An American in Georgia(the country)

Are you teaching English over there?
I was thinking about doing the teosl someday. They claim you don't need to know the language to teach others English. Is this actually true? I think it's in Japan and Germany it's hard to get the good jobs but Cambodia, Korea, China and Russia seem to pay the plane fare to go over there.
Please pave the way for fellow Moz fans to follow in your footsteps. :)

Cool pics! Thanks for sharing.
The Stalin musuem would be a blast.
 
The Death of a Pig
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OK, so this post was going to be a long winded post about how I rediscovered my inner vegeterian, but I just slipped on the ice on the way to buy a pack of Georgian ciggies and my back is killing me, so anyways
You see that little piggy on the left there?
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He got slaughtered
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before my eyes, I've skipped all the pics of his long bloody death rattle, followed by the long drawn out carving of him up(after being moved to a different location)
but I think this was one of blood on the snow just says something else or
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this one of Leo, Nugo's father holding up the pig's head, this old timer was born during WW2, to a war widow, the last of 9 children, but she lived into her 80s.
Now Leo took an immeadiate disliking to me becuase of my German last name, given some German killed his Mama(thats Georgian for father, I know, how crazy is that!) during the battle of Stalingrad whilst he was still in his Deda's(Deda is Georgian for mother, yes, I know, its all backwards here) womb.
However, after drinking enough wine with him and toasting to their victory in "The Great Patriotic War" he seems OK with me now.
Oh yeah, more about the pig, while they were carving him up
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His parents looked on from the other side of the fence, this moment was a little heart breaking for me and when
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Giorgi showed me some of the meat he was going to cook, I swore to myself I would not eat any of poor Mr Piggy! Even though, I had not eaten since the night before, I was cold, and we had trekked 6 km up to an altitude of about 1400 m. However, once
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the pork was cooking over the hot coals, Mr Piggy was transformed to something delicious smelling that I just had to eat, and I did, a lot of him.
None of Mr Piggy went to waste though, there are still jars and jars of him here in one of the buildings, eventually all that was left was his
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bones...


ps: Look, to me, its brutal here in many ways, but its all tempered by necessity, I mean I would not want to live like this for more than a year, but it has already been an eye opening experience for me. Still, I will try and make my next post(whenever that may be) more uplifting, cheers!
pps: Did not know if I was going to be able to make this post, the high speed access is about to go anytime now.
 
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Are you teaching English over there?
I was thinking about doing the teosl someday. They claim you don't need to know the language to teach others English. Is this actually true? I think it's in Japan and Germany it's hard to get the good jobs but Cambodia, Korea, China and Russia seem to pay the plane fare to go over there.
Please pave the way for fellow Moz fans to follow in your footsteps. :)

Cool pics! Thanks for sharing.
The Stalin musuem would be a blast.
No, thank you!
&
Yes, I have 24 classes with 2 different teachers, I prefer teaching the little ones, they are actually much more attentitive here, the older kids have mainly been shifted from learning Russian or German for years, to starting English either this year or last, some seem unhappy about this. However, I often communicate with those that speak a little Deutsch with my small amount of it as well.
also
I finished my TESOL course in August of 2011 and just wanted to get out of my mother's house asap, so I took the first available job that I could, Russia was my first choice, but after doing a year in such a cold place, I doubt I will want to go there next.

ps: the good jobs in Asia(pay wise) come to those with teaching experiece, trust me, I researched this, and as for them paying for the airfare. They reimburse you and only up to a point. Georgia paid for my ticket before I even came here, allowing me to come with some $ I had saved rather than have 0, this made Georgia a better option for me
 
The Death of a Pig
SAM_0367.jpg

OK, so this post was going to be a long winded post about how I rediscovered my inner vegeterian, but I just slipped on the ice on the way to buy a pack of Georgian ciggies and my back is killing me, so anyways
You see that little piggy on the left there?

