The day I turned 26

I love birthdays, most especially my own. So I was very excited to hear that a training had been scheduled the week of my birthday, which meant that although I had to be in a training on my birthday, I would be surrounded by other volunteers in a fancy hotel (paid for by Peace Corps) with a buffet and a spa. That is definitely my idea of a great birthday. And it lived up to my excitement!
As the clock struck midnight on September 16, most of the G15 IOD PCVs (that's a lot of letters to describe my group: the people in the program and same year group I'm in) were in one room - hanging out and watching VH1 (the best thing on TV, tbh. They were rocking the 00's jams.). One of my favorite birthday traditions is celebrating my birthmoment (12:08 am, I'm really lucky it wasn't at like 6 am). The other volunteers complied and sang Happy Birthday to me right then and it made me very happy.

During the training, I got a shout out and M&Ms from the staff, and birthday wishes and songs from many people. Plus, luck was even on our side, and my table even won both the trivia games. The party continued all night. Two people love me and gave me Oreos. I quickly proceeded to eat them with milk from the restaurant, which came in a goblet. In the evening, the hotel had live music. It was two of the hotel employees playing guitars and singing covers of Georgian, Russian, and English songs. They were really great, and I think we were the biggest and rowdiest crowd they'd ever had. They were great. Scott had them play a song just for me. By the end of the night we were all dancing and got them to play a couple encore songs.
Even at home people were working to make my birthday special. My family did acts of service all day "in my honor". It was so sweet. Their updates all day were such a lovely gift of the heart.
The best kickoff to my 26th year I could have asked for. Thanks for everyone who helped make it special!

The day summer ended

August is Georgia's vacation month. Mostly everything stops and people take some time to relax. Then on September first, the country bustles back to work. It's funny what a difference a day makes. I had some fun adventures during the month of August, here's a quick wrap up:

The first adventure was Bookmobile Camp. The Bookmobile is one of our projects at my organization, but it doesn't operate during the summer. But they planned a camp with kids from all four settlements where it operates. The camp was in a campground above a town called Juta, one of the highest continuously populated villages in Europe. Basically it was hours on a dirt road from anywhere, but beyond beautiful. The camp was so much fun. We had sessions on different life skills, plenty of games, hiking, and I led a morning yoga class every day. If a picture is worth a thousand words, a video is worth millions, so watch the fun video they made of the camp, even if it is in Georgian:


The next weekend, a bunch of volunteers met up in Kutaisi (the second largest town in Georgia) because it had been almost a month since a lot of us had seen each other and obviously we were having some separation anxiety. There was of course, the required copious amounts of talking, eating, and adventuring. One of the volunteers lives near Kutaisi and showed us the incredible Martvili Canyon. Parts of it reminded me a lot of the slot canyons in Southern Utah, but the water was clear blue and surrounded by green instead of desert. It was the perfect summer day of swimming and fun.

Kutaisi wasn't done with us yet. The next day, to escape the heat (did I mention it was high 90s and humid?) we went to Prometheus Caves. I was expecting it to be cool, but I was very impressed. The cave system was much larger than I expected and it had awesome formations. One huge difference I noticed between Georgia and the States was that in the US, we usually try to put the smallest amount of things in the cave to minimize impact. But in Georgia, they carved out the path and light it up like a Christmas tree, and I have to say, I liked the Georgian way better. (Side note, they called it the Prometheus Cave, because there's a rumor that maybe the Prometheus myth happened here. Or it was the place he got condemned to after he stole the fire? Something like that. I was too distracted by the pretty stalactites and stalagmites.

The next weekend the party was at my house! Literally. Some PCVs had signed up to do an enamel jewelry making workshop at my organization. Naturally, that couldn't be all we did, so they slept over the night before and after. They did an awesome job at making the jewelry and then we celebrated by making fajitas and watching a movie with a borrowed projector. It was almost like a movie theater! (Funny story, we shared the fajitas with my host sisters and they did not like them at all. But they were good sports and much prefer fried rice.) Tserovani might not be as happenin' as Kutaisi, but we know how to bring the party.

Thanks to Logan's dental filling falling out of his head, the next weekend was an adventure too! He had to get it fixed in Tbilisi, we took the opportunity to explore the city. I hadn't really been there on more than business, so it was great to be a tourist for the day. We utilized as many forms of transportation as we could, including cable car, metro, taxi, funicular, and foot. (The last one counts because we put in like 16 miles that day. We checked on Logan's phone pedometer.) We explored the old fortress, Mother Georgia (a huge metal statue that looks over the city), the largest and newest church in Tbilisi, and a flea market in a park. That market was so much fun; I felt like I had been transported back to the Soviet Era. We spent almost the whole time trying to find the right Hammer and Sickle pin for Logan to buy and I got an awesome new necklace. I'll definitely go back - there was so much cool stuff! Another highlight was when we were up on the hill overlooking the city (by this time it was night), we took a ride in the Ferris Wheel, and fireworks started going off while we were in there! We had the best seat in the house. It was awesome!

