Gill and Bob in Georgia

2009-08-13T23:35:00.000-07:00

August 12, 2009 New Blackboards

The new blackboards finally arrived at #6 school. What a saga these have been! In any event, 18 new boards were delivered and installed.

Keti chats with Aliko

Stacking

Installed!

2009-08-08T22:28:00.000-07:00

August 7, 2009 Visiting Valeri's Cows in Gujareti

We, Gill, Mako, Valeri and Bob went on a long, rough and very uncomfortable ride, driven by Valeri's friend in Jeep to an abandoned village in Gujareti to where Valeri has pasture and some cows.

Village abandoned in the 90s by Ossetians

Meeting the cows

The petchi where all the food is cooked

Gill plays cards with Sopo and Akaki

This lady showed us how the cheese is made

A walk in the fields

The driver, Dato, Gill and Valeri

Akaki and Gill

Bob get's a gift of a hat - a bit small

Valeri, Sopo and Gill

Cutting the hay for the winter with scythes

Lunch

Sopo loved the headlights

Marina, Sopo, Akaki, Mako and Gill

On the return journey, we had a breakdown

Eventually fixed

2009-07-26T23:27:00.001-07:00

Svaneti

July 19

Today we, Gill, Amy, Mako and Bob, went to the base of the glacier. It was a long hard walk over rough ground, but it was a wonderful day!

En route

Signs indicated where the limit of the glacier was
in prior years. Global warming has reduced the
size of the glacier steadily over the years.

Our guide

The glacier

Mako at the base, testing the water!

Under an ice shelf

After the walk back - tired but satisfied

A picnic at the guards hut

Returning home

2009-07-26T23:01:00.001-07:00

Svaneti

July 18

Today we went for a drive in the surrounding country. Again the roads were very rough and so we were in a large SUV.

En route

Local fauna

This chick was out in the open - perhaps fallen from its nest.

Enjoying the scenery

The local school's entrance
The remains of the river's ice dam

Picking wild strawberries

2009-07-17T09:50:00.000-07:00

Svaneti

July 17

The little hotel we stayed at had a tower. Of course we had to climb it.

Mako in the tower

Gill and Mako in the tower

View from the tower

More views

We went to a museum in Mestia. (Mestia has two! This was the original Georgian house used many centuries ago.)

The scene en route

I love these soviet electricity transformers.
They look like creatures from outer space.
They also look extremely dangerous.

Inside the museum.

We met the local representative of the Georgian Women in Business Association.

2009-07-16T08:17:00.000-07:00

Svaneti

July 16

On the way to Svaneti.

Gill, Mako and Bob went to Khashuri by marshuka where we cot a second marshutka to Kutaisi with Amy. From Kutaisi we caught a third marshutka to Zugdidi (where Gill broke her foot 18 months ago.) Then we rented a car to take us to Mestia - the heart of Svaneti.

On the way to Svaneti.

Toilet break on the way to Svaneti.

First view of the towers.

Cows

The road was pretty bad between Zugdidi and Mestia.

2009-07-12T07:55:00.000-07:00

Amy came to Borjomi and we took her up in the cable car in the water park.

In the water park's Romanov hotel(?)

Later Keti and Vaso came we went for an evening walk in the park with some of their friends.

Nino and her daughter.

Almost as big as she is!

2009-07-05T07:50:00.000-07:00

We went to Sagrejo to help Peace Corps with the G9 TEFL training. Irakli met us and Tengo took us for a tour of the area.

2009-06-20T23:17:00.000-07:00

The program at the little theatre put on by the dance school was simply wonderful. Children of all ages danced the folk dances from all regions of Georgia. They were enthusiastic, skillful and joyous!

Gill posing with one of the dancers after the show.

Another dancer after the show.

2009-05-16T23:07:00.000-07:00

Today, Valeri's recent purchases of cows arrived to be shipped off to his land on the way to Akhaltsikhe. We hope he'll make a profit when he sells them in November!

Later Teona visited with her mother and daughter, Keti.

Keti tried on the hat Gill made.

Later, Mako and Mike came! Tomorrow we shall all go on a hike to Marina's lake.

2009-05-15T04:19:00.000-07:00

Bolo Zari (Last Bell)

Today was the last bell for the 12th. grade in both of our schools. The lower grades will have their end of term next month.

For the 12th. grade, it's their last day at school and it is a bitter-sweet day for most of them. Most of the girls dress up for the ceremonies earlier in the day. The boys mostly do not - wanting to appear cool in their normal clothes. Many of the girls at #4 school were dressed in black with a white apron. We believe that these are a hangover from communist days. They look, for all the world like a covention of French maids!

The girls at #6 school opted for white blouses, tartan skirts, matching tartan ties! They made the skirts and ties themselves.

At #6 school, the day started with all the 12th. grade congregating in the school yard for a ceremony. There were speeches and awards and pledges of allegiance (to Georgia, of course).

Ketino and Giorgi

Lali and Anna

We then trooped off to the little local theatre where the 12th. grade put on a show, with songs, speeches and sketches.

Anna led the procedings

Nino, tchkviani gogo.

Some junior children put on a show with folk dancing.

Later in the day, there were parties for the 12 grade, their parents and some staff. Luckily, the #4 and #6 schools held them on different days, so we could go to both. Georgians certainly know how to party. They love to dance and are very good at it. It is not considered "sissy" for a boy to dance. In fact, when, as needed for some Georgian dances, they dance "on point", real athleticism is needed.

#4 School Party

#6 School Party

2009-05-10T21:23:00.000-07:00

Today was the Breast Cancer Walk and we were both volunteers assigned to the "Sponsors' Group". Our job was to set up their posters/"flags" and ensure that they had all they needed to set up their tables.

Getting organized at the beginning of the day.

Setting up BP's flag.

The t-shirts arrive!

The free mammogram van.

The A Team

The "American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee"(!) flag is installed.

Gill talks to some of the sponsors.

Registration

Setting up the stage

Sandra, the First Lady, arrives. The American ambassador also came, but I didn't get any pictures of him! The ambassador's wife does a lot of work for women's health and spoke at the benefit ballet last Friday

The Gori Women's Chamber Choir. They were good!

Lobio for the volunteers at the end of the day

Breast cancer is a serious problem in Georgia. It is a taboo subject and simply "not talked about". If a woman is diagnosed with it, it is usually in the late stages and so treatment is less successful than if it had been diagnosed earlier. Besides encouraging frequent mammograms and self-examination, an important objective is to make the subject one that can be discussed freely so that women can get support from their families and friends.

2009-05-09T08:05:00.000-07:00

Saturday, May 9, 2009
We spent the day in Tbilisi. We had a few tasks to do but went to Rustaveli first to see what the opposition protesters were up to. The answer was nothing. Their "tents" were quiet. A few had some men playing cards or nadi, but, because there was no traffic, it was very, very quiet!

But first we had breakfast in "Entre" - a brief self-indulgence!

The stand where the opposition has its speeches.

Some of the "tents".

They say that the opposition is paying the men to stay here and we have heard sums of up to 50 GEL a day per person. That's good money by Georgian standards.

Rustaveli has sprouted some charming miniature statues recently and here are just a few.

Finally we went to our favorite Georgian restaurant and had dinner with Mako and Mike, who is over from Americato see Mako! Mako's friends Natia and Tatia joined us.

Natia, Tatia, Mako and Mike.

2009-05-08T20:34:00.000-07:00

Today we went to Tbilisi to see the ballet being held as a benefit for Breast Cancer Screening for Georgian Women. The house was full and the we enjoyed the ballets tremendously - especially the latter two, Western Symphony and Marguerite and Armand.

My ignorance of ballet was clear when, after just a few minutes, I realized that Marguerite and Armand is the same story as La Traviata, ie. Dumas's novel La dame aux Camelias. Western Symphony was a lot of fun!

2009-04-20T11:28:00.000-07:00

Easter (Orthodox) Saturday midnight

They have waited for the news that the light has miraculously been lit in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem and, when the news comes, they process around the church three times carrying the cross. Here they are at the little church in the little park in Borjomi.

The light is distributed throughout the Orthodox world. As I understand it, it is flown in an airplane to Tbilisi (inter alia) and distributed throughout Georgia from there. I asked what used to happen before there were airplanes and no-one seemed to know. There is lots of information on the web: e.g.
http://www.orthodoxinfo.com/general/holyfire.aspx
and this site addresses the fact this miracle is largely unknown in the West - certainly, I knew nothing about it.

2009-04-19T11:18:00.000-07:00

April 18, 2009

The night before Easter and the local children get dressed up and go around the houses and beg for eggs; the madder dyed, deep red, boiled eggs that are traditional.

It's a bit like trick or treat, but the treats are eggs. I don't know what the tricks are.

2009-04-17T10:56:00.000-07:00

Erica and Giga have come over for a week or so. On the day before my birthday we went off to a local restaurant and had dinner.

Giga, Erica, me and Gill

On my birthday, I went to school and the children sang happy birthday for me! After lessons, the teachers had a supra in the staff-room to celebrate my birthday. They supplied the food, and I the booze!

On the day following, Valeri and Marina had a big supra in a new restaurant just outside Borjomi to celebrate my birthday. There were about thirty friends there and the food and drink were really great. As is the norm in such supras, everyone toasted me, wishing me long life and happiness!

Tako and Dmitri gave given me a present.

Giga toasting

Mako toasting

Nino toasting

Teko toasting

Dmitri toasting

Marina toasting

Nino and Keti toasting

Teko rests on Dmitri's shoulder

Mako, Valeri and Erica.

2009-04-06T10:41:00.000-07:00

April 4, 2009

Lisa and Mark have come over for a week to see their host-family in Zugdidi and have a brief reunion with the remnants of G7 and the Peace Corps staff. Lisa brought over a whole load of knitting materials for the knitting co-operative Gill hopes to start. We all trotted off to Mark's favorite restaurant in Tbilisi and had a great meal. Both Brians, James, Oliko, Mauricio, Johanna, Danial, Gill and I were there.

Lisa and Mark

Gill and Mark

2009-03-28T10:25:00.000-07:00

3/10/2009
We received messages from Peter and Colin saying that Mum had had a stroke. We left for Gosport again as soon as we could.

3/12/2009
We arrived in London and went straight to Gosport. Mum died just a couple of hours before we arrived. Peter had come over from the US arriving before we did and in time to see mum alive, but apparently she was unconscious and did not recognize him.

The next week was taken up with funeral arrangements. The funeral was on the 20th and Peter and I took part in the service - he reading from Corinthians and me describing Mum's life.

3/26/2009
Back in Tbilisi

My last picture of Mum taken three months earlier.

2009-03-10T08:18:00.000-07:00

February 16

The children's clothes and books arrived from Genette in London and we have asked Peace Corps to retrieve them from customs for us. Thus turned out to be quite an undertaking and "cost" a lot more than we expected. the customs fees seem to be arbitrary and unpredictable. Finally they were collected and stored at Peace Corps on February 19.

February 27

We met for lunch with four guys from the European Union Monitoring Mission who were interested in the IDP situation in Borjomi. We agreed to take them to Gill's school and the IDP housing in Likani sometime in the near future.

Gill has been sick for two weeks now with some "magari kartuli virusi". She has not been to school, but Marina has been looking after her with some of her many nostrums. Today, it involves painting a grid with iodine on Gill's back and chest. I too have been sick, but not sick enough to warrant that treatment!

March 3

We have had 10 cm of snow, but we are none-the-less, off to Tbilisi today to collect the clothes and books from Peace Corps.

3/9/2009
We met the four guys from the European Union Monitoring Mission again today and, as promised, we took them to Gill's school and the IDP housing in Likani. They were shocked at the conditions in both places and undertook to include these places in their report. We'll see!

2009-02-12T08:01:00.000-08:00

After spending Christmas with Mum, we went to Norwich to stay with Sheila and Mike. I had not realized how "nice" a city Norwich is. It has much that is old and charming without being cloying.

Norwich Street

Norwich Cathedral

We had a good time and were about to return on December 31 when we had a call telling us that mum had fallen and broken her hip, so we came back to Gosport. Mum had an operation and seemed to recover well. The doctors are "pleased with her." We delayed our return so that we could be with her for a couple of weeks and things looked good.

