Becoming a Gavazeli

I have now lived in Gavazi for two months. For the most part, daily life in the village is a little slow on the go. But that isn't to say that I haven't been learning new things, meeting new people, and gaining interesting experiences.

Here's the day-to-day standard:

During the summer (and kinda sorta now) I'd wake up every morning and run. This is really really weird for all my neighbors. When you run here, the first thought for bystanders is "What is that weirdo running from?" Often times I get stopped by old men giving me workout advice, curious citizens of Gavazi wondering who I am and what I'm doing here, and concerned bebias (grandmothers) insisting that I sit and rest with them (the opposite of what I want to do when I'm working out). I also get offered rides from people. Not in a sketchy way, like you'd automatically think in the US, but in a helpful neighborly way. In the village if you're running somewhere, it must be urgent, so people in cars offer rides to get you to your destination faster... if only hitching rides burnt as much calories as running did. One of the coolest things about this habit is that I made a name for myself. I am now known as not only 'the Amerikeli' but now as 'the Amerikeli sportsmeni'. Sportsmeni = sport's man = athlete. Not very many people in my village have that title, and I'm pretty sure no other women carry it. Whenever I'm introduced to a new person, they have already heard about me as the sportsmeni, and that's a nice little ego boost (even if I have been slacking in that department lately).

Randomly placed picture of my neighbors Tonike and Piruse (aren't they cute?!) 

Another random picture of my host brother's (Vano's) birthday supra on my first night in Gavazi

this is the driveway to our house 

During the afternoon in the Summer it's very hot and absolutely no one is out and about. There were a few times I'd venture to a nearby lake (Ilia's Tba - 'tba' means lake in Georgian) with my sister and her friends. Unfortunately this outing is generally hit or miss... well more like it was a hit once. I always want to go to the lake when it's daytime, hot, the sun is out, and a swim in cold water would be refreshing. All of the Georgians like to go when the sun is setting and it's cooler (too cold to swim for me).
The first time I went with my sister I awkwardly swam alone while she sat and sunburned on the shore... that's when I learned that the girls never go to the lake with the intention of swimming. They just go to chat with boys and hang out and people watch (a common Georgian youth pastime is watching one another).

Nice facilities and scenery at Ilia's Tba

The second time I went was the one success, and even still, slightly awkward... plus that day, disaster struck. We went with three of my sister's guy friends. Again, my sister did not come to the lake to swim, so I had to swim with three Georgian guys... wouldn't be weird in the states, but here it is. I still had a good time though, and got in the swim fix. The disaster was in the form of my camera dying. My 'waterproof' camera ironically met it's match in a lake. I guess it was just it's time to go, but it had a good run. That camera saw Spring Break Cruises to the Bahamas, Mexico, Belize, the wondrous Iguazu Falls, the beaches of Punta del Este in Uruguay, and of course numerous Gainesville pool parties... but Georgia was just too much to handle. The running joke amongst PC Georgia volunteers is that nice things come here to die. I hope this doesn't continue to prove to be true.

My swimming companions: Patara (little) Giorgi, Giga, and Didi (big) Giorgi 

Did I mention that 2 out of 3 Georgian males are named Giorgi? Fact.

RIP camera, last photo taken: 

All the other times we went was later in the evening and we literally went to the lack to walk back and forth, talk some with friends, and sit and look at one another. I haven't really learned to appreciate this form of entertainment yet, but give me a year, maybe I'll relate then.

Nighttime in the village is when everyone goes out to socialize. The older women all go out into the street and sit on benches and gossip and giggle. All the kids and teens dress nice, buy sunflower seeds to snack on, and go to the maghazia (store) to hang out, chat, and of course look at each other. I would do this for some time, but this usually started around 10pm, which is dangerously close to my bedtime. (Have I mentioned that I've adopted the schedule of an old person?) Well I have. It's the only way I could exercise since it's so hot during the day and unsafe to run at night.

