I Love Food and Making People Pick Up Trash

Attention- I have reached a mile stone, 100 weeks to go. Someone should start a sticker chart or paper chain for me. :) I have also received my first pieces of mail at my house, let me know if you need my new address.

Now for the week that was...

Monday-  

Literally nothing to report, I'm not sure if I even left the house... I did read a lot though.

Tuesday- 

Keeping up with my networking, today I met with some contacts at the municipality building. One of those people ended up being the deputy mayor, much to my surprise. Giorgi and Nana both work with a program called Access which works with underprivileged youth in the city. One of the major focuses of the program is teaching English, but along with language classes they also teach life skills and provide a place for students to get involved after school. The program will restart in September and I am excited to start collaborating with them. 

I also decided to take advantage of the fact that I was with the dept. mayor and learn about Poti and more of the plans they have for the city. We discussed some of the more pressing issues and I offered my assistance in anyway I could. The plans they shared for the city's development were very exciting and included some nice development along the coast which could bring in some much needed tourism. I was also really excited for the beach cleaning machine which they showed me. This means that my cow beach should be all cleaned up sometime next month. Now I don't have to buy a rake and do it myself!

After my visit I decided to go and culture myself at the theater. The afternoon play (the festival was still going) was Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, which meant that I could read the summary and understand what was going on on stage. Translating Shakespeare unfortunately loses the iambic pentameter (thank you Jr. High English class), but it also means that the word usage is easier to understand. With my limited Georgian and understanding of the play's plot I was able to enjoy myself a lot more than last time. The best part was the mobster theme that they decided to use as well as the random English songs used to mark scene changes, you never knew what they were going to play next!

I forgot to take many pics this week... Here is a piano planter I found in town.

Wednesday-

Wednesdays are the days that I've decided to dedicate to exploring my region more. My goal for this day was to visit Alex, the closest volunteer to Poti. I figured it couldn't be too difficult since she was only 30 min outside of town. The major problem was that no one really seemed to recognize the name of her village... and that is how I ended up near stranded in the middle of nowhere. I had told the driver where I wanted to get off and tried to pay attention along the way. Eventually the marshutka stopped at an intersection and the driver told me it was my stop, the problem was it looked nothing like what Alex had described to me. I obediently hopped off the marsh and immediately called Alex. Turns out we'd passed her village 3 miles ago. So I set off on another long walk.

Aside from that minor fiasco, the visit was great. I was excited to get back to a village. Everything was more calm and laid back, reminding me of my previous host family and life in Skra. There were plenty of animals and trees along with gardens galore. City life just can't compete. However, there are definitely trade offs. The resources and commodities of a city are really nice compared to the isolation of a village. I'm not sure which life I would prefer.

Thursday-

Thursday ended up being one of my favorite days of the week. Last week a fellow PCV had called me and mentioned that he was going to come out and visit for a few days. It turns out that his host mother works in Poti during the week and he wanted to spend some more time with her since he was alone with his older host brother all week. 

We met up in the morning and started our tour of Poti. I have slowly developed a list of places to find in town and we took advantage of our free time to check a couple off. First up was a local museum. It was very basic but full of amazing pieces. There were some artifacts that were over 3,000 years old. I'm not sure if I will ever be able to wrap my head around how old this place is! Our tour guide was a great guy who spoke some English and when I told him that I would be living in Poti for two years, he immediately took down my number and stated that we would become friend- I've already received invites to various events from him. It's nice to start making more friends in my new home. I'm going to need some sort of social life.

After our museum visit we found the children's library where the staff was just as excited about the prospect of me living in Poti for two years. I promised to come back and visit them next week. Next we met up with Maka my potential new Georgian tutor. She was please to see that I had a guest with me and insisted on driving our the the beach- you have to show the guests how great the area is. To my surprise we ended up in Ureki which makes my third visit there since moving here. We walked around town and showed my fellow PCV a good time. Things are now almost all set for my tutoring which is exciting since self study is nowhere near as productive as lessons. 

