Whoops. Bye Summer. And most of Fall.

First of all, a lengthy apology is in order. I'm sorry I have not blogged in basically 3 months. Summer is over, I have been at site since July 20th. I thought blogging would be much easier than this - it is certainly not because I don't have time. Yes, I am busy, but I have enough time to blog. I need to either make it a higher priority, or just stop posting. Unfortunately I am strongly considering the latter. I also don't like this blogging website that much. My PC friends with Tumblr and wordpress have way, way cooler blogs.

I suppose I can finish this "catch-up" blog though, now that I have started. What is life in your town like? What do you do at your organization? What do you do in a normal day? These are your questions. I know.

 Every day I get up at 8, eat breakfast, and make my half hour walk to work to start around 9:30. I get lunch with my host parents at 1:30. Then back to the office until 6. Sometimes I exercise after work, sometimes I read, and sometimes I go off and do social things with my host parents. My organization works with a variety of issues in Ozurgeti, specifically we have a Leadership school for kids 14-17, we research and advocate for schools and about education issues. We advocate for students and childrens rights. All of these themes have events or programs that my organization operates to improve the condition of these issues.

So much has happened since I last blogged that it is impossible to recap everything. That may have been part of my hesitancy to continue blogging. I hate to do anything halfway (which now I am forced to do) and I know that I cannot properly update you on things like my weeklong LIFE camp out in east Georgia, or my trip into the mountains of Khevsureti. It is so hard to do this summer justice in a blog. Trying to understand the language that is flying around me takes more effort and energy than I realized. I passed my language exam before I swore in, but that only puts me at Intermediate-low level. I still have so much I need to learn, and trying to follow conversations throughout the day slowly makes the brain quite tired. Considering the English language is slipping away day by day this blogging thing has just been too difficult (just kidding).

The day before my birthday, I got to go to Baxmaro, the local beautiful mountain area here in Guria. About 5 days later it snowed out, but the day I was up there with my organization, it was absolutely beautiful. Khevsureti and Baxmaro have been my favorite places in Georgia. Here are some pictures from the summer (stream swimming, on an excursion with some co-workers, really old wine, and some kids I got to work with over the summer).

SITE PLACEMENT

My sincere apologies for not blogging the past month. I have so much to write about.

What organization will I be working with in Georgia? Where will I be living? What

will my living conditions be like? Who will be living near me? What will my new host

family be like?

On June 19th, site placements were announced outside on a big open basketball court, with a long rope in the shape of Georgia on the ground. Each of us were given someone else’s envelope, and we read them
one at a time, announcing where a fellow volunteer would be living for the next 2 years. The next day we were taken across the country to meet our supervisors. I was met by my organizations deputy director, Nona. She did not speak English, but there are 4 English speakers in the organization, including Tea, who speaks very good English. After our short supervisers conference, Nona and I traveled across the country to my permanent site.I will be living in the town of Ozurgeti, about 20 minutes from the Black Sea in the region of Guria. The regions of Georgia are like states in the US. My region is known for humor, singing, and fast, loud talkers :) I already have a traditional Gurian singing folk singing hat gifted to me by my coworkers.

My organization, translated to English, is called the Young Pedagogues Union. Their mission is: “To raise civil awareness and improve the local populations social-economic condition by developing educational institutions, social services, and providing youth with civic values.” Their three components include a School
Democratization component, a civic awareness/leadership among young adults component, and a social welfare component. They are a very high functioning organization, and I am going to have the opportunity to work in many of their programs. Druing my time there, I went out for a fantastic dinner at a restaurant along a crek in a village neighboring Ozurgeti.

I spent about 2.5 days in Ozurgeti. My host family is a married couple, Shorena and Irakli who live in an amazing house. They are 40 and 42 and claim to be my “host siblings.” They have signed up to house me for two years – they were incredibly nice and hospitable for our weekend. Everyone wish them luck with their grocery bills. We went to Batumi that Sunday (the 3rd largest city in Georgia, located on the BlackSea). Along with Shorenas sister, Ia, we walked and biked along the boardwalk and enjoyed beautiful Batumi. The Black Sea is pretty sweet, the port there reminded me of Tacoma but maybe that was just because of the smell.
Other adventures lately include our amazing July 4th 150-200 Americans and Georgians eating, playing tug-of-war, and singing American songs. It was awesome, I hope I can get some pics on this blog!

