Nice Dresses and Tents

It's time for an update on my life here in Poti. I've been very busy and have lots of great stories for you all. So let's get started!

Georgian Independence Day (May 26)

I was in Poti for Independence day this year. I went with my host sister to the parade and festivities in the park. It was a very hot day and we both got very sunburned. They had boat races, booth in the park for each school, an art show, and live music and dance. That nigh there was a big concert in front of the city building in the center of town that I went to with my host family. The road was closed and everyone just walked around having a good time. It turned out that the band was one of my host sisters favorites, so after we waited around to meet the lead singer. He was very nice and gave her a free signed CD.  

Believe Youth Start-Up Competition   

This is a project I've been working on for a long time with my counterparts. We put together 4 teams of kids with mentors from the community. Each team with the help of their mentor wrote a business plan over 6 weeks of lessons. After the 6 weeks we had a pitch competition were one team won. The mentors and kids were great and I was so proud of how the project turned out. This is a photo from the pitch event.

Swan Lake 

I had to go into Tbilisi for a meeting one Monday this month, so I went in a little early and hung out with some friend over the weekend. The highlight was a girls night were we went to a nice dinner and then to Swan Lake at the Tbilisi Opera House. It was amazing. The whole thing was so well done and I just loved the set and costume design. I don't know a lot about dance, but I really enjoyed what they did with the story. It was also just fun to get dressed up and do something fancy on our night off. 

  

Maroon 5 in Batumi

After that weekend in Tbilisi and my meeting Monday a group of us headed to Batumi for the Maroon 5 concert. It was a rainy day and the weather only got worst the closer we got to the concert. By the end of the night we were all soaking wet, even with our amazing red rain gear. There were so many people smashed into the concert area. The "doors" opened at 5, but the show didn't start until almost 9. It was a lot of standing around and waiting, but when they took the stage it was all worth it. They played all the songs I love and Adam Levine even played the guitar a few times. The rain didn't really stop all night and at one point the drops were so big you could feel them hit your face. I was going to have a good time no matter what, so I just went with it and danced in the rain.    

Kiev Ukraine

Melody, Logan, and I did a temple trip to Kiev. It was so much fun. Kiev is such a fun city. The food was amazing (both Ukrainian and international). Logan did a good blog post about what we did everyday you can read here. For me the high light really was going to the temple. There is a peace there that I've missed not being able to go. We met some truly lovely people there and they were so helpful to us. We also had a great time looking at all the old churches they have in Kiev. I've always loved the design style of the gold domes and love being able to go inside the churches. We went up into the bell towers at a few of the churches and got some good photos, like the one below.  

Let's Play Together Kutaisi

The weekend after Kiev I was able to help with a really cool event some PCVs put together here in Georgia called Let's Play Together. The idea behind the event is to get children with disabilities and able bodied children together to play games and interact. They have held it a few times in different cities around Georgia, but this was my first one. It was really cool the kids working a playing together. We will be hosting one in Poti this fall, so it was helpful to know what we had gotten ourselves into. 

Believe's Annual Charity Gala

I had a few weeks at home after let's play together to get ready for my next big event, the Believe Charity Gala. This is the social event of the year, or so I've been told. The Believe team worked very hard on the event and it turned out so well. It is a full dinner and auction. One painting sold for over 5000 gel. The auctioneer was so good at his job and really got people into it. The money made at the event goes to helping people in need in Poti and runs the Believe programs. I got to talk a little bit about the projects I've worked on with the Believe Youth and the grant we got through the Peace Corps. I don't get to dress up a lot in my day to day life, so getting all dolled up for the evening was fun. I looked at maybe 100 different hair styles on Pinterest before picking one I like. Then I had to pick a different style that worked better in my hair.  Below is a photo of the Believe team and the entertainer for the night.   

Girls Camp

I went from dressing up at gala to an outdoor girls camp at the national park. I got a grant for this camp through the let girls learn program. We had 17 girls come to the park and stay over night for two nights. It was the first time a lot of the girls had ever stayed in a tent or really camped at all. It rained the first night in the early morning and all night the second night. The second night we ended up sleeping in the visitors center on the floor. During the day we kayaked, fished, had first aid and eco lessons, and cooked lots of food. The girls learned how to cook over a fire one night, but after it started raining we moved into the visitors center kitchen for the rest of the meals. I am really happy with how the camp turned out. Here is a photo of me and Sophia supervising the girls during kayaking the second day.