Apricot cheesecake aka Heaven for my taste buds

Finally the day wrapped up with my favorite thing- food! We first went to the ship restaurant to sample a few things like- khatchapuri (Georgian cheese bread) on a stick- delicious! Next we were met by my friend's host mom and she insisted on taking us to a few of her favorite places in town. It was super helpful to have someone showing me the good places in town. First we stopped at a delicious pizza restaurant that was a complete surprise to me. I was not anticipating finding pizza in Poti, let alone good pizza (without mayo on it!). After our pizza meal we walked around some more and then found ourselves in a small cafe which was decked out like something out of pintrest (do Georgians look at pintrest? I have no idea.). All that mattered was that this place had CHEESECAKE! It wasn't exactly like back home but it was still delicious!

Aside from all the delicious food Vera was a fascinating person to get to know. She is not your traditional Georgian woman. She also spoke great English, which she learned from hosting a PCV 13 years ago. By working on her English, all through conversation, no classes, she was able to use it to get a better job and support a family all on her own. Needless to say, I had acquired another friend.

Friday-

Friday was the beginning of the weekend! Alex and Marshall met me in Poti and we then made the trip down to Batumi for the weekend. Another PCV had rented an apt near the beach and we were excited to meet up with a few other volunteers. Traveling to Batumi is like stepping into another world, something much more developed. It is easy to forget that Georgia is still developing while you are there, the problems are still present in Batumi- they just have a nice veneer to cover them up. 

Anyways we had a great time getting some delicious food, taking a dip in the sea, and hanging out with friends. After being surrounded by volunteers for three months during training it is strange to not have them all near by. Trips like this are necessary for a smooth adjustment into our permanent sites. 

Saturday-

Lest you forget how much I love food, I'll just tell you that the highlight of Saturday was being able to make our own breakfast- American style. We raided the local market and gathered all the ingredients for a nice huevos ranchero. I was in heaven! These are things that you could easily teach Georgians to make, however when it comes to trying new foods they can be surprisingly resistant and many prefer to stick to their traditional cuisine. 

Late lunch in Batumi

After breakfast came beach time, all I have to say is that I probably should of paid more attention to the amount of sunscreen I applied as I laid out reading. I have a nice read chest now... Unfortunately I had to cut my trip short to head back to Poti just as some other volunteers were coming into town. I had promised to meet with some locals to plan out clean up project for Sunday. It was probably for the best though, any longer in the sun and I would be hating life right now. 

Sunday-

Given the heatwave currently strangling the city, I decided to spend the day inside near my fan. Once the sun had weakened its rays, I headed down to the National Park to meet up with everyone for our projects. I worked with the Poti Youth Council and they invited the local bicycle gang (yes that is a real thing, they are called "Shut up and ride"... clever) to assist in the project. We had about 30 youth show up to help, which is fantastic! My site mates also came out so we had a great group. We wandered all over the park picking up obscene amounts of trash, how people don't care about where they toss things is beyond me. In the end the project was a success and everyone was impressed with how great everything looked afterwords- this is just the beginning of what will be plenty of clean up projects around town. They city coordinated to have a trash truck come to take it all away and then we were able to kick back Georgian style and sing some Georgian tunes while several guys played the guitar. It was a great ending to the project and my week.

My sitemates at the clean up project

Most of the clean up crew

The best clean up projects involve picking up the trash- twice...

Now I am home and wishing I could take a shower, but lucky me the house has no water. I can only hope that it will come back soon because I have a lot of clothes hoping to be washed sometime tomorrow. 

New Beginnings, Birthdays, and Beaches!

One week down and over a hundred more to go! For a week where very little actually happened, there is a lot to report on- I’ll try to keep it brief. (Brief aside: I wish I knew the correct onomatopoeia to describe the sound that the people make when they are calling to their chickens to come and eat, the strange things is that the chickens come as soon as they’re called.)

Day 1

I woke up Saturday feeling like a stranger in a strange land, the feeling of permanence has started to settle and it is a little unnerving. I thrive in more dynamic environments and the thought of two years here seems to catch up to me at times. To distract myself I stared out the window for a while, my saving grace being the two palm trees growing up in front of my window. When I stare at them I can transport myself almost anywhere, some mornings it’s Hawaii others it’s Brazil- either way it’s a brief escape from reality and a peaceful moment before I start my day.

