The day we hung out around New Castle

In Georgian, it’s ახალსითკე “Akhalsitke”, but it translates literally to New Castle, and that was fun to say.

This weekend, Peace Corps let us break free again, in a very controlled way, to see more of what Georgia has to offer. A small group of us chose Akhalsitke, slightly influenced by the fact that our LCF (Language and Cultural Facilitator, aka Teacher/Mentor/Assigned Friend) Maka is from that city. It’s south west of where we are training, so onto another marshutka we went. Claire and I did have a spot of trouble actually getting one, and a lot of the apple sellers got invested as we tried to flag one down for an hour, but we finally got one and met up with the rest of the group.

There are G14 and G13 volunteers there, so we called them up and hung out with them for the night. Luckily we hadn’t planned on sightseeing during the evening, because the weather would not have permitted that. There was lightning and hail galore. So instead we got junk food and talked the stormy night away.   It may not sound like much, but it was a really fun evening. Plus it’s fun to get to know the other volunteers.

The next day was an ideal touristy day. Our guesthouse provided a monstrous breakfast and we each took a long, hot shower. (Yes, you’ll probably hear about each time I get a proper shower. It’s a notable event and can turn a frown upside down.) The weather had cleared up and the sun shone on our walk to the “New Castle”, the central feature of Akhalsitke town.

First, we stopped to pay our respects to our favorite King/Queen, Tamar.  She was a no-apologies, rocking queen that they called King. I’m a fan. I’ll need to do a whole blog post just on her. Then it was on to the castle.  Even though the castle itself is relatively new (which is still hundreds of years old, but Georgian history is incredibly long), they also had renovated the castle a few years ago. So it really felt like a new castle.

I guess some of the Georgians refer to it as “Georgian Disneyland”, since it’s so new and touristy, but we didn’t care. It was actually kind of fun to see the castle as it would have been while it was being used. The most interesting part though, was the dissonant architecture. There were the oldest, medieval looking walls, then a church in the center based off the Hagia Sophia, and other miscellaneous influences. They didn’t bother trying to make it all match, and as a result, made a very interesting, beautiful, and unique place.


I am enjoying getting to know all of these awesome places in Georgia. Every little area has such treasures to behold; it’s hard to believe that such a little country can have so much to see and do!

The day I followed a PCV around

In technical terms, we call it “job shadowing”. As a way to let us get a taste of what’s in store for us, we got to go visit current volunteers at their organizations. I was assigned to visit Aaron in Lagodekhi, a town almost as far east as you can go in Georgia.  To get there, we had to transfer marshutkas in Tbilisi, the currently prohibited capital.  Since we were there, we may have taken an extended transfer and I hit up church and McDonald’s. I now understand that the only reason why it’s off-limits during PST is because otherwise, all the trainees would be there every weekend to eat our weight in hamburgers and ice cream (and that weight would increase after each visit).
Another bumpy marshutka ride later, and Aaron, Sophia (another trainee), and I had arrived in Lagodekhi.  The area around Lagodekhi is considered the “breadbasket” of Georgia and it comes complete with a National Park. The town itself is a municipal hub, so it was large enough to have what you need, but small enough that we could walk around and cover the bulk of the city easily.
Poor Aaron got barraged with questions for the whole two days.  He is a G13, which means he’s been here for two years and is getting ready to leave. As a fully ripe PCV (Peace Corps Volunteer), he was a wealth of knowledge about surviving your service and keeping busy.  We visited his organization and some of his contacts in the municipality. We picked his brain about his secondary project and committees. We tried really hard to get any gossip we could about other volunteers. We helped ourselves to files on his hard drive. We had hot showers. Aaron was a patient and gracious host.
The highlight came when the three of us entered the park and hiked to their small waterfall. (They have one that’s over 90 meters, but it required more time than we had, unfortunately.) The trail was just over six beautiful, foresty miles, round trip. I won’t lie and say I wasn’t exhausted, but it was worth it. It’s been really rainy, so Aaron said it was the strongest he’s ever seen it. I was very happy that my limited Georgian vocabulary still allowed me to say: “ლამაზი ბუნებაა“ (“Such beautiful nature!”)
So fun to get out, take a break from language classes and trainings, and get a chance to tag along on a day-in-the-life of Aaron.

