Lessons Learnt in Georgia

Tuesday 6th June 2012

As the end of our time in Georgia draws near everyone starts thinking about what they have discovered about themselves or the impact they have had here.  I am no exception!  But when it comes to it is hard to say what the effect of this experience has been.  But here goes!

You can always be more flexible
I always considered myself a very flexible person in way I responded to new situations and in my willingness to look at things from a range of viewpoints and did not expect to have real difficulties in adjusting to a new culture.  However, this was not the case at all.  There were so many times that I wanted to scream in my head “NO, NO, NO!” and stamp my feet about a whole load of issues.  Whether it was from my own resentments that come from living with a bunch of people or whether it came out of my intolerance towards my work colleagues.  I can see that I have a long way to go before I get an award!

Candle in Davit Gareji Monastery

Being part of a faith community is important to me
We have been going to mass in Tbilisi for a while most Sundays whenever we can.  We sing in the choir too which has been really nice too and through that we have met and become involved in the ex-pat world here which consists mainly of US military people or those working for charities and NGOs.  It was through the friendships that I made here that I was able to become involved in women’s health issues in Georgia and working with those who train teachers.  It isn’t just about the social and community aspect of it though; I need to be around people who share my faith to help me keep grounded in my faith. When we worked out how to get to church regularly I felt such a sense of relief and peace, it was just missing before. Wherever we go in the world I would like to belong to a faith community in one form or another where possible.

Colouring in their Room

I love working with young children

The Completed House

I was disappointed when I was told that we were only allowed to work with students in years 1 to 6 when we came to Georgia.  My background is with secondary school age and I was a bit “Why are they wasting my skills?” kind of thing.  However, I have discovered that I love working with this age group.  They are so lovely and open and natural and not yet caught up in the horrors of puberty and self-consciousness.  It is very freeing for me to express myself and not get shot down in flames for being uncool.  There is so much opportunity to love them and praise them up and to show them so many other things.  (Of course you do that with the older ones but you have to think more carefully about how you do it.) I also love the opportunity to be creative and playful, making models, drawing, games, being silly and free.  The look of wonder and excitement (on all our faces lol) when we turned 2-dimensional rooms into a 3-dimensional house or the realisation that all this paper folding and teacher’s one snip with scissors folded out into an 8 page book!   Again you do all this with the older ones it is just done differently. I guess it takes me back to being a young mum again to a time when I saved insides of toilet rolls, cereal and egg boxes and all sorts to do “sticking”.

Technology is a wonderful thing
We can sometimes have a love-hate relationship with technology and it is often hard to see the relevance of it when we are getting along just fine without it.  I am old enough to remember the time before remote control TVs and we were all a little bit dizzy as to why it was a big deal to have to get up and turn the TV over.  Same with microwaves, we had saucepans, what did we need a microwave for?  Obviously I used the internet and email at home but I didn’t do much in the way of everything else.  However, this technology makes such an enormous difference to our lives here.  With Skype I can see the people who I am talking to, walk my laptop around the apartment as a guided tour, free calls to people on their computer.  It makes conversation so easy and family and friends so much more accessible.  Seeing someone’s face, smiling, laughing and even crying, makes it less painful to be away from them and easier to be closer to them in every-day life.  Facebook has it pluses and minuses but being away from home means that I still get to be part of your life in a small way and often it makes no difference as to whether I am in England or not.  Playing online games with friends and family has been another great way of connecting although the downside is that I naturally become fixated on non-productive games like SIMS (please see previous post haha!)  I have now discovered how to download other people’s books for my kindle which has been marvellous and the best of all is some software that allows me to watch programs on BBC I-player.  I have only just discovered this but am very excited about it as it opens up a whole new world of entertainment possibilities!

Working with a year 8 class - How to Make beans on Toast -
Essential Information!

I am becoming a better teacher
I have definitely improved a great deal over the last year.  Firstly, this is the first time I have taught English as a subject so there are lots of learning opportunities but I think it is also because I have been trying to teach the teachers modern teaching methods.  Teaching someone something is always the best way to see how much you really know about a subject and because the bar is so low here it isn’t hard to be impressive.  Basic stuff we would do in England seems pretty radical here for example students working in a group and make a presentation to the rest of the class, with each group covering a different aspect of the topic.  Thus students as teachers.  The teachers here are not going to know that it hasn’t turned out quite as was expected because this is all new stuff to them and so it is very freeing to try out new techniques.

It is hard to learn a language
I always prided myself on the fact that I was good at learning languages.  You know what they say about pride coming before a fall?  Georgian with its non-roman alphabet was a real challenge.  It wasn’t just about memorising words which were basically variations on English words; instead every letter had to be learnt and sounded out and then so many Georgian words made no sense and were several syllables long.  It was a tough call.  I can now read Georgian although some letters are a challenge but as I don’t know what the word is that I am reading I can’t work out the letters logically.  The words are so long that often I have forgotten what the first letters were but the time I have gotten halfway through!  This gave me such an insight into what the kids were experiencing.  I knew that in order to be able to read fluently I had to recognise each letter rapidly and not spend time trying to work it out.  (Well it’s either a b or a g sound – now what is it?) Otherwise I could not really progress onto more complex reading.  I also discovered that listening wasn’t sufficient to be able to learn new words.  They needed to be said really frequently for that to happen.  I have to write things down, but not knowing the letters well I couldn’t do that. I have made sure that where possible, students know the phonetic alphabet without hesitation as without that they simply cannot read and will always be held back because of that.

We were so excited to find fish fingers!

101 ways with eggs and becoming less attached to food
It wasn’t long after we came to Georgia that we started to miss the food from home.  You know - typical English food like eggs and bacon, roast dinners, Chinese and Indian.  We loved the Georgian food at first but the day in and day out routine of eating local food all the time took its toll.  Initially, we tried every type of food offered but then we settled into eating just what we liked and we lost weight in the first semester as a result.  Living in a village, where a limited range of food was available and where meat is very expensive, eggs, frankfurters, pasta and bread were staples.  We couldn’t wait to sample all the food we were missing on our Christmas break back in England and stocked up on some essentials like chilli-con-carne mix for our return to Georgia as we were now going to be in our own apartment and could eat what we wanted.  We now had a toaster and bought marmalade, so breakfast was sorted.  Chicken and minced beef was readily available and so we cooked shepherd’s pie, lots of chilli con carne, and roast chicken dinners (I also brought back sage and onion stuffing!) I made a few stews with dumplings (brought suet back as well) and with my hand-blender I made a load of really nice soups.

But meat is expensive so we had to return to the time honoured tradition of eggs, pasta, rice, potatoes and bread!  Plus of course vegetables!  What shall we have for dinner tonight?  Well there are eggs and there’s pasta. Hmmm let me see ….!  It feels like ready steady cook; make an amazing meal out of 4 ingredients!  But overall I think I am less attached to food in general and it is more of a fuelling up rather than an event in itself.  I am more interested in what is happening as a result of the food being there, like friends being over or the actual celebration. People are talking about their food plans for when they return but I don’t have strong feelings like I did last semester.  Hmmm I could go for a sausage actually!