Poti to Armenia and Everywhere Else

I was going to do a one year post in April, but life has been none stop for the last few weeks and I just haven't had the time. Tonight is the first time in what feels like forever I've had the time to sit at my computer and write to you all. A year of Peace Corps. A year of Georgia. A year of ups and downs, of never really knowing what's going on. A year of just going with it and trying to make things work. A year of amazing things and sad things and laughing my way through it all. Last year when we landed in Georgia I wasn't sure what I was getting myself into. I didn't know anyone in my group, I didn't know the language or culture, I didn't even know what I was doing here. Some of these things have changed. The people on that flight have grown to be some of my best friends. There are days I couldn't do without them. So thank you to everything one and everything that has made my first year in Georgia what it was and here is to another 13 months of being a PCV!

 April was all about the Technovation  for me. It's a coding competition for girls. This is the first year there were teams in Georgia. I had a team in Poti and also helped with the national camp. We had 7 teams come to camp and most finished their projects. We had to have 5 finish to do a national pitch competition and we did. Because of this we have a team in the semi-finales. Each team had to make an app and write a business plan. They then had to make a video about their project and give a live pitch. It was a lot of work, but it was so cool to watch these girls learn how to do everything and finish a project that was hard for them. I was so proud of my team for finishing on time. We might not have won this year, but watch out for us next year!

 The end of April was Easter break for the teachers, so a group of us went to Armenia for three days. We drove down in a shared taxi. Capital to capital is only about 5 hours. We took a tour through our hostel on our full day in country and had a great time see all the churches and just enjoying how pretty Armenia is in the spring. We went to the National History Museum the first night in town, so we had a working knowledge of the history and could ask really good questions on the tour. We might have monopolized our guides time. There is no way of telling at this point. Like good Americans we found the Mexican restaurant the first night and the Chinese restaurant the second night. I just want everyone to know how much I love Mexican food and how much more I love it in Armenia.

The day after we got back from our trip was Orthodox Easter. For part of Easter I went with my family to a few grave years to honor deceased family members. Many people bring food and wine and have a supra at the graveside. We just brought wine, eggs, and cake. You leave them on the grave so that even the dead can celebrate. We also played a game where two people hold eggs and smash them together. If your egg breaks you loss. I won the first time I played and then never again.

The next week I went to a camp in Borjomi. It was a camp for girls focused on fitness and leadership. Each day had some class work, team building games, and working out. We started every morning with a hike in the national park next to our hotel. One day we tried to teach the girls kick ball, that didn't really work out so we ended the activity with them running lines and doing push ups. We had camp rules and if a girl didn't follow the rules she had to do squats. One of the rules was to be on time, there were lots of squats done because of this rule. 

  I left camp to meet up with Melody, Logan and there visiting friend for a weekend in Mestia. Getting to Mestia involves hours on a marsh and driving over a few waterfalls that covered the road. It was cloudy the first two days we were there. You couldn't see the mountains much and it rained a little. We still had a fun going to the ethnographic museum, driving out to Ushguli (the highest continuously inhabited settlement in Europe), and eating kubdari. Our last day in town the sun came out and we could see everything. It was so beautiful, We took a ski lift to the top of one of the mountains and took a 1000 photos each. We then headed home to Poti for a day before I had to head to Gori to help with PST. 

  I tried to to the whole trip to Gori and back in one day, but it didn't work out. I missed the last marsh to Poti by 15 minutes and ended up staying with a friend. So I had to be on the 7 am marsh home the next day to make it to my office in time to help with that days project. We spent the day taking much needed furniture to 13 different families in Poti. The furniture ranged from kitchen chairs to wardrobes. It was a hot day and we were all very tired by the end, so we ended the day at a supra.

  I had a meeting in Tbilisi Monday morning, so I went in a little early to spend the weekend with friends and go to church. I had no responsibilities on Saturday so I went with some friends to David Gareja Monastery complex. It is a Georgian Orthodox monastery that is partly carved out of caves located in the Kakheti region. From the top of the hill the monastery is built into you can see Azerbaijan. It is in the middle of the desert and we saw a few lizards and snakes.

