You can’t haggle with a Georgian over vodka

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Monday was pretty brutal at school. Our director phoned Eka in the morning and told her I didn’t need to go to school if I didn’t want to cos it was so cold but I assume none of the other teachers were taking it off because of the cold and anyway, it’s going to be cold tomorrow too, and the next day. I can’t stay home for the rest of the year! By about 1pm I was seriously regretting my decision. The heater has disappeared and I was freezing. My lessons finished at 10.30am and I didn’t leave school until 2.30pm. Another five weeks of this is going to kill me. The upside is that I managed to get onto the internet for the first time in ages so I emailed my agency and said I was up for exploring the option of a private school position in Korea but not until April. Now there’s no job to go to in February I’m in no rush to leave so I’m going to try to get my flight extended. If I can’t I’ll just make my way to Turkey where I can fly home for about £40. This means I have an extra month or so to travel after my contract ends so every cloud etc. One of the reasons we’re in school so late (2.30pm constituting ‘so late’ in this country) is because some of the students sat an exam on Sunday and we needed to mark them. I was forced to give zero for almost every question. They were writing composition questions and, whilst they were creative and in some cases beautiful, the criteria states that if there are mistakes in every sentence then you must give them a mark of zero, and if they have only one or two sentences with no mistakes you must give them one. I think the highest mark was two out of a possible 12, which is such a shame. I love reading compositions written by people for whom English is a second language. Even when the writing’s riddled with mistakes (and often because of this) the imagery they come up with is often beautiful. Anyway, we finally head home, much to my relief, where we all huddle in front of the fire for a couple of hours. As Eka and I were waiting for the marshrutka one of the students (not one of mine, one of the older ones) comes up and asks if Eka will take a picture of us on her phone. This is an almost daily occurrence with the older kids. God knows what they’re doing with them. I spend some time planning lessons for Gio and Mari and was actually planning on sitting down with them for an hour when Levani and their grandma came home and that was the end of that. I love how excited they get to see their own family. Love the big family atmosphere too. Levani cracks me up sometimes. They’ve obviously bought this new piece of luggage in Tbilisi. It’s like a big overnight bag but it has a pull out handle and wheels too. Levani walks across the living room with it as if he’s on a catwalk and says, ‘Look Anna, I am London!’ Later we sit around the kitchen table eating a typical supper – black tea with fresh lime from the garden, homemade bread with homemade cheese and homemade fig jam and for about the millionth time I think about how lucky I am. The others are jabbering away in Georgian and obviously I can’t understand a word they’re saying but it’s just nice to be around them. At the risk of sounding like something from Little House on the Prairie I think how lucky I am to be staying in this house, living this simple country life with these wonderful, warm, generous people. Before bed I spend a long time on the phone catching up with Jane. I haven’t seen her for a couple of weeks now so we start planning this weekend. Currently it’s Borjomi in the pipeline. All I want is to go somewhere beautiful where I can go hiking, see some wonderful scenery and then come back to some warm hostel/hotel/cabin. Luckily this is the last weekend until payday but I still need to check my account – I have a feeling Tbilisi bled me dry. Later as I crawl into bed I get a drunken phone call from Ally and Ara who are in bed at Ally’s place after a mini supra with his family. I try to explain to them that my family’s asleep in the next room and for the first time in a while I feel a pang of jealousy that they’re so geographically close to each other (and to Jane) that they can hang out during the week. On a completely separate note, that old guy I met on the marshrutka journey to Tbilisi has called me, on average, about 20 times a day ever since. I have no idea what he wants. He can’t speak English, I can’t speak Georgian. If it continues I’m just going to give the phone to Eka and have her talk to him.



