Visiting Shroma

One of the main purposes of visiting Guria was to meet a young lady who had done a huge amount to add value to the education of others in her school. She set up a reading club and found ways of getting funding from outside agencies by writing proposals for how their money would be used. Despite the holidays she had gathered a number of her fellow readers together to hear about Tako travels and see her famous van/house.

The first thing that impressed me was the way the youngsters greeted one another: when anyone came into the room they would greet their friends individually, often with a kiss. Imagine that happening with a group of 15 year olds in the UK!?

Youngsters and the two adults – the school’s vice principal and the librarian – were enrapt as Tako talked about her travels in the van with her photographs of some of the places she has travelled to since making the life-changing decision to try to do something for the under-valued groups in her country.

She had been given some books by a Georgian friend to add to the collection and we had some English books and games: there was enthusiasm for both, with Roald Dahl in Georgian in hot demand!

The language games we had brought while intended for learning English could also be used for other languages so we had a quick round of Happy Families just showing how you could use it to learn how to ask and respond to questions and then they asked for a story so we found one that was short and had good illustrations. They listened well and seemed to get the gist of it. I get the impression they enjoyed hearing a native accent.

and then they were off to explore Tako’s home on wheels – and it sparked all the usual questions travellers face before taking us for a walk through the village of which they are so proud.

The municipal buildings were grand but in sad disrepair

The building was palatial and opposite were the seemingly ubiquitous mosaic murals indicative of Soviet design.

We walked a few hundred yards uphillto a statue of which the youngsters are proud – it reminded me of the flags in the entrance to the school as it is a symbol of their liaison with Ukraine

Back to the school via the wrestling class where the boys were really throwing themselves around for cake and coke and we were off on the road again: another successful visit under Tako’s belt, new contacts made.