Giving Thanks: A Not So Short Sappy Thank You Note

It's officially that time of year in America where we all gather together to share a meal together and reflect on the things that we are thankful for. This might get a little sappy so I'm giving you a heads up now. It was this time last year that I opened my email to find an invitation to come and serve in the Peace Corps for two years in Georgia. I was excited, shocked that it was actually happening, and kind of bewildered at the same time because I didn't know that much about this country. After going through numerous interviews, medical shots, paper work, tearful goodbyes, awkward hellos and language ups and downs, I've realized how much I have to be thankful for.

I'm thankful for the families that have taken me, a stranger who constantly butchers their language and probably causes more cultural faux pas than one can count, into their homes and their families during my service. I thank them for putting up with me at times, for being supportive of the ever busy life of a PCV, and having more patience than Gandhi, the Buddha and Mother Teresa put together as I try to understand the language and culture here. We volunteers sometime joke here at Peace Corps Georgia that it should be called Posh Corps Georgia because we are shown so much kindness, warmth, hospitality, patience, food and wine during our service. Definitely nothing compared to what any of us were expecting when we signed our PC applications so long ago stating that we would serve anywhere under any conditions. That's not to say that there aren't any hardships here, there definitely are, just ask my parents about how many times I've complained how cold it is in my room (currently 42 F by the way) or how many times that I've told them that I miss the luxury of taking a hot shower.

As hard as it can be sometimes, the comforts and what you gain here far out weigh those moments. Students greeting you with hugs after a week long absence from school, your host brother thrilled with himself that he just learned to carve his first jack-o-lantern, or the moment when one of your worst students actually learns  how to use go in the past tense. It's moments like these and many others that make up for your string of bad/uncomfortable/frustrating experiences that one often has in life. No one ever said Peace Corps was easy, but it's the experiences and the relationships that you form with others that make it worth it.

I am also thankful for my family back home and friends both old and new. To my family back home: I miss you tons, more than you will ever know. Your fb messages, skype dates and care packages have helped me get through some of the more discouraging moments of my service. I'm grateful for the times I get to talk to you and even more thankful that you continue to listen to me even when it sometimes seems that all I do is complain about the latest thing that happened to me at school. Your support during these past few months and your curiosity about life here in Georgia always keeps me looking forward. I'm going to miss you all this Thanksgiving and Christmas.

To my PCV friends: I don't have to say much to you because I know that you all feel the same way about me as I feel about you. You all are my rock. We have grown together through this journey so far. Facing strange cultural practices, backwardness of village life, going through the agonizing learning process of trying to pronounce the two different "k" and "t" sounds correctly and then being able to differentiate between the two of them, and leaving our family and friends behind for a world unknown to us. Your support and the fact that you won't judge me but fully know where I'm coming from when I say that a good poop status update text from your friend means it's going to be a good day, means the world to me.

To my friends back home: Quit posting pictures of really good looking food and ballin parties! That's so cruel! But for real, thank you for always having my back even if it is a million miles away. I love that I can skype with you weeks or even months at a time a part and we still pick back up as if I still lived down the street in the hood of Knoxville. You are an amazing group of friends whose late night skype dates and crazy town gossip help me when I get slightly homesick. I know that I've missed some of the bigger moments in your all's lives these past few months: weddings, new jobs, engagements, new relationships, babies...yada yada but I want you know that I've trolled that facebook a time or two to keep up with all of it. I'm there in spirit and in laughter.

So i guess what I'm saying in this long sappy post is that I'm thankful for all the support and happiness that you all bring me. My life is very full, very vibrant, and very rewarding because of it.

Halloween in Sakartvelo!

So I don't know about you but I'm a huge fan of Halloween. Each year I try to decorate my apartment, create the perfect Halloween costume, watch all the scary movies I can, carve pumpkins, and of course pig out on candy. I decided that though this year will definitely be different, that I would try to bring Halloween to Sakartvelo (What Georgians call Georgia). Georgians, like most of the world don't celebrate Halloween, so finding Halloween themed stuff was difficult. I was fortunate enough however to receive some Halloween decorations in a care package that my aunt had sent me.  My brother, my sister and I hung orange and black streamers around our living room.  Finding pumpkins in my town was also a challenge because the pumpkin season doesn't start until around Christmas time and even then, the pumpkins that are available are usually more green than orange and are often cantaloupe sized. (This proved to be a problem when we tried to use the pumpkin carving kit that my mom sent because all the pumpkins were way to small for the designs). Despite this, we were able to create some very cute jack-o-lanterns. My family and I had the most pimped out house in all of Georgia.

Persimmon/rouge apple jack-o-lanterns

My family's pumpkins 

Seeing as I'm a teacher to 100+ kids, I decided to do a fall festival in the school gym after school on Halloween. To prepare for this I asked each grade to draw and label pictures of bats, monsters, ghosts, spiders, skeletons, or pumpkins. (These pictures served as decorations in the gym during the party). I also asked if students could either donate or bring their own pumpkins/persimmons from home since the bazaar in my town was not selling pumpkins yet. (Most of these kids have a pumpkin or two growing in their backyard. The persimmons were for backup if they could not locate a pumpkin). On Halloween afternoon after classes, my students dressed up in their costumes and attended the fall festival. We had a game of duck duck goose, bobbing for apples, apples on a string, pumpkin carving contest, costume contest and a make your own scary popcorn hand station (those of you from east TN know what I'm talking about).

My sister, my brother (part cat, part superman, part TN volunteer) and me as a cat

Apple bobbing

My counterpart Zaira and I 

The party was successful but in a chaotic way. It was just me, my two counterparts and a few leader girls that were trying to keep the 80+ kids out of pandemonium. I had kids swarming everywhere demanding plastic spider rings and candy....a little less organized than I had planned.

After all of this planning and facilitating, I decided to attend PC volunteer party in the city of Kutaisi planned by my friends Ann and Lady. About 20 something volunteers from all over Georgia got together this past weekend to play a city wide assassin's game. We were handed a map of Kutaisi with all of the mission spots labeled on it, as well as the name of the person in our group we were trying to "kill" and how to "kill" them. For my target, I had to somehow get a hold of my friend's phone without them knowing that that was my mission. When a new group of friends approached us in the city, we would all become suspicious and paranoid of them until we learned who was "dead" and therefore not playing and who was still alive and hunting. It was definitely a good way to see the sites of Kutaisi while still having some kind of involvement with the rest of the larger group.

Some of us at lunch (first time I've had Chinese food in Georgia!!!)

Assassin Mugshot ("Arrested for kidnapping a wine truck")