We were about to return when Diana fell and (as it transpired) broke her ankle. So we delayed out flight again so that we could help her! While we were in London, it snowed. I cannot remember when I last saw snow in London!

We built a snow-woman.

We finally arrived in Tbilisi (after a third flight rescheduling) on February 12 and got to Borjomi and February 15. We then learned that Aunt M had fallen and broken her wrist. Who's next?

2008-12-25T07:58:00.000-08:00

Christmas at Bob's mothers residence. Here we are wearing the usual silly English Christmas hats!

Mum looks a lot older. Still, she is 94.

2008-12-20T07:55:00.000-08:00

Today we leave for the UK to spend Christmas with (mostly) Bob's mother and Diana. We expect to be back in time for Orthodox Christmas in early January.

2008-12-14T07:35:00.000-08:00

Today, those of us that stayed in Georgia got together tonight for dinner. This will probably be the last time for many of us because some are leaving over the next couple of weeks.

Here are "Tall Brian" and Johanna.

And here are "Small Brian" and Katie.

Soon there will be just Johanna, the two Brians and Gill and me!

2008-12-13T03:28:00.000-08:00

December 13, 2008

Today was the last IDP camp day. We arranged an excursion to Tbilisi to first see the outdoor Ethnographic Museum and then Mtsketa. We had to hire two buses to accommodate all the children and some of their parents.

When we got to the museum, we split into two groups for tours.

They were surprisingly attentive!

Inside an old Georgian house with a central
fire and a hole in the roof for smoke.

An ancient "keep out" sign being investigated.

Mtsketa.

View from Mtsketa.

On the way home on the bus.

2008-12-12T03:05:00.000-08:00

December 12, 2008

Bob went to an ECO presentation at number 2 school. Number 2 school has two ECO clubs - one Georgian and one English! The latter has two objects - to promote ECO awareness and, of course, to improve the pupils' English!

Crafts made from recycled materials.

Her English was very, very good!

Signatures on a "pledge" to promote ECO awareness.

Signing the pledge.

A "play" at the presentation.

2008-12-09T03:17:00.000-08:00

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Today we went to Gori to attend the ceremony at Gori University at which scholarships are awarded to some students. These scholarships are financed by a fund set up by Kelly and so she figured prominently in the ceremony.

On the way - cabbages for sale.

On the way - some of the new IDP housing.
(Thanks to Tim Banks for the photograph.)

Kelly awarding the scholarships.

2008-12-08T03:05:00.000-08:00

Saturday, December 6, 2008

Another IDP session.

Knitting is very popular - and practical too.

Drawing is also popular.

This time it is the match against #6 School.

The match.

The girls played too.

Team tea.

2008-11-29T02:33:00.000-08:00

Saturday, November 29, 2008

In the morning we took Tim Banks, a student in photo-journalism, to see the IDP housing at Likani. He went off to take photos and we chatted with the IDPs.

Gill chatting with IDPs.

The once splendid spa hotel.
(Thanks to Tim Banks for the photograph.)

Former spa balcony used to dry washing.

Two of our IDP children.

In the afternoon we had another session with the IDP children. The younger ones prepared pictures for the OneWorld Classroom. They love having their pictures taken!

The older children had their volleyball macth against Khashuri. This time the Khashuri IDPs came to Borjomi. Borjomi won one and lost one.

The game.

The fans.

Dmitri refereeing.

Two park police came to watch.

Team tea.

Sunday, November 30, 2008

We had a Sunday session with the IDP to try to get as many sessions as possible into the short time space available.

A message for Gill. Roughly translated it says
"Cheers teacher Julie [sic]"

They like jigsaw puzzles, but they seem to be unfamiliar with them.
Most are not as skillful as western children of the same age.

'Not sure what this lot are up to!

2008-11-29T01:57:00.000-08:00

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

We went to Tbilisi to celebrate Thanksgiving with some RPCVs. We had a great time and everyone mucked in with the preparation.

Number 2 and number 1 wives preparing

food (with their gin and tonics)

Ruth, Brian, Amy and Gill.

Marina and Tamara, PC doctors, came too.

Katie and Ruth pretend to be odalisques.

2008-11-24T00:15:00.000-08:00

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

We went to the ambassador's house for a reception. A lot of Peace Corps and ex-Peace Corps folks were invited, so it was good to see people again. Number 2 wife did not attend.

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Another day with the IDPs.

Preparing for the day's activities.

Gill took the younger IDPs to a puppet show in the local theatre. Tiko, Dmitri and I took the older ones to Khashuri for the football match against the Khashuri IDPs.

Puppet show audience.

We rented a bus for the Khashuri bash. They just would not sit still! In the end we just gave up.

Dmitri coaching!

The fan club!

One of the matches. We lost both matches:
one 11-1 and the other 4-2.

Team tea!

On the bus back to Borjomi.

Monday, November 24, 2008

We attended a children's concert in Borjomi. It was very "patriotic" with many references to Georgia and freedom and explicit refernces to Russia as the invader. It was very good and Borjomi clearly has a lot of talent. Actually, the preformers were mostly from #1 School, so the talent base was quite small.

Older children.

Younger children.

2008-11-17T08:25:00.000-08:00

Monday, November 11, 2008
Finally we got to go to the Tbilisi Opera.

Aida.

Our host sister, Mako, celebrated her 20th birthday on November 12 which was a bitter sweet occasion for us. We are very fond of her and did not want her to know that we felt at all sad. We took her and her mother to see Aida at the Tbilisi opera: the chorus was really splendid, Amneris was quite good, Aida was passable and Radames was dreadful. He also wore a very bad toupe. I think that the last time we saw a Radames who wasn’t shorter than both Amneris and Aida, didn’t have spindly legs and didn’t sound like a chain-saw was when we last saw Domingo.

Both Mako and her mother seemed to enjoy it as did we. There is under floor heating at the opera and it was delightful to be bathed in warmth and listen to good music. The performance was well attended but the audience did not behave well and chatted happily throughout the opera. Bob handled this pretty well all things considered – after all it wasn’t Wagner, but when one woman started humming along (out of tune) and tapping her feet, he almost lost it. However, Georgia must have made him more tolerant, or perhaps he does not expect them to behave well – they don’t do silence very well at all. Anyway, how can you lose when it’s only fifteen bucks for the best seats?

Tuesday, November 12, 2008
Mako’s celebrated her birthday with a party at a Georgian restaurant (i.e. one that serves Georgian food) in Tbilisi. She invited a few of her friends and Gill, Marina and Bob joined the party.

Saturday, November 15, 2008
Another day with the IDPs.

Discussing the afternoon’s activities.

We took the boys to practice football in preparation for next week’s game against the IDPs in Khashuri. We shall be fielding two teams: the big boys and the small boys. So, we lines them up is size order and made the left half the big boys team and the right half the small boys teams.

Then we had to rush to get Mia’s birthday party in Tbilisi. It was good to see some of the RPCVs again – especially Bob’s second wife. She is returning to the US on Christmas day, so soon we shall not be able to see her until we return to the US. In fact, after Christmas, there will only be about four of us left.

Gill dances with Mako.

Small Brian, #2 wife and Mako.

Mia blows out the candles.

Tuesday, November 17, 2008
We met with met with PCSSO, Beth Ritterpustch, and Regional Director, Jay Catzen so that they could ask us about safety in Georgia. We gave them an encouraging report - let's hope they take our advice.

2008-11-10T08:12:00.000-08:00

Tuesday, November 4, 2008
The US Election - we missed it, but went to a celebratory party in Tbilisi!

Saturday, November 8, 2008
The first program day with the IDPs.

Preparing the snack-food for the program
participants - sandwiches and Khatchapuri.

We took the older children to the National Park. Generally they were moderately well-behaved. Dmitri, a park guide, took them along a short trail and described the flora and fauna we encountered.

Start of the trail.

On the trail.

Monday, November 10, 2008
We have our hair cut in the kitchen!

2008-11-01T08:00:00.000-07:00

Saturday, November 1
Today we had the IDP registration. About sixty children and parents turned up. We explained what the program was about – what the grant money was to be used for, and took their names, addresses, phone numbers where they could be reached, school and age. We also asked what they needed most and we would try to help with that. The most popular items were warm clothes, school books, computers and toys! We may be able to help with some of these, but computers are not likely.

Listening to our description of the program - the last time they will all sit quietly.
Teko and Mako register the children.

2008-10-31T00:34:00.000-07:00

Gill had bought a witch’s hat from Asda (aka Wallmart) when we were in the UK and I wore this and all black clothes to school. I suppose I looked like Harry Potter’s teacher. The people I passed in the streets either didn’t notice or were somewhat confused. Halloween is a new holiday in Georgia, recently imported from America and many adults are unfamiliar with it. However, the children have taken to it. There was a “party” at #6 school. Balloons and other decorations were put up. Pumpkins had been carved and they were placed in a circle in the hallway.
My hat was temporarily adopted by Keti, the school’s director, and some of the children had made costumes – mostly the girls.

2008-10-30T00:15:00.000-07:00

We went to a place where many Abkazian IDPs have been housed. These were IDPs from 1992 – not the ones from 2008 who have either returned to their homes or have been housed in many new houses recently built by the government. The place where the 1992 IDPs were housed was an old soviet “sanitorium” in Likani, just outside Borjomi proper. Borjomi and its surroundings have a number of these. They were rather grand in their day, albeit made in the fifties and sixties of ugly concrete – the favorite soviet building material. Essentially, the “middle-class” would come to “take the waters” and generally have a relaxing time with good food, massages and all the things we associate with a health spa. They are grand no more. The windows are broken, the concrete is crumbling, there are holes in the roof and the place is astonishingly cold and depressing. The scenery is nice. These people have been under these conditions for seventeen years. No child there remembers Abkhazia; they were all born in Likani. The government hasn’t done much for them and doesn’t seem to care about them. The recently built houses are for the recent IDPs. We were shocked and very depressed.

2008-10-15T00:11:00.001-07:00

We returned to Georgia after visiting the US and the UK (twice). While we were away, we tried to raise money for Georgia, but our efforts were not very encouraging. People in the US were thinking mostly of the upcoming election and people in both the US and the UK were worried (almost terrified) about the sinking market and the banking crisis. It was not an ideal time to try to separate people from some of the little money they had left!

2008-09-01T11:24:00.000-07:00

August 28th: Final preparations have been done today. We had a sort of ceremony to mark the end of our Peace Corps service. We are no longer PCVs, but RPCVs (Returned Peace Corps Volunteers) – except that we have not actually returned. The G8s went from PCTs to PVCs to RPCVs over the course of a couple of days!

Country Director Rick and his wife Dorothy

Tom and Erik

A group of G8s

In the evening we had a goodbye party. Besides the food, we awarded certificates and prizes to the PC staff. The Sargent Shriver award went to Mamuka, who drove many miles to bring PCVs from their sites to Bakuriani when the bombs were falling. He did deserve it, but really all the Georgian staff did too, because they had performed their allotted tasks when they were worried sick about their families.

Staff and their "certificates".

August 29rd: A small group, including Erik, left at 5:00 this morning! We, Gill, Brenden, Carissa, Amy, Ruth and I left at 10:15 and we were very touched as just about all the other PCVs came and waved us off. It was a very emotional moment.

We were driven to Yerevan in Peace Corps cars. We checked in our guest house, got money, arranged flights, repaired to the Armenian/Syrian restaurant we went to last week and had a great meal!

August 30th: We were up at 5:00 this morning because we were told that the only marshutka to Akhaltsike left at 7:00, 8:15, 7:30 and 9:00 according to whom we enquired! and if we wanted to be sure to get a seat, we should get there an hour before departure. However, it left at 9:00 after much trouble with starting the engine. However, that was not the main reason for our late departure. We had simply been misinformed; the intended departure was 8:30. None of the departure times that we had been quoted was 8:30!

It was a reasonable trip to the border – the same crossing that we had come through three weeks earlier. This time we were only about half an hour at the crossing, but there followed the long, hot and very bumpy ride on the Georgian side to Akhaltsike. We arrived at about 2:00 local time, so the journey took about 6 ½ hours. (Georgia does not have a summer time, while Armenia does.)