So there you have it. Everything I've been up to. It's been a lot of travel and I've put in something like 48 hours on the road in the last month. It's been crazy, but a lot of fun!    

Adventures Both Foreign and Domestic

The US Embassy did an exchange program here in Georgia. They had the a cappella group The Exchange come to different communities and perform. The Exchange is an American pop group that won the NBC's "The SingOff". I got to see them in Kutaisi with some friends the day before we went to Turkey. It was great to know all the songs and be able to sing along. They did a whole Backstreet Boys mashup and a T Swift 1989 one. One of there things is taking a photo with the audiences, if you look very closely you can see me on the ground floor on the right. It was a fun mix of Georgian and American culture, by that I mean it was American music but the concert started an hour late. The teen age girls loved these guys and yelled like there was no tomorrow every time one of them pointed at anyone.    

Basilica Cistern

So the next day we (a group of 4 pvcs) headed to Istanbul at a very early hour. Our fight wasn't very full so I didn't have to sit next to anyone. That is the best case scenario after having a really good looking man sit next to you. We got to the airport and after a few minutes met up with another one of our friends who flew out of a different airport in Georgia. Now that we were all together we were on our way. It was only 6 am at this point (local time) so we had the whole day to look forward to. It took a long time to get to our hotel because we flew into the airport out of the city. After getting to our hotel (after going to the wrong hotel first because they are owned by the same people and are only one word off) we were ready for adventure. We stared where every trip to Istanbul should start, lunch. But after we hit up Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque. These are two things I got to see last time I was in Istanbul, but we didn't get to go inside Hagia Sophia, so that was really exciting. Because of the current situation in Turkey you have to go through security to get into anything. After checking both these out and a stop at a restaurant for some baklave, we headed to the Basilica Cistern. This place is amazing. I have seen my fair share of cisterns, but this one is unlike anything I've seen before. It was so cool. There are live fish swimming in the water and they play soft music through out the whole thing. It was like what I feel living in a fantasy novel is like. The rest of the afternoon we spent wondering around the area getting a feel for where everything was and eating samples of Turkish delight. We wondered into another mosque and headed back to the hotel to rest a little before dinner. Dinner was amazing and the restaurant even had a rooftop bar. The rooftop wasn't open for the season yet, but they let us go up anyway and check it out. It had a view of the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia. After dinner went back to the square in between the two churches and got to see them with all the light on. There were so many birds flying around, their white bodies almost glowing against the black sky.    

Day two started with breakfast at the hotel and a trip to the Spice Bazaar. The highlight of the Spice Bazaar is the candy. It was a very slow week in the bazaars so everyone wanted to talk to us and we could move around without anyone pushing us or bumping into us. We broke up into smaller groups so that wee could move around easier. Everyone got something tasty and we met up at the New Mosque (constructed between 1597 and 1663). It is a really beautiful building, and in front there are birds you can feed like in Mary Poppins. We then headed out to the Grand Bazaar. This thing is over welling in its size. We had no idea where we were or how to get out. We just kept walking and walking hoping we were going the right way. We found our way out a few Lira lighter. We got some lunch at a restaurant near the bazaar and went back to the hotel to drop everything off before we went to the port for our afternoon activity, a boat ride on the Bosphorus. The Bosphorus is a strait that joins the Sea of Marmara with the Black Sea. It separates the continents of Europe and Asia. We picked the two hour tour, it turned out to be the perfect amount of time. Highlights from the tour included Maiden's Tower and a sea view of Dolmabahce Palace. We finished the night off with Mexican food and a walk down Istiklal Avenue. We saw Galata Tower and the historic tram.  

