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!