The day we celebrated Georgia's Independence

Georgia celebrates its Independence Day on May 26. This isn't necessarily the anniversary of their most recent independence though.  It's technically the day they were independent from Imperial Russia back in 1918.  So it's the second to last time they broke up with Russia.  It's a complicated relationship...

It was a mullet day: business in the front (morning classes) and party in the back (celebrations in downtown Gori).  Even though there was rain in the afternoon, the show carried on. We hung out for hours watching different performances.

Behold for yourself the awesomeness of Georgian Folk Dance:

Kids of all ages performed. You can tell they start from when they are young, because they were totally on point.  

(Just in case you forgot which day this was, my helpful model, Giorgi, here with remind you)

Men are very involved in the dancing and their dances are very powerful, acrobatic, and often include weapons.

Georgia has many diverse regions, and they all take pride in their local costumes, dances, and foods.

 Nazi, me, and Rezo hanging out with the tanks.

The highlight of the evening for everyone was the final act: Kuchas Bitchebi (The Street's Boys). Any comparison you make of them and Backstreet Boys is probably accurate.  They were a hugely popular group in the early 2000s, but reunite sometimes to do concerts. Their songs are everything you want from a boy band and you can't help but dance. If you need some joy in your life, look them up on YouTube. 10/10 Won't Regret It. I've accepted them wholly as my own (we can pretend it's party of my cultural integration, but I probably would have loved them anyway).

Best spur of the moment Tuesday evening I've had in a long time. Georgia knows how to throw a party.  Happy Independence Day, Georgia,

Gaumarjos!

The day we planted literal and figurative seeds

As part of our training for IOD (for those of you playing at home, that's Individual and Organizational Development, the name of Peace Corps Georgia (PCG)'s Community Economic Development (CED) program. I know it seems like you're swimming in alphabet soup, and you pretty much are. Peace Corps abbreviations are the first foreign language they try to teach you.), we planned and implemented a project in our communities. Ruisi's cluster worked with the kids and staff of Ruisi School #3 to beautify the yard of the school by cleaning and planting some flowers in the garden.  (It was the most pressing need we could address with our limited time and budget. One day we'll come back and build a sports stadium, Rezo.)

The day was sunny and the kids were happy to not be studying for finals.  This was their idea for a project and they were excited to make it happen.  In the end, we planted bushes, flowers, seeds, and one palm tree-looking thing.  We volunteers and the students that helped got a chance to develop our project muscles and all the kids at the school now have a more attractive place to spend their breaks.  Win-win-win, as Michael Scott would say.

The day I went to a church and a castle

Sundays are our free days during PST, so I have a feeling I'm going to be making the most of them.  I started off strong this Sunday by waking up early (for me and the Georgians) and going to church with Rezo and Nazi.  Ruisi may be small, but they have a couple different churches.  We went to the one near school, the smaller, "newer" one (which is still hundreds of years old.  They were already started by the time we got there, and the service lasted for two hours.  Sure, I'm used to church being three hours long, but during this service, we stood the entire time.  I won't complain about wooden pews again.
Although I didn't understand most of what was going on (but I did understand a few words here and there, so I guess I'm learning), the service was interesting.  The majority of it was readings and songs from a few different people involved.  There were candles and saints and Rezo rang bells.  There were only about 25 people in attendance, but what really impressed me was the kids that were there. Most of them were there without parents and as young as 5.  I have heard that the Georgian Orthodox Church is having a bit of a comeback with younger generations, and now I believe it. The kids came on their own and were well behaved. Not your average sunbeams.
After church and lunch, I headed in with others from my cluster to explore Gori.  The first stop was the castle that is poised on a hill in the middle of the city.  It is the perfect place for a castle: great views and easy to defend.  Definitely gives new meaning to King of the Hill. The castle is now in ruins a bit, but serves as a park.  Case in point: a group was doing Tae Kwon Do while we were there.
We also found another group of fellow Trainees and hung out with them for the rest of the day.  It was a well-spent day off and a great taste of this corner of Georgia.

