A Couple of Breaths

27 Friday Jan 2012

Posted by in Random, Work

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What yoga looks like.

  1. I’ve done yoga ten out of the last eleven days. Sixteen out of the last nineteen. I quite like it. Physically and mentally demanding. Requires persistence, commitment. Discipline. It’s actually pretty wonderful that I can make time for yoga every day without having to force it or sacrifice other things. As I’ve said before, the free time we have here is truly a gift. Yoga makes me so much more aware of my strengths and weaknesses. For example, I used to not really even know where my “hips” were; now I know my right hip is so much tighter than my left. Fascinating, huh? Breathe into the sensation, don’t fight with it, just recognize it, then let it go. Sounds new-agey, but I can’t tell you how many times lately I’ve taken that sentiment off the mat (or, in this case, the orange-carpeted rug) and into The World.
  2. I’ve also been doing various bodyweight “circuits” in the room. Specifically, the “Cards Workout,” which means a different number and type of exercise depending on which card in a deck of 52 that you turn over. Also what I call “20 to 1,” which is a circuit of three different exercises (like pushups, squats and sit-ups, for example): first 20 reps of each, then 19, then 18, etc. as fast as I can. Total is 210 reps. I’ve dramatically cut my time down since the beginning of the month. This has also forced me to learn how to take a “strapi shkapi,” or fast shower, with a 1.5 liter bottle of warm water, since workout days don’t always fall on our official shower day. Getting pretty good at it.
  3. I’m doing this because the gym isn’t open. When will it be open? Well. Indeed. Last time I checked I got a text: “No Sean. It is cold.”
  4. I’m waiting, fingers-crossed, on a grant I submitted to get six showers, two toilets and running water put in the gym. The grantor is running several weeks behind, so hopefully I will find out something mid-February.
  5. I’m slowly getting into a groove at the youth center. We submitted a grant application to the US Embassy. Activities are in the works, from trainings for co-workers, to technology help, to English lessons, to working with our youth groups. It’s a slow ramp-up, but that’s fine. I like the people and am looking forward to working with them the next few months. We’re also going to cook for each other, so as you might imagine, I’m pretty excited about that.
  6. I’m also working with McKinze and two other volunteers on a series of trainings for leaders of NGOs in Akhaltsikhe. If all goes well, we will launch the trainings in March. I was told yesterday that this kind of event has never happened before in Akhaltsikhe, so I’m pretty excited about getting this started.
  7. I updated my resume this week, adding my Peace Corps experience. Let me tell you, you can make Peace Corps sound pretty damn good.
  8. We’re going to Amsterdam and Ghana in March, and I couldn’t be more excited about that trip. That said, I don’t think the government of Ghana really wants us to come, because it’s so expensive and difficult to get our visas. Ridiculous, really. But I’m sure the trip will be worth it.
  9. We’re also starting to put together our travel plans for post-PC. Believe it or not, our close-of-service conference is in March, and we’ll be on our way out a few months after that. While there is still a lot of planning left to do, we’ve decided to go to fewer places and spend more time there (as opposed to going to as many places as possible for a very short time). Some of those places may be relatively “exotic,” although that’s probably too strong of a word.
  10. When we get back to the States, after spending time with our families in Iowa, and after a roadtrip through the Deep South, we’re moving to Portland, Oregon. There are a lot of reasons for this, which I’m sure we’ll get into at some point on the blog. For now, let me just say that if we were to create a fictional city that had everything we wanted, it would look a lot like Portland.

Appreciating the Good

25 Wednesday Jan 2012

Posted by in All Posts, Random

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As we’ve mentioned, probably ad nauseum to many of you, we had a bit of a rough time adjusting after our lovely vacation stateside.  Although we’re probably past the re-adjustment phase now, the fact of the matter is that winter here is just tough.  Water issues, being cold pretty much all the time…yada yada.  I know that many of our loyal readers know this, and to be honest, I’m sick of hearing myself say it.

