Blog, June 18, 2014

Hello My Faithful Readers:

Tomorrow, June 19^th, I will find out where I will be spending the next two years. We go where we are needed, but I must tell you that I am nervous with anticipation as to where the Peace Corps thinks I will be needed.  I’ve heard the decisions as to where we will be assigned have already been made, so (as they say on award shows) the winner is already in the envelope. I can’t wait to share on the blog. It dawned on me recently that when I go to my new region I will be totally alone with my new community and host family; as everyone in my cluster will be assigned to different regions. We American’s won’t be together and I won’t have my LCF (Language Coach). That is kind-a sobering as up until now I’ve had American’s around me and/or Georgian’s that have pretty excellent English. I think this experience will begin the REAL Peace Corps. J

We will be traveling on Friday to Bazaleti.  It is about an hour north of Tbilisi. This is the area where we did our initial training. At this location we will meet with the supervisors who we will be working with during our time of service, 2 years. These folks would be the people in charge, Directors or Heads of Schools. We may also meet at this time some of the teachers who will be our counter-parts in the schools we will be teaching in. I heard we will be staying at a hotel, and a really nice one with indoor plumbing.  Ah, one of the good things is that we will have a few days without Georgian classes…Yippee. On Sunday, we will then travel to the region and town/city/village that we will be living in starting in mid-July, when PST is over. We will also meet our new host families. We will be bringing with us half of our luggage. The PC recommends bringing all the clothes that won’t be needed until we officially move in late July. This is a good thing, as half is manageable. The other half comes with us when we permanently move. Believe it or not but we all have more stuff than when we arrived. As a note, I am not taking my computer so I won’t be emailing or blogging during this time – at least as far as I know. I will be living fully every minute as I cannot wait to share this latest adventure when I get back to Osiauri.

Georgia has some kind of a lottery or sorts and one of the prizes for the winner is a car. In a Bob Barker kind of way they scream “Manqana” on the TV show.  I always thought it meant car, as they show the car with flashing lights around it.  But I was told (as it evidenced below) that it means “machine.” Other types of machines, for example the washing machine are also called “Manqana.”  I would imagine that when the car was introduced into the Georgian culture it was a machine and the name must have stuck!

Machine  მანქანა (Manqana)

Speaking of Washing Machines, I’ve noticed that my host grandmother does not use the washing machine. My host sister and I wait in line to use it, but grandmother  - ბებია (Bebia) washes all her clothing by hand in the sink or in the tub. I would image that old habits die hard, at least I know they do for me.

I’ve noticed, now that summer is really here, that there is no shady side of the street (or road). Especially when I walk home from school I am looking around for shade as I have a good walk to get home. I suddenly realized that because the houses are either one or maybe two stories there are no large buildings to block the sun and make one side shady and the other sunny, like they do in the states (in the cities). The tallest building in the village is the school and it only has three floors. The school is not really near many houses and anyway, I am always walking away from the school when I am going home. I often see women using umbrellas as it is really hot walking on the dirt road.

I’ve also noticed now how many butterflies there are in the village. The butterflies are everywhere. They dance around your head, body and feet. You really cannot get away from them, but then it is a dance of such beauty that I don’t want to. At first you see a couple and then lots more appear. I wonder if they are attracted to the walking or maybe the body heat. I don’t know, but I do know that it gives a very joyous feel to walking home on the dirt road. I hope they stay around all summer.

I know I’ve spoke about not finding any (or many) comfortable chairs in Georgia, but I must expand on that. The chairs at the dining table at some of the homes I’ve been in, well, I can say that I have sat on softer rocks. In my host family house the chairs, in addition to being uncomfortable, they look so old. I cannot wait to get up from the table, and maybe that is a good thing – it could be an alternate diet plan J.

On Sunday there was an election here in Georgia. I was told the elections were municipality elections and we were told, as Peace Corps Volunteers, to stay away from polling places, schools and other state buildings. I don’t know who won, but I think they were voting for the Office of Mayor of the Cities and Office of Assistant Mayor of the Villages (I think). The various political parties plastered the faces and party numbers anywhere and everywhere they could find in both towns and villages. One party was # 41 and another party was #5. In a very clever play on words the party (I’ll bet #5) put a plus sign between the (4) and the (1) = (#41) – so it read 4+1=5. It was a very clever play on words.