He got slaughtered

before my eyes, I've skipped all the pics of his long bloody death rattle, followed by the long drawn out carving of him up(after being moved to a different location)
but I think this was one of blood on the snow just says something else or
SAM_0420.jpg
this one of Leo, Nugo's father holding up the pig's head, this old timer was born during WW2, to a war widow, the last of 9 children, but she lived into her 80s.
Now Leo took an immeadiate disliking to me becuase of my German last name, given some German killed his Mama(thats Georgian for father, I know, how crazy is that!) during the battle of Stalingrad whilst he was still in his Deda's(Deda is Georgian for mother, yes, I know, its all backwards here) womb.
However, after drinking enough wine with him and toasting to their victory in "The Great Patriotic War" he seems OK with me now.
Oh yeah, more about the pig, while they were carving him up
SAM_0440.jpg

His parents looked on from the other side of the fence, this moment was a little heart breaking for me and when
SAM_0478.jpg

Giorgi showed me some of the meat he was going to cook, I swore to myself I would not eat any of poor Mr Piggy! Even though, I had not eaten since the night before, I was cold, and we had trekked 6 km up to an altitude of about 1400 m. However, once
SAM_0481.jpg

the pork was cooking over the hot coals, Mr Piggy was transformed to something delicious smelling that I just had to eat, and I did, a lot of him.
None of Mr Piggy went to waste though, there are still jars and jars of him here in one of the buildings, eventually all that was left was his
SAM_0524.jpg

bones...


ps: Look, to me, its brutal here in many ways, but its all tempered by necessity, I mean I would not want to live like this for more than a year, but it has already been an eye opening experience for me. Still, I will try and make my next post(whenever that may be) more uplifting, cheers!
pps: Did not know if I was going to be able to make this post, the high speed access is about to go anytime now.

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I am just waiting for the negative reaction to this post because of one of life style choices of a certain pop star that this website is dictated to.
 
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I am just waiting for the negative reaction to this post because of one of life style choices of a certain pop star that this website is dictated to.

f*** 'em, I say. The people who respond negatively to this, I mean, not the pigs. When you can't grow silly little vegetables because the ground is frozen to f***, animals are a necessary part of the food chain. Humans are carnivorous animals. Pigs, cows, sheep and a host of other animals are delicious. Eat them all.

"Try living in the real world, instead of a shell.."

P.S. forgot chickens. They're tasty too.
 
My classes
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As you can see, I work with kids in a wide range of ages. These classes are really taught by a Georgian teacher (I work with 2 right now) They meet either 2 or 3 times a week, different times on different days, I am still getting a handle on the schedule, but it basically means 24 classes a week for me.

ps: The school is a restoration in process, it was badly damaged during the civil war and closed for years after that. I've sent a letter to a couple of top officials asking if they could get the classes new blackboards, here's hoping...
 
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How come they all sit by the window and nobody in the front row?
 
no pics to post right now, just got back from a 2 and a half day odyssey involving, the police, the army, a blizzard and a broken down car, needless to say, I am exhausted and just happy to be back in V-town!
&
How come they all sit by the window and nobody in the front row?
OK, even though I don't think all the pics conform to such, what I think you are noticing is that many simply gravitate towards the warmest part of the room, the stove

Whoa! Georgian children

so cute!
I know, and the younger ones are well behaved!
 
Look, to me, its brutal here in many ways, but its all tempered by necessity.

I am grateful to live somewhere it isn't a necessity, but I understand that it isn't like this everywhere... In a way, seeing that fleshless skull is sort of beautiful.
Much of the "food parts" of animals ends up in the trash in Western Capitalist societies. Industry uses it all, but then it gets wasted by consumers who can afford to buy and waste more than they will ever need, all the while feeding the industry through this excess and waste.
 
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The Death of a Pig
SAM_0367.jpg

OK, so this post was going to be a long winded post about how I rediscovered my inner vegeterian, but I just slipped on the ice on the way to buy a pack of Georgian ciggies and my back is killing me, so anyways
You see that little piggy on the left there?

Robby, I enjoy your reports from Georgia, please keep them coming! My question is: Why was the little piggy on the left chosen for slaughter? He seems to be the smallest. Did you ask them that by any chance? Or is the picture not showing that the piggy is about the same size as the others and he was chosen for "other reasons". If you didn't already, can you ask, how they chose which pig will be slaughtered at any given time? Is there some sort of reason why one pig is chosen over another? Thanks in advance.
 
