Week two and making wine

This week I was hoping for school to get into more of a rhythm and for everyone to settle down.  Once again I found that scheduling changes by the day and that nothing is to be expected.  The schedule continues to change daily, so I just go to school at the beginning and figure it out from there.  The teachers at my school are very nice, and they have been extremely helpful for the most part.  They have even invited me to their houses after school, where we have had mini supras. 

I have gotten to know my two radically different coteachers by now.  One is extremely helpful, works me into her class plans, and allows me to teach the class.  The other is commanding in class, and does not let me speak out loud in the classroom.  The only way I get to talk is if a student has an individual question while they are doing workbook activities.  Hopefully this will get better over time, however she avoids me outside of class so we can not talk about how we would do lessons together.  She did seem to get nicer today when I mentioned that I had to fill out my monthly reports for the program.

My family has continued making wine.  My host dad took the van that I never though would run and drove it cross country to buy more grapes.  He returned with four new barrels of grapes that will be added to the giant metal vat.  We cleaned out one of the oak barrels, transferred filled the wine up and replenished the grapes in the big vat.  It seems that wine making is very important to my family because they get really energized when talking about it.  As we worked I played classic 80's jams off my laptop for the fam, which made it a lot more fun.

Heres a mancho my host brother stirring the vat.

This weekend I will be able to get out once again, because there is no school on monday (election day).  A group of friends and I will be going to Batumi again to relive the adventure for round too. 

One week into school

Ok so I know the weeks not over yet, but I have time so I figured that I would post about my first week at school.  Georgian schools have been quite the trip so far.  There appears to be no scheduling or planning for the school year.  Each days schedule is brought out on a handwritten piece of paper in the morning and everyone crowds around to read it.  I have been teaching everything from 1st to 7th grade depending on the day.  So far I have not had more than 3 classes in a day and it rotates what classes I am teaching.

The teachers are nice and spend their free time hanging out between classes in the lounge.  The English teacher that I was supposed to work with teaches the upper grades, so I was paired with a teacher who just graduated from college and has no teaching experience.  That just seemed like the perfect Idea, throw two people who have never taught before in the same classroom and see what will happen.  That lasted for two days, when I was informed that she would be transferring schools.  Typical Georgia to pack up you bags two days in the school year and find another school to go to.  As of right now the original teacher is teaching every class in the school until they find a replacement and I have been helping her when I can. 

Now to the classes.  Most of the students do not have books yet, but I am told that they will get them as their families gather enough money to buy the English text book (8 lari).  Us teachers do have one level 2 teachers book, so at least we have something that we can go from now.  English is a very new subject in the lower grades, so basically everyone is at level 1, but we are supposed to use the respective books for each grade.  That means that we are supposed to use book 5 for 5th grade even though they are clearly not that far yet.  So we have just been winging it and teaching everything from the beginning.  My classes for the most part have been well behaved.  Of all my classes 6th grade is defiantly the worst, with the boys who just want to goof off all class and the girls who just giggle whenever you look or say anything to them.  We will have to keep a tight leash on those kids so they get used to paying attention in class.  All in all it has been a good week, and I have gotten used to just going where I'm told because the schedule gets all messed up.

On another note my package from home finally arrived, so now I have some movies and essential things that I was missing at home. 

This is a pic of my school, Akhuti Public School #1

First day of school

So the last blog was about my activities outside of the village, this one is about the first day of school.  So I got up early shower, shave, quick breakfast and off to school.  After a half hour hike I was at the school by 8:15 (my host family didn't know when it would start but figured it was around 8:30 to 9:00.  It turns out the school day does not start until 9:00 and my first lesson is not until 10:00.  The school then threw another curve ball at me.

The teacher that I was expecting to work with actually does not work with the grades that I am teaching, so I have to work with another teacher.  We had done no training together (didn't attend the intro meeting about lesson planning) and were both not expecting it.  In addition she has never taught a class before, because she just graduated university and they do not do student teaching.  Never less us two 22 year olds found ourselves in front of three classes of students and their parents in the corners.  We teach 3rd grade, 5th grade, and 6th grade.  There were no books avaliable so we had to wing another plan (now were up to no lesson plan and no books).

The classes were small (7 to 15 students) and for the most part well behaved.  My 6th grade class is definitely the most rowdy and we will have to work to reign in all their energy.  Hopefully it will die down as they get into a rhythm and get used to the school year.  They don't stop with the questions about me and are fascinated by everything American.  It was great to be doing something and actually have a job to do in Georgia.  I am looking forward to the school year and how it plays out.

Tbilisi and Armenia (written 9/14/12)

Ok so I’ve been able to get Internet again so its time to update everyone about my whereabouts.  Over the past week I was able to get away from the village again, this time going to Yerevan, Armenia.  It started with a day trip to Tbilisi where I meet some of the crew that would be traveling to Armenia.  The hostel that we planned on staying at (Hostel Georgia) was all full, so they sent us to their sister hostel.  It was just for a night so we figured what the heck lets go for it.  It was named Hostel Romantik and the card with the address had a picture of a martini glass and advertised free wine for guests.  Being only 10 Lari for the night we said what the heck and had the taxi drive us over.

When we pulled up the taxi driver drove us into an underground tunnel, turned his car off and beeped his horn twice.  A heavy red door opened up and we were ushered inside.  I have never been inside a brothel, but this hostel was exactly what  I think one would look like.  There were no windows, and it was a large room that had been divided into separate sleeping quarters.  Red lights lined the walls casting an almost eerie glow about the place.  We used it for exactly what a cheap hostel should be used for, choosing to go to our favorite ex pat bar rather than stay all night underground.  Alas, it worked perfectly for the night and we were able to get our train tickets to Yerevan the next day. 

Our group (Sanchez, Brooke, and I) got tickets on the overnight train to Yerevan and happened to have the whole compartment to our selves.  That was nice because we were able to put all of our luggage on the unoccupied bed.  Once again I had quite the adventure crossing boarders.  At 12:30 am the trains steward banged on our door and woke us all up.  All he said was passport and come.  We were ushered in between cars while the train was moving and the door was opened up.  As we neared the station Armenian soldiers escorted a couple of Israelis and us that needed visas on the empty platform.  We were the only civilians on the platform, accompanied by armed soldiers and stray dogs.  If you could imagine a cold war border crossing at night this was about as close as possible.  Once our visas were paid for each individual was taken into a private room where we were asked the usual border questions plus a few more.  I was specifically asked about my prison sentences (they assumed tattoos mean prison).   After that back on the train to Yerevan.

Yerevan was extremely nice, we saw a monastery that was carved into a mountain in the years 300 (geghart), medieval walled city with church (Kour Virap), and many of the sites in the city.  Unlike Tblilisi, Yerevan seems to have a very European feel to it.  There was much more westernized fashion, food, and society.  After the trip Sanchez and I boarded the train and rode it overnight all the way to Batumi.  From there we went our separate ways to our various villages.  I found out that there is no marstruka to my village during the day and I have to ride one and stop it at my dirt road and then walk/hitchhike the 8 km to Akhuti.  On my way back I walked about half way before a car picked me up.  This seems to be the most reliable way into or out of the village during the daytime.  At least now I know that the bus will stop at my road, so if I need to get to a city for goods its only an 8 km walk each way (could be doable if I really need errands done). 

School starts on Monday and I am really excited to get the school year started.  Later today I am to meet my coteacher and school principal and go over teaching methods and topics to be covered in our first lesson plans.  Finally I can do something and not sit by idly when I’m back in the village.  This also means that I will have access to Internet and wont be completely stranded from home until I get out of the village.  Until next time, kargad.