Gamarjoba (Hello from Georgia)

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Village life ...

Where do I start, so many stories to tell. Since leaving Tblisi and arriving in our small village so much has happened.

Our family is very big with four generations living in one house, they are a very hospital and happy family. We live with our great grandma, grandparents, parents and two brothers aged 17 and 12. Our parents are teachers at my school where the boys also attend. Our family lives in the centre of our village but also own sheep, goats, horses, chickens and dogs on a property on the outskirts of the village. The boys herd the sheep and goats each morning and afternoon along with many other families in the village. Horse and carraiges out number cars in our village. We are very lucky because our house has running water and has an inside western style bathroom with warm water (when the heating system is working), this is not the case in most homes in the villages. Our grandmother is an absoulte amazing cook we have had sooo much yummy food. The family has a huge room (cellar) in the bottom on the house where they preseve a lot of their food, I have not eaten anything from a package since I have been here. The family makes everthing from their own lemonade, apple and watermelon jam, cream cheese, milk and bread and a whole lot more. Everything tastes sooo good.

My school, Shilda School Two is very small with only 118 children from grades 1 to 12. My classes range from 4 to 12 children, which is really nice. I teach grades 1 to 6. The school is very poor and is not well resourced, some classrooms have blackboards, the chairs and desks are wooded and many are broken. Each classroom has a stove fire which the children bring wood in for and tend to when the fire is burning out. The teachers and students are all very nice and welcoming. I am working with two English teachers Ira and Natia.

Aarons school, Shilda School One is a much bigger school with 380 students and is a bit better resourced. He is working with one English teacher and his classes consist of 30 children. Aarons school has less holes in the wall and has managed to collect quite a soviet painting range for their walls.

The day we arrived in our village we had a supra (Gerogian feast) with our family. Our village is in the home region of wine and our village is surounded by vinyards. Drinking is a huge part of Geogian culture and at Supras the toast master toasts to guests, family, religion, women etc and the men are expected to drink their entire class of wine or cha cha (home made vodka). Aaron abided by these expectations and brought most of it back up that night. I was the lucky one catching it all in plastic bags. Luckily women are not expected to drink. The gender roles are very defined in Gerogia and especially in our family. Women do all of the cooking, washing etc while men tend to the animals.

Aaron would also like to mention that its currently -10 degrees in our room as I write this.

Another day we visited the cousins house afterschool our father was cutting up a sheep and the head and legs of it was laying there staring at me. About an hour later the sheep was on our plate. I ate sheep balls, Aaron knew this as I was eating it, I am glad he waited until after I was finished to tell me.

Yesterday we went for a walk around the village with our family, we went to the church and lit some candles and stopped by the farm to see the new lambs and puppies, we also sat on a horse. Shilda is a beautiful place, sourounded by the Caucasus Mountains (the largest in Europe) just 20 kms behind the villiage. Directly behind us over these mountains is the autonomous region of Dagestan, which to us is a bit of a surreal feeling. Over the mountains to the west is Chechnya and south east is Azerbaijan. A stream of water coming directly from the mountain runs through the middle our villiage and is used for drinking, wine making and washing your shoes on your way to work,the clenliness and sound really are quite peaceful.

Things we have done in Georgia that we didnt really expect....

1. Eat sheep balls

2. Aaron - get so drunk he vomits everywhere

3. Get a rabbit as a present when visiting neighbours (I have become quite attached, but I think that it may become food at some point)

4. Herd sheep and goats

5. be offered wine by the school director and teachers during the school day. Declining by saying that we are at school and being looked at strangely.

The language barrier we have with our family, co workers and members of the villiage can be extremely frustrating at times. However it makes conversations very interesting and quite hilarious at times, but when there is a breakthrough it is always followed by celebration. As we dont know what is happening, at any one point in the day our family might say it is time to go and we leave to some new random adventure, this is fun of Georgia.

There is so much more that we need to write to really describe the cultural differences (positives and negatives) we are having at school and at home but we might designate a single blog to them another day

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