Two Years Down and Two Months To Go

I can't believe how fast my service here has flown by....has it really been two years?! April 23rd marked my two year arrival here to Georgia. I've definitely grown as a person during my time here. Also I have gained some very useful skills (grant writing, teaching, NGO management, how to not pee on one's self in the squatty potty)  and some not useful skills (flagging down a speeding marshutka, or how to eat khinkali without spilling the juice for instance).

I've also been blessed to meet some of the most dedicated, resourceful, selfless, adventurous human beings on the planet. My volunteer group of 29, the G13s, have been my family since the first time we meet in Philadelphia that April 21st day in 2013. We have taken up hobbies together, traveled together, consoled one another, experienced both the really awesome and really negative parts of Georgian culture, and have even fallen in love with one another. In fact we commemorated these last few months together by traveling to Mestia, another picturesque village hidden in the Georgian mountains.

It is a bittersweet time for sure. Don't get me wrong, I am totally excited about coming home, seeing my family, eating all the Mexican I can stomach and going to Austin for graduate school. But I am going to miss my two host families, my counterparts and various other folks in my community. I'm also going to miss the slow pace of life where one can simply be and watch a flock of sheep gather together in a neighboring field. Additionally, I am going to miss the times where my neighbors came over at all hours of the day to drink coffee with me and my family.

That being said  I'm not quite done with my service yet. I've got a little less than two months before my COS date (Close of Service date). In fact, I have....50 days, 6 hours, 28 mins, and 55 secs to go. I'll finish my service on June 19 and then I will travel to Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Hungary, Latvia, Estonia, and Finland before returning home early July. Before the 19th however, I've got a dozen or so things to do between now and then, such as going to America for a week for my sister's wedding, doing my medical clearance, packing, giving stuff away, cleaning my room, finishing my paperwork for graduate school, finding an apartment to live in in Austin, and researching where to go during my travels....that's just a sample...there are a lot of other thing still left to do.

Well I'll leave you all with a few photos from Mestia, my latest Georgian journey.

Slight Hiatus and a Busy Summer

I apologize for the hiatus. I've been pretty busy since my last post at the beginning of May. Let me catch you up to date and include some pictures of the experience since then. PS. This is a particularly long post

May and on:
I successfully completed one year of teaching here in Georgia! There were times when I thought I couldn't handle it and just wanted to walk out of the classroom. But then there were those moments where I felt like I was making a difference, and those moments are worth everything. I witnessed "Last Bell" which is the event put on by the 12th graders as their last contribution to the school before exams. There were dances performed, singing, speeches thanking the teachers for putting up with them all these years and words of wisdom spoken to the students as the approached graduation.

At the end May I prepared for my one week visit to America. That's right, America. By this time I couldn't contain myself and had to quickly buy souvenirs for family and friends back home. My host family here was so sweet and bought gifts for my family members as well. Their gifts included a drinking horn set for my father, a silverware set for my mother, perfume for my two sisters, cologne for my brother, a ceramic vase for my grandparents, and miniature wine vases for my aunt and uncle. I somehow managed to pack all of this and more (I helped a fellow volunteer out who was leaving Georgia to travel after service by taking some of her stuff back to the States so she wouldn't have to travel with all of it.) into my large suitcase. That last weekend of May was a crazy one because I had so many meetings at the time and I had to force myself to be productive and not just slip into vacation mode quite yet.

June
June 3, 2014 at 8:30 pm I arrived back in America after a whole year and a month of absence. My mother, father and aunt greeted me at the gate with a sign and promises of a Mexican dinner after I picked up my bags from the baggage claim. We promptly went to dinner where I had my first taste of proper Americanized Mexican food in over a year. And let me tell you that Mexican food has never tasted as good as it did that night.

My parents and I in Knoxville, TN

After my short night in Atlanta, GA,  my parents and I started our trek to Knoxville, TN where I was to begin my Big Great American Tour. I joked to them that I should have made an event on Facebook labeling it "The Great American Tour: For one week and one week only. See Anneke Valk as she travels cross country to three different states, participates in a friend's wedding as a bridesmaid,  helps her sister pick out a wedding dress, eats tons of American food and takes her first proper bath in a year!"

 Needless to say that the trip was a whirlwind of tears, laughter, hugs, questions, toasts, confusion and then some more laughter. I didn't have much time to relax...but who needs that anyway?