We had left Carissa and Brenden at Akhatsike. We took the Khashuri marshutka and got off at Borjomi. Amy went on to Khashuri. Marina, Valeri and Chiko welcomed us back - the rest of the family being in Tbilisi.

August 31st: We have started contacting people to let them know we are back and explain what we are hoping to achieve. So far they all sounded very happy that we have returned and perhaps this is a moment when something significant might be achieved. Everyone is saying that these are “bad times”, but I think that they might be persuaded that it can also be a time of hope (and hard work).

It’s raining. Regardless, we have to go to the ATM to determine the state of affairs in our Georgian bank accounts. Let’s hope that the ATMs are working. We never managed to get the online access working, but since the Borjomi telephone lines are down, we would not have been able to access our account data anyway! I hope that the phone lines are working by the time we come back to Georgia in a month, otherwise life will be very tiresome.

2008-08-27T11:05:00.000-07:00

August 23rd: Last night we had a dance down by the old swimming pool. It poured with rain and everyone got soaked. There was no dancing. I went as Ruth’s partner and Gill was supposed to be Garrick’s partner, but she waited for him at the dance and he for her at the hotel!

It’s all very strange. We are waiting for some folks to come from Washington to “process” us. In the interim, we’re hanging around here, trying to follow the news – what are the Russians doing (or not doing), phoning (when we can get through) people back home and in Georgia and trying to amuse ourselves to stop going crazy. Meanwhile, Georgians continue to suffer.

Today we took another trip to Yerevan. A group of eight of us went to an Armenian/Syrian restaurant which was very pleasant. The restaurant was air-conditioned – bliss! The city was brutally hot and I think I got dehydrated when afterwards we walked around an antiques/crafts market.

August 25th: Today the regional director came and in the evening all the G8s were sworn in. It was a bit emotional. The G8s had been through all the rigors of training and now were, for the most part, being shipped back to the US, but at least now they are PCVs and not PCTs.

G8s waiting to be sworn in.

CD Rick gives a speech.

Becky & Michael give a speech.

A toast (with water since it is an official Peace Corps event.)

Michael gets his certificate.

G8 PCVs.

Regional Director David gives a speech.

No. 1 wife and no. 2 wife.

Gill and Dan have a chat in the cafe.

August 26th: Medical test, report writing, form filling and countless other tasks occupy us today and in the next couple of days. That’s the official stuff. Many of us are also arranging for fund-raising in the US and UK and organizing our return to Georgia.

It is now settled that some of us will leave the hotel on Friday, August 29th. Others will be staying longer – those who have elected to take the Peace Corps provided ticket to the US. We shall go to Yerevan, stay overnight and then cross the border and travel to Akhalsikhe on Saturday. That is Carissa’s and Brenden’s destination, but Gill and I go on to Borjomi and Amy will go on to Khashuri. Ruth is taking the Tbilisi route to get Marneuli.

2008-08-21T10:58:00.000-07:00

August 20th: Today we took a trip to Lake Sevan, which is a huge lake here in Armenia. For this land-locked country, it is significant as a big body of water that gives the impression of being a sea and allows folks to go to the “seaside” to swim and do all the other things that people do at such places.

We went to a nearby water-park to try to relax, cool off and get a dose of skin cancer.

Aida and Toni at the water park.

DJ, Ruth and Kelsey do a left-handed toast to Russia.

Mamuka, Peace Corps driver, makes a new friend.

The monastery at Lake Sevan.

A door at the monastery.

Garrick at the end of the slide.

Tengo at the beginning of the slide.

2008-08-19T10:45:00.000-07:00

August 18th. Today we heard that Russia was withdrawing its forces from Georgia and replacing them with “Peace Keepers.” What a joke. They are sending in soldiers to replace soldiers to keep the peace that they destroyed (and are still destroying). I saw a banner on BBC World News to the effect that the Ukraine had stated that it will open up its defense system to other countries in light of Russia’s behavior towards Georgia. I hope that is true, but I’ve heard nothing since. It may only be a symbolic act with little practical effect, but it at least shows that some parts of the world are concerned about what is going on in Georgia.

We have had another meeting to work out how we can get back to Georgia to help recovery when the Russians have left and to discuss whether their departure is necessary for us to return. We will probably go to the US and the UK for a short while to raise money for our activities.

August 19th. In order to keep ourselves sane, we have started a Peace Corps Georgia Olympics. It’s just a bit of fun, but it helps to relieve tension – both because it’s fun and because it’s physical effort. The teams were based in their sites in Georgia.

This is the Samsketi-Javaketi team.

Capture the flag - first round.

The start of a wheel-barrow race.

The start of a three-legged race.

The leap-frog race.

Watching the soccer final.

The soccer final.

Gretchen takes part in the blind-folded SMS competition.

2008-08-17T10:40:00.000-07:00

August 16th: Today we all took an excursion into Yerevan. We split into a number of groups according to desired destination. Some went to the national museum, some to the crafts and antiques market and some went to regular stores to do “normal” shopping. We went to the books and documents museum which has some really interesting material. Unfortunately, we lost a lot of time trying to get the local currency. Our Georgian bank cards did not work in the ATMs we encountered and there were problems using our American cards too. We finally found a place where they would take Lari. The sign outside showed a spread against the dollar of just under 1%, against the ruble of just under 2% and against the Lari of just over 20%! The banks would not take Lari, but they were still taking rubles, which was predictable and understandable, but still stuck in the craw. As in prior days, Armenian PCVs looked after us, giving up their time to help us. They were really great.

Mother Armenia. She looks a little less inviting than Mother Georgia.

Arrival in the main square.

Entrance to the books and documents museum.

We now have SIM cards that are supposed to let us call abroad. We have managed to get through to Georgia, but have failed so far to get through to the UK.

Last night, we heard from our Mako that it rained in Borjomi and the forest fires created by the Russians were now out. She said that she and the rest of the family are OK. They have food and seem to be safe, but the Russians seem to be on a binge, so we are still very worried. We were told this morning that they are looting Khashuri. It is hard to fathom what the Russians think can be achieved by all this. Georgia is hardly a country suited to looting. There are a number of rich peoples’ residences in Tbilisi, but 99% of the population of Khashuri is unlikely to have anything worth dragging all the way back to Russia or South Ossetia. Perhaps they are doing it just to “punish” the Georgians. Perhaps the Russian soldiers are simply undisciplined and are the barbarians that Sakashvili says they are.

2008-08-15T10:32:00.000-07:00

August 12th: The first full day in the Armenian resort. We had a visit from the American charge-d’affaires in Armenia who was a bit lavish with his praise of us, but otherwise gave a good speech.

We all have great admiration and affection for the Georgians. The host families all express concern for our safety when they are potentially in far greater danger than we. The Georgian staff that are accompanying us, Tengo – training co-ordinator, Teo – language co-ordinator, Tamara – medical officer and Nino – safety and security officer, work hard getting things arranged and managing the whole operation. They do it with efficiency and good humour, but their families, while currently OK, are still in harm’s way. Working for Peace Corps is considered a good job in Georgia, so Peace Corps can choose the best. They certainly chose well with this bunch. The Georgians are simply wonderful. The American staff are great too, but their families are not in danger, so our admiration for, and gratitude to, them are somewhat more muted.

August 13th: Another day in the Armenian resort. The Peace Corp Georgia Country Director came and described the possible outcomes for us. Yesterday, with the signing of the agreement between Russia and Georgia, things looked promising. Today, with Russia’s continuing operations in Georgia (despite the agreement) and after the CD’s description of what might happen in the near future we are less sanguine. It now seems unlikely that we shall return to Georgia any time soon – at least, under the auspices of Peace Corps.

August 14th: Yet another day in the Armenian resort. There is a lot of talk about how we might get involved in the clean-up and rebuilding of Georgia. The TELF folks are a bit at a loss as to suitable mechanisms, but the BSE volunteers have a lot of experience with NGOs and know something about getting funds properly channeled to get things done. All this is fine, but many of us are looking for ways to help in a more hands-on manner. If we get back to Georgia, I do not think that we shall do teaching. We shall try to find tasks more directly related to the reconstruction.

August 15th: Yet another day in the Armenian resort. Things are much like yesterday. Most people are feeling frustrated at the inaction, but do not know what options are available to us. We spoke to Mako. She said that the Russians bombed the Borjomi Gorge and had started fires there. This is part of that National Park and is not in Borjomi itself, but just outside. Although Borjomi itself was not hit, the smoke from the fires was very bad in the town and Mako asked if they could use the masks in our medical kits. Of course, we told her to take anything that might be useful.

We took a trip to a pagan temple nearby. here are some pictures.

We then went on to a local 4th century church. As we usually do when visiting such places, we lit a candle for Ben.

2008-08-12T10:23:00.000-07:00

August 11th: We left at 11:45 – 45 minutes late for our drive to Armenia. Peace Corps Armenia has made arrangements for our reception into Armenia. We are told that we will be staying in a resort where the Armenian Olympics team does its training and is supposed to be quite lavish!

Our two buses drove down from Bakuriani to Borjomi where we stopped briefly so that our host-family could give us my computer which I should have taken in the first place. Not content with that, they gave us a big bag of food. Things were so rushed and emotional that we didn’t really think. We should not have taken the food. We were told later that all the Borjomi shops had been cleared out by panic buying, so the family definitely had a greater need than we.

We then drove through Akhalsikhe and closely followed the route we had taken just a few weeks earlier when we went to Vardzia. This time, however, we stayed on the “main” road, went through Nimotsminda and across the border. The crossing took ages. Five volunteers, for various reasons, did not have their passports with them and this may have been the cause of the delay. Or perhaps processing 90 foreigners simply takes that amount of time at this border crossing.

A brief rest stop.

Approaching the border.

The Armenian side of the border.

We then drove for another three hours to the resort. The whole trip took about 13 hours. We arrived at about 1:00 in the morning.

An eye-catching statue at the entrance to the resort where we are staying.

Yet another alphabet.

Members of a mime group adorn statuary in the nearby village, Tzakhkadzor.

2008-08-10T10:15:00.000-07:00

August 8th: Today, the separatists in South Oshetia shelled a number of places in Georgia – that’s the Georgian version. There have been provocations for some time now. Explosions in Gori and other incidents have put us on "stand-fast" a number of times recently. Georgian troops entered South Osetia and took a number of villages. Each side claims that the other started it. Georgia claims that Russia is aiding the separatists and Russia denies it. Planes, probably Russian, have bombed Gori, Kareli and Zugdidi. We are probably pretty safe here, but a number of volunteers in other areas have been evacuated to safer places.

We have been put on “stand-fast” again, which means that we cannot leave our site and have to pack essentials ready to leave. We spent most of the day organizing our belongings into (a) what to take with us, (b) what to leave but hope to recover eventually, (c) what to leave for Georgians – host family, schools, etc. and (d) what to toss out if we have to leave.

Erica, Julie and Giga have left to go to Tbilisi, but we know that they have encountered difficulties because Gori is on the main road to Tbilisi and the road is closed to all but small vehicles. Erica has an appointment in the British consulate on Monday in order to get her visa for her year at Kent University. She needs her visa before Giga can get his to be with her.

Now we wait to see what will happen.

August 9th: Things are getting more serious. We were told to get ready to leave. A Peace Corps vehicle was supposed to pick us up at about 11:00. It arrived at about 2:00, but things are a bit chaotic and so the delay was understandable. We are told to take only one bag with just the necessities for a few days. We decide to take Gill’s computer, it being the lighter, and the backup drives for both machines so we will be able to access my data too. Wrong! Gill’s version of Windows is earlier than mine and, as we later discover, cannot read my backups! Thank you, Bill Gates (yet again).

August 10th: First full day at the Hotel Tbilisi in Bakuriani. All the volunteers are here now – all the G7s except those who were already out-of-country, all the trainee G8s and a few G6s who, for various reasons, are still here. Everyone is watching the television trying to find out what is going on in the rest of Georgia. Borjomi and Bakuriani are considered safe because the is nothing of military importance nearby and we are some distance from the current military operations. The phone system is a mess. People are trying to get through to The States to reassure their families there and to various places in Georgia to find out how their host families are managing and to reassure them of our safety. Because of bombing, the biggest problem area seems to be Gori where we had a few volunteers and hence have some host families and, a close second, Zugdidi where another volunteer couple, Lisa and Mark, were stationed. Things are beginning to look bleak.

