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.

My Last GLOW Camp

Well, I just got back from GLOW camp. This one was by far the best camp that we've ever had. It was also one of the most tiring too.  I'm planning on trying to relax this week if I can.

You might be asking yourself, "But Anneke it's winter...Isn't GLOW in the summer?"

Yes, in the past GLOW has only done summer camps. However this year because the American Embassy (who funded our summer camps) loved our project so much, they gave us the extra $18,000 that they had left over from their projects that they funded this past year ....that's right, free money and no grant to write for it. Soooo....we decided to hold a winter camp!

Hosting camp in the winter definitely had us concerned....What if the weather is bad? Can we even host a camp among the Georgian festivities that predominately take place in January? Will girls even want to go to a camp in the winter?  Is this place going to have heat? And so on and so on.

Fortunately the camp was a success. This year we were able to bring in around 60 girls to camp to learn about women's leadership, issues and empowerment. We had an amazing team of counselors to work with during camp and a great group of campers to host. GLOW also had a slew of visitors: a few U.S. Embassy staff members, a very excited Canadian Embassy staff member (the Canadian Embassy funded a small portion of our grant), Peace Corps staff members, guest speakers as well as a surprise visit from some of our old counselors from camps past.

GLOW also took it up a notch by really hitting hard its "Taking GLOW Home" initiative, an initiative that encourages the girls to take the information that they've learned at GLOW Camp and share it with members of their community back home through projects and training opportunities. In fact, because this is the main sustainability factor of GLOW and because we've been hugely successful with girls completing multiple projects in the past, we applied for and were awarded a grant to fund GLOW's very first GLOW Ambassador Conference. The GLOW Ambassador Conference will bring together past campers who have completed three projects or more within the first three months after camp. If they achieve this, then they are named GLOW Ambassadors and are invited to attend the conference where they will learn more about project design and management and further their leadership skills.

Since the creation of GLOW-Georgia NGO last January (we are not even a year old yet, January 27th is our anniversary) we have been able to host three GLOW camps, hire interns, and create the GLOW Ambassador Conference. All of this through grant funding and amazing support from our board of directors. Not many NGOs our age can say that, which is why I'm so proud.


Stats:
1,707 Likes on our GLOW Georgia Facebook page and counting
800~ Applications received
156 girls have attended a week long GLOW camp, transportation, food, lodging and all paid for
47 Take GLOW Home projects have been conducted around the country
20 Counselors who have received leadership experience because of their time at GLOW
16 GLOW Ambassadors
3 GLOW Interns
2 GLOW Banners
1 Amazing Year!

Below is a video from our winter camp. For more videos go to our YouTube Channel GLOW Georgia

GLOW is by far my most rewarding project that I have worked on here in Georgia which is why this past camp was bittersweet because it is also my last. Four GLOW camps in and still loving it!

Keep on GLOWing!

Ladies and Gentlemen…I now am Finally a Volunteer

July 12th, 2013

I had my Swearing in Ceremony on July 12, 2013! Now I am officially part of the Peace Corps Georgia family! All 30 of us (the trainees) got up super early…6:30ish mumbled goodbyes and farewells to our PST host families and boarded the PC caravan that drove us the hour and half to Tbilisi. 

The Swearing In Ceremony is kind of a swanky event. PC invites one member of your PST host family, one member of your new host family and your school’s/organization’s director. We get all dressed up, give speeches, say oaths, cut cake, and have live performers come and give a performance on stage for us.  It’s so swanky that we have to do a practice run of the whole event. Unfortunately I made the mistake of placing my bag in the marshutka that broke down on the way there so for a while I thought I would have to swear into the government in a pair of jeans and some black converses…The marshutka came in time though.

My cluster mate Ann and I, along with a few other volunteers, performed both Georgian and the American national anthem for the ceremony…we had no idea though that we would be on Georgian tv later that night…another reason I was glad that my formal clothes had arrived on time.

My invitation, Peace Corps Pin, and my certificate. 

It's Official!!! 