By the time the month ended, even though it was so fun, I was ready to quote Green Day and say: "Wake me up when September ends." But it's my birthmonth, so it's my favorite. Plus, the rest of Georgia was ready to get back to work too.

The Day We Hiked Among the Clouds

The Thursday after I started at the organization, it had a birthday. To celebrate, the whole office closed, we piled on a marshutka, and we drove a few hours north into the mountains to a place called Kazbegi. Kazbegi is the home to Mount Kazbeg and a mountaintop monastery named Gergeti. Every time I researched Georgia, I saw pictures of this place. It’s world famous and for good reason. It was quite a hike to get there, but when I got there, I was breathless for a different reason.

My words can’t do justice to how beautiful this place is. We were so high in the mountains that we were literally in the clouds. We could see them below and as the wind passed, it would obscure the church for a minute or two. The church was built right at the peak of a mountain among the mountains. I was blown away (not literally, even though it was windy), and I never wanted to leave. This place made its way into heart and my list of most beautiful places I’ve ever been (on that list includes Guilin, China and Havasupai, Arizona.) Since my words fail me, I took lots of pictures. Look at them instead.

360 Degree Pano

Afterwards, in proper Georgian tradition, we feasted. There was mtsvadi (Georgian barbequed meat), khinkali, salads, watermelon, and even s’mores! No Georgian supra is complete without toasts and laughter. We even danced. This was a wonderful way to get to know my coworkers better and experience the incredible beauty of the Caucuses. 

The Day I Started as an Official PCV

We swore in on Friday and then started at our organizations on Monday. I was so lucky in my assignment – the organization For Better Future. My counterpart is Nana – an incredibly active and tenderhearted woman who is involved with basically anything that happens here in Tserovani. She’s also a bit of a foodie, speaks English well, and has even been to Utah. (Which is incredible, because most Georgians just give me blank look when I say I’m from Utah.) There’s also Eka, who just graduated college and she’ll be helping with our social enterprises. One of them is an enamel jewelry making business. We have three full time artisans (Matsi, Tiko, and Tako) who make beautiful rings, pendants, earrings, and cufflinks. It’s so cool to watch them work. Our other enterprise is a café here in the settlement. It’s brand new and just getting started, so I’m excited to help with the progress there. We also have other projects with other settlements. We have the Bookmobile, which is an American Corner library that rotates around the four settlements in the area. Another project that is starting this fall is for youth civics clubs. I’ll write about each project specifically in their own blog post, because they deserve their own.

The organization is busy and full of amazing people. I’m so excited to be working here and I know it will be an amazing experience. Two years is going to fly by!

The day we swore...in

They day finally came. We had passed our language exams, proved ourselves capable in our technical trainings, and cramped our hands filling out paperwork. We were officially ready to become official Peace Corps Volunteers. The day started early with leaving our PST Host Families. It was an emotional moment. It was hard to say goodbye to these wonderful people who had introduced us to Georgia and been patient enough to take care of us until we had mastered simple phrases like “I need to go to the bathroom” and “I really can’t eat any more of your delicious food.” But luckily we can still go back and visit while we’re here.

As a G15 group, we traveled together to Tbilisi, loaded with anticipation and all of our physical belongings. We got all dressed up and after a rehearsal, welcomed the U.S. Ambassador to Georgia, old host families, new host families, and future counterparts for our swearing-in ceremony.

In a small choir, I sang the Georgian and American National Anthems. We definitely did better on the American one, but they still applauded us for effort on the Georgian one. There were speeches and cameras and pomp and circumstance. It was a very special moment as our names were read, then the Ambassador had us raise our right hands and swear-in as official Volunteers.

After a reception and cake, we all headed our separate ways to start what we came here to do. As our group has said at every big milestone, “it just got real”.  Congrats and good luck to all my fellow G15s!

The day we partied like it was 1777

July rolled around and that means hot weather and American Independence Day. We may be in the good ol’ US of A, but we are a sizeable group of Americans, so of course we’re going to find a way to party. Luckily it was a Saturday, so PC gave us a break from Saturday classes and told us to bring our host families to a barbeque. It’s not 4^th of July without hamburgers and hotdogs.

The party had been in the works for about a month, and it was quite the event. It really felt like home for a while.  There was watermelon, potato salad, and we (the Ruisi cluster) even tried to make a cherry pie. (It turned out alright, but it was quite the ordeal. Basically I didn’t know where to get some of the ingredients or a pie tin, but we made it work, not without a frantic call home to my mom.  One day I’ll be able to cook properly without her. Not yet though.)

There was face painting and tug of war and all sorts of shenanigans. I’m glad we got to bring our host families, it was fun to host them for a while and be able to share our culture, since they have been so giving of theirs.

Happy Birthday, America! 

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.