gamarjoba!
My greeting to you today is Georgian for hello! I’ve been in Georgia for about a week but it
feels like I’ve been here for much longer already (and I’m sure my other
volunteers would definitely agree with me on this). I’m in the midst of orientation week here in
the capital city of Tbilisi and my days are full of learning cultural
peculiarities, coffee drinking and exploring the city while trying to master
some conversational Georgian. Needless
to say I’ve been busy but I’m going to take some time tonight to catch up on
email as well as my journaling and blogging.
Since arriving to the hotel at 5am on the 15th
I’ve mostly gotten over the jet lag and have had a chance to explore the city a
little bit with my fellow English teachers.
There are 57 of us training this week and there is always someone new to
talk to or to explore the city with.
It’s been great getting to know this diverse group of people who are
coming from New Zealand, Australia, Britain, South Africa, the Philippines and
the United States. The first day I took
a little nap in order to get some energy but by the afternoon I was already
taking the metro to the famous Rustaveli Street with other volunteers. We walked around for a bit, looking at the
interesting architecture and the mix of old and new that seems to characterize
much of Tbilisi. There were many small
shops and people selling produce and items on the sidewalks. There was so much to look at that I wish I
had another set of eyes. We eventually
made our way to a huge market in the city where they sold everything from clothes,
to cell phones, to fruits and vegetables.
Here are a few pictures of that day:
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| Rustaveli Street |
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| Rustaveli Statue |
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| A street near the marketplace |
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| There's a market with clothes underneath this! |
Another notable event this past week was my 22nd
birthday on the 16th!! A
group of us went into Old Town Tbilisi during the morning and hiked up a hill
to get some awesome views of Tbilisi from above where the remnants of an old
church remain. We also got a close up
view of Kartlis Deda or “Mother Georgia” as it translates. She overlooks like the city quite like the
Christ the Redeemer Statue in Rio de Janeiro and is holding a vat of wine to
symbolize Georgian hospitality to guests and a sword to ward off enemies. We wandered around the city a bit more and
walked across the Peace Bridge which was opened in 2010; a more modern piece of
architecture in downtown Tbilisi. It was
a really great time going into the city to explore some more and it was a great
birthday overall (and everyone in training wished me Happy Birthday! It felt awesome to feel some love from these
new friends!).
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| Overlooking Tbilisi! |
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| Mother Georgia Statue |
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| Peace Bridge |
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| Architecture of Tbilisi |
In addition to all the fun we’re having in the city, we
obviously have to learn something during this orientation, so we’ve been
attending various seminars and language classes during the day. Georgia is a developing country containing
many intricate cultural and societal differences compared to the United States
and other western countries, so we’ve been trying to get some grasp on what
these are and how we should act when we are placed with our host families and
living in this country. For example, comparative
to the United States, Georgia is a patriarchal society with stricter gender
roles; Georgian women are expected to maintain the home and cook much of the
meals whereas Georgian men are seen as the breadwinner of the family. The Georgian language has been so difficult
to grasp for the majority of us since it is a completely new alphabet and
pronunciation. It will definitely be
interesting trying to communicate with our host families once we are on our own
in speaking! Some of the words are
pretty hard to pronounce correctly such as “dila mashvidobisa” for good
morning.
After our seminars end for the day I’ve either been going
out into the city with others for a few hours or I’ve been staying in the
hotel, attempting to study Georgian with the rest of the group. Orientation has definitely been a fast-paced
learning experience which will hopefully help me when I eventually get to the
village with my host family. The end of
this learning period is coming soon, so I’m off to go study some more Georgian
for a bit!
Lots of love from Georgia,
Kelsey
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