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.