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Published: December 24th 2011
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Feeding the sheep from the trees
Our host brother feeding the sheep fruit from the trees. It is only the beginning.. We have now been in Georgia for three weeks, so much has happened yet there is so much to come, we are here for the long haul...7 months in Georgia.
We are now on our school holidays; the end of the school year was celebrated yesterday with Christmas concerts at each of our schools. The girls wore their traditional white dress while the boys wore little suit jackets. The children sang carols and performed plays - we did not understand them but it was still cute.
(See photos below) Last week was our second week of teaching in our schools; it was also the last week of the school year in Georgia. Last week continued in much the same way as the previous week however with more empty seats in classrooms and more wine in the staff room. By Tuesday afternoon I had already accepted some wine, I told them that in Australia you can not drink at work as you would loose your job, they seemed confused by this concept. I laughed and continued to drink my wine and cha cha..
School life in Georgia is very different than in Australia. School
begins at 9am and finishes at 2pm; however, you only need to be at school when you have a lesson which means that I do not need to be at school before 10am on most days. The students at my school learn Georgian, German, Russian, French and English go figure. There are no lunch breaks during the day instead there are 10minute breaks between each lesson when the hallways become a jungle with students from 1st Form to 12th Form running in all directions.
Life with our family has continued on as it has in the first week, nothing that happened in the first week that was seemingly done just for the purpose of us being here has changed in our second week. Georgian life continues to wow us in much the same way. We will eat in the morning, normally left overs from the night before
(with cha cha, which Aaron gracefully declines). We eat when we return home from school at around 2pm each day, freshly cooked food from our grandmother. Cha Cha is consumed by all males in the house at this hour
(1-2 shots for Aaron and our grandfather, 3 for my house father). Dinner
Christmas concert
Mikaela's school concert is also freshly cooked, with dessert
(sweets or fruit all home made or picked from our families fields which have been preserved and stored for the winter) and the same amount of cha cha for the males of the house. I hope to soon get a picture of the cellar which is a room behind the house, there is so much food stored for winter you would think the king of Georgia will be arriving at some point.
We lost power and water for the first time last week, which is something we were warned would happen often. It did not bother anyone in our household or village, it was such a small deal that it was not discussed at all and we sat down to a candle lit breakfast. Our classrooms do not have lights or electric heating so it made no difference to our schools.
After school this week I helped make bread with our grandmother and next door neighbour. They made the dough and let it sit and then placed it around a circular stove which was heated by a fire in the middle. It was a long process and I now truly appreciate the
delicious bread that is placed on our table at every meal. While I waited for the last loads of bread to be baked I ate a whole bread stick with fresh Georgian cheese - this is the life!
(Have a look at the pictures it was quite an amazing procedure) While I assisted making bread in the afternoon Aaron, our host brother and father herded the sheep and goats. I made him take the camera with him this time so that we could share the photos with everyone. This is a huge part of our family’s daily life. Our family knows that we celebrate Christmas tomorrow and have put up a Christmas tree for us which they proudly presented to us when we returned from a walk around the village.
In the next couple of weeks we will attend many "Supras" as it is the holiday season. We have been told that New Year in Georgia is more celebrated than Christmas. Our family will be killing a huge pig and having a spit roast - YUM!
After Christmas we are planning to travel to Turkey, Greece and Romania for three weeks with some friends that are
also part of the TLG program. In the mean time “cha cha cha”
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nell
non-member comment
Merry Xmas
What a treat to have a xmas tree . It reminds us all that the best things in life really are simple and when given with love are heartfelt pleasures. Can't wait till you come home and cook bread for us. and make cha cha. We think of you daily. Have an awesome holiday break. Be safe.Merry Xmas and happy New year Love Nell, Ian and Shaun