The day like all the others

Even if it is seemingly uneventful, I want to document a normal day of PST.  It may not be exciting or grand, but it’s this slice of life in the sopeli that gives the truest taste of Georgian living.

I wake up in the morning feeling like P.Diddy. JK. I’m sorry I made a Ke$ha reference circa 2010. I only feel like P Diddy if when he wakes up he has to psych himself up to walk to the outhouse first thing. And then he gets ready and goes to school in the neighbor’s marshutka with all the other neighbor children and Fellow Trainee Kyle.

The mornings pass in a blur of poorly pronounced Georgian and fierce competitions for the colorful paper stars that will determine one of us superior.  Maybe I should explain what “us” is: we call ourselves the Ruisi Cluster. We do so because the Peace Corps called us that and we do everything as they say. We are six brave Americans on a quest to advance world peace and friendship. We have assembled from all parts of the continental United States and Guam. JK. I wish one of us was from Guam. I’ve never actually met anyone from there.

I tried to sneak a picture. Obviously I wasn't that sneaky.

Anyway, we study beginner Georgian for four hours a day from our LCF (Language and Cultural Facilitator), Maka. Maka is a wonderful Georgian human who not only schools us in all things Georgian, she actually seems to like us. She has more patience and composure than you know. After class, we have lunch together at one of our host family’s houses. This is the real reason any of us wake up in the morning. Georgians know how to host a dinner party, I’ll tell you what.

Just as my tea gets cool enough to drink, Maka gets a suspicious call from an unknown number: “The marshutka has left Tiniskhidi.” We all know what that means. An unmarked van is about to pick us up and deliver us to Kareli. Actually, it usually has a sign that says PST. But they may be agents, because I never seem to be able to drink all my chai, I think they have us bugged or something. The rides to Kareli are shared with the Tiniskhidi cluster, and even though we are all fighting off the post-meal exhaustion, the marshutka is usually full of talking and the occasional outburst of song. Good times are had by all.

In Kareli, we have our Technical Specific trainings.  These are to help us be the best Individual and Organizational development volunteers we can be. We learned about how to plan and implement projects and trainings, as well as other Georgian-organization specific information. We only have 20 IOD volunteers, so we are a close knit little group. It’s good fun.

Basically we are at trainings until the cows come home. Literally. We usually have to share the road with at least the cows, if not other livestock. Makes for some smelly traffic jams. 

About the time we are waiting for the cattle to clear, one of us looks to the others and says: “ნაყინი დღო?” (Ice cream time?), to which the answer is invariably yes. We then convene the “AmerikeliBirzha”, a title we have appropriated from the groups of men that gather in the streets in the evenings. Many times they drink, but we have our ice cream. We all have our vices.

And then we go home to our respective houses. We usually have homework due the next day. If it’s Monday, I’ll watch Georgian X Factor with Nazi and Rezo. Other nights we eat dinner and hang out with the neighbors. Life is good in the sopeli.  

The Day I Made Khinkali

One typical evening in Ruisi, seven o’clock rolled around and my hungry alarms were going off. Luckly it seemed that my host family’s were too, as they looked to each other and asked: “What should we eat tonight?” After some discussion, it was decided that tonight would be our khinkali night.

In the most basic way, khinkali is the Georgian version of dumplings. But that fails to fully describe the beauty. They are delicious little pockets of juicy goodness, complete with a little dough knob that serves as both a handle and a way to number your conquests. Behold:

The process of making khinkali is not for the faint of heart. First you have to make the filling. Typically, this is  a mix of ground meat and various spices: we used fresh cilantro, coriander, peppers, and of course, salt.

Then you have to make the dough and work it till it’s though enough to hold in its tasty contents. The dough is then rolled out into Fruit Roll-Up sized circles

Next you get to put it all together. A heaping spoonful of meat mixture goes into one dough circle, and then you fold. The folding is a work of art. The best of the khinkali makers can get 18+ folds on one khinkali. I am not a professional, but I’m good enough to make sure that all the filling doesn’t get out. I’ve got my priorities. Nino and Nazi even taught me a fancy way to make them look like fish. It’s adorable and delicious!