My room’s perfectly warm when I go to bed in the evening on account of the wood stove but my god getting up in the morning is difficult. Just to give you an idea of how cold it is here, the first thing Eka said to me when I walked out of my bedroom on Tuesday morning was, ‘Anna, we have not water. Is frozen.’ I manage to brush my teeth at the outside sink using a bucket of ice cold water from the well. It’s freezing but it’s such a beautiful morning. The sky is perfectly clear and everything is sparkling with frost. We wait for the marshrutka to take us to school but by 8.45am it becomes apparent it’s not coming so we walk. It’s cold but I’m just happy for the exercise! It’s the first time we’ve ever been late for school though. Fortunately, I have no lessons til nearly 11am so it doesn’t really affect me. I came pretty close to asking Eka if I could come in later but I don’t want to start taking the piss and only being in school for the nine hours I’m working – not that I’m doing anything at school when I’m not in class. School is actually warmer than it has been in a while simply because, whilst it’s freezing cold, the sun is shining through the windows and into the classrooms. It’s actually bearable and I sit in the teachers’ room happily writing for a couple of hours until my first class. After lessons I go with Maia for our daily coffee drinking ritual. I love discovering new things in Georgia. Just when I think I’ve tried everything something completely new comes out, in this case a kind of thick paste that Eka tells me is made from grapes and wine. It’s delicious (es gembrielia!). Eka has a lesson and Maia is monitor for the day. The fifth grade (who happen to be my favourite class – shhh, don’t tell anyone!) have no lesson so it’s Maia’s job to sit with them while they chat and draw. Maia goes to the computer room to do some work so I sit writing and every couple of minutes one of the kids will say something to me – ‘Anna, how are you?’ ‘I’m very well thank you.’ Two minutes later – ‘Anna, you are very beautiful.’ ‘Thank you!’ Then – ‘Anna, can you spend?’ ‘Can I what?’ ‘Spend’ (miming drawing). ‘Oh, you mean draw. No, I can’t draw’……’Anna, can you sing?’ ‘Can I sing? No, I can’t sing.’ Muted whispering for a couple of minutes, then ‘Why?’ ‘Why can’t I sing? I don’t know, I’m just very bad’……’Anna, can you dance?’ And so it goes on, and every time they manage to successfully ask a question in English and I answer they’re delighted and everyone laughs. It’s actually adorable. Maia is going to a funeral in Orsantia with her husband and Eka still has a couple of lessons to go so they give me a lift home. I think this is probably the first time I have come back without Eka, in five weeks! The sun’s properly shining for the first time in days so I take the opportunity to walk to the shop in Orsantia to put money on my phone. Walking through Orsantia always makes me a little uncomfortable – I don’t think I’ll ever get over the stares, so I thought I’d draw more attention to myself by chatting loudly with Jane on the phone. When I get home Eka comes back from school and we have lunch in the kitchen, fried potatoes with plum ketchup followed by cheese dumplings. Then we all sit around chatting and drinking coffee. I love how well my family get along. They sit around just chatting for hours and they’re always laughing. Occasionally I even know what they’re laughing about.



Eventually crazy man from the marshrutka (I believe that’s the name written on his birth certificate)<span> calls while Eka is in the vicinity so I hand the phone to her. I have no idea what she said to him but she’s on the phone for a good five minutes and the rest of the family seem to think it’s hilarious. At one point she tries to give the phone to me and says he said he speaks a little English but I say I don’t want to talk to him. In the end, despite quite a lengthy conversation, all she tells me is that he asked who she was and said if I had any problems I should call him. Hopefully that will be the end of it.



In the evening I teach the kids all about time – we practice days, months and seasons exhaustively. At supper I notice Gala’s voice is pretty croaky and ask Eka if he’s sick. He has to work outside quite a lot so it’s no surprise in this weather. And of course in this house there’s only one medicine – the homemade vodka. Which, incidentally, we drink accompanied by cloves of raw garlic so I smell an absolute treat. I actually try to haggle with Gala over the vodka. He asks if I want some and I say one and he says three, so I say two and he says, ‘No, three is good.’ So that’s the end of those negotiations. No matter, three shots of vodka and I sleep like a dream.



