8th graders + Me = Excursion!

გამარჯობა მეგობარები!

Hello friends! 

Your Georgian lesson for today: the Georgian word for “friend” is megobari and “friends” is megobarebi.  To show plurals of something Georgian adds the ending –ebi (ები) after dropping the last vowel.  So some other examples of this suffix change include gogo--gogonebi (girlàgirls), bitchi--bitchebi (boyàboys), pankari--pankarebi (pencilàpencils).  Just thought I would expand your Georgian knowledge a little bit more!!

This past Monday I was fortunate enough to be asked to accompany the 8^th grade class on their field trip excursion on Tuesday.  Khtuna (pronounced like the K is silent, more like Haatuna) is their homeroom teacher and is best friends with Nino one of my co-teachers.  She’s literally one of the nicest people I’ve met here in Georgia and loves to practice her small amount of English knowledge with me.  Like everything else in this country it was bound to be an adventure so I heartily agreed to come.  So instead of going to my normal lessons on Tuesday, I met the 8^th grade class bright and early on Tuesday morning at the school.  We were supposed to leave the school at 8am but since we’re always on Georgia Maybe Time (GMT) we didn’t leave the school until about 8:45 after 20 of us and several bulging bags of homemade food were stuffed into a marshrutka that safely seats 16 (typical Georgia traveling yet, luckily our driver only drove maybe 40 miles per hour the whole day).

It might have been only 9am but the ride was already full of singing traditional Georgian songs while Khtuna played the panduri, a Georgian string instrument; it’s a bizarre thing in Georgia where literally everyone can sing well and they all know the songs by heart, so it was really a lovely serenade to start the day.  Our first stop was Davit Gareja, which if you’ve been keeping up with my blog, I’ve already been too.  Instead of making the trek back up to the caves, we just visited the monastery complex and church area.  A big thing to do whenever Georgians visit a church in this country is to light an incented candle and say a prayer under one of the many pictures of saints and religious figures in the church.  Khtuna was nice enough to buy everyone a candle and even gave me one to light somewhere in the church.  I don’t really know anything about the Georgian Orthodox Church but it was nice to feel included with the group even though I really just picked a random picture and lit my candle underneath it.  We took a few pictures in the monastery area and we let the kids climb up on the nearby rocks before hitting up the gift shop where three students bought me pictures of David Gareja.  It was unnecessary yet really thoughtful and kind of them!

Khtuna and I in the David Gareja Monastery complex.

Most of the 8th grade class and I.  I appear to be the only one enjoying myself...

Teachers breakin' rules! (It was Khtuna's idea)

This is Tengo, a really nice 8th grade boy who insisted on being in about 1/2 the pictures I took on the adventure.  According to Khtuna he's a kargi bitchi ("good boy")

We piled into the marshrutka and drove on the bumpy and winding roads for a few miles before pulling over at a random spot on the side of a hill/mountain to have lunch.  In a manner of about five minutes several students pulled out bags they had brought full of food and proceeded to lay it all out for everyone to grab a little bit; there was enough food to feed any army, or at least an army of seventeen 13 year olds and four adults.  All of the kids made sure I had enough to eat and Khtuna continually asked me how I was doing; Georgian hospitality just doesn’t end here.  After this quick lunch we again piled into the marshrutka and continued our journey stopping every now and then for nauseous students to get out a take a breather (marshrutka rides are not for the weak stomached).

We were headed to the “Love City” of Georgia, Sighnaghi but we made a pit stop at Bodbe or St. Nino’s Monastery.  St. Nino lived during the 4^th century (when Georgia first converted to Christianity) and is one of the most important saints in the Georgian church and literally half of the female population in this country is named Nino after her.  St. Nino is buried here in Bodbe’s church (built in the 4^th century and remodeled since) and the small monastery is still in operation today as a nunnery.  It has a beautiful view of the Alazani River Valley (where I live) and you could literally see for miles from the side of this hill.  There is also holy water at this monastery, so we walked down about 1,000 steps to get to this little house where everyone took turns going inside and washing their faces and hands with the water.  Feeling a little bit out of place as probably the only Catholic for miles, I opted to just sit and watch even though everyone insisted that I could and should go in with them.  After that was all said and done, we had to climb all those stairs back to the top (it was brutal, I am so outta shape here with combination of lack of exercise and carbohydrates for days) and took some more pictures in front of the awesome view:

Sighnaghi in the distance.

The little church where St. Nino is buried.

Awesome view from Bodbe.

The Alazani River Valley

Oh Tengo, what a ladies man!

Once again we piled back onto the marshrutka (it was a process each time I tell ya) and drove a few more miles before pulling over at a random Georgians house who had supra tables set up in his front yard and we paid him 15 Lari (about $10) to use some wood to grill meat for tsvadi (Georgian barbeque).  Again, in a manner of minutes enough food was placed on the tables to feed several classes of children and we waited for a bit while the meat cooked and evening set in around us.  Dinner was a lovely affair of typical Georgian food, lots of laughter and energy coming from the students and Khtuna making sure I had enough to eat.  Even though it was nearing 7pm we made our way into Sighnaghi.  I had been hoping to see the city in the daytime since it’s situated on top of a hill with awesome views, but the lights throughout the city at night weren’t too shabby to see either.  We ended up finding a park where all the kids could expend some energy on the playground equipment and Khtuna brought out the panduri again so that some of the students could show me some traditional Georgian dancing.  It was a really great way to end such a long day with a bunch of energetic thirteen year olds.

Showing me their best Georgian moves.

I finally got back to my host family around 9:30 at night and I was exhausted from the whirlwind day of seeing about 1/3 of the Kakheti region.  I’m really glad I got to experience at least one field trip while here in Georgia and I’m already hoping for another invitation for an excursion to come my way again since this one went so well (each grade gets a chance to plan a trip of their choice and who wouldn’t want to take the American girl on an adventure?!).  I guess I’ll just have to wait and see!

Until next time, nakvamdis (“goodbye” in Georgian)!!

Kelsey