I'll go into further detail later on, but here's a little taste of some of the new experiences I've had these past two months:
- learned how to make wine (beginning stages only), pickles, kinkhali, khatchapuri, churchkhela, cakes,          
  etc.
- witnessed a chicken lay an egg (looked like a pearl being pooped)
- argued with a Russian police officer (he couldn't believe I could run for 10km- didn't even bother
  trying to tell him about my half marathon)
- lost the need for an alarm clock - because, lucky me, the rooster lives outside my window
- camped out without running water, electricity, or cell service for a week
- learned that what I thought were yaks are actually water buffalo (My village has water buffalo!)
- heard what it sounds like when cats have sex (spoiler alert: it sounds like they're dying)
- swam in the Black Sea
- saw a waterfall
- tasted grapes that actually taste like 'grape flavor' (which I thought was a hoax for all this time)
- felt my first earthquake!!! (5.2 richter scale- no damage, but definitely wobbly on the legs)
- saw a pig being slaughtered (I thought I'd be more interested than disturbed... but I was wrong)
- ran my own 3-day English camp
- danced with my future students (jury's still out as to whether that was a good choice or not)
- started my first job as an English teacher :)

So yes, village life is slow, and sometimes (debatably often times) boring, BUT there are so many things that I can see and experience here that I wouldn't get in a larger town or city. There is a beautiful simplicity to life here, where so much depends on how you interact with the land and the people. While the next two years will be challenging, they will be valuable. This may be the only time in my life when I'm separated from the world of convenience I know in the States. I am learning to respect the work it takes to feed people, the friendships found in neighbors, and how to make the most out of what you have.

P.S.
In case you're panicking about a lack of visual stimulation in future blog posts, DON'T PANIC. I am still able to take some pictures of things around the village and at my house on my iPad. I'm also working on getting a replacement camera.

Wrapping up things in Kvishkheti

This is mainly a post to talk about a few things that just didn’t really fit in anywhere else, but still deserve to be mentioned during my time in Kvishkheti. So I’m just going to make this a picture post, along with explanations. They aren’t necessarily in any chronological order.

 On one of our marshutka rides. Melissa likes to sing aloud, and Eric likes to not listen. This was an especially special song called "Country Bumpkin."

 Our cluster in class with our LCF, Lela

 Cutest baby ever, Andria. 

 The beautiful Elene, with her son. 

 Some of the flowers in our yard. One of my favorite things about village life is all the lovely gardens with their colorful flowers.

 Look at the size of this rose!!!

 I prefer Georgian roses to American

 A bunch of bali (cherries) waiting to be made into compote and muraba (preserved fruit in syrup). They make all of their own fruit preserves for winter. My new host mom made 100 cans of peaches, and 200 bottles of tomato sauce!! 

 Can't get enough of him!

Went to work in the grape fields one day. I asked Marina if there was a third hoe so that I could help, but she told me it's okay to just watch. Well I wasn't about to be the jerk who sat and watched as they work away in the garden, so I started weeding with my hands. Unfortunately, I did not (and still do not) know what stinging nettle looks like. My hands burnt the rest of the day. 

 On a trip to Tbilisi, we all had to visit a teaching-related organization. We went to the Teacher Development Center, which offers enriching training to Georgian teachers. 

Elene's birthday party with a cake made by Lela. I was only able to stay for a little bit since our end of PST dinner was the same night. 

 Kvishkheti cluster performing our talent. We wrote our own funny lyrics to the Sound of Music's "My Favorite Things" 

 Kvishkheti's lovely ladies: Caiti, me, Lela, Melissa 

4th of July in the other Georgia

Luckily, the 4^th of July fell during our PST. Peace Corps Georgia staff has a tradition of helping the volunteers throw a huge party on the 4^th to not only allow us to celebrate one of our most meaningful holidays, but to also allow the exchange of cultures between Americans and Georgians. We had a small committee (which I was a part of) to organize location, games, food, and schedule of the day. I have to mention our training manager, Tengo because if it weren’t for him, there would be no event at all. He helped the committee the whole way through, plus carried out all of the decisions we made.