Inside our Turkish Bath

After breakfast on day three we got on the tram and were all ready to check out Dolmabahce Palace, as it turns out it was closed that day. So we walked around the new soccer stadium being built next to it and headed back to the other side of the river to tour Topkapi Palace. This thing is amazing. We paid extra to go into the harem. I'm glad we did, because the harem was the best part. The palace was the main residences of the Ottoman sultans for almost 400 years. As a museum it now host some really cool things like swords and a really big diamond. The harem contains around 400 rooms, we did not see all of them. It was home to the Sultan's mother, concubines and wives of the sultan, the Valide Sultan (mother or grandmother of the ruling Sultan), children, eunuchs and the servants. All the rooms are tiled in the Ottoman fashion. After we were done at the palace, we went to lunch. The food in Turkey is amazing and one of the best parts of visiting the country. It turned out we picked a perfect time to head to the restaurant, because it started to rain right when we walked in. For this meal we had Kofte, or meatballs and grilled chicken. They were some of the best meatballs I've very had. It stopped raining just in time for us to head to our afternoon activity, a Turkish Bath. I've never felt so clean in my life. After our afternoon of treating ourselves, we went to a pub for dinner. I had a hamburger, it was a little bit of a let down. What wasn't a let down was the mozzarella sticks and fries. It's ok to eat American food on vacation if you can't get it normally.

One of the only photos of all 5 of us.
 This was after lunch at Taksim Square.

The next day was our last day in Turkey. Some of our plans didn't work out so we found ourselves with a free morning. There is so much to do in Istanbul, but I hadn't written a backup plan for the morning, so after a fast meeting to pick our next activity we were on the tram. We wanted to go into a different part of the city that wasn't as touristy as where we had been. We just road to the end of the line and back, but it was really cool to see a part of the city we would have never gone to normally. You don't get to see a lot of locals in the touristy areas. After we got to the end of the line, we turned around and went all the way to the other end so we could visit Taksim Square and Domabahce Palace. I love that Palace and if I ever become an emperor this is the kind of place I would live. They have a whole stair case made of crystal. You can't take photos inside the Palace, but I got one before the guard saw me. I kid you not he did the thing where you use two fingers to point to your own eyes and then point at a person to me. He even lipped the words, "I saw you" as he did it. So I stopped trying to get photos after that. But you should know this place is beautiful and is home to the worlds largest bohemian crystal chandelier. Some say it was a gift from Queen Victoria, others say it was paid for. The whole palace is full of amazing and beautiful chandeliers, but this thing takes the cake. It is just massive. The gardens at the palace are very lovely and one side of it is one the banks of the Bosphorus. We finished off our time in Turkey shopping for gifts and eating pizza boats, pizza that has the crust wrapped around it like a boat. I don't know the Turkish word for them, but they were really good. Also I just love pizza. We were back in our taxi and on our way to the airport. Our flight was delayed a little so we didn't fly out until 1 am. I had a whole row to myself so I slept well on that flight.

   

Last weekend one of my sitemates and I went on an adventure. We started this adventure by checking out Petra Fortress in the village of Tsikhisdziri in Ajara. This is a fortress built during the 6th century. It is on a rocky outcrop beside the Black Sea. It is really cool to see something this old still standing. There are two different churches at the site. The larger was a cathedral church from the 6th century and the smaller a hall-style 10th century church. After we explored the fortress for a bit we hiked down a hill to the railroad tracks. I know I just said hiked like there was a nice path. There was not. We just kind of made our own. We made it and no one died so I'm counting it as a win. We then walked along the tracks for a while. We were trying to get to this part of the beach that people don't go to often because it's off the main road. We were almost there, when we ran into a new hotel. We just tried to walk through it, but it turned out it isn't open yet so two 20 somethings wondering around was not smiled on. We were walked of the grounds by a very unhappy security guard. After a long detour we found our way back to the railroad tracks, just on the other side of the hotel, and to the beach we were looking for. We enjoyed to beach and then went in to Batumi for lunch. Over all it was a great day.    

One day I will publish a book. It will be called Logan and it will
just be photos  of Logan with nice backgrounds.
This will be the cover

The End of Winter

This week was Mother's day here in Georgia. It is a midweek holiday that you get off school and work. I enjoyed my day off by watching tv in bed, reading a book, hanging out with my host sisters, and making cookies. They were peanut butter, and yes, they were amazing. This coming week there is another holiday here, international women's day. We also get the day off of work. So I want to take sometime to think about the mothers in my life. Not just my own mom and grandma, both are amazing and I love them so much, but all the women who have helped me along my way. I don't want to list, because I'm sure I would leave someone out and I would hate to do that. There have been so many over the years. From women at church who took the time to teach, to co-workers who were both friends and mentors, roommates and friends who helped keep me going. My relationships with these women have shaped who I am, and will keep doing so for the rest of my life. So to them I would like to say thank you. Thank you for helping, loving, working, and sharing your light with the world. Thank you for everything you have done for me and everyone around you.

