All Change

Thursday 15^th December

How like Georgia!  Just when you think you have it sussed, it tricks you and you find you are just as confused as ever before.  We received an email 2 days ago saying that our host family is unable to host us next semester due to personal plans.  The director had been notified to look for a new host family for us and they were letting us know so that we were not shocked when we found out.  Well it was a surprise as they had continually said how satisfied they were and there was a constant demand for massages, computer lessons and lessons for the children.  Martin was named as Manana’s brother and I was the sister-in-law.  All was well we thought. The arrangement was of course conditional on them being happy as to whether they continued into the next semester but we don’t know the reason and no-one has said anything at school to me so maybe they don’t know at school yet.   The building work on the bathroom and kitchen has come to a full-stop as the boiler is not working for some reason and has been taken away.  Maybe these plans are to be delayed and we certainly would not want to stay there next semester if there was no bathroom or running water.

I think it unlikely that they will be able to find another host family for us, given the trouble they had before.  Maybe they will or maybe they won’t but either way we have decided we would like a change and so have asked to be placed in Kaspi a large town which is only a 30 minute marshuka ride to Tbilisi.  It is the other side of Gori so we have easy access to that city if we want to as well.  We have decided to rent our own apartment so this will be another change for us – a town and without a Georgian family.  Kaspi has at least 2 restaurants and a large supermarket!  Importantly though is no more mud!  I have said before how this is a constant source of my despair and now I will not have to put up with it any longer.  We are very excited about our own apartment which will not be anything to shout home about luxury-wise compared to what we have in England but we will not be constantly invaded by Georgians. 

Last week in Hostel Georgia, one of the volunteers invited 2 of his Georgian relatives to have a drink with us.  I hadn’t realised how much we valued our little hideaway in Tblisi until then.  I physically braced myself when I sat down with them preparing for the constant toasts and demands to drink copious amounts of alcohol and eat, eat.  This cultural exchange thing can be overdone.  In fact there is no exchange, it is all about us experiencing Georgia.  It is only what you would expect of course.  We would be exactly the same in England.  When we lie in our cold bed we talk about what we might need for our little Georgian nest and what we will cook.  We had ordered an electric kettle and toaster in England as gifts to bring back for our host family (matching the new kitchen tiles of course) but we will now confiscate these for our own use.  What do we plan on cooking? Eggs on toast, sandwiches and soup!  Chilli con carne and spaghetti AL DENTE with all kinds of sauces.  Pasta is boiled to buggery here and is inedible. How many saucepans will we need?  These are the thoughts that occupy us.  Martin naturally is concerned with manly things like what the heating and electrical systems will be like.  My thoughts are more domestic – bring back some posters for the walls and what design will my plastic table cloth be.

Kaspi has 4 schools so in terms of a social life there are not going to be many teachers to socialise with.  However the good news is that it is surrounded by 36 villages and so there should be a few more native speakers who will be desperate for a bit of life, company and a beer so we will be less isolated in that respect.  Our own TLG group, 23, had 17 teachers and we were quite close and spent a lot of time with each other, but 7 of them are finishing their contracts this semester and we have to make more of an effort to get to know other teachers.  You really do need other English speakers to break the monotony and to communicate with.

I will be sad to leave my school as I know and care about the children and have a good relationship with my co-teachers.  I had 4 bras that I brought with me that were new and no don’t really fit me.  I gave them to Juliet who was thrilled to pieces and translated my “They’re a bit saucy” to “sex-u-al” and tried them on over her clothes in the staffroom much to the delight of the other teachers.  We have a bit of a laugh woman to woman and this is unusual from what I can see with the other volunteers and their co-teachers.

But we came to Georgia to experience new things and we will have spent 4 months living in a village in fairly grim conditions at times.  There are many different Georgias to experience and if we stay for a third and fourth semester we will have the chance to experience more and more of this fascinating country.

As a PS to this note, our host family announce, the night before we are leaving, that we can stay after all!  “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO this is not happening- we are excited about being on our own in our own apartment!  Please don’t make us stay!”  It was a shock to find out we were not going to be staying but we quickly adapted to the new plan – we are nothing if not flexible!  I allowed several seconds of pretending I didn’t understand the language in the hopes they would give up but no they persisted.  Luckily for us, there were certain provisos, we had to do our own washing and cooking as it was too much for them.  Well of course this plan doesn’t include Martin it means me!  Sod that!  He can hardly be seen to be cooking and doing the washing or even helping me.  Mine and his reputations would be in tatters and there was still the lack of running water in the house to contend with.  They were disappointed as they felt they had come up with a brilliant solution, but it was too little too late.  It was hard to let them down.