I sat in bed for a while to see if I heard anyone moving around, no a sound. I decided that I might as well start unpacking and soon had emptied all of my belongings onto my bed. I slowly sorted through my possessions and attempted to categorize what was important and what could be stored for later use. Storage in my new room isn’t as plentiful, most of my wardrobe is full of my family’s winter clothes. Little by little things slowly began to find their home in various nooks and crannies until it was all out of site. I eventually made my way downstairs and found my host mother in the kitchen. We greeted each other briefly and she instead I sit down to some tea and bread, a change from the heavy breakfasts I have been eating in the village. That evening I sat home a long with my host mother and attempted to make conversation by showing her the books I had brought for them- one filled with pictures of Utah and the other of DC. It provided plenty of materials for a decent conversation. That night and by the end I was tired so sleep came easily.

Mosquito net problems

Day 2

Sunday morning I happened to stumble upon my dad on his way to work. He insisted that I joined him so I quickly changed my clothes and headed out the door. I had created a new rule for myself, whenever my host dad asked if I wanted to do something with him the answer is always- yes. Off we went to the center to visit his gas station. After doing some paperwork he asked if I was hungry and we headed to the bazar to find some breakfast. We ate flat cheese filled dumplings with Greek yogurt and banana juice, it felt authentic enough for me. Afterwards I headed to the park knowing that a day spent sitting around a gas station wouldn’t be very pleasant. In the park I made myself comfortable on a bench near the fountains where I could hear the sounds coming from the church next door. The polyphonic singing coming from inside was beautiful. I sat and read “To Kill a Mockingbird,” and felt content with my life. I eventually made it home later that afternoon and ate a meal at 4pm which must be supper, I spent the rest of the day with Scout and Atticus and headed to bed. 

A claw game machine for people who like cigarettes

Day 3

Monday I was determined to get a routine set for myself so I got up and went about getting ready, studying, and working on various odds and ends. I have a lot of free time during the summer months so while life in the slow lane sounds great, I also need to keep a certain level of productivity for my sanity. In the afternoon I met up with my site mates, Randi and Zach, in the center and we toured through the bazar and various stores to familiarize ourselves with our new habitat. By the end of day 3 I was starting to feel good about my future in this strange place.

A not so abandoned house near the sea

Tuesday came and I was ready with my new morning routine, I kept boredom at bay all morning and then set out to explore town. I had no end in mind so I wandered aimlessly though shops and stored. Found some shwarma for lunch and continued until I reached the port at the edge of downtown. From there I headed to the coast and meandered down the coastline to the local lighthouse (making a note to find a way up in the future). I wandered for hours and finally decided to head home to make sure I was there when my host mom got home from work. To my surprise my phone told me that I’d clocked in 9 miles on my walk, I felt that justified an ice cream cone. No one was at home when I arrived so I settled into my chair and treated myself to a pre-birthday present and purchased “Go Set a Watchman,” from the kindle store (I’d missed Scout and Atticus since I finished Mockingbird on Sunday). I won’t go into depth on my feelings around the book and its release. The message of disillusionment did ring true to me and provided a good moment of reflection as I finished the book and subsequently my last day at 26.

Port side beach, popular with the locals

Day 4 (Birthday)

I had wondered for quite some time how I would celebrate my birthday. Would my new host family care? Would they be too busy? Should I stay in Poti? Should I treat myself to a trip to Batumi? Finally it was decided that my new friends would come into town and we’d make a day of celebrating in Poti. The plans were set and I was excited for the day. I’ll tell you know though, nothing went as planned. 

If you come visit we can eat here together too!

My host father came up to my room on his way to work to give me a გილოცავ (congratulations, the Georgian equivalent of happy birthday), and then proceeded to tell me many things in Georgian which I didn’t fully grasp. But I nodded in agreement and as he left. I took advantage of the time difference between Georgia and home to talk to a few friends and my parents who were still on the 14th- I decided I would let this birthday stretch as long is it was the 15th somewhere where my friends/family were (a shout out to Sheryl who kept it going in Hawaii long after in finished in Georgia).