Stories: 

I was able to meet the German ambassador to Georgia last month. She came to the national park. We gave her a small presentation on the park and answered some of her questions. I have met the US ambassador (see next story), so it was really fun to meet one from someplace else. She told us about some of the national parks in Germany. I love how national parks can bring people together. That all over the world there are places you can go to see nature and meet new people.  

A few weeks ago now the Batumi American Corner had a reopening after they redesigned it. American Corners are partnerships between the Public Affairs section of the United States Embassies and host institutions (read libraries here in Georgia). Most have collections of English books and movies. They have free internet for anyone to use and programming for the general public. A small group of PCVs from the area came for the event. We were able to meet the US ambassador and his family. After the event we went to a place called Batumi Pizza for dinner. Batumi Pizza is owned by a family that lived in America for sometime and makes the best pizza in the area. I really love it. Here is a photo of the group at the American Corner. Note how good we look with our Peace Corps pins.

I went to another camp in Bakuriani. This camp was an all girls camp about leadership and fitness. There were 4 PCVs at this camp and we did the fitness activities for the girls. It was to warm for snow, but to cold to really melt everything away. So it was a mix of mud and ice outside. This is the worst mix for most, if not all, sports. So most of the activities were inside. We did a lot of dancing. Like a lot. The girls were split into teams and each PCV had their own team. My girls were great and I had a lot of fun hanging out with them for the week.

The weather has turned nice. Spring is here. We went for a walk to the beach the other day and I got really excited for summer. It is still a little to cold to swim, but soon I'll be back to spending as much free time as possible in the Black Sea. Here is a photo of the water right before the sun started to set.

I have started teaching some photography classes. The first one was at a friends site. I had 20 teens/young adults in the class. Teaching is something I have gotten a lot better at in the PC. I feel a lot better about standing in front of a class full of people then I ever did in the states. This class went well and ended in a 20 minute photo walk around the office. After the walk each student shared one shot from that day. Here is my shot. We are starting a class at the national park as well. I'm teaching it every two weeks for the next few months. Yesterday was our first class. We went over the history and development of photography and walked around the office park area. Next time I want to talk them out into the woods and see what they come up with. After the photography class I went to Batumi for a Believe meeting. I didn't really understand much of what was happening during the training, but everyone really liked it and said nice things about it. So I think it was a winner.

Ho Ho Ho

We are well into winter now, and into my 2 years of services. I am now over a third of the way done with my 27 months. It doesn't feel like I've been here that long yet, but we are already talking with the G16 group and answering their questions about Georgia. I remember thinking the group before us must know everything and be so put together when they were answering our questions. I do not feel that way about myself, but when I look back over the last 8 months I've grown so much. Most things here have just become part of everyday life. Things I was worried about when I first came to Georgia I do now without even thinking about them. My language skills aren't great, but some how I get around everyday just fine. We had a PC training and everyone started talking about first memories of each other. It's crazy to think that there was a time when I didn't know the people who are such a big part of my life now.

Stories:
I Believe in Santa-I am trying to talk about my projects more on this blog and not just my travels. This project was really cool to be involved in. This project was done with one of my organizations, Believe. Kids in Poti were picked to write letters to Santa. Those letters were taken to Batumi Hilton and put on a tree. Staff then picked a letter and got the gifts listed on the letter for the kids. With the help of Santa, we delivered all the gifts over three days. The kids were so happy and excited to get their gifts. I really wanted our Santa to give me one good HO HO HO, it never happened. I just kept telling him to be jolly and laugh. Turns out Santa has a different laugh in Georgia then he does in the states. Who knew. Here is a video I made for the organizations youtube channel.  
American Camp and IST-I was able to help at an American Camp in Bakuriani. It was a 10 day camp and I helped with the last 5 days of it. The camp was run by pcvs and Georgians. It is always fun to have both groups working together on projects. We taught the kids about American national parks, movies and songs, other English speaking countries, and dancing. The dancing was the best part for me. The kids really liked it and some of the girls picked it up really fast. We even had them make up their own dance moves at the end. Bakuriani is a ski town so it snowed the whole time we were there. If I had ever learned how to ski I would have loved all the fresh powder, because I haven't I liked watching it snow from the window of my heated room. The day we left camp was the first day of our PC training (IST), so we went right from camp to the PC office. Training was a lot of fun and very useful. It was with both counterparts and PCVs. The last part of training was writing our 8 month action plan. I have so much going on in the next 8 months. I think we have some really great projects coming up.