Each volunteer was allowed to bring two family members… well each volunteer was allotted two seats on a PC marshutka to offer their family members. Really, each volunteer probably brought at least 3 people each. Shalva, Elene, and Andria came from my family (my host mom, Marina, and sister, Lela were out of town).

 Elene, Andria, and Shalva 

Cutest baby in Kvishkheti!

The committee got to go to the event’s site in Surami a couple of hours beforehand to help set up, mainly blowing up a bunch of balloons and laying out food. The best part about this was riding in Tengo’s private PC car. I’m so used to rickety marshutka’s and old taxis that simply riding in a brand new car with the radio blasting was enough to make me feel like I was home. Pretty good way to start a day celebrating my home.

At the event itself there were a bunch of games for kids and American style food (there were even veggie burgers!!!) The games included tug of war, bobbing for peaches, a peach eating contest, water balloon toss, and a cake walk for moms and bebias (cake walk actually got really heated- mainly a lot of pushing and arguing over who was at the cake-winning spot when the music stopped). Tug of war was a huge success. We did a tournament style competition between the clusters. Everyone, Georgians and Americans alike, got really into it. Plus it’s a game that Georgians haven’t seen before (outside of our annual event, that is). The water balloon toss was also a hit… giving water balloons to kids usually is. There were two rounds, and the first round another volunteer, Aaron and I actually won! Just representing the good ol’ U.S. of A.

 Kvishkheti's tug of war team

 Peach eating contest

 Our country director, Maura, cutting the amazing cake we had!

 Where some of the cake ended up... (Tengo's face) 

Children of Kvishkheti

Left to Right: Saba, Giorgi, Bachana, Anano, Dachi, Ani, Cintsia, Mari, Ana, and Luca

Even though I was in a different country, this was one if not the best 4^th of July I’ve ever had. There’s something more fulfilling about sharing your culture with others rather than just celebrating like usual.

Melissa, Caiti, Eric, and I (to my left is my water balloon partner) 

PST Community Projects

In addition to language and educational technical training, Peace Corps asks us to put on a couple of projects within our PST (pre-service training) to a. practice some useful skills we will need when in our permanent communities (I have to put on my own camp all by myself in Gavazi), and to b. give back to the community that has helped us integrate thus far.

The first of our projects was a summer camp for the school children. The camp was for three hours for three days. Each day we tried to mix up activities while getting kids to learn some English (the focus of our camp). Day one we played a variety of games including capture the flag, day two we did a scavenger hunt (which my team won!), and day three we went on a hike half way up the mountain to play some more games in a field up there.

 Day one of camp. Ultimate frisbee... sort of. 

 Day 2: I loved this kid, named him Dennis the Menace 

 On the hike up. Ignore my awkward water bottle. 

 About to play a red light green light sort of game on top of the mountain

One of the greatest challenges of the camp was to get kids of all ages to participate and remain engaged. Most of the younger kids did so, but the older kids were periodically struck with the “I’m too cool for this” mentality. One of the things I’m reminded of constantly here is what it is like to be an adolescent (at various ages) and more specifically a teenage girl, thanks to my past and current host sisters.

One of the funniest things about camp was our camp song, the “Tootie-Ta”. I know this means nothing to most of you, but it is a hilarious and thoroughly embarrassing camp song that Melissa contributed. It takes you step-by-step through silly movements and each verse builds on the past movements. The last verse ends with your thumbs up, elbows back, knees together, butt up in the air, eyes closed, and tongue sticking out… all while singing the song and turning around in a circle. Maybe I can find a video, but otherwise the hilarity is lost.