Getting our toes wet

Birthday crew

My first stop was to meet Alex at the bazar and show her around town while we waited for Melissa’s marsh to arrive. Then since Daniel and Kelly were going to be awhile we decided to head to my favorite pirate ship, floating restaurant and eat a midmorning snack. Traveling in Georgia isn’t always the easiest and Kelly and Daniel’s trip took longer than anyone expected. It was after 1pm when we finally all got together and met my dad for a ride around town. We headed straight to the beach since they’d never been to the Black Sea. Given our tight time schedule we only had time to take a few pics and were moving again. Next stop was my summer house, which looked a lot better in the day than the night I’d first visited back in June. Finally we made it back to my house where I was surprised to find my host mom putting the finishing touches on a birthday feast.

Traditional Georgian supra

The table was overladen with an array of foods that made my mouth water. It was hands down the best supra I’d seen in Georgia, I wanted to eat it all. It was now close to 3 as we all sat down to eat, the time was own everyone’s minds because we’d discovered that the last marsh back to Kelly and Daniel’s sites was leaving at 3:45- creating a rather short turnaround for them. We dove in like there was no tomorrow, it was a joyous occasion. Just before they had to leave my host mom brought in a flaming brick of cake and frosting and they sang to me in Georgian and English. It was perfect. 

Fireworks for candles, it's all you'd imagine

Soon after, Daniel and Kelly were on their way back home while Alex, Melissa, and I continued our pathetic attempt at making a dent in the food on the table. Eventually we gave up and retired to the couches to rest until it was then Alex and Melissa’s turn to leave. We headed to the marsh station one more time to send her off. Unfortunately the marsh we’d hoped to send Melissa on was already gone so she returned home with me. 

Making the most out of missed marshutkas

My dad took care of some business (I’m fairly certain he went to see a man about a horse), and then he came back to take Melissa and I to Ureki where we would hopefully find a marsh for her to take back home. We struck out a second time. However, we were now in the beach town of Ureki so my dad decided we should make the most of it, and we did. We visited some relatives, walked along the beach, explored the “boardwalk”, had some magnum bars, and experimented with some virtual reality glasses. It was all great! (Granted, my experience with the glasses was great- I was on a theme park ride. Melissa however was in a creepy haunted building and at the end was “killed” by the skinny man- or whatever the creep is called. I felt bad for her.)

Exploring new frontiers on the boardwalk

Melissa's not to happy experience

The drive to Melissa’s site was beautiful and it took us up into the mountains which I’d been missing in Poti. It was green and beautiful with fruit trees and other crops growing everywhere. On the way back we stopped by the summer house again and my dad set to work harvesting potatoes while I explored a little bit. We finally made it home well after sunset. 

Just as I was settling into bed for the night I finally got online and was flooded with many emails, messages, and Facebook posts from friends and family all over the world. It was a great end to my birthday and left me feeling like I was on top of the world as I fell asleep.

Day 5

Thursday morning I was right back to work. I had my first meeting with my new counterpart teachers at my school. We gathered together to discuss the upcoming summer camp that Peace Corps had assigned for us to hold in Poti. We exchanged a few ideas and mainly took the time to get to know a little more about each other. After our meeting I headed into town and made the decision to finally purchase a Georgian sim card for my phone (if anyone gets message from a weird international number it’s probably me). Although I don’t need internet on my phone, I figured I should keep the option open in case I find myself in a bind.

After a small lunch I decided to explore a new part of town and also look for an organization that had been recommended to me by my program manager in Peace Corps. I tracked the address down which was a great experiment in speaking broken Georgian to various people out and about. While I successfully found the address the organization had moved and I settled on calling the number I had. The guy was more than happy to meet up and an hour and a half later I found myself in the Dolphin Lounge, making friend with three incredible nice Georgian men.

Their organization works as a intermediary between Poti’s youth and the municipal government working on community projects and getting the youth engaged in their community- perfect fit for me. We discussed ideas for projects I could assist with and then they gave me a walking tour of the port and that part of town. It felt great to meet some new friends and start making headway on my community work here. All week long I felt like I had so many times before when I was in Brazil and assigned to a new area with a new companion. Starting from scratch is never easy but at least I’ve done it a time or two. 

Ended Thursday night at the local theater, didn't understand a thing

Day 6

Friday morning came and once again I was without plans so I decided to respond to the flood of birthday messages and emails. It was mid-afternoon before I finished. I publish my comings and goings weekly on my blog but it is a one way street. I’m often left wondering about the lives of my friends and family back home, reading and responding to emails left me feeling more connected with home than I had since I arrived in Georgia. I’ve decided that more regular correspondence with home is definitely necessary to keep me sane on the other side of the world.