Because when you go to a summer resort in the winter you play snow tennis.

New Year's Eve and Orthodox Christmas

New Year's Eve started with a large snow storm. We don't get a lot of snow in Poti, so this was the first and hopefully last of the year. It snowed for four days so we were able to make a snowman and have a few snowball fights. I celebrated New Year's Eve this my family in Poti. We played card games and watched movies until about 10 minutes to midnight. At this point the fireworks started and it was like the world was on fire. Out of respect for families on our street in morning our street didn't not shot off our own fireworks, but everywhere else in the city did. It was like cannon fire everywhere. For 10 full minutes all you could see in the sky was burning lights everywhere. The fireworks slowed down when midnight hit and everyone went inside for supras. We each had a spoonful of honey and everyone else in the family toasted with homemade white wine.
The rest of the week was very calm. Most people stayed at home because of the snow storm. One fun activity I went to was a Christmas play for children at the local theater. They did the jungle book. The little children dressed as wolves was the best part. They also had a Santa and I think an angle of Christmas. I'm not 100% who everyone was.

This is a photo of Poti on New Year's Eve. You can see all the fireworks and some snow. 

 January 6th is Orthodox Christmas Eve. When it gets dark on Christmas Eve children start coming around singing. When they come to your house you give them some money and candy. We had a few show up at our house through out the night. As I was going to bed at 1:30 am I could hear more coming. At 12:00 (midnight) we opened the front windows to let God into the house and lite some candles in the window. One of my families favorite Christmas dishes involves the boiling of a pigs head and feet to make something similar to a pork jello. My favorite was the khachapuri with eggs in it.
I have started a youtube channel with videos about my life. Here is the video I made about New Years ect.

December

December has come and gone. Because this blog is mostly just me telling stories about me cooking, that's where we will start for the month of December. The three things I cooked this month all have a story from home connected to them.The first was cinnamon rolls. Like a lot of cinnamon rolls. More cinnamon rolls then is healthy. At one point I think I turned into a cinnamon roll from eating so many. I learned how to make them from my Mom. She makes them every year for Christmas morning. Most of my skills in the kitchen come from watching my mom cook as I grew up and learning from her. My next item I made was apple sauce. I learned to make homemade apple sauce from my Dad. Renae, my Dad, and I would pick up all the apples from the trees in the back yard, cut them and peal them as we watched all cowboy movies, and then cook them on the stove. My host mom go me the apples and I made my host sisters help me get them ready to cook. When they were done cooking I added a little sugar and some cinnamon. It tasted a lot like Christmas. The apple sauce was for a dinner I made for my host family in honor of Hanukkah. So clearly I also had to make latkes. I have made many latkes over the last 9 years, but these ones turned out the best. I think it was because I took the time to get all the water out of the potatoes. Who knows. My first time making latkes was freshman year in our little apartment #125. Over the years it has turned into watching fiddler on the roof and eating latkes as we sing every song.  

For the week of Christmas I went on a trip with some friends from the Peace Corps. We went to Vienna and Budapest. I have put up a lot of photos of our trip on facebook, but here are some that didn't make it into the album. It was a fun trip, full of adventure and tourism. For those of you who know me, you know those are my two fav things. Highlights included tacos in Vienna, seeing the imperial treasury, playing the Europe version of ticket to ride on a train in Europe, Christmas markets, amazing old churches, and an ok ice bar.

Here are some photos of me. I am not saying that a site mate and I did a photo shot for our Christmas cards, but I'm not saying we didn't. These are a few of the good ones of me that you can't find anywhere else. I would tell you my favorite, but lets be honest they're all great...ok the bottom right side is my favorite. 

Add a snow storm on the 31st and that was my December. I'll do another post in a few days telling you all about my New Year's Eve, so look forward to that. As for now I'll just say I hope you had a very merry Christmas and that your New Year is all you need it to be. Happy Holidays.