For some people it takes a lifetime to find Jesus, For me, less than 10 minutes. Well I guess I had better explain that a little more. I went with my two host sisters to the capital city of Tbilisi this past Sunday and had a great time looking in on a lot of churches and historical landmarks, eating and in general soaking up city life for a day.
We went to Somivara (sp?) the newest and one of the 5 largest churches in the world. There were a mass of people inside attending mass as it was an Orthodox holiday this past Sunday for St. Nino, one of the major Saints here in the Georgian Orthodox faith.
I bought my 3 candles for prayer and went on my way through the church looking for the only icon I felt comfortable praying in front of… Jesus. Paul, no James, no… Some guy I’ve never heard of… no…moving on… eventually I did find Jesus and lit my three candles for my three prayers.
Three by the way is an expectable number or any variation thereof such as 6, 9, 12 and so on. I generally knock out all my requests and whatnot in one, so I thought 3 would be good for me. My sister also took three but one for three different icons. Anyway, after leaving Jesus to stare at my candles, I wandered around some more to look at this amazing church. There are actually two whole levels of the thing below ground that are also open and which put it into the category of world’s top five largest.
After our church excursion, we went to eat and see all the different parks the city has to offer. Awesome, except for the fact that the city was hot hot hot that day. No wind and it had to have been 98 or higher. But, we had fun eating and like I said, just being out of the village for a day. My host sisters insisted on buying me an icon to put in my room from one of the shops, so I am now the owner of an icon to St. Andrew. I figured if I was going to have one, it might as well be my personal Patron Saint.
Practicum is in week two now and all is still going well with that aside from this one local teacher that is just a pain to work with. I don’t have that many problems with her because I just tell her what I’m going to do and if she disagrees, she can just sit in the back and observe. Most of the time she’s onboard with my ideas and I just have to spend time explaining it to her. But, the other volunteers I don’t think have learned how to drop dead weight and move on just yet so they are getting more and more frustrated with her. Oh well, only one more week of this and practicum will be over!
Had a site placement interview on Tuesday and it looks like it’s going to be village life for me for the next two years. The minority communities that speak Azeri and Russian are not in cities or larger towns, so… I can put two and two together on that one. Also got my first technical exam score back this week.100% correct for me! Ha! Aced that one.
We also started learning Azeri and taking Russian refresher courses this week. We now have Georgian for two hours every morning starting at 8:45am then Azeri for two hours on Mon, Tues, Wed, and Friday. Russian on Thurs, and Saturdays during the second two hour block. We asked our Georgian teacher how this would affect our pace in the Georgian book and she said we would keep up with all the other classes and just have to move at a quicker pace. Great! I’m already behind and now the train just started moving double time. Then after lunch we teach for 2 hours, plan for 2 hours then go home to do homework in three languages for another 2-4 hours depending. Long long hot hot days. This is the land of no air-conditioning; anywhere!
Other than the schedule, everything is going well. I’m actually getting accustomed to the pace and at least I’m not dragging my ass up the hill every afternoon now. If I could just speed up time and get PST over with, all would be grand. But, alas, still another 5 weeks to go. Friday marks one month in Georgia! Only 26 more to go. Hahaha, don’t start the countdown just yet.
Hope all is well! Peace!
We went to Somivara (sp?) the newest and one of the 5 largest churches in the world. There were a mass of people inside attending mass as it was an Orthodox holiday this past Sunday for St. Nino, one of the major Saints here in the Georgian Orthodox faith.
I bought my 3 candles for prayer and went on my way through the church looking for the only icon I felt comfortable praying in front of… Jesus. Paul, no James, no… Some guy I’ve never heard of… no…moving on… eventually I did find Jesus and lit my three candles for my three prayers.
Three by the way is an expectable number or any variation thereof such as 6, 9, 12 and so on. I generally knock out all my requests and whatnot in one, so I thought 3 would be good for me. My sister also took three but one for three different icons. Anyway, after leaving Jesus to stare at my candles, I wandered around some more to look at this amazing church. There are actually two whole levels of the thing below ground that are also open and which put it into the category of world’s top five largest.
After our church excursion, we went to eat and see all the different parks the city has to offer. Awesome, except for the fact that the city was hot hot hot that day. No wind and it had to have been 98 or higher. But, we had fun eating and like I said, just being out of the village for a day. My host sisters insisted on buying me an icon to put in my room from one of the shops, so I am now the owner of an icon to St. Andrew. I figured if I was going to have one, it might as well be my personal Patron Saint.
Practicum is in week two now and all is still going well with that aside from this one local teacher that is just a pain to work with. I don’t have that many problems with her because I just tell her what I’m going to do and if she disagrees, she can just sit in the back and observe. Most of the time she’s onboard with my ideas and I just have to spend time explaining it to her. But, the other volunteers I don’t think have learned how to drop dead weight and move on just yet so they are getting more and more frustrated with her. Oh well, only one more week of this and practicum will be over!
Had a site placement interview on Tuesday and it looks like it’s going to be village life for me for the next two years. The minority communities that speak Azeri and Russian are not in cities or larger towns, so… I can put two and two together on that one. Also got my first technical exam score back this week.100% correct for me! Ha! Aced that one.
We also started learning Azeri and taking Russian refresher courses this week. We now have Georgian for two hours every morning starting at 8:45am then Azeri for two hours on Mon, Tues, Wed, and Friday. Russian on Thurs, and Saturdays during the second two hour block. We asked our Georgian teacher how this would affect our pace in the Georgian book and she said we would keep up with all the other classes and just have to move at a quicker pace. Great! I’m already behind and now the train just started moving double time. Then after lunch we teach for 2 hours, plan for 2 hours then go home to do homework in three languages for another 2-4 hours depending. Long long hot hot days. This is the land of no air-conditioning; anywhere!
Other than the schedule, everything is going well. I’m actually getting accustomed to the pace and at least I’m not dragging my ass up the hill every afternoon now. If I could just speed up time and get PST over with, all would be grand. But, alas, still another 5 weeks to go. Friday marks one month in Georgia! Only 26 more to go. Hahaha, don’t start the countdown just yet.
Hope all is well! Peace!
6 comments:
Homework in three languages sounds rough, but what a great set of skills to be learning.
Makes you miss Spanish class with Lucia and Corry doesn't it?
finding Jesus is actually pretty easy--He's in the laughter of every child; the scent of every flower; the wig of every albanian hooker....sounds like you're spending alot of time with your "host sisters"...no?
i met Jesus once, he used to cut our grass every summer.
100%--way to go!
Sorry, but I started my countdown the day you left Chasn.
Feliks Richard Mickelson, 7 pounds and 15 ounces, born on July 15, 2009. His mother is doing very well and much happier with the 8 hour delivery (as compared to the previous 26 hour delivery). Wishing you the best, though it all sounds remarkably familiar.
One, I need a closer look at the 'stash, hard to determine if it is a winner in the shade of the hat. Two, I know you have had a "Come to Jesus" meeting more than one time in your life...so you must be good at finding Jesus these days--should have taken less than 10 minutes. Three, isn't St. Andrew the chief patron of Russia and fishmongers? Hmmm....Four, glad you made it to the big city and are starting to reconcile your 2 years in a village! Five and finally, you are kicking ass and taking names on the "school work" aren't you! Very impressed and proud. Will send an email to give you a play by play of the McKee-Richardson wedding, saw several of your old pals....
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