I don’t mind Wednesdays at school. My first class is only the second of the school day so I spend less time than usual sitting around doing nothing. Yesterday some guys came in to bleed all the radiators and today a lorry load of coal was delivered so I’ve allowed myself to dare to hope that the heating may soon be switched on. I have my fifth grade class which I generally enjoy. They’re actually at about the right level and, more importantly, they’re more or less all at roughly the same level, but they still manage to come out with some gems. My personal favourite of the day was, ‘The cloud cloud is on the cloud.’ I also have all three of my lessons back to back to there’s very little vacant time. Next I have the fourth grade, which is Mari’s class, and I try not to favour her too much. Finally I have the sixth grade. This is another reason I like Wednesdays. It’s the one day I get to consistently teach anything more advanced than, ‘a is for apple’ or ‘It is a teddy,’ which is about as far as we’ve got with grades one, two and three. Although, as I may or may not have mentioned before, there are only four students in my sixth grade class at sixth grade level (and those only just if I’m honest). The other seven or eight kids are from Abhazia where they’re not taught English so last week I discussed with Eka the possibility of me teaching them level one after school a couple of days a week. She mentioned it to them today but I’m still no clearer as to whether or not it’s going to happen. There was a discussion in Georgian but afterwards Eka said she doesn’t know if they want to do it or not. To which my response was that I’ve never met a ten year old boy who wants extra school, so we’ll see. I guess it will be up to the parents but I have absolutely no desire to try to teach a bunch of ten-year-old boys who don’t want to be there. Anyway, today what I thought was impossible finally happened. After five weeks I was actually allowed to leave without drinking coffee and eating cakes! As we came out of our sixth grade class Eka said to me that she had two more lessons and as it was very cold did I want to go home as there was a marshrutka in five minutes. I leap at the opportunity to go home instead of sitting around freezing for two hours but I say I will walk. I need the exercise! After thawing out and having an amazing lunch during which I ate far too much, the whole family, including grandma, heads out into Zugdidi to, Eka explains, buy shoes for Gio. I really think this is a day for firsts and for a second I get really excited that I’m going to be left on my own, simply because it’s never happened before. Not once in five weeks have I ever had the place completely to myself, even for a second. But my dreams are short-lived. Mari stays behind with me so I help her with her English homework, think briefly about doing some lesson planning, and then settle down to watch a movie in my chair. Life’s tough sometimes. About an hour later the electricity cuts out so Mari and I are sitting here in almost complete darkness, me on my laptop and her tunelessly singing along to ringtones on Levani’s mobile.



Sadly I am now without my laptop for a few days. The fridge has a British plug and the adapter breaks so I ‘lend’ mine to Eka. Once the battery on my laptop dies I’m going to be screwed! I know I can’t bring myself to ask Eka for the adapter back so I will just have to live without it until I can find a new one. As usual on Thursday everyone starts making plans for the weekend. Jane says she thinks she’ll actually stay at home for the weekend. I’m dying to get out and do something different. I want to go somewhere I’ve never been before and, preferably, somewhere outside the cities. I want nature! In the end I am given a choice – Clare has a wedding to go to on Sunday and so doesn’t want to stray too far from home. Consequently her and Ara decide to spend the weekend in and around Kutaisi. Not good enough. I love the city but I’ve been there loads of times and, as I said, I’m craving the unknown. If no one comes up with anything better I decide I’m going to strike out on my own. I really want to try out a train in Georgia so I think I might just go to the train station and get on the first train and just see where it goes. Luckily Ally decides he wants to go further afield – towards Borjomi and then possibly further but he finishes school at 11.30am on Friday whilst I’ll be teaching til 13.30 so I say I will call him and see where he is when I finish and, if it’s feasible to catch up then I will. If not then I guess a weekend anywhere with Ara and Clare won’t exactly be the end of the world.

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