After I had finished responding to emails my dad appeared at the front gate calling for me to come join him. Once again, I never tell him no, so I scrambled to put everything away and gather a few things. We headed out to the summer house where he had me help him with a few projects around the house. The place is slowly coming around- at least on the inside. Next we walked down to the beach and enjoyed an hour or so reading and resting while the fun began to set. Afterwards it was back to the summer house. More reading for me, more chores for my dad. Eventually I got to help him harvest some golden potatoes which we then cooked up on a single burner and made a dinner out of with some bread, cheese, and the ever present cucumber and tomato salad. I’m pretty sure this is his version of camping, or something like unto it. He made plenty of remarks about how nice the village life was. I found it hard to argue with his points, but I also kept a silent list of the perks of living in the city as well.

Sunset on the Black Sea

Day 7

Saturday morning greeted me all too early with the sunny beaming through my translucent curtains before 6am. I struggled on and off with more sleep and eventually decided to turn into my new book, “The Goldfinch.” Later Melody called to inform me that they were ready to meet up and we decided to head to the beach in Ureki to celebrate my birthday and as well as Randi’s which was coming up on Sunday.

Utahns taking Georgia by storm!

A beach day turned out to be just what the doctor ordered. We enjoyed the cool sea waters, warm sun, and most importantly the large inflatable slide that would definitely not be allowed in the US. No matter where you are in the world beach culture really is all the same, and I love it. I worked out balancing out my pasty legs with my farmer tanned arms, ate the cheap Georgian version of a donut, read, and reveled in the moment.

Birthday beach day success

Eventually we made our way back to Poti and straight to the pirate ship restaurant to stuff our faces with more food than was probably wise. I should probably start introducing myself to the wait staff because I get the feeling I might become a regular, apparently I have a thing for al fresco dining on a ship…

Still working the selfie stick

Finally, Sunday finds me here reporting on my week. Plenty of details left to share but my word count has grown far past what it should be. Today has been very low key. We celebrated Randi’s birthday with a firework topped flaming cake- Georgian tradition. Said our goodbyes to Melody and headed to our homes. I’ll probably do some more reading while I wait for my family to appear. There is a show at the theater tonight as well, some Polish group in town.  Given that it’s getting late I should venture to make some food for myself, surprisingly I could really go for a cucumber.

Nakhvamdis PST!

Week 12 and that’s a wrap! Pre Service Training (PST) is finally through. I’m convinced that the relative speed of time is determined by your unit of measurement. When you count by weeks, like I have been, things move a lot slower. Now that I’m a full-fledged volunteer I get to start counting by months (24 to be exact- mark your calendar Mother) and July 2017 is sure to sneak up quick!

A lot goes into ending things, so let me give you the highlights from the end of training:

The first thing that we needed to wrap up were classes, those went away with little fanfare. I will miss having language classes, because now I am on my own and how much I learn will be entirely up to me and the effort that I want to put into studying. Aside from the structured learning opportunities, I am also going to miss the wonderful staff of trainers that came together for these three months. Peace Corps Georgia only has 3 American staff members aside from the volunteers. Most of the staff who have helped us during training only work for these 3 months. Many of them spent their weeks with us and only went home to visit friends and family on the weekends. Several took leave from others jobs even. PC Georgia really did a fantastic job putting together our teachers and trainers.

My farewell to classes however wouldn’t be complete without mention of the (somewhat dreaded) LPI (language proficiency interview). Part of our training requirements is to reach an intermediate low level of language proficiency. This test was PC Georgia’s way of determining that. The format is a simple 20 min recorded conversation with a staff member. It really isn’t anything to be nervous about. I happened to be late to mine, and ended up speed walking to the school which meant that I was hot and sweaty the entire time. It is really hard to look calm, cool, and collected when your body decides to turn on you and make you look rushed, hot, and messy. Despite my literal hot mess of an appearance, the test went fine. Given that it is a conversation I should’ve tried harder to steer it towards safe topics, but somehow I was getting asked about the socioeconomic problems in India and I was toast. I’m just not up to date on contemporary issues in India with my Georgia vocabulary, sorry! In the end there is nothing to worry about, I passed at the intermediate-mid level and couldn’t be happier.