Our second community project was independent group work. Each cluster was supposed to observe their community, assess needs, and formulate some sort of community project to help fulfill that need. One cluster did a summer camp training session for teachers and youth leaders in their village, another group painted their school’s chalkboards, and our group chose to put on a health fair.

At our fair we had five stations: nutrition (mine), personal hygiene (Caitlin), substance abuse (Von), water sanitation (Ian), and exercise (Eric). The participants, who ended up being a lot of the kids from our summer camp, were given ‘health passports’ which would get a star sticker next to each station they attended. After they attended all sessions they would get a stamp of completion. Following the event, we had a trash pick-up led by Melissa to help beautify the schoolyard. 

 My healthy eating station with Melissa's host mom, Nana, and snacks!

 Ian's water cleanliness station 

 Caitlin's personal hygiene station 

Trash pick-up results 

Overall, the even went pretty smoothly. The only exception was that Eric got terribly sick the night before and day of the project, but we all just sort of jumped in and had the kids do various exercises.

Hard core exercise station 

I’m not sure about how lasting the lessons will be, but I do know that the day after the health fair, our LCF’s (Lela’s) little host sister insisted that each of us wash our hands before we sit down to eat… which we always do anyways, but still.

One last thing we decided to do on our own as a cluster was have a women only supra. Usually the women make all the food, serve everyone, clean up, and don’t really get to enjoy the supra. We invited all the women from all of our families to join us as the boys of the cluster made us dinner. The girls helped with a lot of the prep work, I made a banana cake, Melissa put together some sangria, and Eric and Von made us delicious gnocchi! It’s always entertaining when Georgians try new foods. You can see the progression of acceptance on their faces. At first you could tell that they were all taking very small portions just to be kind, you could tell they didn’t expect much. But slowly people started going back for seconds and larger portions. The same process happened with the sangria. When told it was fruit and wine they sort of made funny faces, but sure enough they loved it! This was how most new foods are accepted here though. Once I put jam in my sour cream… because it’s pretty much just like jam in yogurt (and I for one didn’t want to eat a pile of plain sour cream). The reaction was surprise and disgust. I finally convinced my family to try it, and of course they loved it.

 Melissa with Ani, Makvala, Mzea

Some of the ladies, happy and full. 

We tried to really reverse the gender roles during the dinner, but the Georgian women couldn’t stand for the boys to be in the kitchen while we ate and drank, so they got to enjoy the meal with us. Also clean up was a bit of a failure too. We tried to have Ian do the dishes (because he was absent for food prep) that lasted about 3 minutes before my host mom stepped in and finished all the dishes. She at least let us help dry and put away stuff though. 

Even though in our eyes it seemed like the women still did a fair amount of work (between clean up and bringing cakes and side dishes), in their eyes the boys did everything and I think they were all tickled. 

Site Placement

It seems funny to write about this now, since I am already at my permanent site, but I will try to separate my knowledge of my permanent site from what I was expecting and learning about it at the time.

 I was so excited the days leading up to our permanent site announcements. I researched all of the regions, thought about hypothetical placements, and daydreamed about how my life would be for the next two years. I came to the conclusion that either Kakheti or Guria would be the place for me! Guria primarily for it’s tropical climate and proximity to the Black Sea. Kakheti because it is known for it’s flourishing agriculture, the best wine in the country, and numerous historical and natural landmarks, and it happens to be one of the warmest regions (I can now attest to that) with mild winters and low humidity in the summers. (It may seem as though I have a bias since Kakheti is now my home, but it is, in fact, the best region.)

Site announcement day was a HUB day.  HUB days are when all of the volunteers, education and project development alike, head to our centralized meeting place in Khashuri and receive group training. I don’t really remember anything from trainings that day since none of us could take our attention away from our own excitement.

At mid-day the fun finally began. The PC Georgia staff came up with a great little activity for announcing permanent sites. They make a huge outline of the country, filling the school’s gym. They label the map by region, and label all the villages where volunteers will be serving. Every volunteer is passed an envelope with someone else’s site placement inside. We then took turns announcing to one another where we’d be placed, and also got to see where everyone was in relation to each other.

