Zugdidi...my new home!

I have been placed in Zugdidi, a mid-sized city (roughly 80,000 people) located in the North West region of Georgia bordering Abkhazia. There are 17 other teachers located in and around the neighboring villages, which is great because we have a good support system here. Zugdidi is a cute little town with two main streets and a park running through the center of town. All of the buildings are less than about eight stories tall and most are about four. Most buildings are stone or cement, harsh looking structures, but are inviting and comfortable inside.

Ok so I mentioned before that splitting up from the group was really hard after bonding over the week of training. It was also especially hard because our departure from Kutaisi was somewhat dramatic. Haha So what happened was we were divided into three groups and put onto busses where we then drove to three centralized locations in the different regions to meet our new families. We stopped first in a town called Senaki in a school that looked very much like a prison. Picture a huge, disheveled cement building that looked like a bomb had gone off in it. VERY soviet looking. Anyway, I digress…basically we were all (our whole volunteer group and some Georgian families) sitting in a meeting room in the school and one by one people’s names would be called. They would walk to the front of the room to meet their families while everyone applauded. Hugs, kisses, and tears were exchanged as the families met their new ‘foreigner’. It looked a bit like an 5^th grade graduation ceremony…except instead of a diploma you got a family. Then the families quickly swept our friends into cars and off to their respective towns and villages. It was really sad to see them go! But it built up a lot of excitement (and nerves!) for us to meet our families.

I was in group number two. We got to the educational resource center in Zugdidi, and were greeted by a room full of anxious Georgian families awaiting our arrival. Again, it was kind of dramatic and really nerve wrecking meeting these people for the first time. Three teachers from my school came with my host ‘grandfather’ to pick me up and they were so nice! They brought me back to their house where the rest of the family and some friends were waiting to meet me.