The Long Goodbye Part 4 - Kaspi Teachers

Sunday 10^th June

On Thursday night we went for a meal with the teachers from my school.  We were treated like honoured guests, picked up in a taxi and taken to a nice restaurant on the outskirts of Kaspi.  The weather has been alternating between very hot and sunny and humid thundery downpours and this was an evening of downpours.

Waiting for everyone to arrive

Black is the in colour in Georgian fashion!

So many varieties of black!

A cozy corner to gossip

My Co-teachers from left, Maria, me, Tamta and Maka

The restaurant was very nice with a garden and pond outside and it was very pleasant just waiting for the rest of the teachers to arrive.  As is often the case in Georgia the restaurant is not just one room but a number of individual huts and we were placed in the largest room as there were 20 of us.  It was quite dark inside and then we realised that there had been a power-cut and so eventually candles were brought out.  I think that was much nicer anyway.  The food was delicious and Maka brought along her father’s wine.  Nunu was pronounced the Tamuda (toast master) for the evening and so it was a regular supra with toasts to God, family, love, teachers and many more.

Powercut

Fish followed
by garlic chicken and pork casserole

The food was lovely

Salads and cornbread

Gamarjos!

I was very surprised and touched that they had bought me a gift.  They gave me a beautiful bracelet and a glass globe on a gold stand.  It was actually a perfect gift and is something I will always treasure.

Tamuna my School Director presenting me with a gift

Such a pretty box!

Just a perfect little present! Rotated to Africa - our next stop!

A very unusual bracelet!

There are of course obvious cultural differences but what seems to be the same as back home was how the old girls assumed authority over the younger women and got them running around. “My phone’s ringing, get my bag”  “Gogo (girl) their (ours) wine glasses are empty”  “We need a jug of water”  “Go and dance” My young co-teachers were up and down all night, running around with the wine, dessert, the music.   I had to laugh, it so reminded me of my Mum and what she’d be like.  You can see in this next picture, two of my teachers running around – they are a blur!

Spot the blur in the background!

Another surprise of the evening was the singing.  The ladies sang lots of songs, harmonising with each other.  It was great!  Maka told me that it is a tradition because no matter what your problems are you can always sing and feel better. At one point, the French teachers sang a French song, then the Russian teachers countered with a Russian one and to top that the Maths teachers sang a Georgian song entitled “Erti, Ori, Sami la la la” (One, two, three lalala)

It’s no different to home really in that respect.  I have fond memories of all the women sitting in the kitchen at a barbeque singing all the songs we could remember, probably spanning a century!

To finish, what night out would be complete without a dash around the tables doing a conga?

La-La-la-la-la-la conga!

The end of a very pleasant evening