Peace Corps meeting in Bakuriani.

We have been told that tomorrow at 11:00 we shall go to Armenia by bus.

2008-08-07T09:54:00.000-07:00

August 7th: We have just returned from a trip to Oni. This is a place up north not far from the Russian border. We were visiting our fellow volunteer Eric who was running a sports camp for a some of the students in Oni.

Eric - one of the best!

Eric’s dog, Bombura, has just had pups and she is busy with, and tired of, feeding them! Motherhood is getting her down.

The camp was a lot of fun. We played a number of team sports in the local sports ground and cooked ourselves some great dinners in the evening.

On the third day, after an abbreviated camp, we took a vehicle into the mountains. The vehicle was an ex-ambulance and was very, very uncomfortable. You see these vehicles all over the place. They may be uncomfortable, but they seem sturdy and good at dealing with rough roads and countryside - and we had a lot of that.

We stopped at a dilapidated summer resort which was probably quite the place to go in the soviet era. It had a delightful stream running through it and we stopped on the bank to have a late lunch and cool down.

Beside the stream.

Georgia is littered with derelict buildings, many of which were probably once rather grand - some dating from the Romanov era. This was an example, although this shot does not give a true impression of its state of disrepair. The place was literally falling down. The stairs inside were in quite good shape, but in many places the floors were soft an in a few had completely collapsed. Cows were tethered up in the basement!

However, the view from the top of the building was spectacular.

On the way out of the resort we saw two interesting sights. The first was a caged bear. He/she looked so sorrowful in a very small, dirty cage with only an old tire to play with.

The other was a decaying statue of Stalin. It seemed to summarize everything.

Later we visited a man who was camping in the woods. He was minding his bee hives. It is common here to move hives up into the mountains here in the summer time and move them down again in the fall.

Here he is centrifuging the combs to get the honey out.

Gill takes a walk in the woods.

Later we took a rather scary ride higher up in the mountains. The road was very rough, narrow and right on the edge! However, the views were spectacular.

Our driver, Koba (in red), decided that one of us, Jess , should marry his son and spent most of the time calling her “daughter-in-law”. She (far left) was tolerant of his attention, but not in favor of the idea. When this photo was taken we were just two kilometers from Russia.

At a pit-stop on the way back, we reviewed some of the day’s photographs.

2008-07-20T09:51:00.000-07:00

July 20th:
Back in Borjomi, and Erica’s mother, Julie, is now in Georgia and she, Erica and Giga have come to Borjomi. Arrangements for Erica’s and Giga’s wedding are presumably being discussed.

A walk in the park with Erica and Julie.

Preparing for a dip in the park’s natural warm-water pool.

The dip.

Chiko wishes he could dip too.

2008-07-18T09:48:00.000-07:00

July 18th – our last day in Istanbul. Diana’s plane was leaving earlier than ours, so she and Gill went to the airport, while Mako and I went to look for presents for her friends and relatives back in Georgia. We succeeded fairly quickly, took a couple of photographs and scurried off to the airport in time to say another good-bye to Diana. A most enjoyable, but very brief, holiday.

2008-07-16T09:31:00.000-07:00

On the next day, July 16th, we went to Topkapi. We went to the Harem and then had lunch in the Topkapi restaurant overlooking the Bosporus.

In part of Topkapi.

In another part of Topkapi.

Mako (dead center) in the Harem.

In another part of Topkapi.

Waiting for food.

Diana’s impression of a Dervish.

Still waiting for food.

Later in the day, we all went to the cistern. It was interesting, but compared to Topkapi (the same price), a bit of a disappointment. Then Diana and Gill went back to the hotel – Diana’s foot was bothering her – and Mako and I went to the Grand Bazaar. Mako is a tough bargainer! She got two pairs of genes at rock-bottom prices. (Sorry.)

In the evening, we took a boat-ride on the Bosporus. Included was dinner and entertainment. Finally, there was dancing and we all had a good time.

2008-07-15T09:21:00.000-07:00

July 15th – our first day in Istanbul. There was much confusion because it was decided that Diana’s ankle, which been restricting her activities, should be looked at by a doctor. So Gill and Diana went off to find a doctor and Mako and I went off to the Blue Mosque. The intent was that we would meet up later, co-ordinating by cell-phone. Unfortunately, we had a spectacular thunder storm and Mako and I, who had seen the mosque and had gone off for an ice cream, sheltered from the storm. Consequently, we couldn’t get to the Blue Mosque in time before Diana and Gill, who had texted us from the Blue Mosque, having failed to find a suitable doctor and having seen the mosque for themselves, decided to park themselves in a restaurant nearby. All would have been well had it not been for the fact that text messages to Diana were taking hours to get through. Their being routed via the UK was assumed to be responsible for this, but that doesn’t explain why messages from Diana were received promptly. Of course, Mako and I did not know this at the time, and couldn’t understand why she wasn’t responding to our messages. She got one message the next day!

Mako and the Blue Mosque.

Anyway, we eventually met up outside the Hagia Sophia. We took a guide whose English was so poor that none of us could understand him.

Inside the Hagia Sophia.

Later, in a restaurant, a cat befriended Mako, who loves dogs but is somewhat leery of cats.

Diana eventually relieved Mako of her new friend.

In the evening, we went to see some “whirling Dervishes” who performed in the waiting room of the Istanbul railway station (!?)

The station was one of the terminals of the Orient Express.

2008-07-14T09:07:00.000-07:00

July 14th: We began the trip to Turkey; a taxi to Khashuri and then the train to Batumi where we spent the night. We had an interesting Chinese meal where the Peking duck was not what we were expecting - don’t ask - but the restaurant did have electric swans! The next day, we took a taxi to Sarpi at the border, walked across the border, took a taxi to Hopa and then two buses to Trabazon. After a meal and some heel cooling in Trabazon, we caught the plane to Istanbul.

It was really a joy to be with Mako (who is always a pleasure to be with, but had never been outside Georgia or flown in an aeroplane before). She was excited but poised and apprehensive but thrilled. She was a delight.

The farewell photograph.

Waiting for the train to Batumi.

Chinese restaurant menu in Chinese, Georgian and Russian.

Waiting for Peking Duck.

Outside the restaurant with electric swans. Georgians love lights.

In a Trabazon restaurant.

Two passengers waiting at Trabazon airpoer.

The start of Mako’s maiden flight. Gill, as usual, is trying to break her ankle.

2008-07-12T08:57:00.000-07:00

July 12th was when we took off for Vardzia. Vardzia is a very large cave city "built" in the twelfth century.

A castle en route.

Mako with the castle en route.

There is a smaller cave city, Uplitsike, near Gori which is older, but Vardzia is very much larger (about 400 rooms). It was once significantly larger, but an earthquake in the thirteenth century destroyed much of it and the Turks sacked what was left when they defeated the Georgians in 1551.

A view of Vardzia from across the valley.

Gill in Vardzia.

Gill and Mako in Vardzia.

Another view from inside.

Gill and Mako with the marshutka driver, his wife and daughter.

On the way back, we stopped at the Green Monastery. It’s a curious place with nothing in particular that’s colored green. As in many other places in Georgia, they are restoring or replacing the murals that were defaced or destroyed by the communists and/or the Turks.

The Green Monastery has some new murals.

Waiting to drive home.

2008-07-11T08:50:00.000-07:00

July 11th: We took Diana to Gori, birth-place of Stalin, the local lad who went out into the world to make a name for himself.

And so, if it’s Gori, it must be the Stalin Museum – a fascinating place that covers Stalin’s life from start to finish but does not mention the Gulag, show-trials, deaths by starvation (whether deliberate or as a result of ill-conceived collectivization) or the other less celebrated results of his rule.

The museum has a cast of his death mask, the carriage that took him to Postdam to meet Churchill and Roosevelt, the house where he was born (apparently in the original spot) and many busts and statues of him.

The carriage is very heavy because it is armor-plated. Inside it is not particularly grand, but it looked comfortable and functional with a kitchen, radio room, bedrooms and a conference/dining room.

The emblem on the side of the carriage.

The mandatory photograph.

2008-07-10T00:43:00.000-07:00

On July 10th. we went to Khasbegi. The scenery was stunning, but, as luck would have it, I forgot my camera, and everyone else’s camera ran out of battery. Batteries bought in a shop in Khasbegi ran out after about 3 or 4 shots. The batteries were still in their shrink-wrap, but must have been very old. Mako’s cell-phone lasted the longest, but even that gave out too. Consequently, there are few pictures!

The scenery en route was spectacular too.

We visited the local museum before steeling ourselves
for the climb to the church at the top of the hill.

Typical old Georgian home.

At the top. Hot and tired, but very proud of ourselves.

Mako photographs the view.

2008-07-09T00:33:00.000-07:00

July 9th and we went to Sighnaghi. This is a walled hill-town that has been done up and gentrified and is a draw for artists and tourists.

Most people like it, but I felt that, while pretty, it was rather artificial – like a mini-Disney World. Perhaps that was the inspiration.

Marina did not come, but Erica, Mako, Valeri
and Giga did. (Erica is taking the picture.)

City walls.

We went to a restaurant with a great view. The food pretty good too! We took lots of pictures – most of which were lousy!

Gill and Diana behaving.

Gill holding forth.

The camera was straight (more or less) -
it’s a hillside in the background.

Erica and Giga, who are soon to be married.

2008-07-08T00:30:00.000-07:00

July 8th and we are back from England. For some reason, we didn’t take a single picture there. England was nice - but expensive. Petrol is now £1.20 a litre and everything else is very dear.

Mum seemed to be in good spirits but is very frail. She is deaf and has lost her short-term memory. It was the usual routine: Mum asks a question; we write the answer in a pad of paper; she asks where we are; she expresses surprise that we are in the state of Georgia; we explain that we are not; she asks the same question as before; we point to the answer given previously – and on it goes. However, she seems very content, the staff at the home are wonderful , and she looks very well looked after.

In London, Diana’s neighbors, Marcy and Peter had a July 5th party (July 4th was inconvenient) with fireworks. It was a great show. I think some of the neighbors were puzzled.

Now in Georgia with Diana, we spent a few days showing her the country (and seeing much for the first time ourselves).

Tbilisi restaurant before setting out on our adventures.

2008-06-28T00:26:00.000-07:00

We went to Ellen’s and Tony’s wedding reception. Since most Peace Corps are young and single, weddings while in service are not uncommon, whether between volunteers or between a volunteer and a “local”. There were about 30 people there and we had a great time.

Ellen and Tony have their picture taken.

The Georgian marriage certificate.

Before we went to the reception, we did a little shopping in a shop nearby. Gill pointed and said “Oh, look, there’s Jeremy.” I said, “No, it can’t be; he’s over there”, pointing in a different direction. It transpired that Jeremy has an identical twin and he had kept quiet about it all this time. His twin was on vacation.

Jeremy is on the right.

2008-06-12T00:22:00.000-07:00

School is over now until September. Amongst other things, we are now preparing for our trip to England and our return to Georgia with Diana.

Marina has bought three chickens and has
named them Gilli, Valeri and Bobbi.
The hope is that they will grow and provide us with eggs.
Bobi is the black one; I cannot tell the other two apart.

Washing is much easier in this weather!

2008-06-10T00:19:00.000-07:00

We were invited to a concert at number 2 school. We had been there earlier for a performance of sketches and songs about ecology, put on by the school’s eco-club. This concert included Georgian dancing and recitations of Georgian poetry. We have been very impressed by the Georgian children’s lack of stage fright. They are no shrinking violets, they seem positively eager to stand up and hold forth!

2008-06-06T00:16:00.000-07:00

We were invited to a piano concert at the music school. We were very impressed with the performers – mostly the school’s children. They were of all ages - the youngest could not reach the pedals. Besides the teachers in duets, the oldest performer was a very talented young woman who was now at the Tbilisi Conservatory (center-back, next to Gill).

One girl gave her bouquet to Gill!