So when good things come around, you’ve got to appreciate them, right?  Well, I can say I’ve had a really good Georgian day.  Or, rather, a really good Georgian 24 hours.  Sean and I went to a fellow volunteer’s house last night to enjoy petting her cat, eating kiwi and planning a new project, scheduled to begin in March.  It was well-heated, pleasant and productive.  We’ve discovered the glory of a hot water bottle to help warm up the bed at night.  I finally wrapped up my co-workers’ Christmas gifts from America – yes, I’m that late – and received lots of genuine thanks, hugs, pets and cheek-kisses today (my office is super affectionate towards me, for some reason).

Considering a favorite pastime of my co-workers is browsing the Avon catalog, these tiny sprays and lotions - plus chocolate! - were a total hit.

In helping review a grant this afternoon, I was actually able to have a productive conversation with my director about writing goals, objectives and expected results, without the normal defensiveness or side-tracking.  Capacity building, just maybe!  We joked about my Georgian and her English before she told me she didn’t want me to leave in July.  We had an impromptu ladies’ supra (which, in my opinion, is the best kind) and for what must be the first time in my two years here, a male actually served the females.  (I know, I know…I was shocked too.)

I always want to describe the plates, cups, silverware, napkins, food remnants and whatever else on the table after a supra as "carnage."

I’m home now, in bed with Sean with a hot water bottle warming my feet.  A good day, and I’m super appreciative.

Eight

19 Thursday Jan 2012

Posted by in All Posts, Random

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It’s been quiet on here.  After the New Years-ing I’ve been thrown back into work, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.  But I have definitely said goodbye to vacation and hello to what will be a busy last six months of my service.  In no particular order, what’s been going on this week…

  1. Writing grants reminds me of writing papers in college.  Not the short 5-to-7 pagers, but the long, excruciating 15-to-20 pagers that just seemed to take over my entire life for the days leading up to the deadline.  I had to write two grants to the US Embassy last week, and while I was mostly pleased with the grant writing process undertaken for the same grant last year (we actually won, too, as did Sean’s old organization), this year’s was the opposite.  Stressful, last-minute and without any sort of capacity building opportunities for my co-workers, I couldn’t be happier they are done.  I’m trying to let go of any bitterness about all the work and stress and focus on other work that is more exciting.
  2. Speaking of work that is more exciting, I’m planning a conference with other members of Peace Corps’ health committee early next month.  A similar conference took place last year and in retrospect I didn’t touch on it much here.  Either way, I’ve been knee deep in Behavior Change Communication Theory and spent Monday and Tuesday in Tbilisi in meetings with my committee members, strategizing and organizing.  We’re inviting the new group of volunteers and their counterparts and hoping that they’ll leave with a health-related project ready to implement in their communities.
  3. Today is a national holiday, the Epiphany, meaning no work for Sean and me.  Hooray!  Much needed after the grant writing, I think.  Last year on the Epiphany, Sean was in the village partaking in the baptism festivities and we had an earthquake.  This year, I’m hoping that after I finish finalizing my sessions for the conference we can watch some Breaking Bad or Russia, Land of the Tsars.  (See, I told you I was on a Russian history kick.)
  4. My dad’s birthday was on Monday, and I got his age wrong.  Apparently simple math is not my strong suit.  Happy 58th birthday, Dad!
  5. We are pretty lucky to have great sitemates.  Not only are they fun and friendly, but also know how to get work done.  Last fall we collaborated on a Thanksgiving Day party, World AIDS Day and International Volunteerism Day.  Those of us remaining – as two have moved to another part of Georgia – met last night to talk about another big project, which has the potential to be great.  It is so helpful to collaborate and try to tackle shared problems together.  More to come.
  6. My mom and aunt are coming to Georgia in July!  I can’t believe it either.  We’re spending a week here before going to Istanbul.  I’m trying to convince my mom to go to a Turkish bath, since Sean and I agree it’s the best thing ever.  When in Turkey, right Mom?!
  7. My cousin posted on my facebook wall this morning, reminding me that she’s only six weeks away from having her second baby girl.  Sean and I have come to say that two years is and isn’t a long time.  This will be the second baby I will have not been able to meet shortly after her arrival.
  8. And finally, what we’re missing out on today by staying in (note that it snowed about four inches yesterday)…

    Baptisms in the river a year ago today in Vale

 

Ode to my Kindle

12 Thursday Jan 2012

Posted by in Reading

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Sean awesomely surprised me with a Kindle Touch for my birthday in December.  I’d always said I didn’t want one, especially here (Oh, hi, Georgians!  I know many of you struggle to make ends meet, but look – I have a touchscreen computer just for books!) but Sean was totally right in getting it for me.  I’m in love.

