Field Trips and Trainings

In a bit of a whomp whomp turn of events, the weather has decided to not cooperate with me today. I've found myself indoors on the computer and able to get back to updating my blog- thank the rain not me.

So I've gotten into taking 360 pics and this is what they look like when the computer isn't cooperating...

I finally made it back to my site on Father's day and was able to talk with my family for a bit. The next three days were all about getting the summer months started on the right foot. First I met with my counterpart teachers to start planning for the school year. Afterwards I stopped by the post office to pick up my shipment of English books from the Darien BookAid group. They are a volunteer organization that accepts book donations and then allows PCVs around the world to write to them and request a free shipment of books, my school is so excited to have these new books as learning tool.

My book order arrived, via France apparently 

After getting school business all squared away it was time to get summer vacation business started and that included a trip to the beach. For this first trip I brought along a rake and spent some time raking up a nice piece of beach for my use throughout the summer. Storms tend to bring trash and debris to the beach and there is no one there to take care of it so things can get pretty bad. Luckily my section is now looking great!

Shout out to anyone following LogansCalves on instagram still

The next day our new sitemate (a G16 PCV assigned to Poti) came to visit for a few days like we had done last year. His visit coincided with a G6 (PCV from 2006-2008) who came back as part of a 10 year anniversary trip. It was a lot of fun to hear about Poti almost a decade ago and to be able to see the changes in the city from what she had known. Of course our day ended at the beach once again. We had a great time and Randi and I are both excited to have another sitemate in town who we can do some great work with.

I might have stolen this from his facebook but...meet our new friend

After a few days at site I was off again on the next leg of summer travel and business. The next stop was a training with the 8 Georgian counselors for our boys' summer camp. These 8 guys have proven to be top notch stellar young men who are really looking to make a difference. It was so much fun getting to know them and introduce them to our plans for this summer's camp. I we ran through plans for camp and then I gave a training on teaching and how to approach their roles as counselors to the boys who will be attending our camp. After the training was over they had their first hard task- selecting which 56 boys would be our finalists from a list of close to 300 applicants! BUILD camp has grown a lot from the small 3 counselor 20 boy group that we had last year. I am getting more and more excited to see what we will be able to pull of this summer when camp finally arrives.

Vardzia the 11th cent cave city

The next task was finishing my preparations for the FLEX pre-departure orientation (PDO) that was going to be taking place the next weekend. Prepping for PDO has been very insightful for me as I study the lessons and messages we want to convey to these new exchange students. I have found myself reflecting more on my own experiences abroad and the attitudes I bring to the situations I find myself in. I can only imagine what their experiences will be like in the USA.

More holes in rocks

After a long day of work in the office I took a cab back to Gori where I met up with Daniel who had been off traveling and then I headed back to Skra to visit my host family. I was able to spend the night with them before heading to Ateni (a nearby village) on Saturday to set up our Megobari picnic, an annual tradition where the old and new volunteers are finally able to meet each other and start to mingle and get to know each other better. Last year the picnic wasn't very enjoyable we really wanted to plan a great one for the volunteers this year, and I think we did. The location was cool and shady and we had plenty of food and some activities as well. There have been a lot of goodbyes lately as G14 volunteers have closed out their service and began to depart, but it has also been exciting to get to know the new volunteers who we will get to serve with during our last year in Georgia. Mixed emotions all around!

I'm chaperoning this bunch 

After the picnic Melody and I made our way back to Skra to spend some more time with my host family. Spending time with them means eating copious amounts of fresh fruit which no one could complain again. We ate cherries and raspberries until it hurt! This is my favorite time of year in the village and the only thing missing was a swim in the river. That house will forever be one of my peace places in this world and somewhere I hope to be able to visit again even after I leave Georgia.

Campfire fun with 15-16 year olds

From the village we headed back into Tbilisi and on Sunday I was able to meet and greet some more friends from the States. Brooke has been traveling around the world for over a year and finally made it to Georgia where she is bouncing around for a month. Jordan and company have been traveling around Turkey and Albania and stopped by Georgia for a few days so I was able to show them around Tbilisi. I love getting out into the city with friends and being able to share some of the things that I love most about Georgia. It really is a fantastic place!

The Rabati fortress 

Monday morning I was on the move again. This time I was headed back west and planned to meet up halfway with some of my English club students who were headed out on a field trip. They were crammed onto a marshutka and kindly allowed me to follow them in Goga's car where there was AC and not 20 kids singing pop songs at the top of their lungs. With the amount of miles we covered I don't know if I would have survived the trip.

From the top of the citadel in Rabati

Our first stop was the old 12th century cave city of Vardzia. It was unlike anywhere else I had been. It was a city carved into the side of a mountain. We explored various rooms with secret passageways and even a working church that is still used by local monks and visitors. After the caves we traveled into the mountains and up to an old observatory where we learned about some Georgian astronomy history. After a great tour we ended up in a meadow down the mountain where we had a picnic dinner which we cooked over the fire and included all the Georgian staples of bread, cucumbers, tomatoes, khachapuri, and meat. Then there was a fire, music, and lots of Georgian dancing.

Pano time

The next day we got up and visited the fortress known as Rabati which was beautiful. In the Rabati area there was a synagogue, orthodox church, and a mosque. The only other place with all three in Georgia would be Tbilisi. The place was immaculate and beautiful. We took a tour and visited their museum which had a great history of the region connecting it to ancient world history in BC taking place in the Middle East. A highlight for most of the students however, was the filming of some new Indian movie which was going on while we were visiting and ended up being a major distraction for all of them. If I ever find out what they were filming maybe I'll watch it.

This place is called the Green Monastery, fitting name

After the Rabati fortress we took a trip to another peaceful mountain monastery and then to Borjomi to rest and eat some food. We ordered some 300 khinkali thinking that the students would be starving and eat it all but we were wrong (there was no way 30 people would eat 300 khinkali, but Georgian pride dictates that you must be able to eat a lot of khinkali and should never run out). Then it was back to Poti in a rainstorm that seemed to never end.

Nice topographic map of Georgia I found in Borjomi, Poti is where that lighthouse is

When I arrived in Poti late Tuesday night I was surprised to be greeted by a couple of G14s who had asked if they could spend the night at my house while they waited for their ship to leave the next morning. Only their ship ended up getting delayed 3 days and they spent all that time in Poti with my host family.  It was great to see Sarah and Joe again before they left the country but I felt bad they'd been stranded at my house for so long without me there. However, my host family is the best and they made them feel right at home. Luckily the next day they were finally able to set sail and I had enough time to do some wash and start packing again for my next summer adventure,

One of many G14 goodbyes