 I was honored to be part of one of my best friend's weddings and to witness her and her now husband Ben start their lives together. They had their beautiful wedding in my hometown Greeneville, TN and the reception afterwards at Mary's house. The night got pretty crazy with a 50 person party train, Star Trek dancing, and sangria. We all wished the happy couple off with a sparkler tunnel. Shout out to Mary and Ben, may you have many grand adventures together!

Wedding Rehearsal Time!

Ben and Mary running through the sparkler tunnel as they leave the reception 

 I also went back to Knoxville where it immediately felt like home again.You know you are good friends with someone when you walk into their apartment, see them for the first time in over a year, hug them, and then promptly use the bathroom with the door wide open as you catch up with them. This is a shout out to you Alyssa. You also know you as super friends with people when you accidentally break into their house to meet them only to find that they aren't in their house and the first thing you say to them when you do see them after a year is "So I broke into your house...did you know your door isn't locked?" Shout out to Forest and Kayla!  And last but not least you know that you are friends with someone when you lay on a make shift futon couch looking at each other not saying a word and cracking up because you know what the other one is laughing about. This is for you Yaz!

Emotional moment with Yaz as we meet at  Flashbacks, Whatever

Very familiar Thursday night shenanigans with friends

I also spent time with my whole family catching up on what had happened this past year, checking out the new improvements to the house and grilling out like old times. I shared some Chacha (Georgian moonshine) and some homemade house wine with them. Not sure if they really liked the taste, I told them it was something you had to get use to or just submit yourself to when you need a drink. My family and I also went bar hopping in Asheville, the beer capital of the states to make up for all the good beer that I've been missing. Georgia has beer but it's nothing to brag about plus the only have two types of beer, თეთრი ლუდი (white beer) or შავი ლუდი (black beer).

The Valk women at Green Man Brewery in Asheville, NC

Coming back to Georgia was painless. Yes I'm going to miss my family and friends again, and yes I will miss food and American conveniences, but Georgia, believe it or not regardless of my frustration at times has become my home. I missed my family here and my friends here when I was in America. You know you've officially made a space in your heart for a place when you start to miss it.

Anyway, enough with the reflection stuff. About an hour after i arrived in country I met a bunch of volunteers for drinks in Tbilisi. Somehow we managed to stay up most of the night which led me to only get four hours of jet lagged sleep before jet setting to Khashuri to meet the new-soon-to-be volunteers at a picnic meet up. After a few hours of mingling I, and few other volunteers made our way to Kutaisi that evening. So if you are keeping count right now you will have noticed that I have been back in country for less than a day and have already traveled through three different cities. What can I say, I love to travel and see my friends no matter how tired, how jet lagged, or how dirty I am. From Kutaisi I traveled to Oni to stay with a friend and check out his site. That makes four cites/towns in three days and still jet lagged. I did happen to doze off on the marsh, something which never and I mean never happens so that was nice. Finally I arrived home to Sagarejo tired, dirty, a little scraggly looking but in good spirits with gifts to give my host family.

Somewhere along the end of June I also participated in my first 5K here in Georgia. I ended up running in a dress and Keds because that was all I was wearing when I made the snap decision to run. I was at the Race for the Cure to help out and volunteer before the race. However my friends convinced me to run so I dug out a pair of Keds out of the free box of clothing at the PC office. I think it kind of took people by surprise because I had little girls on the side line cheering me on saying "Go dress, Go!" I wasn't too fast but I did finish the race. Now on to July...


July
I've been pretty busy these last two weeks. GLOW Camp is fast approaching and I'm on the GLOW NGO's recruitment committee. We are in charge of making the applications for both campers and counselors interested in attending camp, sending out said applications, conducting application workshops, collecting all the applications through hard copy or by email, interviewing potential counselors, selecting counselors who will then help us select campers based on their  application essays, alert all the girls who applied whether or not they are invited to camp or not and confirm all those who accept their invitation to come to camp. All of this really hit these past two weeks. I successfully managed to interview and select 14 new counselors for this year's GLOW camp, met/emailed all of those counselors with the 282 camper applications we received so that they can review them and pick campers, and  reviewed and helped pick our G14 successors for next year. It's been quite busy and I've spent a good portion of my time either running around Tbilisi meeting counselors and giving them their applications to review or working on the master excel spreadsheet with all the information about the 282 potential campers. I haven't had too much down time but I did manage to have a slight weekend vacation in the middle of all of this.