I'm on a Russian history kick and just downloaded a book about Stalin (we are going to visit his birthplace next month - he was Georgian, you know!) and one about Catherine the Great. We don't have wireless here but the cord method is still pretty slick.

It was a good experiment for my first year here to have to read what I could find – what was passed around from volunteer to volunteer, would I could find at the Peace Corps lounge, what was at our local American Corner.  I read a lot of stuff I wouldn’t have otherwise.  But I am so thankful that I can now read up on whatever topic I’m interested in while I have ample time to do so.  (For example, I laid in bed for three days straight and read the Hunger Games trilogy, during the down time between New Year’s and back to work.  Lovely!)

And best of all?  I can lay in bed, totally wrapped up in blankets, and only reach a pinky out into the cold air to turn pages.  A great its-freezing-in-our-room activity.

(Sean gave me a great birthday present last year, too.  I’m a lucky girl.)

The What’s Next

09 Monday Jan 2012

Posted by in Random

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Outside of Albuquerque, New Mexico, on our way to Tucson, Arizona -- March 18, 2010

Look, I’m not gonna lie: it’s been tough readjusting to life in Georgia.

Not because the Georgian New Year’s celebration wasn’t a lot of fun (it was). Not because we don’t love our friends and host family here (we do). And not because we don’t value the time and opportunities we have over here (we certainly do).

No, it’s been tough because, frankly, at the end of the day, we’re American. And after spending a couple of wonderful weeks on vacation in the homeland, there are certain American “luxuries” that we just miss.

Like showers every day, a couple of times a day if you want, whenever in the day you want them, for as long as you want. Like an endless variety of food, brought hot to your table by a smiling server if that’s what you desire, or chopped, sauteed and baked to your heart’s content by your own self if that’s more what you feel like. Like clean clothes, every day. Like a heated bedroom and bathroom. Like everyone around you speaking the same language as you, verbal and non-verbal. The list goes on.

It sounds whiny, I know. To some of our friends and family, I know it must sound like a broken record. And truthfully, we have it pretty good and comfortable over here, and don’t have much to complain about.

It’s just that homesickness manifests itself in weird ways, at weird times, I guess. And coming from this utopian version of life in America, during the holidays, seeing so many family and friends, having no responsibilities… coming from that back to the other side of the world, where things are just harder… well, I guess we just got a little homesick this last week, you could say.

We have six months of Peace Corps service left. Wow. So much to do in that time. Even this week, both of us are back in the thick of work, throwing down on a couple of grants that have waaaaaaay-too-much-work-left-to-do-given-the-deadline-but-that-doesn’t-matter-cuz-we-have-to-do-them-anyway. Back at it.

Six months. And sure – we’re looking ahead to The Big What’s Next for us. Not only where we’re going to travel after Peace Corps and all that fun stuff, but also where we’re going to live… what we’re going to do. Next. How could we not?

So the challenge, of course, is staying present. Not wasting this time. Not going through these months with one foot on the plane. Not squandering this opportunity for want of a different one. Some saying about grass.

How are we doing that? Well, mindfully. Purposefully. Yoga helps. So does eating well and exercising. We’re focusing on how we can be most beneficial to the people we’re serving in the time we have left, knowing that some battles can’t be won and aren’t worth fighting. We’re trying to let go of frustration. Be realistic. Be focused. Be patient.

There are also trips, conferences and get-togethers with friends to look forward to in the next six months. Little oases, if you will.

And of course we’re still thinking about and planning The Big What’s Next. It helps to pass the time in a constructive way and to focus on something more in our control when everything else around us seems so out of our control much of the time. To do that without sacrificing The Real What’s Next — i.e. tonight, tomorrow, next week, etc. — that is the trick.

