Day in the Life of a PST Trainee

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.