Bike path in Batumi along Black Sea

Batumi Sunset

Batumi

Recieving a traditional Gurian folk-singing hat :)

Some future co-workers

Tug of War Champs! Khashuri

Best language teacher ever! Tamta!

A Blog Post!! Some PST Adventures

I feel like the worst blogger of all time, but I need to post something on here. How to possibly explain the adventures I have had! As I said in my last blog post, we are busy 6 days a week, so our adventures are only happening on the precious Sundays. But I haven't posted in a month. Basketball games, school planting projects, and my first bout with some kind of virus/sickness have all happened since my last post. Last weekend, I job shadowed a current PCV in Kutaisi, the second largest city in Georgia. Among other highlights of that weekend trip were ping pong, a live jazz-bar-type place, and exploring the city. It was great to get out of Khasuri and see a city.
This weekend, we had the opportunity to go on a "Cultural Exchange Trip" to anywhere nearby that we would like. Along with 4 of my trainee friends (Angela, Nash, Kate, and Eugene), we chose to go to Akhastsike (no idea if I am spelling that right) which means "Newcastle." There is a gigantic, beautiful castle there named Rabati, built in the 1200's. We were able to explore it as it was lit up at night - absolutely incredible. The next day (Sunday June 8th) we woke up and took a taxi to Vardzia. Vardzia is the site of a complex cave monastery that dates to the 1100's. It is now a huge tourist attraction, and we got lucky with the weather, it was the most beautiful place I have seen in Georgia thus far. I must mention Misha, our wonderful taxi driver who stopped along the drive to allow us to take pictures of the beautiful Georgian scenery as our road followed a river through the mountains. He also drove a classic Soviet era car, and had a tape recorder with Backstreet Boy songs on it.
The language is progressing slowly for me, as it is for most of us here, but I have certainly made of ton of progress considering I knew almost nothing just over a month ago. As I've said before, free time is not exactly easy to come by during these first 3 months, but I have done my best to take advantage of the Sundays! The food continues to be excellent. All of our families want us to eat as much as possible - I think my host sister in law Nino is intent on making it so that I cannot fit through doors by the end of these three months. Anyways, still having a blast, but missing you all. Get in touch soon, but know that my Internet access is intermittent.
............ So I have been trying to post pictures for a half hour and for some reason it is not working. If you would like to see pictures, I encourage you to check out my facebook for now!

Khasuri!

Wow. There is no way I can fit the last week into this blog. But I shall do my best to summarize and share a few highlights. Our last day in Bazaleti for Orientation week was Saturday, May 3^rd. We were assigned our clusters, (aka the group of 5 people we will be spending the next 3 months with learning this very dzneli language…dzneli=difficult).  There are clusters spread throughout the surrounding villages of Khasuri, with two IOD/business clusters actually in the town. I am in downtown Khasuri, along with my clustermates Colin, Sarah, Ryan, and Russell – so far we have eaten a lot, played basketball with local kids, exercised at an abandoned stadium (which we NEED, because the amount of food we are consuming is insane), gone to a rock concert with a ton of 15 year olds, and eaten food among other activities.

Right now, and for the next 2 and a half months, I wake up at 730, walk to Georgian class by 9, until our 2 hour lunch break which starts at 1pm. Then we have technical sessions from about 3pm-6pm. The technical sessions thus far have consisted of learning about Georgian NGO’s. (How many there are in the country, how they are formed, where they usually get funding, and what kinds of causes most of them serve, etc.).  Dinner is pretty much right when I get home, which usually lasts until 8pm. I may study or relax for a couple hours, then its to bed by 10pm and it starts all over again the next day.  That’s pretty much life 6 days a week, and then we get Sundays off. Hopefully Sundays will be full of awesome activities (hiking, visiting surrounding villages, etc).

