Teach and Learn in Georgia: Back in Business

A supra in Kardanakhi, Georgia

 
After a hiatus during "regime change," Teach and Learn in Georgia (TLG) is back in business.

Tamar making borshi

Go here for a list of (or links to) blogs by current and past TLGers, packing items, and cultural notes.

Nely holding up her farmlet's green grapes, Kardanakhi, Georgia

Go here for the official TLG page.

Making churchkhela, Georgia

On my right sidebar is a link to a current TLGer - one who started under the old regime and continued under the new, so he may have a unique perspective to offer you.

Tia serving Kinkhali in Rustavi, Georgia

My second favorite Georgian dance video:

And my favorite, Xorumi or Khorumi, performed by Erisioni. Doesn't matter which gender you are, it gets the blood a-movin'.

 


 Ah, what a place.

Tbilisi: Erisioni

Erisioni, Tbilisi, Georgia

Tonight I did something I wanted to do before I even left for Georgia.

I saw one of the three most famous dance troupes live. Tonight it was Erisioni.

Got my ticket yesterday. Not many left by the time I did so, and the concert subsequently sold out.

The night of the concert, I met a Tasmanian artist who bought a ticket from a scalper. Gay is a sculptor and furniture-maker, fashioning furniture from surrounding nature. She's been in Georgia for a number of weeks as an artist-in-residence, and returns home next Friday. We had a glass of wine before the performance and swapped stories about ourselves.

We separated to our respective seats, and I discovered a few seats down from mine was a retired teacher from California on a three-month tour of friends in Georgia and other European countries. We talked about the TLG program and I gave him some contact info.

I'd been worried about my seat location, but it turned out just fine. The only complaint I have about the production is the lighting sucked. For some performances, a stage light shined directly into my eyes (and Gay reported the identical problem in her seat, which was well below and to the side of mine). And sometimes the lighting was too dark in some dances, including my favorite, Khorumi. This was a criminal offense, truly.

The polyphonic singing was very intense - it reverberated into one's being.

The audience - so thunderously, enthusiastically appreciative. Georgians cherish their folk music and dance.

I'm posting my video of Erisioni's encore performane below, but check out here for gorgeous videos of their work.

Oh, why should I make you work so hard? Below is Erisioni's Acharuli:

Georgia: The Legend We Help Write

I continue to admire the brains behind the TLG program, which has the stated purpose of bringing native English speakers (and more recently, French and Italian [and German?] speakers) to Georgia for the education of Georgia's schoolchildren and native-speaker practice for the Georgian teachers.

This stated purpose is brilliant, of course. But consider the side benefits. The Georgian and U.S. governments pay the volunteer teachers 600 lari per month, and this is the bang Georgia gets for its bucks:

• The Georgian government retains more than 100 lari of same in taxes per month (that we volunteers don't even see); 
• The host families receive 100 lari per month from the volunteers, which gets redistributed to the families' local economies; 
• The volunteers spend most of their remaining 400 lari in Georgia; and 
• The volunteers tell their friends and family about Georgia, creating positive buzz for the country, which helps it (and the U.S.) garner positive political street cred; and
• The volunteers' stories encourage tourism and investment, bringing dollars and euros to this financially-strapped country.

Genius.

The same dynamic applies to the excursions paid for by TLG (ahem, the Georgian and U.S. governments). We volunteer teachers get to go on all-expenses paid field trips to interesting places.

(Tomorrow, we will go to a vocational college in Kachreti, a village in Georgia's premier wine region, Kakheti.)

We take photos. We write blogs, write Facebook posts, send emails to families and friends. We help put Georgia on the map.

We are complicit in an ingenious public relations scheme where we add pages to The Legend that is Georgia.

As with all legends, there is the glory - the traditions, the food, the dance, the song, the beauty, the wine, the warrior spirit, the neighbor-for-neighbor ethic.  But glory has a constant companion: tragedies, troubled times, and the dark sides of traditions. Georgia has it all.

Rustavi Lunch, Rain, Drink, and Dance

The ladies of "my" building invited me and my hostess, Nino, to lunch. Every building has some outdoor space with a couple of picnic tables. All morning, I'd noticed women and some men clearing up the environs, picking up trash, pruning trees and clearing brush, and then burning grass.

In the afternoon, Nino indicated that we were to go out to lunch at what I thought was her friend's house, who'd I'd met yesterday. So I put on my hat and threw my bag over my shoulder. Nino kind of laughed, but we headed out. That's when I realized why Nino had laughed - we were only going down to the communal yard.

The ladies had prepared a great picnic - khinkali, watermelon, and various other dishes. They'd filled a couple of small wading pools for the kids to play in - it was very hot. There was also cold beer, mineral water, and some kind of soda.

Khinkali. Dumpling filled with meat and juices. Credit: Chef Premier

We had a pleasant time, stumbling along in hashed English and Georgian. Later, I shared the photos I'd brought. Among all of them, the photo of a family pig roast, with said pig, on said roast, being the highlight of the photo, evoked from the Georgians sighs and poetry (and may I suggest, even tears) of love toward the deliciousness of roast pork.

One husband sent off for tcha-tcha, a powerful Georgian alcoholic beverage, made with the dregs of the wine making. I think it's on the order of vodka, but made with grape base. To go with the tcha-tcha was brought cherry juice. One downs the shot of tcha-tcha and then follows that with the cherry chaser. I had three shots.

Amazing how much clearer one's vision becomes and how much more skilled one becomes in the local language after three shots of tcha-tcha.

Later met the son of Nino's sister and two of his friends. Had another beer. Watched a Georgian dance video, which I show below. It is a classic military dance - I think you'll agree it is pretty fantastic. After that is another video, with English subtitles, on the "legend" of Georgian dance.





   
The afternoon brought a cooling and drenching rain. The streets are the storm drainage system.

View from my bedroom

View from my bedroom - the rain created a lake in the courtyard.