My second Easter in Georgia: Easter 2017

This time last year, I was arriving to staging and preparing to fly to Georgia. This year, I celebrated Easter with my school and host family! It is amazing how much I have learned in the past year of service, and this Easter I have thought a lot about how far I have come! This year, I was able to share American Easter with my school and host family, as well as participate in Georgian Easter traditions, including the insane traditional ball game of Lelo.

I. Easter Egg Dying

In Georgia, like in most Orthodox countries, eggs are dyed red to symbolize the blood of Christ. Therefore, the American tradition of dying eggs lively and bright colors can seem a bit odd to the average Georgian. However, luckily my community is open to cultural exchange and learning, and so I was able to organize an American style Easter egg dying day at my school! On the last day of school, the kids all gathered to learn how to dye eggs in the "American style". My favorite part was while I was preparing the dyes, some of the teachers wandered in, curious what I was up to. They ended up helping me create the dyes, and were so interested in the different colors and how to make the dye! We even did a couple of example eggs for the kids. We had a big group show up to do eggs, ranging in age from 4th to 10th grade. I showed them the may options for dying, like mixing colors, doing half and half, and using the wax crayon to draw designs. They were very creative, and loved all of the color options! One of my sweet 8th graders even made my counterpart and I eggs with our names on them! And one of the teachers even took the leftover dye home to use with her granddaughter who was visiting for the holiday.

The teachers and I mixing the dye

Thanks to my host mom for providing the (homemade) vinegar!

8th graders dying their eggs!

4th and 5th graders dying their eggs!

6th graders dying their eggs!

Everyone with their eggs! (Don't worry, the serious faces are just a Georgian thing...they like to look serious in pictures)

I also dyed eggs with my host family. We had a great time coming up with different designs and color combinations for the eggs.  I told them about how in America, dying eggs is not religious anymore, it is just for fun, and we talked a bit about what it means in Georgia. In the end we put the American style eggs with the Georgian style eggs, which I think was a great symbol of cultural exchange!

Gio working hard on designing his egg with wax crayon

Gio and Nino

Georgian and American eggs together

Gio with our masterpieces

II. Paska

The traditional Georgian food on Easter (besides red eggs), is Easter cake, called paska. It is in the shape Golgatha, the mountian where Jesus was crucified. Families bake paska and eat it on Easter Sunday and in the days following. My host mom made lovely paska which we have been enjoying immensely:

III. Grave Feasting

In the Georgian Ortodox tradition, Easter is a time to remember deceased family members. In Georgia, there is the unique tradition of grave feasting, where families go to the cemetery and have a feast on the graves of their dead relatives. They bring offerings for these relatives, placing red eggs, paska (Easter cake), and alcohol on their graves. This year, we went with my host aunt and uncle's family and had an enjoyable morning.

the whole family

the table

IV. Lelo Burti - a traditional Georgian ball game

Lelo is a game that has ancient roots in Georgia, but today is only played in one community in Georgia: mine! Lelo is basically like rugby but without rules. The ball is 37 pounds and is filled with sand soaked in wine and blessed by the priest, who also starts the game by carrying the ball from the church and taking the firs throw. The two teams are made up of the upper and lower parts of the village, who each try and get the ball over different natural barriers. The team who wins brings the ball to the grave of a young man who died that year to honor him.

I got the chance to hold the ball before the game, which was pretty cool! It really was as heavy as they say!

Thousands of people come to this event every year, and has even gathered international interest! I stood on the church wall to stay out of the way of the crowds and the game, which can get pretty crazy (I saw shoes and shirts flying). Here are some photos of the event from this year:

Before the event, there is traditional singing and dancing. Here is a children's group singing traditional Gurian (my region) songs:

People standing on the walls out of the way:

The upper (Zemo) Shukhuti team arriving and chanting "Zemo, Zemo"

And finally, the insane start of the game:

There have been some great articles written about Lelo as well:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/gallery/2015/apr/27/lelo-georgia-muddy-bloody-game-rugby-in-pictures

http://www.civil.ge/eng/category.php?id=87&size=wide&gallery=111

Here is a video that shows Lelo from this year:

Texts from Georgia: February - March

The following texts are ones I have either sent or received from other volunteers documenting our daily weird moments. Enjoy.