Hello, 2012

04 Wednesday Jan 2012

Posted by in All Posts, Holidays

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I feel like I’m finally emerging from the fog that is Georgian New Years.  Well, Georgian New Years with a decent dose of jet lag.

The dessert table and our family's New Year's tree on New Year's Eve

When we planned our trip to America for Christmas, we deliberately chose to fly back on the 27th so we could be here for the biggest Georgian holiday of the year, New Year’s.  We knew it would be just like last year – our city would be bustling with activity; we’d visit family and friends and they’d visit us, eating and toasting all the while; we’d watch fireworks from our back porch.  And we were right.  It was exactly the same, which for me was very comforting.  And lucky for us, it was just as fun – if not more so – than last year.

Our first complete family photo, in front of the supra table, minutes after we rang in the new year

Rather than recount the holiday, I’ll direct you to this post, wherein Sean accurately described the over-the-top hospitality, good cheer and fun from Georgian New Year last year.  It’s spot on.

Instead, I’ll share a few photos we managed to snap while celebrating with our family, entertaining guests at our home or visiting people at theirs.  I think we managed to visit eight homes this year – down from last year, but we still have a few more places to hit.

Our host sister sporting a Santa hat on New Year's Eve. Like most people here, New Year's is her favorite holiday.

Our host dad explaining something (I forget now) to us; he speaks incredibly fast and often uses hand gestures to make sure his Americans understand.

After visiting extended family, our neighbors came over. Toasting and drinking is usually reserved for men, but as a married American woman I am included, although not pressured to drink. In fact, one neighbor told me I was like "his brother," which I assume is the equivalent of being one of the guys. Win!

Yesterday, after things had calmed down a bit, we (plus Kimberly, another volunteer in town) went to visit our tutor Tiko in her village. It's fun to have relationships outside our host family and our own schedule of homes to visit on New Year's.

Know that if you are reading this, we’ve been toasting to you, your health, your happiness and your future this week!  Georgians are expert toasters and with their help, many glasses of wine were drank to celebrate our parents, siblings, relatives, future children, friends, those close at heart but far away…the list goes on.  There were, and continue to be, lots of warm wishes sent your way from Georgia.  გილოცავთ ახალ წელს, or, Happy New Year, everyone!

gilocavt akhal tzels (happy new year)

31 Saturday Dec 2011

Posted by in Holidays, Videos

≈ 1 Comment

Want to see some of the people, places and things that make our life here what it is? Before we went back to the States for Christmas, we compiled a bunch of footage and put together this video of our family and friends over here wishing all of you, our family and friends back home, a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

As we begin the multi-day festivities on this side of the world (New Year’s is the “big holiday” here, kind of like our Christmas), our thoughts are with all of you back on the other side of the world. Our sentiments echo what you’ll hear our Georgian friends say again and again: we wish you health, happiness and love.

Enjoy… and be careful of your president. ;)

New Pants for Christmas

25 Sunday Dec 2011

Posted by in Music

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When McKinze and I celebrated our first Christmas together five years ago (5 years??? wow!), we put together a little mix CD of some of our favorite music from that year and handed it out as a gift to a few of our friends.

We called this collection Holiday Pants, based on the admittedly unusual term of affection we had and still have for each other: pants (or sometimes with a Spanish flair — pantalones; or French — pantalon; or most recently, of course, Georgian — sharvali).

At that time, in 2007, I was helping a friend by taking care of her house while she was in Germany, and she was helping me by providing a nice and affordable place to live. My new kitten, Lola, had only been in the “family” for a month. I was deeply entrenched in my job at The Englert Theatre. McKinze and I had been “seeing each other” for a few months. And mp3s were around, but not nearly as ubiquitous as they are now. CDs were still widely accepted as a ridicule-free method of transferring music.

Fast forward to 2011, and I’m posting this from the spare bedroom of my aunt and uncle’s house in Portland, Oregon. I’m nearing the end of a two-week vacation in America, which is halfway around the world from where I now live, in a little country called Georgia. I’m 3/4 of the way finished with my service in the Peace Corps. McKinze and I have been married for more than two years (and for 23 out of those 27 months we’ve been living in a bedroom in someone else’s house). And in terms of music, what’s a CD?