Given the somewhat serious and important nature of our LPI exam, you would think that studying would have taken up most of our free time, but I say unto you NAY! Why would we spent time on important matters when we could fill it with more frivolous pursuits such as the new off off off Broadway musical hit, Skrease! (If you can’t tell that is just the musical Grease with Skra, my village, worked into the title.)

On the night before swearing in the trainees and staff all gather for a farewell dinner and they are invited to prepare a skit or other entertainment offering. We have known about this for weeks (11 to be exact) and yet had had the hardest time coming up with ideas. Finally one day over lunch the idea was formed. I then spent that same evening rewriting the lyrics to 7 of Grease’s most familiar hits. After sharing them with my clustermates, Jim and I reworked a couple songs and then we ready to go. We spent 2 days practicing and memorizing music and lines for our big PC debut on Thursday night. This was definitely as important, if not more, than studying more Georgian.

Farewell dinner with Naili and clustermates

The dinner came and everyone got all dressed up. We gathered in a local restaurant and had a great time. Near the end we took our places on the makeshift stage and gave everyone a performance they were hardly expecting. It was a great time! We all forgot lyrics, tunes, and parts but that hardly mattered in the end. My only regret is not getting the whole 7 minutes of it on film. (For your pleasure I’ll include all the lyrics below) 

Last pic as trainees!

That dinner really marked the end of our time in PST. That night I went back to Skra, participated in a feat (of course), gave my family some presents, packed my belongings, and went to bed. In the morning I said my good byes to my host family loaded up my stuff and was off to Tbilisi for the swearing in ceremony. The events of yesterday are still mostly a blur. We arrived on our marshutkas. Were ushered into the auditorium. Scurried around to change into our dress clothes. Practiced a few things. Had some pictures taken. Took our seats. Then the ceremony started.

Classic swearing-in pic

The moment before swearing in

The actual ceremony was nicely down and pretty short and sweet. I joined some other trainees and sang the Georgian and US national anthems, next the Country Director gave some remarks followed by the ambassador who also administered the oath which we repeated to become official volunteers. Following the official oath taking, we had a pinning ceremony, a few volunteers spoke, and then we took our seats in the audience and watched a team of Georgian dancers present some (incredible) dances. After the ceremony there was a small reception which also served as a place to say our good byes to our host family members who had some to support us, fellow trainees who have been our constant support for 3 months, and finally meet up with our new host families who had come to bring us back to our permanent sites. It madness. There were people and emotions everywhere. I found my host mother and said my good byes, wished my friends luck, changed out of my dress clothes, met up with my host father and new counterpart, and made my way out and onto my next adventure. 

Georgian dancers after the official ceremony

That adventure ended up being transporting all of my belongings around the university to get a taxi, and then drop them off at someone’s apartment. I don’t know how those who had more things than myself managed to do it all. Luckily my host dad does not like to take marshutkas from Tbilisi to Poti, so he chose to wait for the night train. I was not about to complain, visions of a crowded marshutka with all of my belongings and 100 other people crammed into it were giving my anxiety.

My afternoon view of Tbilisi

We spent the day at his relative’s house in the hills above Tbilisi, we ate watermelon, they drove me around the area, fed me supper, provided some decent Georgian/English conversation, and gave me a place to rest- I was more than happy with it all. Finally at the end of the day we gathered up all of my belongings and headed to the train station. We got a private 2 person compartment that looked like it was straight out of the late 1980s. You can leave the Soviet Union, but the Soviet Union will really never leave you (at least visually).

Our compartment on the night train

Train rides are always a good time, and this was definitely beat the one I rode in India. After chatting with some passengers, playing candy crush with my dad, and listening to some of this stories, I as exhausted and fell right asleep. The train wasn’t stopping in my city so we hopped off on a station near my house and took a taxi in. At 5:30 am I was laying in my bed, dying from the humid heat, exhausted, and excited to begin my time as a Peace Corp volunteer in my permanent site.

Here are the lyrics to Skrease the Musical!

Skrease!

---------------------------

Bazaleti aka Summer Nights

Bazaleti had me a blast

Bazaleti happened so fast 

Met a group perfect for me LCF and sopeli

USA drifting away To, uh oh, those skru-uh-mmer nights!

