A Soviet Easter Holiday

Well I'm back from my Easter Weekend travels. Anthony and I decided to travel to Chiatura and Kutaisi for the break. We met in Tbilisi on Wednesday night for dinner and then prepared ourselves for the long trip ahead of us the next day. We started our journey early Thursday morning on a marshutka headed out to Chiatura. The driver and the passengers inside the marshutka thought we were German tourists, calling us guests of Georgia and even allowing us to sit up at the very front of the marshutka where the driver sits (a real treat because you have more space and you can see the countryside through the front window). I'm sure my huge camera slung around my neck also had something to do with our Germany tourist appearance. Our trip to Chiatura took about 2 1/2 hours. The ride itself was beautiful because Georgia had just had its first week of real spring weather. The trees were in bloom, the sky as blue as the ocean and all the colors of Georgian life just seem to thrive in the new spring air.

Once our marshutka made it to Chiatura I, in good ole Anneke fashion, dashed in and out of stores asking the shop keepers where the nearest bathroom was located (darn those two cups of coffee and a liter of mineral water!). Finally I found one in what I think what might have been the mayor's office...not sure but there was a security check, two security guards posted at the door and a place to scan a card. I quickly ran up to them, backpack and all, and did my best pee dance impression while asking if I could use their facilities. I must have been a sight for those security guards....they were stifling their laughter.

 After the crises was averted, Anthony and I explored around the main square for a few minutes. Anthony is a pretty big history buff and quickly took over my camera taking pictures of everything known to man around the town. Pictures of soviet buses, trains, buildings, signs,...you get the idea. Our friends Danae and Eric met us about twenty minutes later to show us around the town. Danae is a second year Peace Corps volunteer who lives in Chiatura while Eric is a G13 like myself who lives in a neighboring town of Chiatura.

With Danae acting as our tour guide and Anthony adding pieces of historical information about  Stalin, the soviet era and practices, we got a pretty good snapshot about what the town had gone through. The town was the only Bolsheviks stronghold during the Russian Revolution. The town worked day and night with over 3,7000 miners working 18 hour shifts and later sleeping in the mines. The river and the water around the town are toxic, full of manganese from the mines. We saw a lot of old Soviet era cars, apartment buildings, propaganda, and tributes to Stalin. In order to honor this we decided to ride one of the town's infamous Stalin's Cable Cars. These cars were and still are used today to transport people and miners above the town and to the mines. With the help of an ancient weight system, the cable cars travel up the steep mountainside 24 hours a day. We managed to survive although our trip coming back town the cable car was hindered by a spur of the moment thunderstorm...that was intense.

Stalin and Lenin mosaic tribute made out of river stones

Scary Stalin Cable Car

Guess this is the end folks. Danae, Eric and I are scared. 

Flashback Soviet bus

We also decided to explore Katskhi Piller, a 40 meter pillar outside of Chiatura that houses a monk who lives there year round in isolation. All of us, that is to say me, Eric, Anthony, Danae, and Danae's fiance Gela, all squished into Gela's car and traveled about 10 mins to the base of the pillar. Unfortunately we couldn't go to the top of the pillar because it is just reserved for Georgian orthodox men, and even then for the most devout. Still the pillar was extraordinary to see and even more extraordinary to imagine people trying to haul materials and such up its steep cliffs in order to build the chapel and small cottage that reside at the top.

Beautiful Katskhi's Pillar

From the base of the pillar

Not a bad pic actually...just wish I had my Tennessee Flag to out do the University of Kentucky representation....hmm..

....Wait! Here it is!

 After our day travels in Chiatura Anthony and I headed to Kutaisi to meet up with our friend Ann and her crew. We mainly walked around the city and took pictures of urban life. We somehow got coaxed into accompanying our friend Chase to look at baby piggies at the animal bazaar. I was not happy to find that they were not in fact baby piggies but rather large pigs that were screaming as they were being pulled out of their pins by their back legs and given a once over. That was not my idea of fun...animals such as sheep, pigs, goats, chickens and turkeys crying out because they knew they were being sold for the big Easter feast coming up two days later. We had to head to happy hour in order to console ourselves from the ordeal. Our trip ended with a few friends coming over to our hostel and playing card games while enjoying the cool evening breeze on the veranda. I wasn't looking forward to the next day because I knew it would be an all day travel day....and it was. It only took me five hours of marshutka riding, two traffic jams by two different car accidents, and one metro ride to get me back to Sagarejo.

