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!

Summer Camp Sagarejo Style

So if you’ve been following along, one of the activities I have to do before I start school is plan and implement a summer camp for my community. Not an easy feat when you lack materials, money and oh I don’t know…basic communication with vendors, students and others alike. However my camp ran really smoothly thanks to the help of my two counterparts and my sister and her friends. They helped me out with translation and guidance when I needed it.

The camp was 5 days long with each day being a different theme. Themes are as follows: Introduction Day, Sports Day, Arts & Crafts Day, Pop Culture Day and Nature Day.  I would open each day by passing out an attendance bead to each of the campers…this served as an incentive for the campers to come back each day. By the end of the week the campers who attended every day of camp would have enough beads to make a summer camp bracelet. After the bead passing and roll call, the students and I would warm up by dancing the call and response song called “Funky Chicken”.  After “Funky Chicken” I would give the day’s vocabulary lists to the campers and go over each word to make sure that they knew them. Afterwards we would do various activities and games that involved the words from the words list of that particular day.

I tried yet again to teach kickball to another group of Georgian students….just as hard as the first time but by the end of the hour they had a pretty good grasp on the rules and such.

I think they activity the kids loved the most was the clothing relay game. I brought some articles of clothing for this activity and asked each student to bring one article of clothing for this activity as well. I divided the clothing into two piles, each pile having the same amount of shirts, pants, hats etc. as well as equal numbers of colors and patterns. I would shout out an article of clothing or a color and each time would have to find the item and then run to the other side of the room and dress their other team member. They got so into it!

The other activity that was a huge success was the making of God’s Eyes. This was a craft that my family and I would do when we would go camping. All you need is two small sticks and some yarn and presto a cool craft and as I have come to realize from my memories of family camping… a way to easily keep kids occupied and in one place.

Besides god’s eyes, the clothing relay game and kickball we also  did the hokey pokey to learn body parts, made collages from magazines (each student had to spell their name, I love Georgia, include a picture they liked and spell out one new word that they learned that day), wrote poems with 3 new vocabulary words, went on a nature scavenger hunt, a human treasure hunt (students had find other students in the classroom who had something in common with something on their list…asking questions in English of course), watched and English film (Finding Nemo), made team posters and team songs, and had a celebration picnic at the end of our last day of camp

Though the camp had a lot more work/planning/improvising than I had originally anticipated…it all worked out in the end.

Below are pictures from my camp…my counterpart Zaira took most of these photos

Playing Everybody who has...

Maka, one of my students, and her collage

I know you all are jealous of my beautiful handwriting...

Just a sample of some of the god's eyes made...my students picked the craft right up 

Checking off the Nature Scavenger Hunt list...(and for your information I'm thinking...not picking my nose)

Last day of camp supra picnic 

The infamous clothing relay

Learning body parts and action words with the help of the Hokey Pokey

Kickball! The sheets of my summer camp schedule also doubled as bases

Nature hike exploring

Pictures and collages time!

One of the team posters...We had team Funny Children (poster above) and team Smile

Woot Go Sagarejo's 2013 Summer Camp!

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