A wella wella wella uh!

Tell me more tell me more

Are there any cute dudes? 

Tell me more tell me more 

What's your favorite new food?

Swearing in, seems far away But, uh oh, those skru-uh-mmer niiiiights!

Tell me more! Tell me more!

---------------------------

A New Trainee aka Sandra Dee

Look at me, a new trainee
Hardly can say anything!
My Georgian is bad but my LCFs rad,
Ar vitsi kartuli

---------------------------

Pagharati aka Greased Lightning

Well this disease is automatic, problematic, quite traumatic
Why it’s pagharati!

You drank some sketchy water
and now you’re feelin’ bad, oh no
(Keep hoping, whoa, keep hoping)
You eye the anti-diarreahal
and thing about calling PCMO
(Keep hoping, whoa, keep hoping)
You can't hold it any more
You start runnin' for the door
You know it's not a drill,
Now there's only seconds til', Pagharati!
(Go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go)

Shoulda eaten less kninkali
At that supra one night ago
(Pagharati, gakvs pagharati)
Though you having pooped your pants
Is the Peace Corps status quo
(Pagharati, gakvs pagharati)
It looked like cream,
it made me scream,
Pagharati!

---------------------------

Practicum Wipe Out aka Beauty School Drop Out

Bom ba do ba do 

(do do do do do do do)

Practicum wipe out
You haven't even made week two
Practicum wipe out
aught half day and now your through
Well at least to lunch you get to go,
To eat away your screw up!
Tomorrow you'll have more classes
so try to keep your head up!

Trainee don’t sweat it (don’t sweat it)
Why don’t you give it one more try?
Think what you’re doing (what you're dong)?
The toughest job you’ll ever love! 

You could plan your lessons better
If you used those training tools
Pick up that English book
and go back to Skra school

---------------------------

Where Will I Go aka There are Worse Things I Could Do

Where’s the site that I will go? 

How much English will they know? 

Will I have a didi school? 

Posh corps dreamin’, I’m a fool 

I just really want to know. 

Where’s the site that I will go?

I could go out to the coast, 

Seaside pictures I would post! 

To the mountains there’s a chance, 

I would learn some Georgian dance. 

I just really want to know. 

Where’s the site that I will go?

---------------------------

End of PST aka Sandra Dee (reprise)

Here’s the end of PST
Look what Tengo‘s done to me
Hold your head high,
time to say your goodbyes;
Nakhvamdis PST!

---------------------------

Peace Corps Volunteers aka You're the One that I Want

My vocab words they’re multiplying 

And I’m ready to go 

My host family 's ‘round me crying 

This is terrifying!

You'd better shape up

'cause you need a plan

And this work depends on you

You'd better shape up

You'd better understand

In your site you're starting new

So much left, so much left for us to do!

We're finally here!

Peace Corps Volunteers!

PCVs baby! 

We're finally here!

Peace Corps Volunteers!

PCVs baby!

We're finally here!

Peace Corps Volunteers!

PCVs we're PCVs,
Oh yes indeeeeeeeed
Yeah!

Celebrate Good Times!

The end is near! Come Friday I will be headed out to Poti to live for two years. It feels like these 12 weeks of training have flown by, but when I think back I remember how long it has really been. I’ve been living under close scrutiny and in a hyper structured environment. Once I leave PST that will all go away. It will be a relief to finally be a little more free but then the burden will be on my shoulders to see what I can do in my site. Before I get ahead of myself though, let’s take a dive into the week that was:

Summer Camp

The last of our technical training requirements was to plan and host a 3 day summer camp in our village, the catch- it had to be focused on helping participants learn English. Planning a fun summer camp, no problem. Planning a fun and educational summer camp, that needed a lot of work. We had been planning for a while and weren’t too sure how it was going to turn out. Aside from planning we had to also recruit and advertise for kids to come.

Monday afternoon was the day of reckoning and much to our chagrin it decided to rain… (Later we found out that it had only rained in our village that afternoon.) To our surprise kids came despite the rain! We played several games and tried to only use English (not hard to do) with the kids. We began by having them divide into two teams- Team Canada and Australia were the chosen names. Then each team made a banner and cheer to use throughout the week. My team Australia was pretty into their Aust-Rail-Ia! cheer. They would hop like kangaroos and shout as they moved from place to place. I’ve ever heard anyone that excited about Australia before. Our final game was capture the flag and it was a huge success, the hardest part was just monitoring the cheating. Kids are shameless about cheating, it’s crazy.