My sister Mari awaiting the fire 

Upon my arrival at home, around 6 pm, I unpacked, told my family of my travels, and showed them pictures of my adventures. I was tired from the trip but I wanted to stay up and ring in the Easter holiday with my family. So at 11:30 pm my family and I walked in the dark to their church and lit candles while listening to the Georgian scriptures (none of which I could understand but I thought they sounded nice). The bells tolled at 12 am and then the crowd waited for the fire to come from Tbilisi (kind of like the Olympics...the fire is lit in Tbilisi and then it is passed village to village lighting the churches...not sure how that pans out for people 6 hours away on the west coast...I didn't get much of an answer about that). Anyway we didn't get home until late that night/super early that morning (try 5am).

Women wearing head scarfs and waiting outside the church. 

Hope you all who are reading this had a happy Easter as well and that the weather it treating you well wherever you are. Happy Easter!

Cheers,
Anneke

GYLT Month: Get Your Life Together Month

Ok, ok I know it's been a while since I've posted (at least that's what my mom pointed out when I skyped with her this week). That's why I'm calling this post GYLT Month: -conveniently pronounced guilt - Get Your Life Together Month. March went by so fast to be honest with you. I've been in Tbilisi every weekend this past month for trainings and meetings...mainly in preparation for the NESC competition this past weekend.

Things I've completed this past month:

1) Wrote and submitted my first Small Projects Assistance (SPA) grant proposal....all 20 pages of it...Crossing my fingers in hopes of it getting funded. I'm hoping to get funding to create a Language and Cultural Studies Cabinet in our school where we can use new technology and visual aids to aid in learning about foreign cultures and their languages.

2) Finished an online course in Epidemiology due to interests in going into social work and public health for grad school after PC. Not sure at this point whether I want to pursue a graduate degree in Social work or a degree for international studies. That being said I just started a new online course called International Human Rights Law: Prospects and Challenges.

3) I read  The Lonesome Traveler, Anna Karenina, Three Cups of Tea, and The Giver. Trying to read more if I can help it. My next planned book is The Red Tent by Anita Diamant followed  then  Dr. Zhivago by Boris Pasternak

4) Eleven months of service (March 23rd made it 11 months in country)

5) Finished up the Write On Competition  at my school. I had about 14 students at my school participate. I was very impressed with their creative answers to the questions given. Questions like "If you could invent a type of candy bar what flavor would it be and why?" or "If trees could think what would they think about?" All of this mind you in English, my students' second language...like I said I was very impressed by their writings.

6) Worked at the National English Spelling Competition  this past week. I basically helped out with last minute items for the participants, worked on their certificates and helped my fellow PCV Rachel with her role. On Tuesday we the G13 NESC Committee members were nominated for specific committee roles for next year since we will be facilitating all of this next year. My new title is Administrative Coordinator and I'll be in charge of keeping up with the spelling lists, creating transcriptions, translations (in Azeri, Armenian, Georgian, Russian and English) and coordinating all of this with the Project Coordinators for both the East and West regions of Georgia. Maybe this is a blessing in in disguise seeing as I'm not a great speller at all (might have had to look up disguise just to type this) so bring on the spelling words

7) Started running again the first time today. I didn't run all through summer, fall, and winter because of rabid dog obstacles, oogling  men, and cold weather. However, I've decided to use the town's local football stadium in the mornings since it's starting to get warmer. The stadium keeps the dogs at bay and it's kind of hidden..or so I thought. I still had an audience of 9 today, five men and four boys watching me run...guess I'll just have to get up earlier to avoid it.

8) Started my school's English Club back up. So far we have talked about Women's Day, St. Patrick's Day, and April Fools celebrations. We have also done fun activities related to adjectives, and readings in class as well. I think I might do an English Slang lesson this month.

9) Attended the Georgia vs. Romania qualifier for the Ruby World Cup 2015. It was really fun and actually was the first sporting event I've attended here that had the energy and fan base that I usually feel at a UT football game.


Things I'm planning on doing this month:

1) Work out more
2) Study Georgian more (I've kind of let my language skills go to the way side after learning enough to get by  on a daily basis)
3) Going out west to visit the town of Chiatura. I want to see the Katskhi Pillar and Stalin's Rope Railway
4) Celebrate Easter (the biggest holiday in Georgia) with my family
5) Attend my host sister's and host brother's dance recital at the end of April
6) Take more pictures of my town and of the Kakheti region
7) Meet the new volunteers, the G14s, at the airport in the wee hours and welcome them to Georgia.