2008-05-29T00:05:00.000-07:00

The English for Tourism classes are going quite well. The first class had five attendees. We are now up to 25. Brenden came from Akhalsikhe and gave a talk on possible financial arrangements between the producers and sellers of crafts. We are trying to encourage the guest-house owners to sell crafts and souvenirs. It’s hard for tourists to get this sort of thing in Georgia if they do not have a car, and most of them don’t.

Here Brenden is with Marina, Gill’s counter-part.

Discussion.

Another session with Brenden, this time with Keti,
who works in Borjomi’s tourism department.

2008-05-28T23:58:00.000-07:00

May 28th – Gill’s birthday.
This was celebrated both at school and at home. Gill’s school-children made a fuss of her, giving her cards and flowers.

This is Gill with Marina, one of her counter-parts,
and the fifth form.

The teachers had a mini-supra her honor in the staff room.
They ate, drank - only a little, of course
(well, that’s what they said) - and danced!

When Gill got home there was another celebration. Somehow we managed to accumulate an orgy of birthday cakes: the square white one was a left-over from Gill’s school, the horns of plenty and the USA cake were made by host-mother, Marina, one of the other two other was ordered by the family and given its final touch, the strawberries, by host-father, Valeri and I cannot remember the source of the other mushroom cake.

Yes, it’s a cake with mushroom meringues on top.

2008-05-21T04:41:00.000-07:00

Easter was quite an event here. I (Gill) missed most of it because the plaster on my leg was replaced with something so unbalanced that I could not walk for three days. (It is off now.) However, Bob went to the midnight Easter service for a short time – the service actually continues for about four hours with everyone standing! But I must not rush this.

On the Wednesday night before Easter we saw a small fire outside the baker’s shop opposite our house. People were standing around laughing, drinking wine and from time to time jumping over the fire. Georgians tend to be high-spirited and we thought very little of it until the next day when someone explained that this is a very old, pre-Christian (and, therefore, looked down upon by the church) ritual where people dance with devils. Actually, it seems like a celebration of fire and, if you had spent a Georgian winter here, you would have felt the same way. (We didn’t get a picture, unfortunately.)

On Thursday, the Georgian Patriarch washes his priests’ feet, but this does not happen anywhere else but Tbilisi. Our family prepared the red dye for the eggs which are traditionally made on Good Friday, which is called Red Friday in Georgia. The dye is called endro in Georgian and I actually managed to find out that this is madder in English. There was a madder market in Norwich in England and a theater on the same spot is now known as the Madder Market. Madder is the root of a small bush and when you boil it, it produces a strong, deep red dye. In Georgia, the dye is primarily used for dying Easter eggs, but also for felt. My students were very surprised that we called Red (blood) Friday Good Friday in American and England. They could not understand what was good about it. When I explained that Christians believe that Christ died for us and to do something for someone else is the best thing you can do, they nodded a little, but I don’t think they were convinced.

On Friday, we dyed eggs, both in the Georgian fashion (i.e. blood red) and the American fashion (pastel colors). Georgians, like Lithuanians, have egg fights where you tap the end of your opponent’s egg and see whose cracks – like English conkers. Apart from that, Friday is a very sad day for most Georgians. They really believe that the world might end if the light is not lit in Jerusalem – more about that later. Our host sister told us that as a child she used to be very scared at this time.

Saturday is a time for more egg making. Many eggs and much candy are needed because on Saturday night children come visiting in Halloween fashion demanding eggs. There is a little rhyme they say which I guess is the equivalent of “Trick or treat, trick or treat, give me something good to eat.” The children are dressed up just like for Halloween. Some of them wore macaroni on their teeth – the vampire touch.

Also, Saturday night is the time of the long vigil to see whether Christ will rise this year. We knew nothing of this particular part of Georgian orthodox belief: Apparently, in the Georgian church in Jerusalem there is a piece of rock and on Easter Sunday morning a fire spontaneously erupts from the rock. If this does not happen, it means that Christ has not risen and the world will end. When the fire erupts, priests come out of the church and light candles and lanterns that are carried to Tbilisi – we suppose by plane, but could not find out how. We saw the lantern lighting on television. The news spreads fast and the worshipers at the church begin to sing about Christ’s resurrection. This, as I said, can go on for a very long time. The priest carries a light three times around the church and the congregation carrying candles follows him in procession. Everyone greets each other with “Christ is risen,” to which the response is “Truly, he is risen.” However, this is not just a rote response, it is an actual belief. The depth to which Georgians believe this is illustrated by the headline in the Sunday newspaper “Christ is Risen.” The paper also contains a candle which had been lit by flame from the rock (and subsequently extinguished!)

Monday is the day for visiting the dead. Georgians take the remaining red Easter eggs, a picnic and some wine and go off to the family cemetery. We always wondered why there are picnic tables in the cemeteries – that’s why. They spend the day there greeting their friends and neighbors who are also visiting their deceased family members. They exchange eggs and everyone has to toast everyone’s family which makes for quite a jolly day. Finally, they leave an egg at the cemetery for each dead family member and wend their way home.

2008-05-21T04:10:00.000-07:00

In early May, I (Bob) went on a school trip (just some senior children and a few staff) to Tbilisi to visit the National Museum, see some churches and have a picnic! There is a vast, new church in Tbilisi, which is even bigger than it looks because it has large underground areas.

There are also much older churches including this famous one at Mtsketa.

The picnic was fun: salad, bread, cake and wine - for everyone.

I was astonished at one church site to run into two Chelsea pensioners. They were taking a week's vacation in Georgia. I took their picture and promised to send them a copy. I shall have to do it via Diana since the mail is so slow and unreliable.

2008-04-24T23:04:00.000-07:00

We had a conference devoted to grant application writing in mid-April. A number of Peace Corps folks were there including the Country Director who brought me a huge birthday cake that would have been over-the-top at a wedding! When we got home, Marina, our host-mother had prepared a big supra for us and about ten Peace Corps volunteers came to the party. Marina had put out the best china, cutlery and glasses. Luckily there were no breakages!

When I got back to school a few days later, the teachers sang “Happy Birthday” for me and gave me presents. These are people who earn very little and many of whose husbands have no job. Later, two classes also sang “Happy Birthday”. It was embarrassing, but very touching. I also have two birthday cards made by the children.

Suddenly, spring is over and the weather has become very warm.

2008-04-24T22:54:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, we visited a little village nearby that has a very small and very old church in it. En route, we visited a newer church that was having its paintings restored. Many churches have had their murals damaged or completely destroyed. When the Turks invaded they often damaged the paintings and during the communist period more damage was done. Now, many churches are having their murals restored.

The old church has a new roof, but the rest is fifth century. Georgia shares with England St. George as its patron saint - we must find out how that came about - and depictions of George and the dragon are common in Georgia.

2008-04-24T22:11:00.000-07:00

In mid-March, we spent the weekend in a town called Zugdidi where the Peace Corps was holding a meeting open to the general public devoted to women’s health issues. We helped out, Gill by being the receptionist and I by being a food-bar manager. The main topics were, not surprisingly, birth control, breast cancer and STDs, but general health was also on the agenda.

It was a bit of a haul getting there. We had to change marshutkas and, unlike trips to Tbilisi, rest-stops were needed. At one stop where there were a number of white marshutkas like ours, Gill asked which marshutka was ours. “That’s easy”, I said, “It’s the one with the sofa on top”.

At the place where we had to change marshutkas, we watched an oil train go by. We saw many of these in Kareli too. Until a pipline is built, this is how some of the oil gets from the Caspian Sea to the Black Sea.

While in Zugdidi, Gill took the opportunity to demonstrate a more general health issue by falling over in the street and breaking a bone in her foot. This is Gill’s third broken foot undertaking – remarkable in view of the fact that she has only two feet. Admittedly, we were walking back from a restaurant on a pot-holed street with no street lights, but we should not allow this to detract from her achievement.

Initially, she thought she had merely sprained her ankle, but after a few days, when it got worse, she went to Tbilisi for an x-ray and has had a cast on her foot ever since. She had hoped to have it taken off last Monday when she visited the specialist in Tbilisi again, but he wants another two weeks. She has not been to school for a month, and the Easter holidays are just starting, so she will have been goofing off for more than five weeks.

2008-03-10T08:13:00.000-07:00

Two weeks ago, we had training in Tbilisi with our counter-parts. Actually, Gill went without any of her counter-parts. Her main counter-part, Marina, could not go because her uncle had died a few days before and consequently she was involved with the funeral. Marina has now lost an uncle and a brother in the space of a few weeks. Another counter-part did not want to go and the third was unable to go because of family commitments.

Bob too has three counter-parts. His main counter-part had a wedding to attend and number two counter-part didn’t want to go. So he went with Lea, his number three counter-part. (She is number three because he has fewer lessons with her than with either of the other two.) The training was interesting and Bob thinks Lea enjoyed it.

Also two weeks ago we had another snow storm. Laundry can be a trial under such conditions! But there were hints that spring was coming. During the daytime, the sun would come out in a cloudless sky and turn much of the snow and ice to slush and water. Admittedly, at night, it would get really cold again and the slush and water would refreeze into a bumpy skating rink and Gill says that she has fallen down four times going to school. However, she was so well bundled up against the early morning cold, and therefore well-padded, that she has not suffered any serious consequences from these falls.

Recently, we have had no fresh snow and even the nights have been warmer. Consequently, all the snow has now gone in Borjomi itself and the snow is melting quickly in the surrounding terrain. We are told that, because of the snow melt, the water supply is full of mud and sand, so the water has been turned off! I suppose that no water must be better than muddy water for someone, but I am skeptical. Laundry can be a trial under such conditions!

If winter is over now, as seems possible, it has been a rather short one and, although there was a period of intense cold, the winter was not as bad as we had been led to expect. Certainly, New York could provide stiff competition.

Last week we went to watch a football (soccer) match between Akhalsikhe (Georgian for Newcastle - a town further up-river) and a Tbilisi team. (It was held in Borjomi because Borjomi has a usable pitch.) Watching professional sports is not something we like doing, but we needed to get out for a walk anyway so Giga, our host-brother, persuaded us to go. He told us that some Nigerian player was on one of the teams. Giga has hopes of being a professional football player himself and would seem to be a pretty good goal-keeper. He might have a chance to play for a Norwegian team if things pan out as he hopes. Bob kidded him that he did not understand why the teams were named after towns and cities when the players seem to come from every part of the globe except the town or city for which they play. Why not name the teams after flowers or film stars? As it turned out, the Nigerian didn’t turn up anyway. It was a nil-all draw.

Last week I, Gill, went to three concerts while Bob was in Tbilisi being checked out by our medical team. It turns out that he is ridiculously healthy except for a little arthritis in his hip. It took them three days to discover that so I have no idea what else he was up to. Anyway, as last week included both Georgian Mothers’ Day and International Women’s Day, the school took time out to celebrate. The third and first grades had concerts, neither of which I knew about until the actual event (typical Georgian fashion). The kids were dressed up in miniature versions of the national costumes and looked absolutely adorable. As I did not know that these concerts were going to happen, I did not have a camera. Now I am taking one every day. The children gave speeches and recited Georgian and Russian poetry. They danced national dances and sang songs. They are natural performers, not in the least shy and seem to have a talent for recitation. After the concert, all the teachers were presented with bunches of violets, which has been picked in the woods in and around Borjomi. Intermixed with the violets were a few snowdrops. I was honored with a bunch of tulips also.

Last Thursday evening I (Gill again) went to a concert in the Borjomi cultural center. I think this was given in honor of some Ukrainians who had come to Borjomi to arrange tourist trips. The singing and dancing was exceptional and quite unlike anything I have seen or heard before. There were two nine-part male choruses that sang acapella. One of my students was in the chorus. He was very good. However, what I enjoyed the most was the dancing. In the dances from South Ossetia the men dance on point in soft leather boots with no soles. I must do horrible things to their feet, but it looks great. You can see why they make such good ballet dancers. The dances from Raja were particularly fun because many of the steps were with the feet turned in and incredibly fast. My host mother joked that it was strange that the people from Raja (a mountain region) are thought to be slow-witted when their dances are so fast.

