I officially have completed my first month of PST
(pre-service training)...now two more to go! PST is a rigorous and challenging
time for all of us new trainees. We have to go through three months of PST
training before we are officially called volunteers, until then we are still
trainees. Here is a peek at what a typical day in PST consists of...
7:00 am Wake up, dash to the outhouse, brush teeth, wash
face, make a cup of tea and check the internet on my family's computer (They
are usually still asleep then and it's nice to have some quite time)
7:30 Get ready for the day by picking out clothes, putting
on makeup, gathering up my homework and other materials that I studied with the
night before.
8:20 My host brother Giorgi like clockwork knocks on my
bedroom door and tells me, “Anneke eat”.
I usually try to head to the kitchen before 8:30 but lately it’s been
later. My grandmother usually has a cup of coffee and a cup of tea for me
waiting when I get there and then an assortment of food. There is always bread on
the table but other than that is changes….list of stuff I’ve had so far: homemade meatballs, sliced cucumbers and
tomatoes, fried chicken, plain yogurt, hard boiled eggs, beef stew..etc.
Breakfast is not really a set cuisine…you kind of just eat the leftovers
from dinner the night before.
8:40 Leave with my host brothers Giorgi and Atchiko for
school. The Osiauri village school is about a 15 minute walk from my house. There are usually kids that run by me or tag
along and shout Hello from a far. It's nice too see everyone in the morning. Some kids that I've taught in class come up and say "Hello Anneke, how are you?" I usually respond and ask them how they are doing as well.
9:00-1:00pm I have Georgian language class with my other
cluster mates in one of the empty rooms of the school. Our door doesn't close
all the way or lock so at least twice during our four hours of class students
fling open the door to look in and shout hello. Our LCF (Language and Culture Facilitator aka my Georgian teacher) Ana promptly tells them
to go to class. We have two breaks in the middle of our four hour language class to
use the bathroom or to step outside and stretch our legs. I’m learning Georgian
slowly; it’s a very difficult language with 7 different cases. By the end of
class I’m usually brain dead from all the new information from that day.
1:00/1:30 Walk to lunch. It usually takes a while to get anywhere we
are going just because we have to pack up our stuff padlock our room door for
the day and walk 15 minutes to lunch.
1:30 Eat Lunch. Our host families take turns each day
hosting us at lunch. We are on a rotation schedule throughout the week. This
gives us a chance to see the different living styles of each cluster mate’s
home. We also get to know each other’s host families and converse to them in
Georgian. I’m pretty sure each family
tries to outdo each other and they usually ask us if their food is the
best. Georgians never cease to amaze me;
they just pull out large quantities of food from nowhere.
2:20 Walk to the martshutka (van) stop in Lower Osiauri. We
usually pass a Frisbee around while we are walking just to make the journey
more interesting. Our walk normally is about 15 minutes too although when the Frisbee
is out there is a lot of backtracking.
2:40 Meet Giorgi our martshutka driver and his martshutka. We
like to think that we have formed a bond with Giorgi even though he doesn't
speak much to us and when he does we usually can’t understand it. Either way we've
grown accustom to seeing this white 10 passenger van with a painted alligator
on the hood and a Giorgi sitting in the front seat. Did I mention that he has a
gold alligator figurine on his dash? The martshutka drives us the eight minute
drive to the town Khashuri where we have PST Education training.
3:00-5:00/6:00 PST Education training. All the clusters come
together during the afternoon for training so it’s nice to catch up with the
all education trainees who live in other villages. We have different sessions
each time…some sessions cover how to properly write a lesson plan while other
sessions teach us about how to teach a class with limited resources.
6:00/6:30 The martshutka picks us up outside our training
school in Khashuri. Sometime we convince our driver to give us 10 minutes of
shopping in the town because we need to recharge our phones or grab some essentials like toilet paper.
6:30/7:00 Get dropped off in our village, Osiauri. My cluster mates and I usually try to get a
rough plan going of what we are going to do later on that night if we get
together. After plans are made I make the 10 min walk from the martshutka stop to
my home.
6:45/7:10 Arrive home. I usually arrive home, say hello to my host
family and go to my room to drop off my big backpack that I've had with me
since language class that morning. I
have time to do this and use the outhouse before my grandmother escorts me to
the table and demands that I eat at least three pieces of bread and seconds of
everything else on the table. My family usually refers to this meal as Lunch…kind
of confusing. But “Lunch” consists of
anything left over from breakfast plus some potato dishes or veggie dishes.
7:40 I usually excuse myself and try to get some homework
done. I try to study until around 8:30ish if I can. Sometimes if my cluster
mates and I make plans to meet up I usually meet up with them around 8ish. We
normally attempt to study but we end up hanging out and sometimes watch movies.
If I end up going over to a cluster mates house I try to get
back home as close to 10pm as I can. As soon as I get home I usually get asked
if I've eaten while I was and even if I've
responded yes I am still escorted to the
kitchen for dinner which usually takes place 9:45ish or 10ish. I usually try to
eat a little bit both there have been other times where I tell them that I am
full...but that does not fly here.
If I don’t go over to a cluster mate’s house then I hang out with my family before and after 10pm
dinner time. We watch TV as I attempt to use
the new Georgian words or phrases that I've learned that day.
11:30 I am exhausted from the long day and I just want to
have my alone time to wind down. I get ready for bed, use the outhouse
(hopefully for the last time that night…dashing outside in the dark to an unlit
outhouse while wearing a headlamp on your head should be a new game or sport
lol) wash hands, wash face and brush teeth.
12:00-1:00 Either finish my homework that I have not
completed yet, read my kindle or pass out from exhaustion.
7:00am Repeat.
Like I said PST is intense training.