The summer campers spelling "Georgia"

Other highlights from camp include the trash pickup game at the end of day two. I prepared a list of items of trash with corresponding point values and the kids had to see which team could collect the most trash from the school yard (not a hard task). Many were doubtful if the kids would take to the game but when it’s a competition it doesn’t matter what you as asked to do. In 5 min there were huge heaping piles of trash and we played for another 20 min. At one point I say a boy running with trash stuffed into his waistband so he could hold more. After had we bagged it all up and taken it to the street we had a small conversation about the importance of taking care of our shared spaces like school and the streets around the village. It was all in English but between our limited Georgian and their English the point came a cross and the kids understood the importance of not leaving trash on the street.

Attempting to tally points from the trash scavenger hunt

For the last day we had plenty of kids- our numbers grew each day. We played a relay game of telephone as well as a few other games and then ended with a balloon toss and water fight. All in all it ended up being a really fun activity. Now the challenge will be creating something similar on my own when I get to Poti and have to hold 15 hours of summer camp with my future students. 

The brave souls who stayed for the entire summer camp

4th of July Weekend

Friday was one of our first free afternoons in a while so we decided to start our 4th of July weekend with some fun down by the river. We had seen kids swimming in it a few days earlier and figured if 14 yr olds could swim so could we. The water was still moving pretty quickly but it was also fairly shallow. We had a blast jumping in and using the current to float down a ways. We even made an attempt to swim across (which was hard given the quick move current). We ended up having so much fun that we decided to head back to the river today. The next goal is to find some inner tubes and see if we can float into town on them.

After swimming we headed to my house where we had to finished some paperwork and prepare our dessert for the 4th of July picnic on Saturday. Our pie was such a hit last week that we decided to make another one to contribute to the picnic. When Saturday came my family was all gone, cherry picking is still in full swing and they had brought in some hired hands to help pick cherries. The picnic was meant to be a place where we could bring our host families but my brother Nika was the only one who could come.

I told Nika that if we took a pic he had to smile

At the picnic we had everything needed to celebrate the 4th. There were hamburgers, hot dogs, chips, dip, salsa, and more pie than I should’ve sampled. It was fantastic. It was a dry event which was hard for many Georgians and a few still found ways to sneak in some alcohol. The notion of not drinking at a party is foreign to say the least. During the festivities we had several spouses of US Congressmen, who were touring the area, stop in and visit with us. It was fun to meet them and tell them about our experiences so far. They all raved about their experiences in Georgia so far and were happy to be able to celebrate with us.

The Skra team being anchored by my calves

One tradition of the annual 4th of July event is a tug-of-war contest between the opposing trainee clusters. We were able to have 5 people on a team including family members so we drafter my brother Nika and started to compete. It was played round robin style which meant we had to beat almost every team. We did fantastic and to our surprise ended up going undefeated- my hands have the sores to prove it. We were shocked that we won but a little victory felt great.

Victory hug!

To end the day they brought out a giant cake, stuck some fireworks in it (per Georgian birthday tradition) and we sang the national anthem and shot off confetti cannons (which the wind blew all over me). I was coated in confetti and since I was wet from kids throwing water at me, it wasn’t going anywhere.

Happy Birthday America!

Post confetti cannons 

Later that night we got permission to stay in the city for a festival and concert with my brother. It was the first time being out of the village in the evening given our 7pm curfew. It was fantastic. The festival made it feel like we were at a fair in the US with all the rides and booths. We met up with other trainees, got some dinner, and then went to the concert. I must say it was a pretty good 4th of July. I missed having fireworks and seeing family and friends back home; however, having my new family and friends around made it just as great.

Skra Cluster family 

Every time I leave the country I love to learn about the different cultures and lifestyles of the places I visit. However, by learning more about other cultures I am also reminded of my home. There are many problems yet to be resolved in America, but I am grateful for the opportunities and lessons that have been provided to me just by being born where I was born. I hope that I can help others here find some of the same opportunities and learn some of the same lessons.