Easter with the Beels

Thursday 26^th April 2012

In the top right hand corner the statement "Europe starts here" is an interesting perspective,

It’s quite a difficult thing, writing a blog.  You have to consider what the purpose of the blog is and who the intended audience is and without these two points in mind a blog can become really boring and its focus weakened.  I have read many blogs where this is the case!  I don’t intend it to be a day-by-day record of my life in Georgia (I know many of you will be disappointed! Haha) and I don’t intend it to be a “Travel Blog” containing information about the different places to visit, how much it costs and tips on hotels. There is also a lot to be said about the political system, the rapid changes that are taking place here and who is financing them, the debate about whether Georgia is “European or Asian”, the treatment of women, immigrants or homosexuality; corruption – to what extent it still exists.  There are many laudable topics that deserve to be disseminated and discussed and maybe if this blog were to continue for a long while I would draw your attention to these issues as I understood more about them.   So the difficulty when writing this blog is what to leave out rather than what to include and I revisit this question every now and again to make sure I remember it.

So the purpose of this blog is to share my experience of being a volunteer teacher in Georgia, how I adapt and adjust to the educational system here and the impact life in Georgia has on my life choices.  All about me really!!!  Last year we went to Armenia for a week.  It was great, we saw lovely places and I celebrated my birthday there but I didn’t include this in my blog; I just put my photos up on Facebook.  So I hesitate here to include a “what I did in the school holidays” post.  However, as any teacher knows, the school holidays are eagerly awaited and it is no different in Georgia.  Also, we are coming to the end of our time in this country and as we return to England straight away this is the main opportunity to see places we haven’t yet seen.  The long, cold winter put paid to being a tourist.  So this is a round-up of what we did over the break.

The first event on the Friday after school was to go to the circus.  It had arrived in Kaspi early in the week from Gori and was slowly assembled.  It would have been considered a little tacky and unsophisticated by European standards but like so many things in Georgia, takes me back to my very unsophisticated childhood and a time that we “Didn’t know any different” and therefore was less critical and discerning.  The audience here enjoyed it for what it was. 

The Clown and the Ringmaster - Grandpa and Grandma

There were the usual circus acts, the clowns (or in this case the clown, the grandfather of the family) and the ring master (The gran of the family) who also doubled as the animal trainer) along with uni-cyclists and gymnastic displays (acrobatics on a large ring hanging from the ceiling of the big top) .  The clown got children from the audience to be humiliated for the pleasure of all but it was harmless fun but interestingly one pubescent boy didn’t take it too well.  The game was to get 4 boys of increasing height to bend over in a line in leapfrog fashion with the purpose of each one to jump over the one in front and the next one.  However the “trick” was to get the littlest one to pretend not to make it over the biggest one and instead to cling to him piggy back style.  This little boy is one of my students and is part of the circus family so obviously he played his part well.  But the victim wasn’t happy and really went into a sulk, kicking the wall around the ring and really showing off for quite a while after it was over.  Lots of Georgian male strutting, arm gestures, outraged face, needing to be held back by his mates allegedly for everyone else’s protection.  Someone should have told him not to sit in the front row or to volunteer in the first place.

The Uni-cyclist and the Bear

The Granny ring master / animal trainer watched the other acts like a hawk and she was furious when any of the acts made a mistake which I think made them even more nervous but her animal acts were funny and piteous at the same time.  I have no problem with the little poodles who for some reason are dressed up in silver bikinis and walk on their hind legs while she feeds them “doggy-bitz”.  It did go on for a long while with them parading around in gypsy outfits followed by golden bikinis on their hind legs – the act wore thin.  She tried to vary her acts by changing from the spangles dress and blonde wig of the ring master to the black haired bitch with the slutty bondage look as the snake charmer where she strutted around and did what might be considered inappropriate activities with her mouth and the snake’s head for what was a family audience.  The dogs pooped on the floor during the “Doggie – show-jumping” act which surprising smelt incredibly nasty.  We had the pony act where the pony stamped his hooves to demand “Donkley-bitz” which wasn’t pleasant to watch.  But the worst was yet to come with the young muzzled bear climbing on boxes.  No-one in the audience seemed to think this was amusing at all which is a relief.

We travelled to Tbilisi and the following day wewent to Kaheti region which is known as a wine region and was very serene.  It is surprising how different geographically the different regions are to each other.  Very green.  Naturally we visited many monasteries and churches as Georgia is full of them and they are indeed very beautiful.  As always women have to cover their heads, shoulders, cleavage and any hint of a vagina (for trouser wearers) and luckily they supply the necessary scarves.

In this region we paid a driver to take us to the sights around Telavi on the first day and then to drive us to Signaghi to see the sights on the second day.  We had a lovely Mexican meal (we were very excited about this) and the restaurant had amazing views over the area.

The next day we took the marshutka over to Borjomi which is a spa town famed for its health giving bottled water and was once a popular tourist town with the Russians.  The president has a house here so that he can go skiing at the weekends at Bakuriani.  We had a pleasant walk through nearby forests and rivers which were running fast and furious but ironically the town itself had a water problem and water was only appearing at 2 in the morning.  The recent thawing of the heavy snow meant that the water pipes that were damaged over the winter needed to be repaired.  Rather ironic that in the town famed for its water there was none! 

We spend the next day travelling to and seeing the sights around Vardzia a cave city that was constructed in 1256; but I guess that people lived in the “natural” caves there for many years before that for protection.  This was such a strange and wonderful place – one of my favourites.

We took the 1902 train up to Bakuriani, a ski resort that took 2 ½ hours but was pleasant and stopped at several pretty villages that had a distinctive Swiss Alpine feel so yet another change in the geography with spectacular views of the mountains.

Back in Tbilisi we did a day trip to the old capital Mtskheta which was quiet with a beautiful cathedral (no surprises there of course!). 

Didube bus station was alive with Easter preparations with many stalls selling Easter food and candles.  They take Easter here very seriously and many do actually fast vegan style for the 6 weeks of Lent. Unlike in the UK where Christmas is the religious season of choice, Georgia pays relatively little attention to Christmas and focusses instead on the more significant event in the church calendar. Then back home to dear old Kaspi where we chilled for the weekend before going back to school for the final half term.