Welcome to Akhaltsikhe

I now live in Akhaltsikhe, which is the capitol of the Samckhe Javakheti region of Georgia. I can write that down, but please don't ask me to say it.  

Last Friday all the families and school directors came to Tbilisi to take their new English speaking “teachers” home. I put teachers in quotes because many of us only have about 2 or 3 hours of training on teaching and little to no classroom experience. I am not sure how much my experience making preschools run around to wear them out counts as real teaching experience. I could tell right away I like my  host mom, she presents herself in a way that is easy to like. The first question she had someone ask me was if I smoke. She seemed happy when I said no. The next question she asked was if I eat meat and drink red wine. I said yes to both and she kissed me.

 From the hotel we piled in to a mini bus, called a Marshutca in Georgian, with my host mother, little sister, three other TLG volunteers and their host families and took off driving about halfway across the country.  We stopped at a restaurant were we had traditional Georgian Khinkali, which are meat filled dumplings. They are full of flavor and juice. You have to eat Khinkali with your hands, which isn’t an easy or neat task. We non-native Georgian’s required piles of napkins and I personally had the meat fall out a few times so I ate that with a fork. At the restaurant we also had several toast I didn’t understand and sipped on some Georgian red wine. Georgia produces over 200 kinds of wine, and they call themselves the birthplace of wine. All the wine I have had is very sweet and has a strong flavor, I like it, but it requires a bit of a sweet tooth. During our drive we passed many people who were herding their animals. We also passed what to me looked like trailer parks type neighborhoods, I was told they are refugee camps for people who left Russia due to the wars between Russia and Georgia, or at least that was our understanding, the language barrier causes constant misunderstandings. 

My new home is a lovely place. It is in the heart of Akhaltsikhe, which is a city of about 60,000 people. When I arrived here I was greeted by my new host brothers and grandmother, and what I believe is the mother’s cousin and her son, who also live in Akhaltsikhe. We has Khachapuri which is another loved and traditional Georgian food, it is bread with a salty cheese baked in to it. The house I live in is attached to my host mother’s furniture store on a main street. I was pleasantly pleased when I learned I had running water AND a western toilet. 

(Pictures of My Room)