Halloween Haunts and Hilarity

This week was all about Halloween, a holiday not celebrated in Georgia (and probably frowned upon by the Orthodox church), but beloved by many curious children and American-philes (what's the real word for an American lover?). I am fairly certain that I celebrated Halloween more this week than I have in previous years.

A flat tire- my first Halloween costume

First, the Peace Corps volunteers in Poti all run a weekly English conversation club together and we promised the students that we would celebrate Halloween. In anticipation some students brought candy and masks for the past two weeks because they thought that each week was supposed supposed to be Halloween, they were very disappointed each time. However, this Tuesday did not disappoint for them.


We played some traditional Halloween games- cake walk, bobbing for apples, and eating something off of a dangling string (which was hilarious). We don't have donuts here in Poti and I wasn't about to figure out how to make them, so I bought various sweets and then threaded them with string so we could hang them in the room. There was one major difference between a glazed donut and the pastries we used namely, a donut is light and fluffy and the sweets I chose were incredibly dense and took a lot longer to eat. I got a good laugh out of watching the kids.

They had no idea what they were in for

In addition to the games we had a table full of treats from the students, a few carved pumpkins, several dressed up, and to end thing off we watched the old Disney version of the Legend of Sleepy Hollow- a Halloween classic. By the end of the party students left with stomach aches and a better understanding of how weird this holiday and we Americans really are.

Mummy wrappers extraordinaire 

The next celebration came on Wednesday with my 9/10th grade American club. This one is held after school every other week and was meant to be more educational. First we watched a Nat Geo clip on the history of Halloween, which surprised many kids. After that we played a classic game of "who am I?" ala the Office episode, Diversity Days, anything to make the kids practice speaking in English- no matter how ridiculous. The last game was a question answer game in which the a correct answer meant you got to wrap your mummy and the winner was the first team to finish. It was as if the idea of playing with TP had never occurred to these kids because they couldn't stop laughing. They were pretty talented too!

The task was double- grab and apple and don't ingest any nasty water

For the grand finale on actual Halloween day, a group of us PCVs went to Kutaisi and had a party in a restaurant there. Some of my friends and I decided to go as khinkali, the famous Georgian dumping, and we had a great time. We bought everything for our costumes at the bazar when we arrived. It was hard to explain what we wanted without confusing the locals. Why would anyone want to dress us as a khinkali? After the purchases had been made I suggested paying a seamstress to make them for us, but the others denied me and we spent the afternoon creating then at our friends apt. The creative juices were really flowing. The first couple attempts were pretty bad, but the final products were definitely admirable representations of Georgian cuisine.

We three khinkali took the world by storm

The actual party was also a great time. We had about 25 PCVs, several other expat volunteers, and a few Georgians. We convinced a restaurant to close for the night for use and were able to celebrate without weirding out too many people. The party was great and my little dumpling self was all over that dance floor from beginning to end. I had a great time and loved seeing so many volunteers that I haven't seen for months. Halloween success!

A perfect start to the Halloween week!

Finally, a huge shout out to everyone who put together this package, and the one I got last week. There is nothing better than getting mail. The treats were fantastic, but all of the noted and messages made me happier than anyone could probably imagine. I wish handwritten correspondence weren't such a lost pastime (I don't do it very well so I can't complain). With modern technology I can call/text/skype anyone that I am missing, but the sentiment that comes with actual correspondence is something that can't be replicated. If anyone else wants to try their hand at it let me know, I'll send you my actual address :)