I stopped smoking in 1990, as I was a heavy smoker back then. Off and on over the years I have craved a cigarette but nothing I could not handle – until now. I have had this overwhelming craving to smoke here in Georgia. I imagine I am looking at tobacco to help me through the ups, downs and stress as I cannot use food (not thrilled about the food).  I was worried before I came to Georgia as I heard it was a smoking country; however, I have not really found that people smoke in excess. My host father smokes but very infrequently and mostly he does not smoke in front of me. I am aware of this craving and I don’t want to go back to smoking (although I’ve heard they are very cheap here). This is all very odd for me. Need to find a replacement for food. I will keep you updated.

I’ve had some wine here in Georgia, but I am not a wine person so the wine was just so-so (for me). However, I’ve had some beer here and it is pretty good. I believe its Georgian Beer, but best of all it is COLD, but it really did taste good.  Even if I didn’t like beer I would drink it because it is COLD. The wine is room temperature, but maybe I would like that also if it was COLD; however, I don’t think so. The beer comes in a very tall bottle, at least the beer that I’ve seen. I am sure it is also sold in cans, but I have not seen them yet. (Ah, I miss ICE)

I was in a supermarket (or a supermarket according to Georgian Standards). It was wonderful to have aisles to walk down and rows and rows of products. It felt like the US for a moment. There were lots of canned goods, but no tuna fish and peanut butter. Oh well, but they do sell wine, beer and other types of alcohol in the supermarket. The only thing they didn’t sell was fruit and vegetables. Maybe that is because there are so many fruit and vegetable shops, I also went to a $1.00 store (I thought they only had those in the US). Just about every item in the store was A DOLLAR (or really the Georgian currency of  GEL).  I was able to buy some clothes pins (forgot to bring those), some steel wool pads (so I can really wash the tea stains out of the cups and a small lined copy book for my vocabulary. It is hard to find lined copy books here in Georgia. Most books that you write it look like graphing paper. I have no idea why. (real exciting stuff, huh)

Doing this blog has made me see my surroundings in a different way. I just never walk past something. I now look to see how it fits into the community and possibly why it is constructed and or placed in that way. There is only ONE traffic light in Khashuri. Maybe there are more as I’ve not been in every section of the town, but I’ve been in quite a few areas and no traffic lights. Along the side of the traffic light there is this BIG electronic sign that counts down (from 45) how many seconds you have to cross the street before the light changes. This electronic sign is LARGE and it rivals signs I’ve seen in New York. There are; however, bumps in the road that will make cars slow down as otherwise you are going to bang your head on the ceiling of the car going over them so fast. Everyone knows where the speed bumps are, so as we approach them the vehicle slows down. Initially I didn’t realize what was happening, but then it becomes clear that it is to slow down.

Here is a funny story…I heard second hand that one of the volunteers was asking where the closest dry cleaner was. Now, I don’t know if he/she was kidding or if it is even true; but, I cannot imagine in a country where some people need to chop wood in order to have hot water to wash clothes someone would bring clothing that needed to be dry clean. I think, if the story is true, they are out of luck.

Another curious item I was told was that everyone in Georgia knows how to take a blood pressure. I don’t know how or why they are taught, but in the schools teachers who are on break or lunch practice taking each other blood pressure. Now, most of the people in Georgia are not overweight; however, the diet consists of so much salt and carbs I wonder why more people are not overweight. Maybe all the walking or the life style of not sitting consistently has something to do with it. I just found it interesting.

I am really tired, Faithful Readers. It is not so much a physical tired; however I am exhausted most of the time – but it is more an emotional or maybe a mental tired. I think this is (maybe) week seven or eight (most times I don’t even know what day it is) and I just realized that I am trying to make sense of things based on what I know as a citizen of the United States; however, life here cannot totally fit into the what I know.

Just one more share….GLOW (Girls Leading Our World) is an organization  (leadership camp for girls 14-17) that began three years ago as a Peace Corp project. An email was sent looking for G14’s (me) to apply and be part of this year long project. I am thinking about and gathering more information. It sounds like a terrific project. I will keep you posted.

All the Best, Catherine, G14 – 6/18/14

დიდი მადლობა - Thank you

didi madloba

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