last day in Tbilisi for a while. We have completed our training program and will meet our host families at lunch time and be taken to their home and what will be or home until next June. We don’t know very much about it yet other than it is in the Shida Kartili region, near a small town called Karili in a village called Kvemo Khvuredureti. I will be teaching in a school in the village and Martin will be teaching in the next village Zemo Khvuredureti. If you are reading this from a computer here is the link to a map. http://www.maplandia.com/georgia/georgia-territories/kvemo-khvedureti/#map The region is situated just below Russian occupied Georgia of South Ossetia. It is safe as long as we don’t try to cross the border. We are also near to Gori which is a city of 45,000 people but this was 70,000 before the 5 day war in 2008. People left and have not returned. It is of course the birthplace of Stalin and there is a huge monument to honour him. There is also a railway station in Kareli which we believe is 3 miles from our village and this will take us back to Tbilisi which is 2 hours away and to the rest of the country so we are not going to be too isolated. You now know as much as we do about our future home!
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| After a long 2 days travelling and a 3 hour walk around the city! |
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| Our plane to Tbilisi at Istanbul airport tantalises us! |
It has been a full-on week here in Georgia since we arrived. We missed our connecting flight from Istanbul to Tbilisi and were put up courtesy of Turkish Airlines in a hotel overnight and then flew out to Tbilisi the next day. There were no problems with the pick-up and arrived at the hotel for orientation at about 5:30pm on the Friday. The other teachers were outside the hotel waiting for us as a welcoming committee which I thought was really nice, but we found out that they were meeting up to go for a walk around the city before dinner! So we dumped our cases and took a marshrutka for 35p (1GEL) each to the centre. This is a rickety mini bus which is a cheap means of transportation around Georgia and are usually stuffed full of people. They don’t run on a known schedule and you hail them in the street – you have to know when and where they run but no written timetable at all! We walked around the town for over 3 hours and then came back to the hotel for dinner, nursing my blisters. It is an interesting town with many fine buildings and a lovely character but it is small for a city compared to what we are used to.
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| Our hotel room is at the end of the corridor – remind you of a certain film? |
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| Breakfast |
Food is good but samey in the hotel. Casseroles, rissoles, pieces of chicken, rissoles, rice, potatoes and pasta, plus a cold selection of cheese , meats and tomatoes, pieces of cold fish. That’s breakfast! No, only kidding, we don’t have the casserole for breakfast but have boiled eggs and frankfurters (fat ones and thin ones) instead. It is yet to be seen how traditional this is in families but this is probably traditional fayre in hotels. We have been told that in families they tend not to eat breakfast but have a main meal at 2 or 3 and then supper at 9. Alcohol is an important part of the culture here and we have been told in Georgian how to say not only “No” but “I really cannot take anymore” which is a big clue as to the extent of the pressure to drink. I am sure we will be able t o handle this diplomatically haha!
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| These little cakes are served all the time – at every meal and for coffee breaks – yummy yum yum! |
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| Insipid looking but tasty chicken/pork meat balls in a spicy and oily liquid lol |
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| Tastes better than it looks! |
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| Cold Platter – we eat both hot and cold in the same meal. |
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| View from smoking area. Of course locals smoke in the dining room at the hotel but our boys are too well trained lol and still go outside! |
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| 15 out of 17 volunteers |
There are 17 teachers in our group of volunteers and we have bonded well as a group. This will be a great help when we start to feel isolated which I imagine might be a problem after a while when our Georgian language and their English proves to be inadequate to really express yourself or communicate! We are lucky as we have each other but still I am sure we will be good for each other with sharing our experiences and being shown around various areas of Georgia. We have been placed in clusters around Georgia and for us we have another 5 volunteer teachers relatively near to us. However 10 miles is a fair distance to cover if you have to walk 1 hour to the station to catch the train and in snowy weather might be more of a challenge! We will have to see. There is a young married couple and a single guy from New Zealand and an English guy from York and a guy from Australia (BTW I can say all that in Georgian lol) The rest are from a range of states in the US with one woman who is 58, 2 or 3 in their 30’s and the rest in their 20’s. Oops! That lot includes a Canadian woman from Toronto. There are a couple of strange ones as you would expect and there are about 6 who are qualified teachers.
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| Martin makes friends with the smokers! |
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| Demonstrating teaching techniques for full class engagement! |
Our training has been well organised and full-on. We have breakfast at 8 and start at 9 and finish at 8 in the evening then eat until 9 or 10. This means a 6:30 wake-up call in the morning and having a 20 minute nap at lunchtime to keep awake for the afternoon. We are training in a windowless box with no air conditioning and it is really uncomfortable at times even with fans. We have had Georgian lessons for 4 hours each day and other training in looking at culture and then the last two days in teaching methodology. The group work has been really useful in getting to know each other as a group although the content has not necessarily been that useful as many of the cultural aspects have been repeated again and again by different people. The teaching methodology may have been useful for people who were not teachers and had not done any training at all but wasn’t useful for me other than to tell me how they actually teach in Georgian schools. This is by the book. Don’t deviate, just follow the exercises. There is no room for different abilities or special needs or for those who for some reason cannot keep up. There is no streaming and teachers do not have the inclination, time, resources to do anything different. Our trainer is someone who trains teachers at university so this is the training that new teachers are getting. She however has been to England to study new techniques and get the TEFL training that we have taken, so maybe this is the start.
Current volunteers came and did a Q and A session for us which was really useful and they have a wide range of experiences. It just depends. City or Village (or as we say here willage) More English or less English. Western toilet or Georgian toilet. Inside toilet or outside toilet. Central heating system or chop your own wood, make a fire and boil the water for your tank for a shower. Bathe in the river. It just depends.
We are based in a village but don’t know what kind of village and we may not have internet for a few days / weeks / ever. So I am trying to hammer this out before we check out as you may not hear from me in a while. It doesn’t mean that we have been kidnapped. You can try my mobile if you are desperate, but no guarantee of a connection. One good thing is that there is nothing to spend your money on in a village but it goes very quickly in a city. We clear 500 GEL a month which is about £150 and we have to pay £30 a month each for contribution to food and lodging. So £120 a month! Fine while in Georgia but even after a year won’t give us much to use outside the country. There’s not a lot to do in the city but the food and drink is very expensive and there are things to buy. No cinema or bowling alleys or other activities. Just eating, drinking and shopping haha. We are 2 hours away from Tbilisi so will be able to come and spend some time here another day.
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| This is a close up of the local town of Karili. We are about 3 miles away |
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| This is a closeup of where Martin will be teaching. |
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| This is the village we will be living in. You can see how populated it is by the number of roads. |
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| This maps shows our village in relation to the local town and railway. |
We leave for our host families today and don’t start school until the middle of September so we have free time until then. We have to come for a meeting before school starts in Tbilisi to meet our school principle and 3 co-teachers so we don’t have a clear 3 or 4 weeks and need to spend some time with our families but looking forward to this opportunity to travel around a bit – may go to Armenia or Northern Turkey. We haven’t really given it a lot of thought as we have been working flat out honestly with the training schedule.
Martin has had the trotskies for a couple of days but other than that we are well and positive and looking forward to meeting our families. The organisation (TLG) are very good and very supportive and we have been set up with bank accounts, medical insurance, contact numbers and they are at the end of the phone for us if we have any problems at all.
Hope to fill you in about our host families and travels as soon as we have internet and time.
Jennifer and Martin xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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