Host family:

My host family is awesome :) Nana is my 49 year old host mom. She works at a drugstore, is super nice and loves to feed me. She’s the boss. Niko is my 29 year old host brother, and he lives here along with his 26 year old wife, Nino. They have a daughter, Keso, who lives here also. She is a super cute 4 year old with endless energy.  So far we enjoy watching Mr. Bean and Looney tunes together in the evenings. They are all very hospitable, kind, and love to help me practice my Georgian. They love when I mispronounce words, and I’m pretty sure they are enjoying my eating habits. Which I need to get under control.

All in all it is exhausting, there is very little free time, and I am struggling with the language. But I’m having a blast :)

Also I have hot running water, and a toilet. I’m a lucky guy!

DC to Orientation in Bazaleti

Wow. I can't believe I was flying out of DC a week ago, it feels so long ago!! Some sweet details about PC Georgia so far. We have 56 volunteers, 40 of which are education and 16 of which are IOD (including myself). It is a fantastic group, as a fellow volunteer was saying, we have the full range of personalities in the group - lots of diversity in terms of ages, interests, and backgrounds! It's awesome.
 After an 8 hour layover in Munich, we landed in Tblisi at 3AM in the morning, Georgia time. Some fantastic current volunteers, and PC Georgia staff were there to greet us, cheering us as if we just got the opportunity to be on The Price is Right (credit to some other volunteer for that analogy). We were also greeted by TV cameras, (although someone said those may have been for Para-Olympians on our flight). We were all completely exhausted, but after a week we have now conquered Jetlag. Mostly.

We were taken about an hour north of Tblisi for orientation at the Bazeleti training facility. Tons and tons of information is coming our way each day, and the group is getting to know each other better and better. We have started some basic language lessons, learned cross-cultural differences, and even got a visit from Ambassador Richard Nordland! Georgia is an incredibly beautiful country, I wish I had more pictures to show. We have been inside doing lessons during beautiful days. Fellow Washingtonian Alan Luan has some sweet pics, I highly recommend checking out his website: http://www.alanluan.com/1/post/2014/05/im-alive.html

Here are some of his best photos that I am going to shamelessly post. We are so lucky to be here.

Tomorrow we leave Bazaleti for K'hasuri, a small town in central Georgia. In the villages around K'hasuri, we will be studying the Georgian language intensively for 3 months in "learning clusters" of 6, as well as learning the technical skills we will need to succeed at our posts. We meet our host families AND find out our cluster mates tomorrow, so we are all nervous and excited!

DC!!!!!

It is my last night in America for quite a while so I want to get one blog post in. DC is an AMAZING city. This is not the last time I will be here. It is a city full of young, Type-A, smart people. My incredible friend Seth showed me around DC today, and I could not have asked for a better tour guide.We went onto the White House south lawn for their Spring Garden tour, we toured the Capitol building, we went to the Vietnam Memorial, and we did it all on the awesome DC bikes. Last night, we went to the Lincoln Memorial, walked the mall, and enjoyed the Washington Monument (beautiful at night). I am exhausted but it's been so worth it.

I lugged a ton of luggage all the way from Seths apartment to the hotel - one of my most impressive traveling feats. It was easily over 100 lbs of luggage consisting of an enormous hiking backpack, a regular backpack, and two suitcases. All of it stuffed to the gills. I am starting to meet some super cool people in the group! Im excited! I fly out tomorrow night, so I wanted to get one post in before we leave, I think we are pretty busy tomorrow.

For the first three months while I am away, my address in Georgia is:

Colton Heath, PCT
29a Vazha Pshavela Avenue
P.O. Box 66
Tbilisi, 0160
Georgia

No, Not Atlanta :)

I suppose it is best to start this story at the beginning. Heading into my final semester at PLU my motto was "leave no stone unturned." Peace Corps, TFA, grad school, job applications. I was trying to look into all of it, and applying for most of it.  I was seeking advice from people much smarter and wiser than myself, trying to find the opportunity that would properly fit the next several years of my life. On December 12th, 2013 I got an email inviting me to serve in the Peace Corps in the country of Georgia as a IOD (Individual and Organizational Development) Volunteer. Georgia is a small country in between the Black and Caspian Seas (its okay, I had to look this up too).  IOD's have an economic/organizational development roles in their communities.

