I KNOW WHERE I AM LIVING THE NEXT TWO YEARS!!!
Recap of this week
Monday:
We had
our Hub day as usual where all of the education trainees and all of the business trainees meet up and have training
all day long in Khashuri. This Hub day
was special though because we finally got to find out about our new families, schools/organizations,
towns/villages/cities that we will be living in for the next few years. I felt
a little bad for the presentations that were being given before our site announcement…most
of us were so nervous and preoccupied about our new sites and where we might be
placed that we didn't really pay attention to them.
Site Announcement (later that day)!!!:
Our director Tengo and the other
PC staff took us to the school’s gym where a huge rope was laying on the floor
in the shape of Georgia. In the “map” there were the names of cities and
villages that would become our sites. Each one of us was handed a random packet
face down with the name of the trainee and their new site. We had to announce each other’s sites to one
another. Out of the noise of excited clapping;
I heard my name being called…”Anneke you will be going to the region of Kakheti
to the town of Sagarejo!” I received my packet from my friend Sarah and then
quickly headed over the east side of the map to join the rest of the Kakhetians.
Our packets included information on the region
Kakheti:
wine country, land of old monasteries, maize, sunflowers, grapes and
wheat
The town/village we
would be staying in:
Sagarejo…population 13,000….52 km
from Tbilisi
And our host family
information
Host
mother 33, host father 36, host sister 16, host brother 6 and host aunt 53.
Another portion of our packet provided us with information
about our school, such as how many students
there are, what kind of facilities they have and what kind of programs they have participated in the past.
there are, what kind of facilities they have and what kind of programs they have participated in the past.
My school is one of four in the area. It has 169 students total
and 29 teachers. I have two English
counter parts that I will be working with for the next two years.
Supervisor's Conference (Tuesday):
The next day after our site announcement we (the trainees)
had language classes in the morning and then got ready for our supervisors' conference. We packed up and headed to the city of Bazaleti for supervisor training and
then after that to our new site to visit our soon to be towns and
families. My school director Nato is
very sweet and is excited for her school to be part of the PC program. Our
first encounter was interesting because I knew very little Georgian and she
knew very little English so we had to use my LCF as a translator for some of
the activities that we were doing. All of the G13s and our supervisors/directors stayed the night in the big resort hotel in Bazaleti since we were parting the next day to our individual sites.
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| My super cool Director Nato! (Here she is at the Prom) |
Site Visit (Wednesday-Saturday afternoon)
The next day we parted from the
conference and traveled to our new sites where we would be visiting for the
next few days. I was greeted by a whole flock of women at my new home. My new
mom and sister were there along with my new English counterparts, and current
volunteer Emily and her director. I was getting kissed and hugged and passed
around among these women. After I had introduced myself everyone turned their
attention to the TV in the room because there was a big scandal in my new town
that had just come to light the hour before. Basically the new and well liked
Mayor of the town and his staff embezzled money from the government. Everyone
in the whole building was found guilty except the secretary their sentences are
yet to be decided. Not a bad way to start out in your new town…a governmental scandal.
After our lunch I was left to explore my new room and the
rest of the house before heading to Georgian prom. I've only been here a few hours and they want me
to attend a fancy event…not too shabby. However since I assumed that I would
just be exploring the town and the school for the next few days, I didn't pack
any super nice clothes (not that I have a prom dress lying around in Georgia,
but I do have some nicer dresses back at my PST sight in Osiauri) so I proceeded
to wear my dressiest travel clothes that I had brought with me: a Dalmatian
print cardigan, a dark gray V-neck, and a pair of royal blue skinny jeans to
the prom.
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| My new bedroom for the next two years (it has shiny wall paper) |
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| Me at a Georgian Prom! |
Georgian prom is basically a graduation party for the seniors. Georgian schools don’t have a prom but this is the closest they get. The boys and girls go all out and wear fancy clothes to a banquet hall where they have a supra and then dancing in between toasts. Imagine sitting with all the teachers and your director at a long dinner table super under dressed watching the seniors across the room getting hammered from Kakhtian wine. Now imagine your 60+ counterpart ushering you to the dance floor to dance with an 18 year old boy named Giorgi…while the whole time you are trying to make a good/professional impression to not only all the teachers but the whole town as well... I whipped out my best impression of the Carlton for two dances before returning to my table. Since I literally just arrived four hours before this and I’m going to be working in this town for the next two years, I don’t want to tarnish my reputation as a “good girl” by performing Beyoncé like booty shaking moves…I instead opted to stick with the good ole fashion Carlton move and sprinkler move.
Next few days in my town were very busy. I saw two end-of-the-year school plays, attended a school wide skit/dance competition between
the four schools in the area, attended a professional Georgian dance
performance, and met the director of the school board too.
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| My Counterpart Zaira's English cabinet |
My Counterparts at the school are pretty cool. There is Zaira who has been teaching English for 40 years and Nino who has been teaching for 20. Both speak and understanding English very well to the point the Zaira is near fluent. From what I've heard they are very passionate about their jobs and are very excited to work on some projects with me. That is rare with some of the older teachers in Georgia so am I excited that my counterparts are willing to support my new ideas for the school.
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| One of the two school plays that I saw while one my site visit |
My new sister Mari is amazing! She is so smart and her
English is very good for her age. Mari was very helpful the three days I was in Sagarejo by being my guide and translator around the town. She even took me to the town's youth house where she is involved with this women’s
empowerment/leadership group run by the current G11 volunteer Emily that I had
met the day before. The group itself promotes healthy living, women's rights, and even dedicates a portion of its time teaching the girls about women in power now. They just finished talking about Hilary Clinton, Rosa Parks and many more women in history. I love that Mari is a part of this group.
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| My new host sister Mari and my host mom Zaira. |
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| My view from my bedroom window |
I’m pretty sure I got the mother load of sites:
I have a strong independent progressive family, my school
has all the facilities and resources that I could ask for, there is a women’s
empowerment/leadership club established in the city that I can be involved with
after school, my new house is beautiful with nice amenities, I’m less than an
hour away from the largest city in the country, and I will be living in the
country’s wine region.
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| My front yard with the view in the background. My house and barn are in the right hand corner. |
Saturday afternoon
Mari walked me to the marsh stop in Sagarejo to meet Emily. Emily and I traveled to the Peace Corps Office in Tbilisi. It was the first time I had been in the city in the daylight and the first time I got to walk around in it. The office was cluttered with G11 volunteers' bags since most of them are completing their two years service this week and headed back to the states. Nice office though with a volunteer lounge and everything. With the help of some G12 volunteers I found and met up with the rest of my fellow G13 trainees in the city who were also traveling back west with me to our PST sites. Traveling around Tbilisi was kind of confusing but I guess that's goo because it gives me some practice before me and my whole G13 group have our Tbilisi day trip this Wednesday. Around six in the evening arrived back to my PST site exhausted from traveling.
