Running Myself Into the Ground

My trip to Kazakhstan was just part of what turned out to be an exhausting two weeks. After getting back to Georgia I was off to the village for a short visit with my old host family, and then on Tuesday the new volunteers were arriving so I helped to organize the PCV welcoming crew to greet them at the airport. With the arrival of the newest group of volunteers we become the older group and the current older group begins their preparations for close of service. It's an interesting three months of transition.

New volunteers with eyes full of hope and excitement

The airport arrival was really fun, unlike previous groups they arrived in the evening rather than 3am like we did. That meant that more people were willing to come and mark their arrival, namely the Georgian news. After I finally made it back to Poti the next day my students and fellow teachers all commented on how they had seen me on the news the previous night. It was quite the conversation topic for the day, such is life in a small country.

Eagerly awaiting our new friends :)

After getting back into school mode for a whole two days, it was time for the weekend. First on Friday night I got to go to the theater to watch a Georgian dance group perform and it was amazing. I don't think I will ever get sick of watching these performances, the things they do are unreal! Then on Saturday I headed down to Batumi to help out with the Let's Play Together event that some fellow volunteers had organized along with the local McClain Association. The event aims to bring local youth with disabilities together with other local youth and let them engage in a number of fun activities together in hopes of trying to destigmatize disabilities in Georgia. The event was a lot of fun and brought out volunteers from all over West Georgia to help staff the various activities.

The participants and vols from the LPT event (or at least those who stayed and could be talked into taking a pic together)

In addition to the LPT event last weekend was also Alex's birthday so that mean there was a lot of celebrating to do and Batumi is the perfect place. We had a good dinner in the city and then headed to the Hilton's rooftop bar for cake and celebration. It's still the off season so the town wasn't overrun with tourists and we were able to have the outside area to ourselves. Alex's birthday also coincides with our arrival in Georgia so the celebrating continued from rooftop to the beach and onto another bar with music and dancing and conversation about our first full year in this beautiful country.

Party on the beach

The next morning we had to gather our things and head out on a marshutka to travel back to Alex's site for a birthday supra. All of the volunteers who lived nearby came to celebrate and we had a great time doing what Georgians love to make us do the most- eating and eating. These supras are always full of copious amounts of delicious foods as well as wine for making toasts to the occasion. Once things began to wrap up I caught my marsh back to Poti and ended up in bed exhausted by 9:30.

The birthday feast ready to be had

After so much traveling and so little sleep the exhaustion was beginning to set in and I could feel a cold coming on so I tried to spend more time resting and recuperating but that didn't last long since there was so much to do. The Access club I work with was meeting on Monday for a belated Earth Day lesson and so I met with them for a few hours in the afternoon. They made posters (in English) to celebrate Earth day and talk about the need for environmental awareness and then we went to the coast and did a trash collection activity. It was a lot of fun doing a small service project and helping the local youth to get into the spirit of community involvement more. I really think that Georgia will be a completely different place in just a few more years once this generation of young people begin to step into the place of the current leaders.

Working on Earth Day posters

School also had a short week this week because this weekend is the Orthodox Christian celebration of Easter. We have a long break (Thursday - Tuesday) from school and it has been wonderful. I've been able to catch up on a lot of old work (as well as sleep and plan my summer activities). On Friday we dyed our Easter eggs red (symbolic of Christ's blood) for Good Friday and then last night we made khachapuri and other baked goods to prepare for the midnight celebrations. The active members of the orthodox church have been abstaining from dairy products as part of their lent/fast and once midnight comes they will be able to eat the various animal products again.

Cleaning the sea shore area

As midnight approached we readied the table with the red eggs placed in patches of grass grown in baskets, the traditional paska cake, as well as other foods and drinks. Then at midnight I lit the candle for the cake and we took turns repeating the phrase- "ქრისტე აღსდგა" (Christ has risen) to which others would reply "indeed" and was repeated three times by every person. Then we tapped eggs. Each person is given a hardboiled egg to hold and you tap the ends against other people's eggs to see whose cracks. If you win on both ends of someone's egg  you are the winner and then depending on the rules you follow either you or your opponent must eat the cracked egg. I won all of my contests and am now the egg tapping champion in my house. Additionally, I found out that the cracking of the egg is symbolic of the breaking of the sealed tomb from which Christ was resurrected.

The Access Club students

Once the tapping was done the candle in the cake had burned down and I was instructed to blow it out and slice up the cake for us to all eat. More pious Georgians do similar celebrations but they also attend a night time service that lasts until 6am- that is a very very long service. Also unlike other churches, the orthodox churches in Georgia do not have pews of any kind and everyone must stand for the entire service. (I am never complaining about church again.)

Our red Easter eggs hidden, and paska cake

The rest of today should be pretty relaxing. My host mom is making some more traditional foods and I will continue to eat every delicious baked good in sight, just like how holiday are celebrated at home. The final tradition will be to visit the graves of my family's relatives and to leave a red egg on their plots to symbolize remembrance and look forward to their future resurrection from the grave. While my family isn't the most traditional and doesn't participate in every religious tradition in the Orthodox church, it has still been wonderful to be here with them and experience and learn about the history and tradition in Georgia. I always appreciate learning new lessons and finding new traditions that I can incorporate into my own future life.