The Day I Meet My Host Family

The day finally came that we broke free of Bazaleti and went to Gori to meet our host families.  It was every bit as awkward as I knew it would be.  It was very much like a giant game of Red Rover where the one side took the other side home with them. I ended up in the Ruisi Cluster with the Baliashvili family.  They are awesome.

My დეიდა (mom, pronounced day-dah)'s name is Nino.  She's 33 and always happy.  She has an amazing garden and talks to the neighbor lady all the time about seeds and starts.  They are hilarious.  My და ("dah", sister) is 17 and her name is Nazi ("Nah-zee").  She loves One Republic, John Legend, and Adele.  She takes English Conversation lessons in Gori, so she saves me.  She translates a lot, but then feeds me vocabulary constantly.  I'll correct her pronunciation and her homework, and she speaks slowly and repeats things often.  We have a great thing going. And then I have a little ძმა ("dz-mah", brother), Rezo ("Rrrrrez-oh").  He's 11 and fun and I think he is involved with the local church somehow.  I'll figure it out on Sunday.  I told him I would go.  Their მამა ("mama", dad - yes, it's opposite from English) works in the West and I guess he only comes one one weekend a month.  I haven't quite figured out what he does there, but we are taking baby steps here...  Our ბებია ("beh-bee-yah", grandma) lives in a smaller village Northeast of here, but she's here visiting.  She's fun and we commiserate with the cold.  That's about the extent of our communication, but it has bonded us. They are very chill and I like them a lot.  I really lucked out with my host family.

Like I said in my last post, Georgia seems just like home. I'm in a bit of a smaller valley now, so it's just like Cache Valley.  The weather is similar too, but since we don't have central heating, it gets really cold outside. Particularly at night.  I was fine for the first couple hours, but I woke up freezing.  They gave me a great comforter, but it wasn't my usual heated mattress pad and double comforter set-up, so naturally I was cold like unto death.  Cold enough that I was awake enough to know that I needed my sleeping bag, so I rolled over and unpacked it and pulled it over me.  I wasn't awake enough to actually open it and get in.  And also not awake enough to realize that maybe I shouldn't put it directly on my face.  As my body temperature finally rose, my breaths became shallower.  Soon I was gasping for air and realized I was about to suffocate myself in the name of a warm nose.  I made a breath hole and luckily didn't become the shortest-lived Peace Corps trainee.  I almost didn't survive the first night unsupervised.  Funnily enough, they didn't cover that in the Safety and Security briefings... Maybe sleeping bag asphyxiation isn't a huge threat.  Or maybe the rest of them are smart enough to give themselves a slight cross-breeze.

The good news is that Georgian is actually seeming manageable these days. I still don't understand 95% of what is spoken around me and there is so much that I have to learn, but it doesn't sound completely foreign anymore.  I have the alphabet down and I have classes and Nazi. I wish I could remember more of what she teaches.  My brain resembles a saturated sponge these days.  There's just so much to learn!  So I write it all down and I'll come back to it later. But even ცოთა ("tso-tah", a little) progress is progress, so I'll take what I can get.

But I've taken a break from homework to watch Georgian X Factor.  One guy totally killed it with Ice Ice Baby.  He brought the house down, and I think he sang it better than most English speakers.  So life is good here in Saqartvelo (Georgia in Georgian).  I don't have wifi, but their computer has internet, so I have some access.  I'll update with pictures as soon as I can.

Nakhvamdis (goodbye)!

The Day I Finally Take a Picture

This one, to be exact:

So far Georgia looks a lot like home, actually.  But then again, I haven't seem much yet. We have been mostly stuck in a "compound" that used to be a Russian radio scrambler (as in they would take the US radio signals and bury them in a deep dark cave or something).

I really wish I had more to report.  We have just been in the compound, learning Georgian and having discussions about what to expect for PST (Pre-Service Training). The good news is that I now know how to say "I don't know" and "where is the bathroom?" The two most important phrases. I hope they come in handy tomorrow when I have to meet my host family.

I'm mostly excited to get out into real Georgia soon.  We have been pretty isolated so far and just been surrounded by fellow PC Trainees.  After all the waiting and now orientation, I think we're all ready to start jumping and and getting our feet wet.  Tomorrow will be an exciting day for everyone!