Kargaaad! An adventure in Georgia: Flying to, Training in and exploring Tbilisi

First off, welcome to my blog. I am a volunteer residing in the Republic of Georgia. The program which I am involved in is called TLG (Teach and Learn with Georgia) which is a program geared towards teaching English in primary and secondary schools. In 2010, the government of Georgia started the program, to forge closer ties with the Western world, as opposed to Russia in Georgia's Soviet past. This blog is just my experience of the program and of the country, I hope you enjoy it!

July 15th. The flight.

My flight from LA to Istanbul was going smoothly. The two people I sat with were friendly. One neighbor was a Mexican lady going to volunteer in Nirobi but when I asked her what country Nirobi was in she told me "Africa". Shouldn't you know which country (Kenya) you are volunteering before you get on the plane? The other neighbor was a Turkish man about my age who was going home after a month of learning English at Berkley. What I liked most about them was they were not babies, and that the back of my airline was very quite.

When we were flying over the great lakes, a doctor was requested several times by the pilot. A child with epilepsy had a seizure on board, so we had to land. The captain announced that we were to land in Winnipeg, about an hour ride back from where we came. After landing in Winnipeg, the plane remained in on the tarmac...for two hours. We weren't allowed to leave the cabin. Many of the passengers had layovers in Istanbul, and already our flight was three hours behind schedule. I was convinced that my flight wouldn't leave with out me, since my layover was much later than three hours.

When we landed, my companions had already missed their flight and my flight was boarding. A brusque goodbye and good luck to them and a couple minutes later, I found myself shoving and pushing people out of the way (as politely as I could) as I scrambled for my final plane to Tibilisi. In a Ferris Bueler-like fashion (the one when he is racing home across the neighborhood before his family gets home), I landed in my seat before the plane took off. Unbeknownst to me, my bags were not in any hurry, and they had decided to stay in Istanbul...ugh.

July 16th till the 21st. Training.

The training we are going through is very relaxed. It starts at around 9 and ends at 6, but with frequent coffee breaks and an hour for lunch. Its nice to learn what about Georgia and the public schools. Coming to Georgia is a leap into the unknown, and the training is gives a refined description of what we are getting involved with.

I especially enjoy to hear stories of past volunteers, specifically, the stories pertaining to the first volunteers. They are the pioneers that had to undergo the troubles, TLG is constantly evolving and the first volunteers had the roughest time. The program was much smaller, the early volunteers did not have the support staff that we had. Some of them were placed in very isolated locations. One volunteer in particular was sent to Ushguli, one of the most isolated places in Georgia. Located in the mountains, the village usually gets snowed in for months at a time.

Aside from fighting off jetlag, training is pleasant. I just slept for about 12 hours today, so hopefully I don't have any more trouble with nodding off in language class, which is my favorite. Or teacher Neli is so animated, and the material is especially helpful for me, since I decided on going way back in March. I understand the alphabet, so I can focus on grammar, pronunciation and word recognition. Some of the volunteers didn't decide until about a month before leaving and were lost for large swaths of the lecture!

Learning Georgian (or Kartuli) is easier when your immersed in it. I'm able to hear many words when I eavesdrop on people in the street. It's much easier to listen for than Spanish, because people don't speak so quickly. In pronunciation, consonant clusters are lumped together, for example, I have "mkavs" is one syllable.

The best part of the day is going out to the old part of town afterwards, There is nice atmosphere of Tbilisians, old and young, just hanging out. The old town is about a half an hours walk from the hotel, where one must j-walk frequently. A goal of mine is to get a j-walking ticket, that way I know it did it right! Luckily, a few days ago I got honked at, so I guess I'm getting better at it.

The driving here is bad, as expected. But it wasn't as bad as the drivers in Italy. We didn't encounter any cars on sidewalks, or any excessive tailgating. Drivers do like to use their horns frequently, as a tell-all phrase. The volunteers and I got our first dose of the driving when we were taken through Tbilisi for the medical checkup. We were able to see good sections to explore on foot. Another thing we all saw is the massive amount of "hanging out" the men like to do. The city, filled with men, young and old alike in the streets, day and night.

On Thursday we all found out about where we are staying, and some information about our host families! After grumbling and wondering all this time, I found out I am living in a village called Gorgadzeebi in the Adjara region. Adjara is the south westernmost Provence. Stay tuned for more information on the host family when I get there! Most of us are stationed along the western part of Georgia, so going out and visiting everyone is on the schedule! We all don't have any work to do until September, so we are all thinking of ways to spend the money we are being paid.

Friday is the day when older volunteers come and share their experiences. One volunteer, Andrew is living in Tbilisi and has two host families. He is currently teaching police and security. Reggie, who is from the Philippines is living in a village forty minutes from Kutaisi. His family doesn't drink any alcohol at all. They are very protective over Reggie and whenever he visits neighbors or goes to a supra (a feast in essence) , everyone knows not to pass him any drinks. He says it's important to set expectations early on, otherwise be prepared to enjoy drinks only when you are out of your town/village! Jason was a little bit older and gave some very good advice on lesson planning. Its best to stay flexible and don't expect too much progress.

For the most part, our group follows the curfews and doesn't drink at all, until we talked to the older volunteers whom had spoken. By Friday, a group of eight people in training were confident enough to hail a cab to Freedom Square and meet up with other TLG volunteers whom had come a month ago. Like us, they have no work over the summer and are left to their own devices. Either they stay with their host family, or they travel around Georgia. They told us about their host families and how different they are from the Georgian stereotype. The gist of the lesson is don't expect to know what they will be like. Georgians are just as varied as anyone else. One family was considered "Gruff" which I think could mean rugged. The volunteers host family lets him wander and isn't very protective. Crystal-day has a host mother whom is two years older than her.

On our final day of training, we went to the bazaar! Georgian bazaars are similar to any of the other open air markets. Although haggling is an important part of the Bazaar, don't expect a huge drop in price, twenty percent to thirty percent off is considered generous. The highlight of my day was spent walking the crowded, cracked and oftentimes muddy streets looking at the goods on sale. The market was broken up into sections. The front being the high end clothing and jewelry, which was in an air-conditioned room, similar to a shopping mall. Behind the mall was where the cheap clothing was. I ended bought a pair of capri shorts, since its a bit taboo to wear them in the states (Wouldn't it be great to live in a world that allows men to wear them?)

I also bought some stickers behind the clothing section and food sections of the bazaar. They are for the children I will be teaching at my school. Influenced by my animal-training girlfriend, I want to be a strict teacher, but will reward good behavior with prizes. It is forbidden for volunteers to discipline students, so I have to influence, instead of enforce.

Regardless of what I bought, I can't haggle, or even count past ten, so I paid full price for everything, spending a total of 21 lari. Its was a bit daunting to initiate any speaking because they would speak so fast, and sometimes in Russian (the language of foreigners) making what little Georgian I knew useless. Asking prices is "ra ghame?" for those who are curious. I would take pictures of some stalls after asking "tu shedzleba?" which is the Georgian for "If it is possible?". Unfortunately, I never took a picture of the cobblers section of the bazaar, which was my favorite part.

So now I write this long post in the hotel eating area, avoiding to pack. Were meeting our host families today at 12:30 and are in for a long journey in marshutkas (minibuses), trains or cars. Sorry for the long post, a lot of things happened this past week, I plan on making the rest of the blogs shorter! Kargaaad! (bye!)