 A few details about the timing of the invitation: it was Thursday of my last ever Dead Week, I had a graduation ceremony and grad party on December 14th, Finals started on the 16th, and my senior capstone project and a grad school application were due on December 17th. This is not for complaining purposes - I just never ever want to forget that week, and looking back, I wouldn't have had it any other way.

I was offered on December 12th and I was given one week to decide. My gut was yes, and I knew that with an opportunity this life-changing, it is best to always go with the initial instinct. After talking with friends and mentors, my decision was solidified after a few days. A new favorite quote was given to me by Jesse Bartlett, an old high school history teacher at my grad party. "I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world, and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day" -E.B. White. I will never ever forget standing in my living room surrounded by friends and family, chatting with Jesse as he said "... it sounds like you have the opportunity to do both."

On December 17th, I accepted my offer, and completed my last ever undergraduate exam the following day. Since then, I have traveled through the UK for the month of January, 2014 on a one-month study trip abroad through PLU that I pass/failed, to get one last credit taken care of. I have also been frantically trying to get all of my Peace Corps (PC) medical paperwork sent in to make sure I am approved and good to go. This has been somewhat of a nightmare. My TB test came back positive - thankfully I do not have active tuberculosis, I am healthy and not contagious. But somewhere along the line (I am guessing in the UK), I interacted with someone that did have active TB. This has very little effect on my life, except I will be taking medication for 9 months (to kill the bacteria that are latent in my body or something like that). For this 9 months, it is strongly recommended to minimize alcohol consumption. My Peace Corps reading suggests wine is quite important to Georgian culture, but this is certainly a minor detail in the grand scheme of the experience. I am thankful I still get to go! Plus, within 4 months of being with my host family, I will be able to enjoy wine with them. (Also I am now medically cleared! WOOO!)

For those friends who may not know, the Peace Corps is a 27 month commitment to volunteer abroad. Living expenses are covered (a stipend to get food and housing), and I will receive 24 vacation days a year. The first 3 months are spent training and learning the language (Georgian). I have slowly started to work on some of the language lessons the PC has provided me - this is something I will continue to work on until I leave. Mostly I just want to try and get the alphabet down (Georgia has it's own alphabet). My 3 months of training will be spent in Khashuri, a town in central Georgia. Our Pre-Staging site is Washington D.C., and we will meet there on April 27th. I am not sure exactly how many other PC volunteers will be going, but our Facebook group has over 40. All of us will be either IODs or English language teachers.

Safe to say, I am very excited, nervous, and it is ever so slowly starting to feel real. Now is an opportune time in life to live in another country, experience another culture, help people, and learn a new language. Peace Corps is a safe and structured way to do all of that and potentially much more! The situation in Ukraine is obviously not ideal, but Khashuri is nearly 1000 miles from Kiev, and Peace Corps ensures that the safety of volunteers is a top priority (although I'm not sure how much that reassures Grandma or my mother). I have not heard of any issues from current Georgia PCV's regarding Ukraine yet.

 Grad School or work will still be here when I return, the toughest part will certainly be leaving all of the wonderful people who have become important parts of my life. But I hope that for the vast majority of friends reading this, we will find a way to stick around and be a part of each others lives. Not having Christmas with my family, and missing out on get-togethers with old friends will suck. Things like missing my brother's high school graduation will suck too - a lot is going to happen while I am away, which is exactly why I hope to stay connected with as many people as possible. This PC thing will be incredibly challenging and frustrating to be sure, but what better time to be challenged and frustrated than in my early twenties? And to go along with the frustration, I am hoping for an incredible amount of adventure, excitement, and satisfaction from my work in Georgia. Thank you so much to everyone who has been there for me thus far. I am incredibly excited to meet my fellow Peace Core Volunteers (PCV's) and eventually, my host family. I doubt that any of my following blog posts will be this long- but I do hope to blog about once a month while I'm in Georgia. We will wait and see if I hold true to that! I hope to see as many friends as possible before I leave at the end of April!

Nakhvamdis! (That is goodbye in Georgian)