Shabati
Well, I really haven’t had much time to journal this week. It’s been
all I can do to wake up, go to language class for 4 hours, go to lunch
at a volunteer’s house, go back to school and teach English from 3 to
5, lesson plan for an hour or two (or three) then come back home for a
little bit. Then, I might go to a tutoring session at Ana’s (M,T), or
go to Lauren’s to study the steps of lesson planning for a test (W)
and walk home in the dark with Brian and/or Kyle. Or I might take
said test (and not know anything [T]) and wash a few clothes. Or I
might not really feel like doing anything except try to not think
about how bad I am at the language, amatom sheidzleba vkitkhulob
tsigns. (so MAYBE I’m reading a book).
Currently I’m reading Walden Two (still). It’s somehow very fitting
for me to read right now. It’s nearly impossible for me to describe
to my host family what it’s about (“political”… “fiction”? I should
throw “utopia” in there… however, it may be a dystopia. But I haven’t
gotten that far yet.), I’ll try to explain why it’s pertinent.
So, this group of collegiate-type people visit this planned community
in America. The name of the planned community? Walden Two. Duh. So
Walden Two is an intentional community founded on principles of
scientific experimentation for optimization of work. The denizens of
this community only have to work 4 or so hours a day (depending on how
undesirable the job is—poopsmithing is only 2 hours a day), and
everything is constantly undergoing experimentation as to how it could
be done more efficiently.
Side note on the poopsmithing, though—this week, something awesome
happened. Kyle’s family’s outhouse’s level has been rising to an
alarmingly high position, and our level of nervousness while using
said outhouse has been rising at a similarly high rate. But the
outhouse was mysteriously empty one morning. Kyle asked his host mom
about it, and she explained that a truck came in the middle of the
night and went “OM NOM NOM” with a big hose. So now their outhouse is
ready for many more uses. I only wish I had the
time/energy/opportunity to record Kyle’s impression of his mom’s
impression of the truck and post it here for all to enjoy.
But back to utopia. So these people are all living in this society
together, only working 4 hours a day or so, and apparently have good
artists and are happy and whatnot. The people who are in government
are required to spend some of their labor hours in physical labor so
that they don’t forget the people who work primarily in that sort of
job. Also because physical labor is good for you. I think that’s an
excellent idea… if, instead of going to posh health clubs and whatnot,
Americans spent a few hours a week working in a vineyard, we’d
probably be healthier and appreciate our food more. But then we
wouldn’t have delicious chemicalful food. (Mmm, I miss it so. Har
har.) Also, it’d be hard to organize… (or organise. We’re learning
many Britishisms, because most English textbooks here have things like
“lorry” and “favourite,” “tube” and “full stop.” It’s totally fun to
see how the English writers of these textbooks have dealt with the
“American” side of things… what do we do in America? One textbook we
used during lesson planning training had a “funny look at the
differences between America and Great Britain.”
Let me elucidate: *Ahem*. “Americans have two goals in life: to attain
as many things as possible, and to live as long as they can. They
will do anything to achieve these goals. British people are very
content where they are and never strive to gain status.”
Or: “Americans think of themselves first. They will straighten their
children’s teeth and tell them that they are beautiful and urge them
to go out for many extracurricular activities, encouraging them to be
number one in everything. British parents love their children just as
they are, crooked teeth and all.”
That concludes my extended parenthetical discourse on Britishisms.
God save the British writers of Georgian English textbooks.)
Today I’m going to head with Katelyn to Didi Chailuri to pick up
another volunteer, who’s going to stay at Katelyn’s house for the
shabat-kvira (weekend). Raton?? (Why??) Imitom rom it’s Cluster
Exchange Weekend!!! But I really don’t have good friends outside the
cluster, and I wasn’t quick on the uptake, so it’s a Patara weekend
for me. But that’s okay. My host sister has a birthday on kvira
(Sunday), and also Brian’s host grandmother who passed away this week
(ten minutes after we left their house at lunchtime on Wednesday) will
be buried on kvira. So it’s gonna be a busy weekend. Then it’ll be
Monday again and it’ll be
wakeup-school-lunch-school-lessonplan-ho
up again. Blech. I’m getting just a tad burnt out. But no big deal.
It’ll be fine. Albat.
I don’t know if I mentioned this in former posts, but Georgian moms
are plotting to fatten me up. At least, my mom and sister are—they
discussed it one night, throwing conspiratorial glances at me all the
while, and my sister said, “If you knew what we were talking about,
we’d be in trouble!!”. My mom keeps offering me coffee and chocolate
and cookies and chocolate-filled croissants saying, “ohh, kavas ginda?
Shocolatis ginda? Crossanis ginda? miertvit, miertvit!”
And I had tapli purit (honey and bread) at Lauren’s house when we were
studying for that how-to-be-a-teacher-test that we probably failed.
That stuff was good. No, it wasn’t just good, but there are no words
to describe it that do it justice. Not even dzalian gemruelia.
But now it’s time to go for a little walk. Mivdivart pexit didi chailurshi!
Kargad!
17 July, 2009
Friday
Today is our second hub day, full of health seminars and shots. We
also have our mid-assessment interviews to make sure everything is
going well. I don't have much time left, but I will note two things:
This weekend I'm going to visit Sighnaghi with a few other volunteers.
I hear they have a Mexican restaurant that's got a good reputation--
for Mexican food in Georgia, anyway. I'm super excited. They also
apparently have a beautiful monastery/church or two.
Next: We get our site placement announcements a week from Monday.
Exciting news!
So hopefully I'll get to go to an Internet cafe this weekend in
Sighnaghi because it's a touristy area. But here's my news from last
week!
Kargad!
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