So, I'm sitting here this evening, trying to get motivation to write my final exams, but I am having a hard time because I my shoulders are extremely sore. I didn't even have to go to the gym to get this effect, all I had to do was volunteer to go to the orphanage and play with the kids.
All eight teachers intended to go and six of us made it to the bus stop for the trip to Dobroe, technically a separate village, but really just an extension of Vladimir. We are supposed to make this a weekly event, but I think it will end up being groups of four of us on alternating weeks.
We got there around 10:30 and they introduced us to the director and the teachers. Regularly I think we will spend time with them indoors after lunch and possibly try to teach the kids a few words of English. The kids range in age from 2 on up to about 7-8 I think.
This time, we ended up being there at "go outside and play" time, so we joined in. Bob, Amanda, and Nicole ended up with about 8-10 relatively calm well-behaved younger kids. Sara, Joanna, and I ended up with about 20 or more hyper kids that wanted to run, jump, and go crazy. Let's just say that I am updating my resume to read "experience as airplane, helicopter, and climbing-wall." I went into the thing with clean jeans and shoes, but that didn't last very long. Then one of the kids decided that it would be a good idea to come and ask me how my mother let me out of the house with dirty pants....There you have it.
After an hour and a half of pure chaos, it was time to go home...And by home I mean here, to work. I know that I was exhausted. Judging by some of the looks around the teachers' office, I'm not the only one.
Politics Warning!
The other thing of note is politics. The current class between Russia and Georgia has many reasons (most of them not all that valid) and lots of bad results (gas price fights, deportations, wine import bans, etc). This is an interesting Article I found on the BBC's website: It's a Q and A between some Georgian High School Students and some Russian ones.
Q & A
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2 comments:
Aaron,
Interesting article from the school kids. What ages are you teaching and what if anything have they said regarding the conflict with Georgia?
~Doug
I have one class of 13-15 year-olds, one of mostly college age students, and two classes of mostly adults. I generally avoid talking about political topics with my students. On the other hand, I do talk about politics with Nina Petrovna, the retired woman who is my hostess. She seems to have a pretty typical view of Georgia, Georgians, and people from the Caucasus. This view is, in a few words, not very positive. This is the same basic idea that lies behind American prejudices against Mexican immigrants and European prejudices against immigrants from African and Muslim countries. The general line here is that people from the Caucasus don't work hard, live off of whatever sort of welfare system they can, and control the prices at markets for basic foodstuffs (I know that these seem contradictory, but they didn't ask me.)
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