permanent site!

sorry it has been so long since my last post, but it’s been a busy few weeks. last weekend was the first weekend during this entire time that i had a couple days to myself. some trainees came over to my town and we went to the sulfur baths (more like sulfur showers).  but most of the weekend i spent time with my host family…especially since my time with them is limited. i have 4 mor e weeks of pre-service training until i get sworn in as a bona fide peace corps volunteer and head out to my permanent site for the next 2 years.

and…speaking of my permanent site. i’m here for the weekend! it’s a great town/village and i’m the 5th volunteer to be working here. my new host family hosted the last volunteer that was here back in 2006. they don’t speak english, but they are building a brand-spanking new bathroom (for the weekend, it’s been the outhouse for me) and make really awesome chocolate cake. therefore, it’s going to be just fine. the family also has turkeys. i’ve never really seen one up close, or alive for that matter, but they’re really ugly. they also have 1 pig (or 2, i’m not sure. farm animals tend to wander so it could be ours or the neighbor’s), 2 full grown cows, 1 calf, a bunch of chickens and chicks and a super adorable dog named simba. i was told simba bit someone a while back, but we’ve become very good friend.

the school i’ll be working in is in pretty good shape. a couple previous volunteers helped expand the english classroom so now it has a fantastic amount of english books and all sorts of visual tools. a past volunteer also helped rebuild the toilets. i have yet to take a look, but i’m sure i’ll be using them once school time comes around. my primary counterpart is 21 and is due with her first baby in october. my secondary counterpart has 24 years of experience and was accepted into an american teacher exchange a couple years back. her english is amazing and i think we all will get along splendidly. the director of the school is a hoot and a half! she’s extremely boisterous and loud and i love it! she also seems incredibly excited and motivated to make these next 2 years productive and enjoyable to all. my director is such a hoot that after her students’ film won a short film contest yesterday (supposedly because i brought them all good luck) she proceeded to the closest lottery kiosk and filled out her lottery card. [[i hope she wins the big money! unfortunately being a peace corps volunteer disqualifies me from collecting any winnings. lame.]]

my town is incredibly small and is about 10 minutes by car from the main road, but the closest large city, ozurgeti, is about a 20 minute drive away.  thankfully there are 2 volunteers posted there. as well, my nearest and dearest friend emily is only a 15 minute drive away. yay!

in way, way, way past news: i headed out to bolnisi a couple weeks ago to shadow one of the current volunteers at her school and stayed with her host family for the weekend. i may or may not have been married off, but her friend’s brother was kind of cute ;] krisanne’s school was fantastic and her counterparts were great. both extremely nice and dedicated women. we spent some time with one, both at her house and site seeing a fortress and some ruins about 45 minutes outside of town. as a matter of fact, we ended up getting an off duty police officer to accompany us. but it was beautiful. thankfully the weather held, but it was darned hot! one of the trade offs of being in the west and not really close to tbilisi is that it’s significantly cooler here in the summer and slightly warmer in the winter. we’ll see though. on the way back to alkaldaba, we stayed in tbilisi for a bit and surfed the web at prospero’s cafe, a quaint coffee and english book shop.

in way, way past news: last friday was our tbilisi trip. our assignment was to head into tbilisi, use 2 modes of public transportation and find the peace corps office. we were only supposed to go in groups of 1 or 2, but since there’s only one main road into tbilisi and we all live on that road, we ended up being a group of 10. we all ended up going our own separate ways for lunch. i went to a really great pizzeria that served pizza without mayonnaise…yay! the restaurant was actually started by an american couple who fell in love with tbilisi. very nice.

in way past news: we had our mid-language interview this week to check our progress in learning georgian. i scored well enough, but there’s still a long way to go. being with my new host family this weekend, and not being near other volunteers, has made me realize the importance of the next 4 weeks in increasing my georgian language skills.

i must get ready to head into ozurgeti with my counterpart, but i wish all the fathers reading a HAPPY FATHER’S DAY! as well, thank you to my own father (and mother) for sending a package to me with all sorts of goodies! my host sibilings loved the coloring books and crayons!

cheers!