Nora, Brenna and I in the front Swearing In

Maura, our country director, cutting cake

26 Days Later

I can't believe how fast my time here is coming to an end. I officially have 26 days until I'll be in Georgia. Kind of daunting actually. Within the next few weeks i have a million and one things to do before I get on my plane. This week I am dedicated to packing up my apartment in Knoxville and moving all my stuff to my parents' house in Greeneville. It's a little frustrating that I'm going to pack up my clothes only to unpack them at my parents' house and then repack them again for Georgia. That's life though. My siblings have been so kind to call dibs on all my stuff while I'm gone, how sweet of them....in fact I was skyping with my sister Jillian a few weeks ago, (she's in London for a semester doing an internship for her business program) when she called dibs on my TV as well as my kitchenware. My other sister, Olivia, is eyeing some apartment stuff and my brother Reese, who starts his first semester at UT this fall, is open to all the apartment hand me downs he can get. They're like a pack of vultures but I still love them.  Other than the packing, i have to call my credit card company, cancel my Comcast subscription, pay my taxes and buy the last min cold weather items that I'll need in Georgia.

This past Sunday I received my travel info and the go ahead from the Peace Corps to go ahead and book my flight through their travel service. All I can say is that it's going to be one hell of a travel day. My journey from Knoxville, TN to Tbilisi, Georgia goes thus far: I have an early, no, take that back, a SUPER early flight from Knoxville's airport on April 21st. My flight leaves McGhee Tyson airport at 6 am which means either my parents and I drive from Greeneville to the Knoxville that morning...so leaving around 4 am or we get a hotel in Knoxville the night before...either way it's still early. But back to my travel plans...from Knoxville I fly to the Dulles/Washington airport arriving around 7:30. I have an hour long layover before I get on my connecting flight that will take me to Philadelphia. I should arrive in Philly around 9:30.  Still keeping up with me? Oh yeah, I'll also be traveling with two very large 50 lb bags too...keep that in the back of your mind.  Anyway from the airport in Philly I will need to somehow get myself to our designated hotel before 12:30 noonish. I'll be staying here for the next day and a half with the other PC volunteers going to Georgia. From what I'm told this is kind of like a mini orientation before we leave the US. After the orientation we all will take a bus to the JFK airport and board our nonstop flight to Istanbul, Turkey. From Istanbul we fly to Tiblisi arriving sometime midday on April 25th.  Whew...lot of traveling but after that I can finally say that I'll be in Georgia!

Well I've got to get back to packing up the apartment. Below is a picture of all the paperwork I've had to do...and that's not the stuff online either.

Loads and loads of paperwork....that's the government for you

Cheers-
Anneke

Doctors, needles and exams oh my!

I've been spending the last month getting all my exams needed for my medical clearance. The Peace Corps has its own medical portal where we submit our whole life in the form of test results and clearances from doctors. Last week I went to the Knox health department thinking I only needed to receive a polio vaccination. I spent the next hour and a half trying to convince the doctor that I wasn't going to Russia but in fact going to Georgia. She pulled up the CDC information and kept asking where in Russia I'd be staying. After I had convinced her that Georgia was a real country and that I didn't need a typhoid shot, she started tallying all the vaccinations I needed. Instead of just receiving the polio shot which I had come in for I also was given a flu shot, 1 dose of Hep A, and a DTAP.  Two shots in each arm mind you. I later went into work in a short sleeved shirt to show off my battle scars.

This week I got my physical done as well as all the blood tests that the Peace Corps require. Now the only things I have to do this week is go to the Gyno, see an optometrist, have a Tb skin test done, and check on my dental x-rays. All I can say is that the Peace Corps does not make it easy to leave the country.

Well this girl has been pinched and prodded enough. Check in with you all later

Only a few months to go!

So I am slowly trying to get my life in order before shipping out to Georgia. So far I still have to get my medical examination, eye examination and  also figure out what to do with both my apartment lease and my car. I've already started studying the Georgian language...its super hard but the script part of it is very beautiful.  Fortunately I received some lesson books for Christmas so maybe I can be ahead of the gang come April.  I also just got paired up with my Megorbari (meaning friend in Georgian). Her name is Kristin and she is a current Peace Corps Volunteer in Georgia. She and I are kind of like volunteer pen pals. So far she has given me some great advice and insight into the Georgian culture like what is expected of women volunteers. Oh before I forget, Here is the link to the Peace Corps Georgian You Tube Channel if you want to hear some Georgian being spoken. http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoKX1lDw3vABsWDfqe4DPPQ/feed .

Well got to get back to work

Cheers-
Anneke