Yesterday we went to a supra of the teachers from Bob’s school. It was held to celebrate the director’s birthday (yesterday) and the assistant director’s birthday (today). Bob was one of only three men present, so, with over thirty women there, it was essentially a "women’s supra". Women’s supras are a lot of fun. The women sing and dance and thoroughly enjoy themselves.

2008-02-03T10:14:00.000-08:00

February 3, 2008

It is just about a month since we returned from our Christmas break and we have been living in a winter wonderland. It does look very beautiful, but it is very cold and several of the houses in our town do not have water (frozen pipes). In fact, the director of my school has not had water in her apartment for over a month. People go and collect the water from wells, streams and luckier neighbors. In Papa, where I work, I see old women carrying buckets of water every day and people dragging milk churns of water on sleds. As all the evidence of modern conveniences has been obliterated by the cold or covered by the snow, the landscape and many of the people have taken on a Breugel-like appearance and you really get a feel for what life must have been like several hundred years ago.

During the second weekend in January Bob and I watched a religious ceremony which took place in the middle of the night. Two local priests stood in the middle of a freezing river, with lumps of ice floating by, and many of the locals, the men stripped to the waste, one by one, submitted to being dunked three times into the frigid water. This is supposed to be the time when the water is at its most pure. Apparently nobody suffers from this experience, not even the priests who stood there for well over an hour. (Although, one did wear rubber gloves to try to keep his hands usable!)

There were big fires on the snow-covered river bank and people were wrapped up against the cold in all sorts of clothing. Again it looked like Breugel.

I have again been feeling the urge to hibernate and I hop into bed with a hot water bottle and a good book as often as I can. However, work has begun to increase in pace. We are both now investigating various grants for our schools (new blackboards, English books and resources, and some sort of sustainable income source for our schools for after we have left). These things take a long time to write and it is difficult to find out the cost of various items, as this often involves going to Tbilisi or trying to get information from locals for whom it is not a priority. However, everyone here has to get used to “Georgia Time” as the G6s (the people who arrived in 2006) tell us. We have met some interesting people in the course of our investigations and talked to a lot of earlier volunteers, which has expanded our group of acquaintances and made life more interesting. We have not started our “English for Tourism” course for the local business people yet, because the No. 1 School, where we hope to hold the classes, still has frozen water pipes. But we have started to give our host family some English lessons and Valer has promised to help me when I start with Russian lessons. I don’t think this will be for quite a long time, as my Georgian is improving rather slowly, if at all.

We had another weekend in Tbilisi. I went the Volunteer Committee meeting and Bob was helping out with the Alternative Handbook for new volunteers (G8s) who will arrive in June. It is strange to think that by June we will have become veterans. Our local guesthouse near the Peace Corps offices was full to the brim – not surprising at 15 Lari (just under $10) a night if you stay for two nights. Bob and I stayed in a small hotel which caters mostly to German tourists and has an Italian restaurant. Their food was really good. They even had a decent tiramisu! I had it two nights running.

It is really difficult to get fresh fruit and vegetables at the moment, especially as the snow has made transportation so difficult. We went to the local supermarket yesterday and all we could find in the fruit line were a few frozen looking bananas, rather old lemons, oranges and, strangely, kiwis. The vegetable choice was small too: potatoes, onions, garlic, cabbage, radishes and one lone pumpkin. Fortunately, there was plenty of chocolate.

Our host mother has been cooking up a storm during these lean times. She really is a fantastic baker and makes great potato and onion knishes, or possibly they are more like potato Cornish pasties. Her cakes are great too. We are certainly eating a lot of carbs, but so far I am not back to the fat self I was when we first arrived here.

I think our next vacation is not until Easter which is celebrated here at the end of April, so this is rather a long semester for us. However, it is moving fast and, looking back, we can see that we have accomplished a few things in our schools. The homework completion rate is certainly up (largely due to the domino game bribery I have going – thanks to Bob). The children are speaking more and not just reading and I think they are having more fun in their classes as I certainly don’t mind making a fool of myself for learning’s sake. I think my teachers have become a little braver also and seem to be enjoying their classes more.

We had one sad event last month: my main counterpart teacher’s brother died. He had been very ill with cancer and she had watched him suffer a great deal. I doubt they have the same access to painkilling drugs here in Georgia as we do in the U.S. Marina, my counterpart, was completely drained by this experience and is having a very hard time getting back into teaching. Bob and I, along with over 600 other people, attended the funeral supra (feast). There was a tamada (toastmaster) who toasted the departed and all the living family members. All the attending men had to stand for every toast and there were many. Women are allowed to sit during the toasts, apparently because we are weak and need to conserve our strength. This is what one of the teachers told me any way. The room where the feast was held was on the lower floor of an old Soviet-style marriage hall. It was unlit and unheated, although that did not matter with all those people crowded together. There was a huge amount of food. Must have cost a fortune. Apparently, there is a tradition that each person who attends the funeral leaves a small contribution to the expenses and it shows great honor to the dead when the attendance is very large. There were huge earthenware jugs of wine being carried around – again that Breugel image. Apparently, it is the custom for Georgian relatives and friends to bring food to the bereaved family in the days between the death and the funeral. It is also the custom for the bereaved family to make a small supra 40 days after the death and to deliver the food to the church for distribution among the poor. Georgian is such an old language with speakers who are so connected to each other that they even have special vocabulary for funerals. I suppose we do too, but theirs seems to be more extensive. For example they have an expression which means “I am sorry for your loss”, but the “I am sorry” part can only be used for funerals. I tried it out when someone was ill and was told with a laugh that they weren’t dead yet. You can see how my Georgian language skills are improving.

We would love to hear from everyone. It was hard to catch up fully at Christmas as there was so much running around. Hope all is well with our family and friends.

2008-01-09T10:15:00.000-08:00

We arrived back in Georgia the day before yesterday. Peace Corps picked us up at the airport and transported us back to our site. It is freezing – minus 20 degrees Celsius. We don’t think we have ever experienced this level of cold. Thank goodness for all those hot water bottles!

Firstly, our apologies to everyone for not sending out greetings cards this year. It is virtually impossible to do so from Georgia and on our travels we simply did not have time. We will be sending emails now that we are back and snowbound.

The hot water bottles, gloves, headlights, etc. were a great hit with our family here. Many, many thanks to Jeannie and Diana for shopping for us.

2008-01-09T10:07:00.000-08:00

We start back at school next week and are wondering how that will be with all this snow – ten inches so far and still coming. It does look very beautiful, but we hear that Gill’s site does not have water (some pipes froze and burst), so maybe the school will not open. In the meantime we will have to work on our curriculum for the “English for Tourism” course we hope to give here in Borjomi. Given our level of proficiency in Georgian, it presents some challenges. Send us your ideas on what you want to find when you travel. We know that friendliness, English ability and plumbing are good. However, our assumption is that most people would prefer the country to remain “Georgian”, i.e. no hot dogs, burgers, etc.

It is amazing to us that our dog and cat are out all day in this weather, but they seem fine and make themselves comfortable when they come in. We, on the other hand, feel like hibernating. We expect to be more energized after a couple of days’ acclimatization.

More news soon.

2007-12-12T23:28:00.000-08:00

Today is December 9th and it is over a month since we last made an entry to our BLOG. Some of our friends update their blogs every day! Oh well!

No it isn’t December 9th. The phone wasn’t working when we prepared the text for this blog, so we have had to come back, make “chronological” changes and try again – on December 13th!

What we have done during the last month or so? Well:-

We had a couple more days shopping in Tbilisi which was fun. Tbilisi is pretty small as capitals go, but it has a lovely, if rather disheveled old-town. Some of the houses look as if they are about to keel over, especially if anyone were to go out on the balcony. A lot of them are being “done up” and there are some sort of landmark laws – we think mostly about retaining the original footprint and keeping the houses in the general style of the original. The houses are often built around courtyards and have cantilevered balconies with lots of wooden ornamentation. There are outside steps to upper balconies. They ooze charm, but, apparently, they have some rather quaint plumbing problems, such as one loo for several houses. However, it is nice to daydream about buying one and renovating it, even if such purchases are strictly forbidden by the Peace Corps (for obvious reasons). (We think Gill must still have something of the real-estate broker lurking somewhere in her.) The smallness of Tbilisi makes shopping relatively easy, as there are really only three places to go: the Old Town which is rather touristy, Rustaveli (Tbilisi’s Fifth Avenue) and the Dry Bridge Market (the local flea market). Perhaps when we are really familiar with Tbilisi, we shall know where the smart places to shop are.

Our Christmas presents are very “Georgian” and we bet nobody in either America or England will have bought the same things. This, in itself, is a real pleasure for us. We managed to avoid buying Russian officers’ winter hats at the Dry Bridge, although Bob was insistent that Abigail would like one. So, if he is right, and anyone wants one (felt lining, soviet insignia, earflaps and all), we can get them for next year. Apparently soviet memorabilia is very collectible here and at 50 Lari a-piece (bargainable we suspect), the hats are not cheap by Georgian standards. We arrived late at the Dry Bridge and only managed 45 minutes there. We would like to have spent longer. It was fun talking to people and seeing what they were selling.

The following weekend we had guests and so did our host family. At one point there were ten of us in a three-bedroom house (although the house actually has several small rooms and a big supra room, where most of the family slept). The kitchen is the warmest room, but we did not all fit in there, so the young people (hey - Bob and I are included in the young people) “removed” ourselves to the basement room to play Georgian scrabble, - which largely consisted of fighting for the Georgian dictionary. The basement room has a fireplace and the family told us that several years ago, when there were problems with both gas and electricity, the family spent virtually the entire winter in that room. It was very cozy.

School has settled into a routine. Bob has written an EXCEL macro that makes a domino word game (one side Georgian and one side English) and this has proven to be a great hit with the students. Gill has domino games once a week in the 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th grades, if the children do their homework. Homework submission has increased greatly since the introduction of dominos and she has no qualms whatsoever about the bribery aspect. Both our schools had visits from the Peace Corps Georgia Director and our Program Director. They visited Gill’s 2nd grade class – the first year of English. The class has only got as far as the letter ‘s’ in writing, but the children seem to mop up spoken English. They already know numbers up to twelve; they can use some simple sentences and they understand how to form plurals. They even remember words like elephant and giraffe (admittedly cognates). All this convinces us that westerners should start to learn foreign languages at as early an age as possible. Apart from being “brilliant”, the 2nd graders are delightful. After every class they give Marina (Gill’s counterpart) and Gill big hugs and kisses. The PC director presented them all with lollipops and key chains with zebras hanging from them.

Bob doesn’t get hugs and kisses, non-the-less he gets on well with the children. When the directors visited his class he had them join the class in the domino game (the one called “The First 16 English Irregular Verbs”) and they performed admirably. His students were given lollipops and key chains (but these were with gorillas).

These gifts and her big smile made her very popular in both schools.

Gill has started an English class for teachers. Many of them are quite good - just shy about making mistakes, which is rather surprising given our level of Georgian language ability. Georgian teachers use transliteration to help their students cope with English spelling. I think the method was originally developed in Russia for native Russian speakers. However, it is very useful and Gill is trying to learn it. Most of the teachers originally learned English by the old “reading and translation” method, so she tries to make the lesson more fun with lots of speaking, pictures, dominos, play acting, etc. It seems to be going quite well, but there is an enormous range of ability and the worry is that the better ones may get a little bored.

Two weeks ago, we had our first serious snow - very pretty, but, since all the roads to the house are steep and cobbled, access has been problematic. It has mostly thawed now.

Last week, Bob’s school supervisor presented him with a bottle of her cha-cha (homemade “vodka”). Most cha-chas require a concrete re-enforced alimentary canal, but this one was as smooth as you-know-what. He is contemplating ways of getting her to part with another bottle!

Gill and Maia (her second counterpart) have split the ninth grade for English classes because some of them are quite advanced and some do not even know the alphabet. (Gill got the ones who do not know the alphabet.) It seems to be going quite well and the students enjoy the class, but the weather is getting colder and colder and sometimes they do not show up. (Having said that, now that the heating has been turned on in both our schools, the classrooms are really quite warm – we suspect warmer than many Georgian houses. Perhaps in the really cold weather, we shall see more students turn up for school.)

