The Parents Come to Georgia!

I finally had my first visitors during my service...my parents! I picked them up early at the Tbilisi airport at 4am Oct 9^th. Though they were pretty tired from their previous two flights and their 11 hour layover in Munich, they managed to chat with me a bit as we made our way back to the hotel. The next few days were really packed as I tried to show them as much of Georgia as I could. They spent the first two days exploring Tbilisi and meeting my volunteer friends during happy hour on Friday at our hotel.  We took them to all the volunteer hangouts and bars that we often go to. I was quite impressed with how well they were holding up given that they were super jet lagged and had hit the ground running the day before. After Tbilisi, we began our next adventure:  learning how to navigate the rental car out of the city.

Mom and dad meeting some of my friends in Tbilisi

 I must warn you that even though I've traveled a lot around Georgia, I've always traveled as a passenger (usually in the back of marshutka), so helping my dad navigate the streets was very stressful for both of us. Georgians have a special way of driving. You go fast, you pull out quickly in front of and behind cars and you honk all the time. One must also watch out for the occasionally lamb jam or cow jam on the road as well. Anyway, we managed to get out of the city and onto the highway headed towards my town of Sagarejo.

We were greeted by my eager host family who had prepared a small supra for us. I watched as my parents tried the various supra dishes: khinkali, khatchapuri, badrijani, mureba (a soft whole walnut, hull and all, soaked in sweet water), palamushi, etc. My dad’s favorite was khinkhali (meat dumplings) and my mother’s favorite was badrijani (eggplant with garlic and walnut paste). We spent the rest of the night hanging out with my host family and watching football on the computer.  The next day was my host mother Zaira’s birthday so we had another supra but this time with 14 guests! For five hours there was dancing, drinking, singing, toasting, poetry reading, and accordion playing.  The family would make toasts and my host sister Mari and I would translate them to my parents. My parents had shots of chacha (Georgian moonshine) and homemade wine during our supra as well.

Mom learning how to milk our cow Pretty 

Dad making churchkhela

Mom attempting to make churchkhela

Transporting the churchkhela

My host mom Zaira's Birthday Supra!

Love the dancing and peace signs

The next day, Monday, we made our way up to my school before beginning back on our tour through Georgia. My director and counterparts greeted us and took my parents around the school and into various classrooms. Some of my students practiced their English by asking my parents a few questions about themselves.  After the umpteenth goodbye we piled into our blue little rental car and made our way to Kazbegi.

My 4th grade class with my director, counterparts, and coteachers. 

Explaining different icons to Dad

We managed to arrive at Kazbegi that day without any problems (unless you count the lamb jam on the highway) and checked into our hotel before embarking on a small hike to the top of the mountain.  The rest of our time there was a little bit more relaxing than the previous day.

Mt, Kazbegi in the background (view from our hotel)

View of Kazbegi from the mountain. Our hotel is the long one in the back middle. 

Dad at the base of the church with Mt. Kazbegi in the back 

Church at the top of the mountain

Tuesday morning we left Kazbegi and drove to Borjomi, stopping at Osiauri along the way to have lunch with my PST host family (another supra).  A few hours late and full from our big lunch in Osiauri, we arrived in Borjomi and settled in at Anthony’s host family’s house. His host family surprised us with a supra complete with chacha shots and mtsvadi (roasted meat). Once again my parents and I found ourselves in the middle of a multi hour supra.  The feast raged on with toasts from various chalices, magic tricks and panduri (small stringed instrument) playing by Anthony’s host mom Ia.

Anthony's host family: My mom, me, Anthony, In (host mom),Gia (host dad), Saba (host brother) and Robert (host grandfather) standing in the back

Anthony watching in the background as Dad and Gia down wine in a cradle shaped glass in honor of their offspring. 

Lamb Jam! Bunch of sheep on the road as we traveled 

Our faithful steed Blueberry 

In the morning Gia, Anthony’s host dad, drove us three hours to the ancient cave city Vardzia. We explored the caves taking many jumping photos along the way. After about two hours we loaded back in Gia’s car and drove back to Borjomi to pick up our rental car. We only stayed at the house for another 20 mins before loading into our car bound for Kutaisi that night.  

Exploring Vardzia 

In Kutaisi we mainly relaxed, walked around the city and met up with PCVs for drinks at night. I think after all the traveling and supras we just wanted a rest. We hung out with my friends Ann and Joe during our two day stay there.

On Friday we began our journey back east by traveling  to Chiatura to see Katskhi pillar and to defy death on Stalin’s Cable Cars.

Creepy Stalin era cable car that we rode up to the top of the mountain in Chiatura 

After Chiatura we headed to Tbilisi again before my parents had to board their flight.

My parents got to see a lot of Georgia in their 10 days here as well a meet some interesting people (and animals) along the way.

My parents and me

March Madness!

Well I think I have survived winter here.  The days are getting a little bit warmer and the chances of having our water frozen again look pretty slim.  January and February have been the hardest months of service so far because of the cold weather. PCVs here often call February “Depression Month” because it is the coldest month and many of us are bound by necessity to stay in the petchi room (often there only being one in the house) with the rest of your host family 24/7.  I myself had to abandon my bedroom upstairs and sleep in the living room in order to stay warm at night. Being in a room with all of your host family members every day for 12 hours straight with nowhere to escape can get to a person. However like I said, I believe the worst of winter has passed. I had distractions like the Olympics, the events in Ukraine, phone conversations with friends and school to keep me going.

View of Tbilisi's main church

I spent most of January and February getting back into school mode. It’s been hard to do so because the start of school has been hindered by two long weeks of training by Peace Corps. One training was for reporting purposes and the other training (which ended this weekend) was focused on how to write grant proposals and project proposals for our communities.  So far since school has started I have managed to start our English club back up and get a set of donated books delivered to the school.  After this training though I’ll be working on trying to get a project proposal written in order to get funding for a new language cabinet at my school.  Other tasks on my ever growing list are: working on the applications for GLOW NGO, revising and editing our TEFL Education activities book, and working on logistics for NESC’s (National English Spelling Competition) final competition coming up this spring.  

My third grade and their new books!

This month is looking pretty crazy already with all the things that need to get done. Some exciting news is that we, that is the G13 group of volunteers, have received our megobari (friend) information about the new volunteers that will be arriving in April. Basically we serve as pre departure pen pals to the new kids, mainly giving them advice about what to pack, what the culture is like and what to expect before arriving.  I can’t believe it’s almost been a year since I’ve been here. I remember receiving an email from my megobari, Kristen, and me promptly writing back to her worried questions about last min packing advice and what the gender role expectations were for women in Georgia.

Me and my new birthday hat!

Among all of these trainings and projects, I managed to turn another year older and finally hit 25. My 25^th birthday was pretty tame since we were at a training conference but my friends managed to make my day memorable. Ten of us were crowded in a hotel room playing card games and toasted to my birthday with champagne at 12am. The next day we all had project training and grant writing but I still managed to receive a birthday call from my parents in Tennessee, numerous “Happy Birthday” text messages, Facebook shout outs, a birthday card signed by my friends, gifts, and lots of singing.