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!

Oh this old thng?

Yup, I'm bringing this blog back from the dead for my travels to Georgia (the country).  I'll try to blog pretty regularly, so we'll see how successful I am.

We are officially Peace Corps Trainees!  After months of waiting and preparing, it's quite a relief to finally be in-country, meeting staff, and discussing action plans for work.  It's also a relief to finally be here because of the long journey it took to just get to this location. I left Richmond at 5 am Thursday morning, drove to the airport in snow and ice, flew to Washington, DC, rode metros and cars to see friends and check-in at staging, spent a couple days being trained by US Peace Corps Staff, then we all hauled all our luggage to the airport (there was so much luggage), and flew to Munich to have an 8 hour layover.  Most of my new friends stayed around the terminal, but my old friend Logan and I spent the day at the spa.  Best. Layover. Ever.  Seriously, I've never felt so relaxed and pampered between plane rides.  Thanks Munich! Our flight to Tbilisi got in at 3:15 am, but we were still welcomed by many staff and current volunteers.  Such a warm welcome.  We loaded into buses again and drove up north to our training site in Bazaleti.  It's a little lake town and we are all housed in an Old Russian Radio compound.  It's all updated and quite nice. 

So far the staff seem amazing and I really like the other volunteers.  We are a diverse group, but we are all united in the fact that we signed up for this crazy adventure to this beautiful country. 

Georgia, sasiamovnoa (nice to meet you)!

Old Friend, New City

Over the weekend, I finally was able to travel into Nairobi to visit my friend Christine.  We were in the same group at the conference in Dubai, and I’m so happy that I got to meet up with her.  From Mombasa, you can take a nice tour bus to the capitol city.  The ride took about 9 hours, but the time passed quickly enough; I slept, read, and watched the countryside as it passed.  The scenery was usually pretty great, covered with baobab trees and highlighted by the occasional sighting of Mt. Kilimanjaro or a baboon.  Then the hills turned into skyscrapers and I knew I was there.

Christine and her sister picked me up at the bus depot and took me to their house.  They live in the Parklands area of the city, which is historically the Indian part of town.  It was a nice, quiet area dotted with Buddhist temples and parks.  Just up the road from her house one can find numerous embassies and a UN office.  

We spent the weekend being equally lazy and touristy.  We watched plenty of music videos and bootleg DVDs in between visits to the National Museum of Kenya, shopping malls, outdoor markets, and a national park.  I definitely fell in love with Nairobi.  It is the best African city I have visited so far.  It earned this stellar ranking by being a modern city (it had traffic lights, garbage cans, and road signs) with bustling commerce and a strong middle class, while still retaining a strong African identity (there were open-air Masai markets and no lack of mataus).  It’s hard to explain, but basically I saw a city living up to its potential, and that made me extremely happy.  I could definitely live in Nairobi.