Blog, May 12, 2014

This is way harder than I ever imagined. I’ve only been here two weeks and I feel like it has been months. I have turned into a “needy” person and I don’t recognize myself. All the things I counted on at home are gone; however, I must look to what I have and not look at what I don’t have. During training class the Peace Corps asked us to look for what “Works” in Georgia and “Not What Does Not Work.”  They ask us to look at our work here in Georgia from an “asset based approach.”   That may be the way to go. We shall see. I am out of my comfort zone, big time. I am not in Kansas any more; however in the next couple of weeks I should get the modum I ordered – so I will have more access to the internet.

Marshutka and Birzha are fixtures here in Osiauri. The Marshutka is a van that shuttles people from one place to another for a fee. People wait to be picked up and I am really not sure if the spots are designated or you just flag them down. I have not taken one yet, but I heard they get very crowded. The Birzha is a place where men gather to talk, play backgammon, smoke or just past the time. There are many, many Birzha’s here in Osiauri.  When I walk past it is obvious that I am not of the village. The Peace Corps instructs us women not to look, speak or smile at the men as often that is considered flirting. The men sometimes call out, but we just walk by with our heads down. The male volunteers can speak, say hello or something, but not the women. One of our teachers said that “Georgians don’t smile much” and that a women smiling at a man is an invitation. Georgian culture is very indirect, so you need to read between the lines. Given all that, I don’t feel upset or afraid as I don’t think anyone would approach me unless I gave an invitation.

I may jump around a little as I think I will write a little everyday and then cut and paste into the blog when I get to an internet connection. So, there are mountains outside my window. I still don’t know what the mountains are called. What I do know if that there is still snow on the tops and the entire mountain looks like it is covered in dark, plush green carpeting. It is 100% covered, there are no bare spots. Just beautiful. Also, at times the clouds cover the tops and when it rains the cloud cover gives the mountains a majestic look. I sit outside my room, as I am on the 2^nd floor, and watch the movement of the clouds. All day long you can hear roosters crowing. People are friendly. Georgian’s are big on asking questions; and yet, I was taken back when my host sister asked me what my religion was. When I said Buddist they didn’t understand. How to explain that when I can barely ask for Chai/tea? Although I can’t say that it is my religion, I am aligned to Buddist meditative practices. I also feel that I am Christian, so they were all nods about that. I am doing OK with the instant coffee. It is not great, but OK.  I do drink more tea than coffee, but I sure miss the great coffee we have in the states. We can only drink the water that is boiled. It seems that Georgia do have water filtration systems; however, many of the pipes throughout the country that water moves through are old and not up to standards. So, until we get our PC water filter (that looks like a 20 cup coffee maker), we buy water when we can. Water is hard to come by as the people in my village just drink the tap water and no need to spend money on bottled water like we do in the states. They drink a lot of mineral water…it is ok, but I really need just plain water.

We finished our first week of training and I had a “melt down.” I am better now, but I think I was just over tired and the overwhelming thought of pooping in a hold for 27 months got to me. The bathroom situation is really grim. Of course, I have an indoor western toilet in my house, but I am not at my house a lot. Most houses have “out houses” and you can rank them all as terrible. We all carry toilet paper, wet wipes and hand sanitizer. The conversations are really funny, as once we had conversations about coffee at Starbucks, now we often times ask to borrow toilet paper, etc., if we forgot or ran out. Ah, It is a challenge. They say that 1 in 3 don’t make it through the entire 27 months and I can believe that is true. We had a second rabies shot as well as thyphoid (sp?) this week. Joy!

We must leave our phone on and charged 24/7 so that the Peace Corps can always reach us. This is also because of their evacuation plans. The PC is very comprehensive in their planning of what to do if we need to leave the country in a hurry. I must also have a “GO” bag ready so that when we get the call the PC can gather us and move us either out of the country or to a safer location within the country. I think we would move to Armenia to see if we needed to vacate Georgia completely (back to the  states) or just wait and see what happens. They give us maps of the 10k buffer zones around “South Ossetia” that we cannot go near.  There was a report of a local man who wandered into the 10K zones and was arrested by the Russians. I think we all get how serious it is and hopefully we won’t cause an international incident.  I’ve noticed how narrow the doorways are. Its hard to manage through when you have a packed book bag on your back.  Also, there is no whistling in the house because it is bad luck/poverty.

There is a bias here in Georgia against Asians. I just find that so hard to believe but I am told it is true. The thinking goes that the Asians are taking over. We do have a few Asian volunteers and I know that they were placed with families that were not harboring these ideas. I don’t know much more about this subject. Again, I am jumping around. So, the flies here in Georgia are LOUD. But then again, maybe its my hearing…but the flies are LOUD J.  The priority here is “Health and Safety.”  Three Americans head the Georgia PC team and the remained of the staff are Georgian. I am so in awe of the skills the Georgian men and women have that are part of the PC staff. Their language skills in English just knock me over. If I could only do 1/3 as well with my language skills it would be a good thing. We are on military time here. Not sure why, but its hard to manage dealing with time stated as 1500 hours. I am just not familiar with dealing with time that way. I could go on and on, but after three pages my faithful readers may be nodding off….

All the best, Catherine – 5/12/14

Note:  The contents of this blog are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the U.S. Government or the Peace Corps.