So it hasn’t been that long since I last wrote. Which is good for you and me. It means I don’t have nearly as long of a novel to write and that I probably won’t forget anything. Tuesday was pretty uneventful. I went to school so that I could stay warm and not be lonely at home. I don’t have any lessons during the school day but I do have English club after school. I don’t (AKA I’m not allowed to) teach grades 7-9 at my school so this is how I am making sure they are given some basic English skills. Even if they can only say hello, my name is and goodbye I think it is well worth my time. I teach them a little bit of everything. Some basic conversation and some basic vocabulary so they can talk about things they like and don’t like. I really enjoy it because although it takes place at school I give the students a little bit of freedom to be silly and loud. My favorite lesson was last week when we covered animals and I made them make the noise of the animal that I said. They were nervous and embarrassed but when they realized that everyone would have to do it they dropped the “I’m too cool for this” attitude and had some fun with it. I did have to go home eventually and of course there was some corn just waiting for me to throw it into the corncrib. I was tired and sore but I figured the only way to overcome sore muscles would be to use them. It was a pretty good idea if I do say so myself. I slept like a rock that night.
The next day was Giorgoba or St. George’s Day. There was no school and I probably wasn’t going to do anything productive so I decided to go to church. Most churches in Georgia are Georgian Orthodox. There is the occasional Catholic Church but those wouldn’t be in the village. One of the 8th graders at my school walked with me. I would have gotten lost if she hadn’t. The church is in a separate village about 3km away. The weather was uncooperative and the road was slippery. On the way to church I almost ate it several times but somehow I managed to keep my balance. The church is on top of a hill (like most churches in Georgia) and it is small. This particular church is also very new and this coming Sunday will be the first Sunday worship service. The service is almost entirely chanted or sung with minor parts being spoken. I would understand the occasional word but for the most part I stood there for three hours just listening. Sometimes the singing would put me on the edge of tears because there is something awe inspiring about the way they sing. Traditional Georgian music has seven voices. You know the usual soprano, alto, tenor, and bass. Well somehow they come up with an extra three voices. It sounds really amazing. Anyways back to church. They said a lot of prayers. Some people came up for a blessing. This was interesting too because the priest lifted his stole and put the person’s head underneath it. He mumbled something and them tapped the sign of the cross on the back of their head several times (probably three). After that they said some more prayers, sang some more and people started to come up for communion. The children went first. Before taking part in the bread and wine, which was taken at the side of the church, they walked up to the priest and took a spoonful of something out of a gold cup. The acolytes made sure that none of this stuff spilled onto the floor and once everyone was done the priest licked the spoon clean. I still don’t know what it was. I will look it up eventually. After a short sermon about St. George we were dismissed.
Upon leaving the church it started to rain. It was already cold and the rain wasn’t helping. The roads were already wet and muddy and became more wet and muddy. About half way home I slipped on some muddy rocks in the road and my knee hit the ground. I got lots of mud on me and I didn’t realize it until I got home but I also put a large hole in my tights and skinned my knee pretty badly. Good thing I hadn’t done that on the way to church or I would have been a real sight to see. I already stick out because everyone knows that I'm the foreigner, now lets just think about the foreigner with the rip in her tights and blood running down her leg...yeah I'm really happy that didn't happen before church. I got home cleaned my leg and went back to chucking corn. Yep there was still more to go. I even had to climb up into the corncrib to move it around so that when I threw it in there it wouldn’t come tumbling back out at me. After all of that I still had English tutoring. The most memorable part about that had to be sending my tutee into a giggle fit over dog noises. I still haven’t quite figured out what was so funny but it made lessons interesting. We were discussing the word bark so I explained that in English a dog goes woof woof, in Spanish they go jau jau (pronounced waow waow) and in Georgian they go something like omf omf. I personally think the Georgian one sounds the most ridiculous and giggle worthy.
Thursday was a bittersweet day for me. It was Thanksgiving back home and I knew I could look forward to talking to my family later that day but I couldn’t look forward to a delicious meal of turkey and sweet potatoes and stuffing and cornbread and all of the other goodies I would be missing out on. In the past few months I’ve come to be thankful for many things and a lot of them are just simple modern day conveniences, like shower curtains. But many other things like the wonderful family and friends that I have are definitely not so simple. They are all very special to me and I know that I wouldn’t be where I am right now if it wasn’t for them. I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving.
Friday was fairly boring. I went to school, I came home briefly and then walked over to Kenneth’s family’s house with my computer in hand. I was going there so that they could talk to him on the phone and see how he was doing. I tried the previous day but their Internet wasn’t working so well and we couldn’t connect. We ended up waking him up but I know that his family over here was happy to talk to him so I’m sure it was worth it. I came home to a slow and boring night at home. I finished my second book for the week last night. I sometimes forget how much I enjoy reading a good book. That’s probably why I end up reading them so quickly. I try to put it down so that I have something to do the next day but that never works. Oops. This is why I’ve been downloading new books onto my ipod whenever I find some free Wi-Fi.
Today (Saturday) has been pretty boring. I slept in late. I was supposed to go to a wedding in Batumi but I could never get any clear directions on how I was supposed to get there or whom I would go with so I didn’t go. Instead I stayed at home and cracked (and ate) hazelnuts and watched television and wrote this lovely blog. The weather is cold and gloomy. I’m not saying it was good I didn’t go outside but it was nicer to stay inside and do practically nothing.
Tomorrow I’m going to Kutaisi with my host mom. I think it must be someone’s birthday because she made a bundt cake. On a side note, teaching her to say bundt reminded me a lot of My Big Fat Greek Wedding. I don’t really know what’s going on. I have a feeling I will definitely find out tomorrow when we arrive in Kutaisi.
No comments:
Post a Comment