Blog, July 6, 2014

Hello, My Faithful Readers:

We had our evacuation drill last week. The EAP, the Emergency Action Plan, provides the framework for Peace Corps volunteers to evacuate the country in the event of a natural disaster or a political unrest within the country.

To begin, at 6:40am last Thursday, I received a call from my Language Coach telling me that all volunteers needed to be at the consolidation point as quickly as possible. This kind of message would infer that there is a strong possibility that due to certain situations we may need to evacuate the country. We were also told to bring our “GO” bag. That is the bag that will contain any and all necessary items we would need in order to leave the country. Some examples would be passports, money, medications, clothing, phone, chargers – things that would be necessary if we had to leave Georgia and live in another location for a period of time.  The consolidation point would be, in this scenario, the Khashuri school that we do our training in. The Peace Corps was not going to send transportation for us. It was up to us to find our own way to the location. The kicker is we really didn’t know if this was FOR REAL, or was it a drill. We had to operate like it was FOR REAL.

I was a little prepared as my “GO” bag was sort-of ready, so I just had to put the finishing touches into the bag. Out the door I went and took my village marsh to the consolidation point. When I arrived I realized that it was a drill as the Peace Corps had a breakfast layout (instant coffee, tea, fruit and pastry) for us and we were being clocked as to how long it took us to get to Khashuri, which was the consolidation point. It was an upsetting as well as interesting start to the morning! I arrive in Khashuri at 8:15am. We were told from the start of the drill, when the first call went out to evacuate at 6:30am, until we were all safely arrived at the consolidation point, 8:30am, was a really impressive time for (57) volunteers to come in from all points east and west of Khashuri using transportation that was not Peace Corps. Some volunteers used the marsh, others took a taxi or requested a ride from their host families and yet other volunteers walked to the consolidation point. If it was real, at that point the Peace Corps would have evacuated us either to Armenia or Azerbaijan (I think), depending on a variety of factors. Since we didn’t have to evacuate we had breakfast and then sat down for a full day of meetings.

Since evacuation was a topic of conversation, at that point we were all given our evacuation orders should we need to leave the country when we get to our permanent sites (for me: Sagarejo). I would need to find my way to Telavi, which is about two hours from my permanent site of  Sagarejo. We know who our leader will be (also referred to as “Warden”) and exactly who I will be traveling with. My group will consist of twelve other volunteers who are living in the same region. I must say that I am impressed with the amount of detail and pre-planning that goes into all this. If anything does happen, I know that we will be well taken care of.

Ok, enough about evacuation. Wanted to share something I remembered about Tbilisi that I thought was unusual. While we were on one of the buses in Tbilisi I noticed that there was a man going up and down the aisle collecting money. Was he a beggar (he was dressed nicely) or what was his role on the bus? Since I was in the back of the bus and one of my traveling mates was going to pay for me, I didn’t notice if there was a fare box or not. Well, obviously not, as this man was collecting money for the ride. The bus was so crowded and yet he seemed to know who paid and who did not. After you paid, he gave you a little receipt. He was even making change if you didn’t have exact fare.  I thought about the regional trains we have in Philadelphia and the suburbs, as that is how they collect the fare on the trains. But, on a moving city bus it seemed unusual. I am not sure if this happens on all the buses as on one other bus I was on had a fare box.  Another interesting point was that the bus had THREE doors (front, back and middle). The extra door made getting on and off fast and easy. I think the USA should look at the THREE door model, especially on heavily used lines (now I am making policy (smiles).

Georgia will now be integrated into the EU internal market, the worlds’ largest. As for me, being here in Georgia at this time – well let me quote something that I found on the topic.

“The months ahead will require major efforts on the Georgian side, as it will have to adopt and implement hundreds of regulations on rule of law, justice, human rights and labour rights. It will have a profound impact on the whole society and it would require structural reforms, capacity building in its institutions,” says Mr Iarochevitch . Boris Iarochevitch, deputy head of the EU delegation in Georgia, says the EU has had assurances from Russia it will not interfere in the process – “although you never know,” he adds.

As I will be here in Georgia for the next two years, I may get to see how this would unfold. Looking forward to that. 