Holding someone's (I think it was Tiffany, who sadly went home to the States)  

Our training manager Tengo, and country director, Maura in the middle of Sakartvelo 

As we all now know, I received the village Gavazi in Kakheti’s region.

Some other volunteers in Kakheti

The next day we were off to a conference in which we would be introduced to our school or program’s director and discuss goals and expectations. I was met by my school’s deputy director, Lela. At first I was a little disappointed that I wasn’t meeting my director first, but I soon found out that communicating with him (Giorgi) is very difficult, so Lela, who has limited English, was a much easier transition.

We stayed one night at the conference in Bazaleti (the same town we were in for our orientation). After some more workshops the following day, we were off to our various sites.

We arrived early evening in Gavazi. I met my family (Mother: Naira, Father: Gocha, Sister: Sopo, and my host brother wasn’t there because he studies in Tbilisi, but his name is Vano), I met one of my counterparts who is also a relative (she is also named Sopo), I was fed and explained how I don’t eat meat, and then went to bed. 

The next morning I was abruptly awoken by the rooster who lives just outside my window (I’ve now grown relatively accustomed to him). This day I went to the school and observed a class with my other counterpart, Mzia, but school was pretty much out for summer… there were only three students in her class. I also met my director who appears to be very supportive and eager to work with me. Then I hung out with some of the teachers while they did end-of-the-year grading, followed by a mini supra in the teacher’s lounge with cake. Later I came across some kids playing soccer so I jumped in to join (despite being in my dress clothes and shoes from school). They were all shocked and amazed by the girl who could actually play a sport… I even scored a couple of goals! That night my family took me to Ilia’s Tba (Ilia’s lake) which has a nice little complex at the top of the mountain, with a paved walkway around the lake, plenty of seating, a couple of restaurants/cafes, a bike rental place, and a sports court. It’s a very popular summer hangout for the area.

 The chicken coop RIGHT outside my window. It gives off a lovely aroma midday. 

My beautiful school!

Way nicer than PHS

The next morning I went to the school again to get a mini tour. I learned we have a computer room with internet, a greenhouse, a gym, and even a mini museum that Lela put together of local and general Georgian culture and history. I was very impressed. I will also note here that my school is impressive in general. It’s nicer than my high school in the states, and better than any other school I’ve seen in Georgia. It’s very comforting to know that I won’t have to worry about infrastructural projects and that I can focus my time on education. 

View of the mountains from the school window

 Georgian history

 Georgian typewriter 

 Our greenhouse!

Later we went to the kindergarten end-of-the-year performance. All of the children who will be entering the first grade next school year performed for the teachers. It was absolutely precious. After the performance we had another teacher supra with cake!

 All dressed up. So cute!

 Intense little dresses

They start teaching the traditional dances at early ages

The next morning I woke up to gifts from my host mom. She had noticed my lack of house shoes (which was mainly due to lack of packing space) and so she bought me some fantastic bedazzled slippers to wear while in the house. It is absolutely prohibited to not wear shoes in a Georgian household. You must have a pair of shoes for inside, and a pair of shoes that wait at the door if you plan on going outside. I am still mastering the shoe switcheroo… I still forget sometimes.

My AWESOME bedazzled shoes

 My host mother, Naira

Host sister, Sopo

I left at 9am on a marshutka headed to Tbilisi. On the way we picked up my friend Brad, who lives about 30 minutes away in a neighboring town. We met up with his host sister in Tbilisi who helped us get around. Her second language is French (pretty rare for Georgians, who usually learn Russian, German, or English) and luckily Brad had studied so they were able to communicate pretty effectively. While in Tbilisi we met up with a couple of other volunteers located in Kakheti, grabbed lunch (delicious American-style pizza for me) and headed back home… our then home.