Chemi Bebia made me an omelet and bacon for the first day of school. Then my principal and the gym teacher (the one man of the entire faculty) drove by to pick me up. I’m looking forward to walking the up-hill commute, but for today it was fun to sit in the car as we picked up other teachers and rumbled along the pitted road in the minivan.
I didn’t actually teach today. I spent most of the day in the teachers’ lounge. They laughed as they taught me Georgian words and asked me questions. The woman who is my co-teacher—the school English teacher—translated back and forth all day. The younger women giggled at my Georgian; the older women kept bringing me tea and cookies and muffins and fruit. “Chame, Chame, Chame!” Eat, Eat Eat! They asked how I like their country and their food, if I thought the mountains were beautiful, and if I want to marry any of their men. Then they introduced me to the students. The music teacher is a friend of my host-mother’s, and she wanted to play the piano while the math teacher’s daughter sang for me. First she sang alone, an English rendition of “Eidelweiss.” From there things progressed: all the students started singing a folk song, then a boy started drumming on a desk, then the teachers started singing and two girls got up to do a folk dance. It was unbelievable!
After three or four more songs, they went back to class and I went back to the teachers’ room. There I dodged food offers and poured over the old English texts. They weren’t terrible…but I cringed a few times. I’ll try to borrow them some weekend so I can copy down exact phrases.
When the school day was over, I was ushered back into the minivan. I thought the other teachers were going to drop me back at home. Instead, we drove back-and-forth on the one village street with the shops and markets. We stopped off at the UNICEF resource center at one point, and outside I met the high school English teacher and her daughter. The daughter wandered off to chat with some friends (that’s important…remember it…) and the teacher told me about the co-teachers she’s had. She gave me her phone number and insisted I call her any time I have questions. Sometimes village life makes me feel like I have 20 grandmothers.
One of the other teachers announced that she was hungry, so we (myself, the hungry one, my school’s English teacher, our manly gym teacher and driver, and my principal) went out for beer and khinkali. I so enjoyed spending time with them, and I’m hopeful that my Georgian will improve if I continue spending days with the group of them.
Almost as soon as they dropped me off at home, I knew I needed to get outside to explore the mountains and walk off lunch. I can’t begin to describe how lovely the walk out of town was…there were mountains and cows and a mineral spring. I’ll take pictures next time. On the way out, I was on the phone with a friend as I walked through a group of boys whom I recognized as the high school teacher’s daughter’s friends. I walked on for a while, sat down to let them outpace me, and when I turned to head back home they were there again. The one was sitting under a tree smoking…not threatening at all but obviously waiting for me. I greeted them without stopping, but the one called “erti momet’si” (I think that’s the phrase…I recognize it now as “just a moment”). Knowing this would be a rather limited conversation, I stopped to exchange three words or so. It was utter hilarity. They ended up walking me home, and it felt like we were playing charades the whole time. One asked for my number and I laughed imagining what our calls would be like: “Hello….Hello….Gamarjoba…Gamarjoba…” Ad Infinitum.
Then I came home for dinner with the family and some phone calls to friends. Maguala is singing with the French guests. I took a hot shower in the basement sauna room (feeling pretty spoiled) and am going to do some stretches before bed. Tomorrow, my principal and I are going to Kut’aisi for a meeting about teaching methodology. I’m so ready to start teaching at this point! I wish they would just throw me in a classroom…all this wait-train-wait-train-wait-train is a tease and it’s killing me. Hopefully after the meeting though I’ll be able to actually work with kids. And even if not, my co-teacher wants to go hiking and Eka will be back from her trip soon so we can go to the lake together. And the music teacher wants to teach me folk songs…I could not be more grateful for these kind people and this beautiful place.
No comments:
Post a Comment