My Student's Village

Last evening, I gave into the pestering of one of my sixth-graders and went to visit her family in their village, the name of which escapes me now. We're off to a great start.


It was a lot less socially strenuous than I thought it would be. In the first place, while I expected to be surrounded by fifteen men pounding shots of kerosene/vodka, there was actually no supra that night. Instead, my sixth grader, her ten-year-old sister and I could sit back with a glass of dry red wine like cultured people.


The family also had a penchant for the traditional-- they made cornbread using clay pots that they heated over a fire, with leaves on either side of the dough to keep it from burning, for one thing. We also made a side trip to this old grinder thing. I suppose it has a more elegant name than grinder thing, but that's what it does. Water goes in, wheel spins, corn goes in, corn meal comes out. Magic!

Furthermore, the whole trip turned out to be a lot more touristy and enlightening than I expected. This is mostly because it was set in the exotic and historically-relevant locale of...

VANI!


Once you catch your breath, I'll explain. Vani is the "new" name for the ancient city of Colchis, where Jason and his Argonauts went looking for the golden fleece. These days Vani finds itself a good 50 kilometers inland, but back in the day, it was coastal. What's left of the sea is a large swath of flat land and a few rivers. To commemorate its over 2000-year heritage, there's a museum chock-fulla stuff dug out of the ground that dates back to the 8th century BC. This is, of course, bits of clay and bronze that look like they were handcrafted by 3rd graders, but the later stuff is cooler and more recognizable. Especially the gold, except for all the good gold items-- crowns, necklaces, the like-- have been bought by other museums in Tbilisi, Europe and America. I did see a 3rd-century glass bead shaped like a dolphin, which bumped this museum to the top of my list.

And in between riding around in a 1960s Volga and roasting meat on a skewer, I made a mental collection of quotes to put in this blog post. It has been suggested that living every moment for the purpose of blogging is lame, but with 33 days left, it's too late for me to change.

"I won't play the drums until I get really drunk."
- the hosts' 7-year-old son, explaining his musical shyness

"This is like a dream... I can't believe Jeni is in my village!"
- Salome, my 6th grade student, whose dreams apparently don't aim very high

"Are there beautiful places in America, too?"
- Nata, the host aunt, who gets cool props for being from Uzbekistan