The 4^th of July has come and gone. The Peace Corps celebrated by having a picnic in the traditional 4^th of July fashion. The ONLY things missing were the BBQ grill and fireworks, but neither missing item took anything away from the day. We spent the afternoon at a picnic site that had a covered pavilion with sofa like chairs. There were not that many picnic tables, but nobody seemed to mind. All of the PC G14’s (me) were invited as well as the PC staff and one or two members from our host families. There must have been 200 people in attendance. The food was hamburgers and hotdogs (of course on buns). We had REAL mustard (we were all happy about that).  Pringles (the chip) was in the house (smiles) and of course REAL coke and pepsi and water. Georgian’s are not big on ICE and brother do I miss it. It was a hot day so most of us were trying to find shelter from the sun.

The day was organized around arrivals and food for the first hour. Getting to the place was a challenge as we had to walk over a foot bridge (that moved a little) and we were dodging the remains of the cows that had just crossed before us (part of life in Georgia). The water below looked so tempting. I know I am not the only one who wanted to jump in but there were lots of rocks in the water (kinda white water, so to speak). It was beautiful to watch the water flow quickly over the rocks. The surrounding scenery was just breath taking. There was nothing around as far as the eye could see. It was a spectacular day. Not a cloud in the sky. The hills/mountains were so green and lush. Rolling hills that just went on and on.  The picnic area was on a hill, so we were looking down at the valley below us.  

After the foot bridge we had to climb up the hill and there was no railing or even indentations so that our feet could grab onto the ground. The area was half grass and half little stones that were slippery. We were all grabbing onto one another trying to get up. At the time we had fellow volunteers who had already made it to the top cheering us on with American flags. The picnic area was big enough for the multitudes of people and even had enough room to play “tug of war”, water balloon toss, 3 legged races and other games. Frisbees and American footballs were tossed about. It was fun. There were people painting faces, so just about everyone had an American flag or a Georgian flag, so some other festive design painted on their faces, arms and legs.  The Georgian children I think had the best time. They said they really liked“America’s Birthday”.

დაბადების დღე

dabadebis dghe

"birthday" in Georgian

After the games came the Cake and Ice Cream. This cake looked like a wedding cake. It was so big it covered the whole table.  Remember this cake had to feed 200 people. It was like a strawberry short cake, delicious. Before we cut the cake we sang the American National anthem and then they passed around sparklers as well as shot off some of these confetti poppers that shoot stars and other color type of confetti into the air. Everyone was hugging and singing and waiting for cake! I tell you every inch of cake was eaten.

The day was a success. We all got to have conversations with folks that because of our tight schedule we don’t get to talk too often or ever. It was fun also to speak in Georgian. Everyone is generous as most times we don’t say it correct; but many of the host families now speak a little English – so we all get by. We waited to the marsh to come and take us home and then to bed. I was exhausted being out in the sun all day (and I was not even running around). We walked the road back to home in Osiauri with balloon hats and the kind of horns that you get at new years. We looked like a parade coming down the road. We always seem to come home with the cows (smiles).

ნაყინი

naqini

"ice cream" in Georgian

So, at the beginning of this blog I promised some information about upcoming events as we will be graduating and becoming “Official Volunteers” on July 18^th, 2014. I’ve heard that the ceremony will take place in Tbilisi, I think at one of the University of Tbilisi buildings. The US Georgian Ambassador will be swearing us in. Along with all the volunteers we can invite our current host families as well as our soon to be new permanent site host families. Again, a cast of thousands will attend! We will also have the evening before a “Farewell Dinner.”  At some point we are going to Borjomi to see a notary officer (not sure what that is about) and we are also going to have our PST exit interview with the Georgian PC Country Director.

Next week will be a hard week for me because we will have Georgian classes five of the six days. I hold on to the fact that these classes are coming to an end. In addition, we volunteers have to develop and conduct a summer camps for the children in our village. It is a three day program and each day requires two hours of activities each day. The challenge is we have really no budget for this and have no idea how many children will show up. Sometimes there are 15 and it could go to 60, or more. Of course there are six volunteers trying to run the programs, but I am not looking forward to it.

I am going to close but wanted to let you know that I think my next book will be “Moby Dick.” For some reason which I am sure will become clearer to me as I begin to read the book (it is my first time reading it).

Thanks so much for your interest in my adventure. Feel free to post comments (good or bad), I would love to hear from people back in the OLD COUNTRY.

Best, Catherine Lawrence, G14 – 7/6/14

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