PLACEMENT!

Big News Everyone!! Yesterday, the TLG group of January 15th, 2012 has gotten their placements! I have found out that I am going to be in beautiful port city of Batumi in the Adjara region.  It's a port city on the Black Sea.  (The picture on the right is of Batumi and I think it's the Meskheti mountains behind it.  Don't quote me because I'm probably wrong.)  It is in the southwest corner of the country.  Using a map, I roughly estimated that Batumi is about 10 miles from the Turkish border and 230 miles from T’bilisi.  I am so excited to go to Batumi!  I was really hoping for a chance to be on the Black Sea because I love the water.  I never actually thought I would get what I wanted, but it looks like the universe was on my side. 

Towards the end of the day, some of the current TLG members came in to talk about their experiences so far in the program.  We talked about their schools, their homestay families, how to deal with classroom management, after school programs, working with the co-teachers, traveling around Georgia, and so much more!  I would share that the main concerns in the group so far are dealing with the gender roles and the stray dog situation in Georgia.  First I’ll talk about my understanding of the gender roles.  Georgia is a traditional patriarchal society, which means that the man is the head of the house.  Men are the breadwinners and women are traditionally stay-at-home moms.  This is not always the case; it is changing in urban areas.  Many of the women are actually school teachers to earn extra money, but I’ll talk more about this later! J Now about the dogs… Georgia is full of stray dogs!  Let me tell you, do not approach them!  This is what I am working on because I love dogs.  I just want to run over, hug them, and take them home.  But I won’t.  Strays are a big problem because there are significant amount of dog bites/attacks to humans during the year.  Last year alone there were 34,000 dog bites/attacks in Georgia alone.  After hearing that statistic, I am keeping a very watchful eye on any stray that crosses my path.  I have seen about 10-12 strays so far and they have all been pretty distant.  I am always watching though in case one might decide that I look tasty. 

Well that’s all for now, mainly because it’s breakfast time and I’m SUPER hungry!  Until next time!

Adventure is out there!