the army took my best photos
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See the Georgian 4th Infantry brigade was on some kind of winter exercises, I took a bunch of photos, mainly of a bunch of them doing PT, while 2 crews were limbering one, what looked like a 75mm? howitzer, and another crew was loading one they had already set up. Once I had as many pics as I wanted we got back in the van and Nugo drove off. Not half a click away a cop stopped us, ordered me out of the van and demanded to see my camera. I refused to give it to him and just kept saying "Amerikeli, Amerikeli" This has gotten me out of most problems here, I walk where I want, when I want, take pics of what I want, all under the guise of "Amerikeli, Amerikeli." It seemed not this time though, eventually Nugo convinced them to send for someone who spoke English, this turned out to be some "Special Security Police" guy in a Mercedes, who had spent a year in New York about 20 years ago, needless to say, his English was not very good, but he did follow along as I deleted all the Army photos I had taken, then before he left, he took a photo of me and had Nugo take one of me with him!
He did let me keep the one of the sign for the base though, I guess this is the extent of current Georgian-American cooperation, at least here in Georgia, I bet this will change if Obama sells thems some Stingers(A-A weapons) & Dragons(A-T weapons) So come on dude, get with it!
Anyways, speaking of Georgia and war, every classroom has
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this poster up in it, its the local war dead from the 92-94(mainly) civil war, by local I mean more than this town of 2000ish, its for the province, which still means a lot for an area of about 50 to 100 thousand people.
After the episode with army and cops we were caught on the road in a blizzard, and the car started running badly, we took shelter in a semi-abandoned building while Nugo and Giorgi did some repair work, I did some wandering and photo taking:
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This is the panel of a big huge sheet metal press machine, I look this photo because it says "CCCP" on it! near it were a whole bunch of pipes that had been cut off and now
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trees were growing up through the holes in them, this was a pretty "12 Monkeys" moment for me and just to show somebody was indeed here in the early 90s?
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this poster of Mariah hung on the bathroom door, still lookin good baby!
Now usually after going to the bathroom here, I must make do with near freezing Georgian water to dry my hands with, but in this building there was hot water to use, which was nice. However, I should have made sure not to lean my head on any of the pipes
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I can tell you, that hurt a lot, and this photo of the mark it left was taken just today, or a week after it happened. Shortly after that, we headed back on the road, but the van broke down again. This time
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the took the whole thing apart and
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found the problem, after replacing that, it was another 2 hour drive to my current home of "V-town"
 
Robby, I enjoy your reports from Georgia, please keep them coming! My question is: Why was the little piggy on the left chosen for slaughter? He seems to be the smallest. Did you ask them that by any chance? Or is the picture not showing that the piggy is about the same size as the others and he was chosen for "other reasons". If you didn't already, can you ask, how they chose which pig will be slaughtered at any given time? Is there some sort of reason why one pig is chosen over another? Thanks in advance.
this is a just a guess based on my now ancient time on the farm, but the 2 older pigs are the "breeding pair" and their offspring become, well, dinner
 
I always admirer people in places like that who can get by and fix their car themselves like that. They are able to take the whole thing apart and find the problem and then put it together again and keep on driving. The way most other people live a big catastrophy would leave people totally stranded and not being able to survive.
 
Yo Robby

it's been two weeks and no word from you.

What's going on in Georgia

Its been two weeks since Raymond died and I started drinking heavily shortly aftet that.
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For a time it "worked" then I started doing really stupid things like
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luckily no one saw it but her and she took this picture, from there it only got worse, I
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hit the back of my head on a stove, that one is gonna leave a mark and worse yet, later that night
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I called up my main co-teacher(the only other person in this town who speaks English) and told her what I really think of her
the fallout on that one is still working through the community, for all I know, I may be sent to a different school by next month
will see, but that was Thursday night and I have not had a drink since. As a matter of fact, I was feeling so good yesterday that when we woke up to
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a new round of snowfall
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I got up and shoveled the entire deck clear
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my host family was a little awestruck by me doing so, they know how much I detest the cold here, but I felt I just had to do something, even
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the stairs, granted, by then my arms were tired and I used my boots to just push the stuff off, it was only about a half a foot or so on them luckily, unlike the nearly 2 feet on parts of the deck.
Anyways, thats all for now, still not feeling up to posting really(I'll give it a try since I logged in though)
but I am listening to a lot of Moz & The Smiths, imagine that!
 
My friends just decided to name their baby Georgia. :straightface:
 
My friends just decided to name their baby Georgia. :straightface:

well, "Giorgi" is by far the most common male name here
anyways, I am about to run out of high speed internet again(where oh where did the 5 gigs go?)
but when I buy some more, I'll post some pics I took inside an ancient monastery
and some others of a tiny(hard to reach) chapel on a mountain top...
 
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