I just realized that the bag that has been next to my feet the entire marsh ride has had a live chicken in it.

Uh oh...the chicken just pooped in the bag. The smell...

I had to teach 2nd grade by myself they were legit fighting each other in class. We are not friends now, no stickers they were grabbing me like a little mob.


This one kid stole this other kids stickers and literally the whole class ganged up on him and started hitting him and i was like I should be mad but this kid is a little sh**


Just walked past a dead dog. Never leaving my house again.


Great. There is an annoying drunk guy on my marsh and he just cracked a beer :(


So 2nd period was cancelled today so some kid could be taken home because of a toothache. So everyone else is just running around outside.


So the teacher at the small school made us end class early so we could eat some wild duck her husband shot.

Baku, Azerbaijan

Over Spring Break, 4 other volunteer and I took a quick trip to our neighbor country, Azerbaijan. Although it was a short trip, it was totally worth it!

From Tbilisi, we took the night train to Baku. It was my first time ever taking a sleeper train, and it was definitely an interesting experience. The compartments were minuscule, but fairly comfortable given the circumstances. The border crossing was the hardest part, as it took 2 hours total to pass through both border controls - including having our photos taken and compartment searched! For anyone considering making the trip, be warned that the train staff and Azeri border officials speak little to no English (or Georgian) so be prepared for some sign language communication! Also there is no food so bring your own!!

The train was Soviet era, but had been refurbished inside

tight conditions!

waiting at the border

Baku is an interesting city. Outside the city, it is a desolate desert full of oil rigs and not much else. But the city itself (financed by oil money) is large, modern, and full of life. And, most importantly for us volunteers, it has a Mexican restaurant!

If you order the mariachi nachos, a marachi band comes and plays for you

Here are some of the sights of Baku that we enjoyed:

Heydar Aliyev Center (named for the president and styled after his signature, and with a lawn filled with plastic statues of rabbits and snails)

the whole crew

Heydar Aliyev Square: 

The Caspian Sea!

Old Town

The old city wall

There were signs everywhere...but they were blank

Palace of the Sharvanishah's (historic rulers of Baku)

the view from the palace

The Caspian Sea out of the palace window

Possibly my favorite thing in Azerbaijan: historic mustache trainers!!! 

Shirvanashah private mosque

tomb/mosque destroyed by the Armenian invasion in 1918

We also took a trip out to a small town about an hour away from Baku, Gobustan. There is an ancient petroglyph site out there, as well as mud volcanoes! The petroglyphs were absolutely fascinating and well preserved! The landscape was very dry and rocky, but the museum said that thousands of years ago, this was all forest which explains the amount of wildlife represented in the drawings.

the road up to the site

humans and a deer

ancient aurochs (ancient wild cattle)

dancing humans

view fro, the site

humans and a boat

horses

From the petroglyphs, we were eager to see the mud volcano site which we had heard so much about. Azerbaijan is rich in natural gas, which bubbles up from the ground sometimes resulting in eternal flames or in mud volcanoes! The problem is, the site is extremely off the beaten path (there is no road to it) so you have to have a local drive you. Luckily, the manager of the petroglyph site spoke English, and called his friend to take us. What resulted was the most exciting and wild ride of my life: speeding along off road through the desert avoiding wild dogs and potholes, all while the driver laughed at our reactions! When we arrived at the site, we were the only people there (and for miles around!). The site itself is very odd: mounds rise out of the ground filled with bubbling mud, and gas comes out of the ground as well (our driver was prepare and whipped out his laughter to show us how you can set the ground on fire where gas comes out!)

mud volcanoes

bubbling mud

the moment the mud burst out

All in all, Azebaijan was an awesome trip, and I got to visit a country and culture that I never imagined I would ever see!