This month we had our All-Volunteer Conference. It was held at a lake resort about an hour outside Tbilisi. The place looked rather like a Floridian resort - but in the snow. There are over a thousand rooms. It is intended to be a conference site and I think we were one of the first groups ever to use it. It was very comfortable and warm. The volunteers from the very depths of the country admitted to having three warm showers every day and that using all the accoutrements (there were two kinds of soap, shampoo and conditioner!) as being a real treat. The conference gave us a wonderful opportunity to get to know the G6s (prior year’s volunteers) better and it was impressive to discover what they had achieved in their first year here. We picked up many teaching tips. Bob joined the group working on a new English text book for Georgian fifth graders and the group working on pod casts. Gill joined the GLOW camp team (summer camp to teach girls leadership skills) and the Mas Mas TEFL newspaper staff (“Mas” is short for “mastzavlabeli”, which is the Georgian for “teacher” and is what students call out to get teachers’ attention).

We also celebrated Thanksgiving at the conference. We all cooked together in the hotel kitchen (which was well-equipped, but the ovens had neither thermostats nor thermometers – so it was a bit hit-and-miss!) and Peace Corps brought in the turkeys from the Marriott in Tbilisi. Bob and I cooked baked onions and apple-crumble. We had very good sous-chiefs, but we still managed to burn the onions a bit. It was strange not to be with everyone in New York, but we were still with a lot of people (over 100). The American Ambassador and his wife joined us for dinner. It was, we think, the most enjoyable get-together so far.

Last Monday and Tuesday we went away for a two-day language training conference. It was another opportunity to see some fellow travelers and to unravel some of the mysteries of the Georgian verb. The training town was about 45 minutes away from us in Borjomi by marshutka and is a little bigger than Borjomi. We had hoped to have some time to do some last-minute Christmas shopping, but there was no time. The town is famous for hammocks and for wooden utensils. We saw our language teacher from our first three months’ training as well as some of the other Georgian Peace Corps staff.

Today we are in Tbilisi. We had not expected this. Bob got a “cold”, but it seemed to just get worse and finally we contacted Peace Corps doctors who told him to come here for a check up. After an examination, a blood test and an x-ray it was decided that he had bronchitis and nothing more serious. This has given us a chance to get on the internet and deal with a few emails and this blog. Then we shall return to Borjomi this afternoon and do one more day’s school on Friday, then Bob will take part in a play on Saturday (as a mouse-saver – don’t ask), then we pack…

…and then: it is off to London and NYC – Christmas and the New Year! We cannot wait to see everyone and catch up with you all. We will return on-line in 2008. Happy holidays!

2007-11-04T05:05:00.000-08:00

It has been quite a while since we last updated the blog and so there is a lot to relate.

We had a second day in Tbilisi because we both had to go for a dermatological check-up. All is well for both of us on that front. We spent the remainder of the day looking around and trying to do some shopping for the holidays. We did find the British bookshop and managed to have a tuna fish sandwich and a cappuccino each, which set us back 18 Lari ($11), a fortune by Borjomi standards. There was a little gift store next door with some interesting enamels. We met the jeweler who is having a show at the American Embassy in a few weeks. We liked her stuff a lot and may go back for some Xmas presents. Tereze is more imaginative though. We did find some Georgian felt in another store. It is much finer than what we think of as felt and is the most interesting Georgian-made craft we have come across so far (apart from Bob’s hat). We also found a pair of socks for Susan!

The week after we went to stay with Bob’s school director in Bakuriani, a well-known ski resort. Bakuriani applied for the Winter Olympics after the ones in Vancouver, but lost out to Sochi in Russia, which ironically is just over the border from Abkhazia. Bakuriani was a huge winter sports destination during the Soviet era and still has a very big winter season. Keti, Bob’s director, has a friend who is a former world luge champion. He is now training two young women athletes who are going to compete in Vancouver. Apparently, part of the training regimen is to eat tripe for breakfast – just one of the many reasons that Bob and I will never take up the sport. Felix, the friend, is constructing a luge run in the Bakuriani hills. We spent quite a bit of time discussing the physics of luges which was interesting. We were rather surprised to hear that they cost over 6,000 euro each (after all it’s only a bit of plastic). We also toasted athletes, peace, America, England, Georgia and everyone everywhere with some rather good Georgian wine that Felix had brought back from Telavi, the wine growing capital of Georgia.

Last Friday, Peace Corp’s country (Georgia) director, regional (The Caucasus) director and world (!) director came with their entourage to visit our host-family and us for breakfast. Our host-“mother” laid on a delightful breakfast for all ten of them and us and the event well very well. (The Georgian “supra” tradition ensures that most houses have a large dining-room and dining-table, so seating this number of visitors, the family and us was no big deal. By the way, the Georgian equivalent of “no big deal” is “it isn’t a market.”) After breakfast, they came to “view” our room. They did not come to Georgia just to have breakfast and see our room! They were on a regional tour for a few days and will visit a few other places in Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan.

Needless to say, this visit prompted much scurrying around before-hand to ensure that the house in general and our room in particular would pass muster. The visitors made all the right noises, so I think they generally approved!

This morning we woke up to a thin covering of snow – the first Georgian snow we have seen. We are led to understand that this is a gentle hint of the snow to come later this year and early next. The weather is certainly much colder now and we are wishing that we had brought more of our winter clothes with us. Perhaps we can pick some up when we come to New York at year’s end. The cold weather prompts the family to either stay in bed (see the picture of Gill with her familiar) or congregate in the kitchen – the warmest room in the house – to watch TV or play! We have acquired a Georgian Scrabble set (called “Crossvordy”) and have been playing with Mako – our host-“sister” - who is studying in Tbilisi at the university there and is young enough to be our grand-daughter. It doesn’t really matter who “wins” because Mako provides 90% of our words for us – our vocabulary being so limited! Georgian is, like English, very suitable for Scrabble because it allows words to have letters appended (such as “s”, “ed”, “ing”, etc. in English) to create new words. There are more Georgian appendages because they do with appendages what we in English typically do with prepositions.

We have recently spent hours on the web trying to arrange our flights over the Christmas / New Year period. Times have changed! We found very few options and flights are much more expensive than was the case not long ago. We'll email our itinerary to interested parties soon.

2007-11-04T04:25:00.000-08:00

Host-"sister" Mako and host-"mother" Marina.

2007-11-04T04:22:00.000-08:00

Crossvordy

2007-11-04T04:16:00.000-08:00

Gill with her familiar, "Won-won" (recently promoted to "Tutu").

2007-10-12T23:38:00.000-07:00

Hi to everyone. We have now been "teaching" for about a month and find our days sometimes fascinating, often frustrating, mostly rewarding and, above all, exhausting. Bob has four counterparts (teachers with whom he teaches) and is teaching about three classes more than he should because he still cannot "work out" his schedule. Gill is teaching 18 classes but is giving three tutorials a week for the children who are entering the FLEX competition. The FLEX competition is for children throughout Georgia and from Soviet central Asia and winners spend one year in America with an American family and going to an American school. It is highly competitive and I am very worried about my three students who are longing to go. Of course, they think that America is the land of milk and honey and that everything will be wonderful. I am worried that they will be very disappointed if they do not get accepted. There are only 50 slots for Georgia and probably over a thousand applicants. The test is comprehension and the responses are multiple choice. The Georgian students are quite good at picking answers out of a text, but they tend to throw in every piece of information so that they can be sure to have the right answer in there somewhere. Getting them to be specific is something else. However, their enthusiasm is contagious and we are going to celebrate their attempt even if they do not get accepted.

This is our first full weekend in Tbilisi. Gill is here for the VAC (Volunteer Committee) meeting and Bob is going to try to buy a printer, as it will be very useful for school. Bob's school has an English section in the library, but Gill's has very few English books, so if anyone has any simple children's stories that do not weigh a ton, are in good condition and are not needed, please give them to us when we are in England or the U.S. over the holidays. Gill's school's librarian has already prepared a space for the books.

After the FLEX exams Gill will begin teaching the teachers at her school English. They seem to be very enthusiastic. They all speak Russian as well as Georgian. It will be interesting to see what it is like teaching adults rather than childen. Gill's youngest class is the second grade (7 and 8 year olds) where the children start English. Then, in the third grade, the children start Russian. So these 9 year olds have to contend with three alphabets. The teachers say that they actually get Russian and English muddled up, but somehow they manage to sort it out. Gill has made friends with the Russian teacher and would like to take Russian lessons next year, but first there is this huge Georgian nut to crack. There are eleven tenses in Georgian and each tense has 18 forms, because with one verb you can say the English equivalent of "he gave it to me". Also, Georgians, as in Latin, use declensions to express phrases for which English uses several words. For instance "what does she look like" is one word in Georgian. Help! Gill has an absolutely lovely Georgian tutor who spends hours preparing for the lesson and is prepared to beam with complete satisfaction if Gill manages to translate even one of her homework sentences into Georgian correctly. Bob is going to use the same tutor too.

2007-09-30T03:13:00.000-07:00

A new pool near us in the park. We call it "The Annex".

2007-09-30T02:39:00.000-07:00

Well, we have just finished our second week of school and it has been a very interesting experience. On our first day, the children arrived dressed in their Sunday best. The little girls had bows in their hair and many of the first grade boys were wearing suits. The local bishop came to bless the school and pray for a good year. Gill’s school had a cheerleader performance and one of the senior boys sang a folk song in a strong tenor voice. One of the older girls was dressed in the Georgian national costume. She represented Mother Georgia. Many of the pupils gave their teachers bunches of flowers. Even Gill received bunches of flowers. We both made short speeches in Georgian. However, we doubt anyone heard our many mistakes, because there was such a din. In the afternoon Gill’s school had a teachers’ supra and in the evening Bob’s school had one.

The supra is a big party where the tamada (host) makes lots of toasts. Our tamadas were the school directors, ably assisted by their Georgian literature teachers who recited long poems. Every time you toast you are expected to drain your glass. However, the rules are not so strict at female supras. The dance teacher at Bob’s school entertained everyone with Georgian national dances. There were some Israeli tourists in the same restaurant. They must have been a little overwhelmed at the sight of 40 teachers (all but one female) dancing and singing. Bob's school director made a toast to the tourist. We then danced the hava nagela (spelling) with them and eventually arranged a link between Bob’s school and one is Israel. I think the Israelis had a very good time. They did not realize that we were not Georgian. They thought we just spoke English very well!

Gill seems to have her time table straight now and she will be teaching 18 classes along with the Georgian teachers. One of them speaks excellent English – very English English and rather upper crust. The other two speak fairly well and one of them is also a Georgian teacher and so she will be Gill’s tutor. They certainly teach English English in these schools. We suppose it is because they want to join the European Union. We have had to remember our English spelling and punctuation. We try to explain that it is OK to use either form of English, but better to be consistent in whatever you choose. Actually, in many instances American English is easier and makes more sense – especially the spelling. However, British English is still the flavour of the month here.

We are posting this rather short entry because we have not written anything for a while. More soon!

2007-09-03T05:43:00.000-07:00

Our "Welcome to Borjomi" cake

2007-09-03T05:28:00.000-07:00

Hotel in Tbilisi

2007-09-03T05:16:00.000-07:00

Tbilisi's new church

2007-09-02T06:35:00.000-07:00

Icon in church

2007-09-02T06:25:00.000-07:00

Bob's "official" certificate

2007-09-02T06:18:00.000-07:00

The Kareli and Gori teams.

2007-09-02T06:12:00.000-07:00

We had our swearing in ceremony on August 24. We had to leave our training sites at 5:00 in the morning. I was sick on the bus, which was a good start to the day!!! However, the ceremony went very well. Bob sang the Georgian and American national anthems along with 9 other volunteers and two volunteers gave speeches in both English and Georgian – quite impressive after 9 week of language classes. We stayed in Tbilisi with our training host family’s daughter, Nino, and her husband for the night as Gill still felt sick. The next day they gave us a tour of Tbilisi. We have included pictures of the hotel built into the cliff over the Mtkvari River and the new cathedral which was built in the classic Georgian style during the Shevardnadze period. There is also an icon from the church in which Nino will have her wedding service. We expect to go to the wedding next Sunday and it sounds as if it will be a big affair.