A lot changes in five years. Hell, a lot can change in one. Or even in a few minutes, which is the case with us while experiencing the songs in this year’s collection of music for our fifth annual Holiday Pants.

These songs may not be the best of 2011, or the hippest, or even all technically from 2011, but they were (and are) all important to me and to us in one way or another (although you can blame the commentary below on me). They were there in a time of change. Or they themselves had the power to change a mood, a thought, a direction…

Download them all below and, if you wish, listen to them in the Recommended Order For Maximum Effect. Enjoy.

1. Morning Thought – Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr.
This whole album is a joy to listen to. This song fills the same role in my music sphere as MGMT’s “Time To Pretend” did a few years ago. Refreshing and endlessly listenable.

2. No Church in the Wild – Kanye West and Jay Z
Sunglasses and Advil… last night was mad real. Just a sick groove. Sneaky. Dark.
Preach.

3. White Limo – Foo Fighters
Maybe the best song on the incredibly over-sold new Foo album, because it doesn’t try to be what all the other songs are trying to be. Reminds me of being home last spring, driving on the gravel road out to the cabin.

4. Fletcher – Blitzen Trapper
Love these gravelly but wonderfully quirky and unexpected roots rock guys from right here in Portland. So many great songs on this album; this is one of at least two others than could easily go on this list.

5. Down In The Valley – The Head and the Heart
I first heard this song in the fall of 2010, and considered putting it on last year’s Holiday Pants but didn’t because, well, I just didn’t know if it was good enough… It didn’t help that I hate the name of the band. But here we are, a year later, and I’m still listening to it. Often. And often on marshutka rides to Tbilisi on sleepy early mornings. I am on my way, I am on my way. I am on my way back to where I started.

6. Godless Brother In Love – Iron & Wine
It was either this or “Tree By The River.” Both are beautiful songs by the guy who seemingly can only write beautiful songs. There are a couple of tunes in this year’s Holiday Pants that instantly take me back to where I was — physically and mentally — last early spring after my dad died. This is one of them.

7. Doors Unlocked and Open — Death Cab For Cutie
I fully expected to hate the new DCFC album and, as I joked before it was released, couldn’t wait to NOT listen to it. I was surprised to discover that it’s their best since Transatlanticism. This song is deliberate. Disciplined. For me, it represents turning the corner, coming back to Georgia in the summer.

8. Tear The Fences Down — Eulogies
This tune is just fun to be around. If you don’t like it after a couple of listens, you probably hate puppies and freedom, too.

9. Taken For A Fool — Strokes
My friends think the new Strokes album kinda sucks. This song proves them wrong (with or without air guitar). ;)

10. The New High – Truckfighters
This band is what the bastard lovechild of Queens of the Stone Age and Tool would sound like. It’s great for running, jumping and throwing in the 90+ degree heat in the middle of the stadium in Akhaltsikhe.

11. Codex — Radiohead
This is the other one.

12. Goshen – Beirut
Love this whole album. One of those cases where the singer truly steals the show.

13. October — Broken Bells
My favorite album of 2011 was from 2010. There are so many beautiful moments in these songs that just do not get old for me. This isn’t my favorite song on the album, but it’s the one that hooked me first and got me to keep coming back to eventually discover the other ones.

14. Ashes & Fire — Ryan Adams
There are maybe 3-4 songs on this album that are as good as anything he’s ever put out, and the rest are ehhhhhh. This is one of the three or four.

15. June Hymn — Decemberists
From another one of my favorite albums of the year. This one straddled the period right before we had to come back to America and right after we came back. I think you either love or hate Colin Meloy… if you don’t love him after this song, you’re not going to (and there may in fact be something wrong with you).

16. One Sunday Morning — Wilco
Why did I pick the longest, most repetitive, least musically interesting and arguably most boring song on the new Wilco album to round out this year’s Holiday Pants? I have no idea. Despite all those things, I just find myself longing to hear it anyway.

Happy Holidays, everyone. We hope you experience them with people important to you, in a way that you will not only enjoy now but will look back upon happily.

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