I know, i know, I just got back from America. But America was more like a marathon and less like a relaxing vacation. Between the traveling, meeting up with friends and family and attending wedding festivities, I didn't have that much down time let alone to breath. Which leads me to Kobuleti. Kobuleti is a sleepy beach town on the coast of the Black Sea. It doesn't get as much hype as Batumi nor does it get the amount of tourist but that's why we picked it. Ten of us went there to celebrate the 4th of July in style. We grilled hot dog like meat, made some potato salad and greedily stuffed our faces full of s'mores (a rarity since marsh mellows are no where to be found and that I happened to bring a bag of them back from the States). It was overcast most of the time but pleasant. There was an afternoon where I and two other volunteers had to work on plans for our various camps but other than that it was blissful.

Happy Birthday America! Fellow PCVs and I in our 4th of July gear

Beaching it up!

Currently I am now working on GLOW stuff (the norm these days) and on my grant project that was funded  back in April. Today I went shopping with my counterpart Nino and our deputy director Nana  for electronics for our new language and cultural cabinet. We bought a new computer,  a printer, a set of headphones, some speakers, a few posters, four dictionaries, a computer desk, a computer chair and some magnetic alphabet letters for our chalk board. We still have a few more things to do before we paint a world map on our cabinet wall or hold any computer training sessions. I'm still excited though because I actually get to see our grant coming together.

My counterpart and deputy director being shown a chair they want to purchase for our cabinet

Don't worry, you're almost up to date on what I've been doing the past two months. On top of my GLOW stuff and grant stuff I am also in charge of planning our first annual "Jort Off" for the older volunteers after the swearing in of the new volunteers. It is a jort competition to see who can pull off  jorts, jean shorts, the best. I and two other PCVs are trying to make this a reality because what's more classy on a hot July day than debuting a jort creation to your fellow friends before swimming in a  lake to celebrate less than a year left of service. Whew, I think that's up to date now. Thanks for reading if you made it this far.

One Year Come and Gone!

April 23 celebrated the year mark for me here in Georgia. I can't believe a year has already gone by so quickly. It really hit me when I went to the airport with my friends last weekend to welcome the new arriving G14s. I remember being super jet lagged, scared and very confused as I made my way to the front entrance of the airport with my fellow volunteers. The U.S. Ambassador and our Country Director greeted us, while a flock of media folks took our picture. I also remember straining to listen to our next instructions being shouted to us from across the vast foyer as the announcements for flight arrivals and departures echoed around us.  I also remember seeing a group of scraggly yet happy volunteers yelling greetings and waving at us. I think this was the moment that I started to feel at ease, to know that it is possible to make it to the other side of service. It was a relief to see friendly, happy, volunteers who had survived the first part of their service and still seemed to be in the best of spirits possible.

Like I said all of these thoughts flooded my head as I, a year later, got to be a part of the welcome committee for the next group of volunteers. Within my year here I have had my super highs and my super lows. Some days I feel like I've got things figured out and then other days I get frustrated and confused.  I have definitely grown to be a stronger person because of it. I have also had time to do many other things here as well. Since I've been here I've taught myself how to knit, applied and was awarded my first grant, read over 35 books (most of them being the classics that I didn't get to in college), taken three online courses, planned and implemented  summer camps, learned how to milk a cow, have grown somewhat comfortable enough to teach a class full of students, traveled to three new countries, implemented gender equality trainings, made lifetime friends, witnessed animal sacrifices, attended more supras than I can count, learned a whole new alphabet and language (always a work in progress but I'm still proud), turned 25, and have become super close with my host families here in Georgia. It's been one hell of a ride and I can't wait to see what the future holds for me for my remaining 15 months!

The "new" scraggly looking elder volunteers. Way to go G13s, may our next year be even better!

Bustling Brussels

December 23rd I embarked on my first journey abroad since arriving in Georgia this past April. It was exciting to leave Georgia behind and explore some of the world’s most exotic and historic cities.  My trip began in the early hour of 3am. My friend Kayla and I left our Tbilisi hostel and began our 30 min taxi ride to the airport. Both of us were nervous/excited about our trips. For me, it would be the first time that I would be back in a country where my blond headedness and my identity as “the American” would not apply. I would go back to a land of food, music, and culture that more resembled America.  For Kayla (an older volunteer who came to Georgia in April 2012), this would be her first time going back to America in 20 months. Like I said we were nervous.  Struggling to stay awake we checked into our respected airline kiosks and waited to board our planes. At 5:30 I boarded the plane that would take me to Istanbul’s airport where a 3 hour layover was waiting for me before boarding the plane to Brussels.  By the time I’d arrived in Brussels, I had been up for 2 days and 3 hours.

