One down...

I'm really too tired to think of anything even remotely witty to say, but at least the greatest trial this week is over - the human rights training. Today 8 female English teachers (all IDPs) came by the office between 11am and 3pm to be informed partly of human rights in general, partly of women's rights. I spent the last few days reading and writing up a plan and even finding exercises from UNIFEM and Amnesty education materials. As usual when I congratulate myself on the smooth integration and interconnectedness of the material I'm using for any sort of teaching, it didn't go over quite so well in practice. Either my masterful subtleties were lost on the people I was talking to, or I really am not that smooth. For the sake of my self-esteem, I'll think the former.

Not that it didn't go well, no, it was completely ok. They weren't the most diskussionsfreudige (I've spent 5 minutes trying to think of a good English equivalent but it's not working) group, and at times it felt like I had to draw the answers out of them, but they said they were really pleased with the session at the end. None of them had ever been to any human rights training before, and both UDHR and CEDAW were news to them. They seemed pretty excited to have learned that they actually have all these nights - one of them even called her boyfriend during lunch to inform him of this. They were asked by my boss in the end to give their opinions on the session, and it was really positive - of course I was still there, but it was done in Georgian so they could've been pretty honest. One girl even gave me a note saying she really appreciated it - she had come from Abkhazia and had a really difficult time crossing, but told me that she forgot all those problems during the training. That was sweet! Of course, the Georgians always seem to have lavish praise ready to pour over one, and a Herzlichkeit/hjärtlighet (also here I think English falls short) that makes any good experience simply fantastic and any slight acquaintance a good friend, so I tend to think that the truth is usually somewhere inbetween. Then again, they could just mean it.

One thing I've brought with me from academic life became apparent: structuring anything is pretty easy these days. My brain is permanently set in introduction-definitions-argument-example-argument-example-conclusion mode. And I kind of enjoyed this. With a more enthusiastic group I think it would've been really fun. But I'm not at all a natural born teacher or trainer; still, I'd rather teach human rights than languages if I had to choose.

Now I will quietly melt into a puddle on the floor. It's 21:30 and around 28 degrees outside. Counting on sweating more than sleeping tonight, though sleep is sorely needed... Tomorrow we'll be conducting the exams for all the English groups, then Sunday will be spent marking them. All work piled up in one weekend!