Giving Thanks

Well it’s Saturday and I just realized that I have skipped a week of blogging. I’m actually feeling under the weather (a phrase that I have no idea where it comes from), so I am sitting in bed trying to pass the time. I can’t complain too much because I am on a bit of a holiday, you know Thanksgiving and all. Some other volunteers and I decided to have a weekend getaway in the mountains near Turkey. I found us a nice guest house and we bought everything we could find in hopes of creating a Thanksgiving feast here. (I don’t know how much I will be able to eat though which is quite depressing.) Luckily we recruited some of the best PCV chefs to spend the weekend with us, so I have no doubts about the feast we will have.




After such a long break from Poti, almost 10 days, it was nice to come home and relax for a bit. Getting back into teaching was a little rough since I didn’t have time to catch up with the teachers before jumping back into things. The first couple classes were rough because I had to spend a lot of time getting the students to behave for me again- it’s amazing what you lose just by missing a week! By the end of the week though, things looked like they were back on track.

We had our own mini Georgian Thanksgiving, and I taught them the phrase- I'm stuffed!

I also got to celebrate back to back Thanksgivings with my American club students on Tuesday and Wednesday. I shared the history of Thanksgiving, we practiced expressing gratitude, I taught some idioms like- I’m stuffed and blessing in disguise, and we even had our out Thanksgiving feast. I love being able to share some of the best parts of American culture with my students. They are exposed to so much “America” but it isn’t always the best. Thanksgiving is a great time to showcase some of the important American values and ideas in a very fun way.

Our view for the Thanksgiving weekend

Being away from home on Thanksgiving is never fun, but it is something that I have gotten used to since I have missed 6 of the last 10 (I don’t have a very good track record) and I am bound to miss more. Each of the Thanksgivings I have spent away from home have been memorable experiences. This Thanksgiving Thursday there was no actual celebration. I just went to school and had a regular day since we were taking off Friday for our weekend getaway. Despite the lack of celebration I still had plenty of time to reflect and be grateful.

The first moments of gratitude went to thinking about my life back home. Gratitude for indoor plumbing, western toilets, safe electrical wiring, heating, air conditioning, and many other luxuries of life back home. I was also able to be in touch with my family through the internet and modern technology which always makes home feel so much closer.

Juicing mandarins by hand, they are plentiful in the area now

I happened upon a gathering in town and watched a brief cultural song and dance presentation which made me reflect on my gratitude for being here in Georgia. Living in a different culture provides endless opportunity for comparing and contrasting with your own. By living here I have learned many wonderful new ideas and a greater appreciation for family and history.

I was able to meet up with my old host father from my first house in Poti, it was the first time we’d met up since I moved in October. I was instantly reminded and grateful for his kindness and open heart. We still can’t communicate very well, but I can tell that he cares and is there to support me. It was a great reminder of all the wonderful hospitality and kindness that I have received from the Georgian people.

Sharing what we are grateful for before we dig in.

I had friends come into town and my current host family accepted them in with open arms. We had a great time sitting and chatting. I spent some time reflecting on all of the new friends- American and Georgian; that I have made in the past 7 months, people that I wouldn’t have otherwise been able to meet. These are people who have become family like so many others who I have spent Thanksgiving with in Brazil and back East.

My life since graduating High School has been an amazing journey. Literally in the sense of my physical journey away from home and around the world, but also more symbolically in the sense of the internal journey of growing up. During college one of my friends told me about some writer that started a project known as the 6 word memoir. One of her favorites was, “Not quite what I was expecting.” I think that if I had to write my own it would be something like, “Unexpected, but better than I dreamed.”

A successful weekend with this wonderful crew

P.S. In case you were worried, Thanksgiving went well. I rested all day and had reached a shaky truce with my insides by dinnertime. Rather than play it smart and pass on the potentially dangerous foods, I went all in and just had small portions of each. The food was AMAZING, everyone had worked all day and created some wonderful creations. I was in pain later that night, but it was well worth it. That's what Thanksgiving is all about isn't it?