 Despite my slightly haggard appearance my cousin and her family claimed me at the Brussels’s airport exit. My cousin Natalie, my second cousin on my mother’s side whom I've only met maybe 3 times in my life…the last of which being 13 years ago at her wedding, was gracious enough to invite me to spend the Christmas holidays with her family and to show me around Brussels and the towns around it.  The first night Nat took me to go see the Christmas marketplace in downtown Brussels before we headed home to her very cute and very picturesque European farmhouse.

 Her two kids Allen (five) and Annabel (five months) were the cutest things ever and didn't waste any time in making me a member of their family.  Gino, Natalie’s husband and a policeman at the airport, arrived back from work later that night. The next day was a day of rest and preparation for the family’s big Christmas Eve dinner with Gino’s side of the family.  There were 17 of us that sat down to dinner that night.  In the house there was cacophony of languages ranging from French, Dutch, English and the occasional word in Georgian when I was asked to speak a few words of it.  The night was full of great food, Allen’s magic tricks and party favors.  Christmas morning around 6am, I found my name being called by Allen downstairs telling me to come quickly because Santa had come.  I came downstairs to find that Santa had also left me a little stocking full of American goodies such as peanut butter, syrup, Starbursts, long johns and woolen socks. We spent the rest of the day watching movies, taking naps and eating the leftovers from the night before.

The Girl who Squats

The Boy Who Pees

The next few days Natalie took me around Brussels and showed me some of local atmosphere as well. We saw two castles, Brussels’s main square the Grand Place, the boy who pees statue, the girl who squats statue, the military museum, the Leffe brewery museum in Dinant, the Caracole brewery, Waterloo, and even a small German town across the border called Monschau.  I found out local secrets such as where to get the best Belgium waffle (Brico apparently…a home improvement store that resembled Home Depot….Nat swears by their waffles) and some lesser known bars such as the Old Oak, an old Irish Pub that is popular with both the locals and the expats. Allen, Annabel and Natalie were great sports about seeing these touristy places for the umpteenth time and I very much appreciated their enthusiasm.

Me in the Grand Place at night

More of the Grand Place

Beautiful Cathedral in Dinant

The second to last night I was there two American soldiers that knew Natalie through  a friend of hers took me out one night to experience the Brussels’s bar scene.  That was a fun night to let loose a bit and meet people my age both country nationals and expats who lived in Brussels. I even made it to Delirium Café, a bar known for its long beer list, standing at 2,004 different brands and for being in The Guinness Book of Records for having the longest beer menu. The next day, my last day in Belgium, Natalie took me across the boarder to Germany where we spent the afternoon in a cute German town called Monschau. It was a perfect way to end my Western European adventure and to finally say that I've been to Germany.  Later that night I did laundry (my clothes were really confused, it was the first time in 8 months that they had seen a dryer) and packed up my backpack for my departure the next morning to my new destination….Istanbul baby!

Allen and I in Monschau

And the story continues...

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.

The Great Georgia Farewell Party!

Well I've got three days left in the states before I leave for Georgia. This past week I had a farewell party at one of my favorite pubs in Knoxville with some of my closest friends and family members. It was the best send off that I could ever hope for. My mother and aunt did a toast for me and presented me with special quick dry underwear for my travels. What better way to start a send off! Then my friends began singing acapella  for the whole pub (hope they enjoyed it!) and playing the house instruments. Somehow  after the farewell party ended my friends and I found ourselves picking up a hitchhiker in the pouring rain and dropping him off  in the city before going to a swanky hotel bar to continue the celebration. The events of the night ended with a 3am stop at a late night burger joint.  All and all it was an epic Thursday.

Below are just some of the 96 photos my grandfather took.

The toast after my mom's speech

My friend Alyssa writing her contact information in my farewell book. 

More friends (Georgian flag behind them!)

Music playing!

Singing for the group

We didn't even know that my friend Brandon could even play the piano...he just sat down and started playing this beautiful song.

Spread of the whole party

Well I could put up more photos but this would be an awfully long blog post.  Happy viewing!

-Cheers