Gill was voted in as a member of the volunteer advisory committee, which means she will be travelling to Tbilisi once a month or so to attend meetings. This should be interesting.

We are now at our permanent site, Borjomi, which is a spa town in the mountains. The surrounding countryside is very beautiful and we are quite near Bakuriani, which is a ski area. Gill has now met the three English teachers at her school. They are all very friendly, as are all the teachers. Lots of gifts of fruit. The main English teacher speaks very good English with a strong British accent. Gill noticed that the children did not know what an apartment was, but when she said “flat” everyone understood. Bob will be having a meeting with the teachers at his school next Monday.

We have started our summer camp which has a design theme. The first day we designed pasta necklaces and paper airplanes. The second day we designed tourist maps for Borjomi. The tourist center has run out of maps. The maps – some accurate, some less so – are now on display in the tourist center. Next week we are doing masks, word games, and any design of buildings that the students would like to see in their town. Otherwise we have been setting up our room, buying extension cords, more hangers, etc.

It looks as if email in the house will be very, very slow, but there are a number of internet cafes nearby and we can use the internet at the tourist center until it closes.

Yesterday we had two Peace Corps volunteers from another town visit us and we took the narrow gauge train to Bakuriani. About ten minutes out the second carriage derailed and we all had to move to the front carriage – see picture. We rattled on eventually. The scenery was spectacular. The journey there took 3 hours and it took us 30 minutes to get back by marshutka!

Jura asked about the food here. Obviously, meat is pretty expensive and the diet tends to be heavy on carbs, fruits, cheese, beans, and cereals. The national dish is khatchapuri, which is a kind of cheese bread. It has different incarnations in different parts of Georgia. Some people put an egg inside and some people make it with flaky pastry – this is Gill’s favorite. Other national dishes include lobiani, which is a kind of bean bread. It can also be made of potatoes. The Georgians make a very good vegetable stew with potatoes, eggplant and tomato sauce. The grilled eggplant with walnut sauce is also very good. Fruits are seasonal and can be very good indeed. They also make a lot of natural fruits juices as well as wine. These tend to be a little sweet. Georgians love sweet foods and adore salty foods. They also love mayonnaise. The local beer is quite good – like lager. Coca Cola is all over the place.

Our new host mother is a great baker. She makes napoleons to sell in the local shops. She also makes the flaky kind of khatchapuri. By the way, khatcho means cottage cheese in Georgian. We have included a picture of our welcome cake.

We have been taking a bit of a rest here as we were so exhausted after our training. Gill did well in her test and Bob did so-so and will be tested again in 3 months. We both will get Georgian tutors here. At the moment we are having lessons with our host sister who is studying English at Tbilisi University. She keeps on telling us off for not doing our homework.

Congratulations to Chelsea, Sam, and Oscar on the new addition to the family. We look forward to meeting Mac. Please post pictures. Would love to hear from everyone.

2007-08-19T01:07:00.002-07:00

The grapes in our garden are turning dark red and we can imagine what a stunning site it will be when the grapes are ripe in the whole town of Kareli. Our family has a grape stomping bath - it looks rather like a deep sitzbath - and they put on special boots for grape-stomping. Apparently this is the busiest time of the year for them, because, apart from the grape stomping, there are several foods to be preserved for the winter. Zoia, the housemother, makes grape juice, sour plum sauce, fig jam, and various other preserves, and apples and potatoes are stored in the cellar. Koba, our host father, produces 500 litres of wine (red and white). This is his estimate. Some of the wine goes to family members in Tbilisi, but most stays at home.

2007-08-19T01:07:00.001-07:00

Host family's budding birja.

2007-08-19T00:37:00.003-07:00

Doors in old Tbilisi.

2007-08-19T00:37:00.002-07:00

Four volunteers and bebia (in the rear) waiting for dinner with two cows, a dog and, if you look carefully, a pig.

2007-08-19T00:37:00.001-07:00

Gill, two other volunteers and "host mother" (far left) making khatchapuri.

2007-08-19T00:37:00.000-07:00

These young ladies took part in Gill's survey of Georgian girls' aspirations for the future.

August 19, Sunday

2007-08-18T23:58:00.000-07:00

Well, well, this will be our last post from Gori. Next week is our final week of training and we will then take wing into Georgia and become fully-fledged English teachers and Georgian speakers - ha, ha! Actually our language ability seems to have regressed during the last week, probably due to exhaustion. So very many reports and tests. I can't speak or write in either language (English or Georgian) now. We have our final Georgian language test next week. We are expected to be able to form past progressive, present, and future tense sentences with complex subordinate clauses, e.g.:
"I found Georgian very difficult yesterday, I find it very difficult today and I am sure that I will find it even more difficult next week when I am in Borjomi and have nobody to help me."
I could just about say this sentence but figure it might taken me about 45 minutes.

Last week, we went on a picnic with our present host family. We piled into a small and old Russian car and headed off to the hills. High in the hills we came to a mountain monastery, apparently built in the middle of nowhere as a fortress against the moslem invaders of from Turkey, Persia, etc. The oldest building was from the 8th century. The 12th century church was in great need of repair. However, one could see how beautiful the frescoes once were - the eyes had been erased by the moslem conquerers. One crowd picture (Bob will post soon) was particularly pleasing as it was obvious that the image was of real people whom the painter knew. Italian restorers have been consulting with the restoration work in Georgia. The task is on the same scale as the "ruinas" in Mexico. The priest at the church welcomed us and blessed us both. We then had a picnic of salad, khatchapuri and water melon and our host family toasted world peace, christians everywhere, everyone everywhere and Americans especially. Absolutely stunning landscape - apparently even more stunning in winter.

Next Friday we go to Tbilisi for our swearing in ceremony. So far we have only lost one trainee and that was right at the beginning of service, so, so far, we are a record making group. Two trainees, one from the NGO program and one from the TEFL program, are making speeches in Georgian and Bob and a group of ten other trainees are singing the national anthems of Geogian (in Georgian) and America (in American). After the swearing in we go to our new site - Borjomi. You can look this up on the web. We suspect there is quite a bit about Borjomi, as it was a major destinations for Russians at one time and it is still a major summer destination for people getting away from the heat of Tbilisi. The Georgian president goes there frequently. We will miss our garden and the pig, but Borjomi has a great deal to offer, including acres of national park and, hey, just maybe, better internet access! We hope to return to Kareli in September for a family visit and for grape stomping - if it is allowed.

2007-08-05T06:05:00.000-07:00

Today is August 5. Last week was the second week of our English teaching practicum. The PC asked us to sequence our lessons so that they built on each other and so that the children had ample opportunity for revision. Some of the problems we faced: We had children ranging in English ability of zero (we got her to drawer pictures and other class members labeled them) to university level (we got them to translate); different children showed up every day (we guess the looking at funny Americans wore off after one day); and the weather was in the 90's. Actually we managed pretty well and feel we can manage anything with a good group of fellow workers, lots of humor, and plenty of ice cream. Georgian children are natural actors and all of ours were eager to try out the games we suggested - charades, drawing, simon says, hangman, singing, etc. They even let Gill sing! I am staying here. Georgians have a special type of three part harmony - a copy of their singing was actually put in tube launched into space. So if they appreciate my singing - what's wrong with all my friends and family?

To celebrate the end of English teaching practicum, friends came to Kareli from Gori (remember Gori, Stalin's birthplace) and we all cooked "American" food in one of our family's summer kitchen. It was a fun experience. We managed a pretty good spaghetti bolognese and we had an awesome Thai cabbage salad. I made cucumber and yoghurt which I love when the weather is hot and Bob made a hazel and peanut praline, which looked wierd but was a big success. Gill had her first lesson in making Khatchapuri and got covered in flour. The family grows its own wheat, grinds its own flour, makes its own cheese and yoghurt, and grows all its own vegetables. They were a little mad at us for buying from the market when their foods is "upro gargia" (better), but we wanted to buy for them as they have all been so generous. We got to feed the pigs and milk a cow. Gill was not too successful with Khatchapuri and needs several more lessons to become adept, but the dough felt great. We were all impressed at what wonderful food they manage to produce with so little equipment. Nana, the host mother, also makes wonderful james and fruit juices.

We have to run now or we are going to miss our last bus home to Kareli. We have to be home by seven.

Much love to all. We would love to hear from you.

2007-07-28T05:04:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we heard about our permanent sites. We all met at the Peace Corps hub in Gori and we stood around a large map of Georgia drawn in chalk on the basketball court. As our names and destinations were called out, we moved to our sites on the map (see picture). It was actually quite emotional.

After having received our postings, we left for the mountains for a conference with our future principals. This was particularly interesting as our Georgian can be exhausted in about 10 minutes and our principals’ English is likewise limited. However, the PC had devised a lot of games and activities to oil the wheels and we managed pretty well. The conference site was in Gudauri, one of the major ski resorts in Georgia. There was a helicopter pad for extreme skiing and, apparently the hotel can cost as much as 500 Lari per night ($300) in the winter. However, I think the summer rates are much lower, as the Peace Corps generally tries to live low on the budget. To us it was all luxury. We had good rooms, hot showers, a swimming pool, a Jacuzzi and a sauna! Gill went swimming with her principal to be. Bob took a rest as his leg was not quite healed.

Re Bob’s leg: It was really quite an ordeal, but finally the leg is healed over and he can go swimming, etc. He is going to have a lovely scar, but it will be a great talking point. Not everyone can lay claim to an injury in the baths in Tbilisi where Pushkin and Lementerov relaxed.

Bob and I will be posted to Borjomi, a spa town in Georgia which was established by the Romanovs in the 19th century. It was a major destination for Russians during the Soviet era. Now, the town is trying to find other tourist opportunities. Our host family runs a B and B in the summer season – price 20 Lari (about $12) per night and 25 Lari for full board, so we hope to have many visitors. The town is in the largest nature preserve in Georgia which covers about one percent of the country. There are all levels of hiking trails and some huts where you can stay overnight in the preserve. Apparently, it is absolutely gorgeous in the Fall. We have included a picture of the former Turkish official’s house. At the moment it is occupied by refugees from Abkhazia. We thought the satellite dish was a good touch.

We spent two days with our future school principals (pictures included) and they showed us around Borjomi and introduced us to thousands of people. They seemed to know everyone. Bob and I will be in different schools. Bob will be working at a school in Borjomi itself. The school has already had two PC volunteers. They have a room full of computers donated by someone from The States. They are hoping that Bob will get them all going. Gill’s school is in a village close to Borjomi. She will be the first PC volunteer in her school. The English teachers all speak pretty well, but are rather shy about speaking. We kept on reminding them that our Georgian is absolutely terrible.

Our host family in Borjomi has two children, one 18 and one 22. Both speak English very well, but they will be leaving for Tbilisi in September to work and to go to the university. This will be good for us. The father speak Russian and so does the mother. Not that this will help very much, but might be useful. We will be dropped in at the deep end. Probably the best thing that can happen to our Georgian. During three days we were in Borjomi the family had six paying guests, all of them Israelis. Apparently, the bulk of the tourists in Borjomi are now Israeli. We asked our family about this and they said that there is absolutely no history of antisemitism in Georgia, even though the country is very orthodox. Georgians respect all religions. In fact, it is not uncommon to find mosques, synagogues and churches on the same streets in Georgian towns. So Georgia is up there with Denmark as belonging to the good guys. Israeli tourists say they have never felt more welcome than in Georgia.

Some of the mistakes Gill has made so far:

The Georgian for yellow and cheese are somewhat similar and I keep on asking for cheesy M and M’s. By the way, I have become addicted to peanut M and M’s.
The German for “just a minute” is Moment, so I tried “momentsi” as most Georgian words end in “I” and they use quite a lot of German words. However, “momentsi” in Georgian means “give me”, so I have been saying give me, give me to my Georgian family for the last four weeks.

Fortunately, they are very good natured.

2007-07-28T04:01:00.013-07:00

Cave city Uplis Tskhle

2007-07-28T04:01:00.012-07:00

Turkish house in Borjomi

2007-07-28T04:01:00.011-07:00

View on the way to Gudauri