After you’ve made a heaping pile of khinkalis, you’re ready to boil.

And in 7-9 minutes, they’re done! That is, 7-9 minutes in the water. At this point it had been nearly three hours and we were all starving. But luckily it was time to eat ourselves silly. The act of eating khinkali is one of the best parts. It’s so fun. You get a whole pile placed on the table, they get covered in pepper, and then it’s a frenzy.

At least, it’s a very organized frenzy, because there are some very specific rules about how you eat khinkali:

·         No forks allowed. You grab that khinkali by the nob and nom nomnom, but

·         Don’t drop any of the juice. It would be an offense to the cook. You take a bite, and then sip it like a gentleman/woman. (You can choose if you want pinkies out, that’s flexible.)

·         Don’t slurp it. This isn’t 7/11. (Can someone please send me a Slurpee though? That sounds amazing right now.)

·         Don’t eat the nobs. They’re not usually cooked all the way through, plus you want to pile them up and prove you can eat more than Giorgi over there.

There you go, now you and I are both khinkali experts! See you at the next supra!

The day I tasted the future

We have our placements! It's very exciting. This whole time we have been in the dark as to where we will live and work for the next two years. For IOD volunteers, this is especially nervewracking, because we didn't know what kind of organization we would be working at. The process of finding out was really fun, because they had us all line up around a makeshift map of Georgia, and we took turns reading each other's location.  Nerves were high, but I think everyone is excited about their placements.

They didn't leave us any time to think too much about our new homes, because the next day we were whisked away to a conference to meet our new supervisors. To our delight, this conference was held at a great hotel in the tourist haven of Borjomi. (A little like the Park City of Georgia, if Park City was famous for its naturally carbonated, cure-all mineral water.) This hotel would have been nice under any standards, but especially for those of us living in villages with limited niceties, this was Shangri-la.  Of course we all took advantage of the showers and toilets (that not only were Western and flushed, they even had a phone setup right next to it. True swagger.), Logan naturally found free spa services.  We enjoyed ourselves in the sauna, yet again.

The view from our room in Borjomi

The conference had a different point, which was to get to know our supervisors.  We had a few sessions over a couple days, and then all of us took off to the far reaches of Georgia to visit our sites. Oh yeah, I should probably say my site. I'm headed to Tserovani, a settlement for Internally Displaced Persons, established in 2008 after the war in South Ossetia.  More about the settlement in a different post.

I will be working with an organization named For Better Future. This organization is located in Tserovani and is run by the formidable Nana. My first impression of her was stellar, and everything I learned in the following days followed suit. She is so busy with many projects. She's basically the voice for Tserovani. Our organization has two enterprises, a mobile American Corner (Bookmobile! I was transported back to my youth), and even more projects ranging from youth civic clubs to economic development in and around Tserovani.

I am so excited to work with this organization. I am so lucky to have been chosen for this post.  I got to meet the G13 volunteer who is leaving, and seeing her love for the work she's done made me want to throw my whole self into the work, and I know we'll keep up the good work.

I also met my host family, and they are awesome. I know I'm being brief about all my descriptions, but it really was such a whirlwind of new things and people, it's hard to be specific about anything. That and I'll dedicate posts to each thing when I know more and have pictures. Until then, some brief highlights:

• One of my new co-workers, Matsi, had a birthday while I was there. I was invited to the birthday dinner, and the night ended with her playing her guitar and the whole table singing along to the songs. It was a perfect summer evening.  
• Mstkheta, the historic old capital of Georgia, is only minutes away from Tserovani, so Nana took me to go see some sights. It was a blur of churches and khinkali, but I really enjoyed it. There will be another G15 there, so I will have plenty of time to explore and visit. 

The view from our walk in Mstkheta

All in all, I got a taste of the next two years, and it was sweet. I am feeling so relieved and excited about what I will be doing and who I will be with.  PST has been fun, but I'm ready for the next step.

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.