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!

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.

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. 

Istanbul: My colorful, patterned paradise of a city

“Go to Galata Bridge,” the only instructions I had from my friend about where to find him in Istanbul. Fresh off the plane from Brussels I made my way to the line of taxis out in front of the airport in Istanbul. With this one line of instruction I feebly attempted to talk to my taxi driver…hoping that he might know Georgian or English…unfortunately he didn't but we did manage to communicate where I wanted to go after I had shown him this cryptic message. We took off into the darkness where I hoped Galata Bridge, where ever it was in Istanbul, laid. After 30 mins in the taxi and a 110.00 lira fare (all my Turkish money that I had pulled out at the time…roughly 50 USD) we made it to Galata Bridge.

Cold, confused, tired from a day’s worth of travel and weighed down with my luggage, I wandered along the water front looking for my friends. I was confronted by restaurant hosts who were offering me promises of authentic Turkish food and even an offer to be my friend for the night since my friends were nowhere to be found. I finally stumbled on a restaurant that allowed me to use their Wi-Fi so I could send out a Facebook message from my kindle…an SOS addressed to the other members of my travel group asking where they were and that I was lost and without any money. Hoping that they would magically decide to be online and check their Facebook account, I sat at the restaurant and awaited a response. About 40 mins later my friend Anthony replied asking where I was and then stating that he and my other friend Aaron were on their way to retrieve me.

My flight had been delayed and I had no way to let the other members of my party know that I would arrive late. During my delayed departure the rest of the group had manage to find each other, locate and check into our apartment that we had rented for the week, have a great Turkish dinner, and were currently watching the Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations episode of Istanbul’s cuisine when I was turning down friendly offers along the waterfront. About an hour and a half later after I had first heard back from Anthony, I decided to try and find them in one of the restaurants on the opposite side of the river. They were doing what I was doing and ducking into restaurants in order to use their Wi-Fi to contact me. By luck I passed them and Aaron’s big arm wave gestured me into the restaurant. We quickly had a beer to celebrate the reunion and headed to the apartment where the rest of our party awaited.

The next day I awoke to the call to prayer at 6am. The mesmerizing prayer echoed from the mosque and through our suburb of Fatih. We made breakfast and then we took off to explore the Grand Bazaar, the Blue Mosque, and the Hagia Sophia. I quickly found out that Istanbul is my spirit city with its beautiful use of colored tiles, Ottoman Empire architecture, spiced foods and friendly people. We hit the touristy sights hard that day knowing that New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day would be a bit slower. We returned to the apartment excitedly chatting about our favorite place we had seen that day.

The Grand Bazaar 

More of the Grand Bazaar 

Outside of the Blue Mosque

Inside the Blue Mosque...it was so pretty!

The ceiling above me in the previous picture

The Hagia Sophia

Window in the Hagia Sophia

Inside the Hagia Sophia

The next day, New Year’s Eve, we went out to wander aimlessly around the city with no agenda at all. I had so much street food that day: stomach sandwiches, lahmacun, doners, shawarma, spiced lamb, mussels with dirty rice and so much more.

We had a celebratory dinner and then made our way back to the apartment to get ready for the night’s festivities. Our kiwi friend Steve who we had previously met in Georgia before he had moved to Istanbul to become a full time teacher, drank so wine with use before escorting us to Taksim Square for the New Year’s Eve fireworks. We huddled together as a group staying warm and waited for the countdown to begin…though none of us knew Turkish numbers so we just waited until the crowd exploded with cheers. As soon as the countdown was over our group left the square as quickly as we could since there was rumored to be a political protest that night that if occurred would be accompanied by water cannons and tear gas. The fact that we saw a group of 20+ people wearing V for Vendetta masks and chanting didn't help the situation either. We made it back to the apartment safe and sound and played a few card games before going to bed .

Our third day there, New Year’s Day, was a recovery for most of us. We had been up pretty late the night before and had worn ourselves out pretty early in the week. We hung around the apartment for most of the day and went out for dinner at a nearby café.

Basilica Cistern 

New Year's Eve in Taksim Square

Our last remaining days we toured the Basilica Cistern, Topkapi Palace, the Grand Bazaar again, and Beyoglu, the hipster side of town where our friend Steve lived. On our last night we went to a bar and toasted to our good fortune and to our amazing trip together. The next morning we got up early, did one last clean up around the apartment and then boarded the mega bus that would be our home for the next 24 hours as we traveled across Turkey and back into Georgia. Istanbul was amazing and I've already got plans to visit it again in my lifetime. Happy 2014!

The whole group in Taksim Square for the New Year's Celebrations 

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...

End of School Semester

Well it’s been about a month and a half since I last wrote on here so I guess I’ll fill you in on the end of school, Christmas, New year’s, my trip to Belgium, Germany, and Turkey and the beginning of 2014. I warn you that this will probably be a three part post…bear with me.

First thing’s first, I survived my first semester of teaching. A huge milestone for those that know me…I’m not as apt to teaching as my sister Olivia is but I managed to do alright my first real go at it. My program manager came to my school to observe my counterpart Nino and I conduct a lesson for my 10^th graders. It was a little nerve racking at first but all went well for the most part. Both my counterparts and my school’s supervisor gave me glowing reviews and expressed to my program manager how grateful they are to have me.  I’m glad they feel that way; I’m never too sure what they think of me at times. Normally I can pick up on social cues and expressions but those are mostly lost in translation here.  We all have big plans for the coming semester such as have a technology training class for all the teachers at school, starting the dormant English club back up, and participating in more national projects.

The end of school came soon after my observation. The school lost power a few times and we even had to shorten our classes to 35 mins in order to keep the kids from freezing in the classroom. It’s harder than it looks to try and write with chalk while wearing gloves. The petchi (wood stove) in our classroom helps a little bit but just enough so you can’t see your breath in the room.  My favorite part of the last few days of school however (as childish as it may sound) was teaching my 3^rd, 4^th, and 5^th grades all the lyrics to Jingle Bells and then having them sing it for their end of semester performances.  They in turn taught me the Georgian version of Jingle Bells which is more like a happy chant.

My best friend, her name is Blaze and she keeps me warm when I'm in the living room

A bebia (a grandmother) making her way down the cold snowy moutain

My family was really sweet and decorated their house early so it could feel like Christmas for me. My family usually doesn't decorate the house or put up a tree until the 25^th of December because Georgians don’t actually celebrate Christmas until January 7^th. So it was a real treat that they wanted to start their Christmas traditions early for me since I would be gone on my trip to Brussels and Istanbul.  My family and I decorated the tree and sang both Georgian and English Christmas songs as we decorated the house. My mom sent Christmas cookie cutters in a care package so I taught my family how to make Christmas cookies. They were a big hit, so big in fact that the neighbors were asking for the sugar cookie recipe that I had used.  I’m glad that I could share a bit of my traditions with theirs during the holidays.  It was a great way to spend some quality time with the family before embarking on my first trip of my service…Which leads me to my next post….

The Christmas tree my mother sent us