Olympic Hopefuls

27 Monday Feb 2012

Posted by in Akhaltsikhe, Language, Work

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While the Olympic Games you all know and love are coming this summer to London, and in the winter of 2014 to the nearby Russian city of Sochi, we had our own Olympics of sorts this last weekend in Akhaltsikhe: the Writing Olympics.

Scratch that. So that neither Peace Corps nor I get sued, what we had last weekend was the 2012 International Writing Competition. The Writing Olympics, er, Competition was started several years ago in Georgia by Peace Corps volunteers. Since then, it has expanded to PC sites around the globe, with this year’s event taking place in 16 countries.

The point of the competition is to give students in grades 6-12 the opportunity to use their imagination and creativity — things that are not taught or highly valued in the education systems of many developing countries, Georgia included. They choose from a couple of themes that push the boundaries of their normal thought patterns (“If hunger were a painting, what would it look like?” or “If you could have any superpower, what would it be and why?” for example), and then have one hour to write about the theme in English. Speling and grammar is not matters. They are only judged on the creativity of their thinking and their ability to express their idea. Radical stuff ’round these parts, believe me.

The winners — 1st, 2nd and 3rd place from each region (like a state) in Georgia — get some nifty prizes and go on to compete against kids their age from the other 16 countries.

As I’ve mentioned before, I sometimes work with a group of kids in town who are part of the US Embassy’s Access Micro-scholarship program. Last week, to help them prep for the competition, I put on a series of three lessons, combining creative writing exercises with a down-and-dirty history of famous writers throughout American history.

Putting the sessions together was both challenging and fun for me. I mean, the kids are bright and know so-so English, but how do I explain what transcendentalism is? How can I expect them to even know what the words are in a passage from Huckleberry Finn? How do we talk about the themes in Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl” or Burroughs’ “Naked Lunch”?

Hand gestures. Turns out the answer is lots and lots of hand gestures. Vocal inflections. Outright acting. Support from YouTube videos. And keeping it simple. Think you’ve got the essence of a theme boiled down to its most basic form? Keep going. Can you describe “naturalism” to pre-schoolers? No? Then you’re not finished. Keep going. None of this is to imply that the kids are the problem. The language barrier is the problem. Always the problem.

So over the course of three days we went from Native American stories to Jefferson etching out the Declaration of Independence to Thoreau hanging out in the woods to Crane’s bloody Civil War to Alcott’s family of women to Fitzgerald’s take on the American Dream gone wrong to Harper Lee’s racist south to Kerouac’s great road trip to Capote’s anatomy of a murder to Amy Tan’s exploration of mother-daughter relationships. Twenty-six authors in all. Actually, I learned a lot myself.

The kids dug it. Even though there were a lot of words they couldn’t understand, by the end of the sessions they were able to discern the difference between “romanticism” and “realism.” They could see and hear the difference in style between a beat poet and Walt Whitman. They thought “The Raven” was creepy. They learned the word “creepy.”

Our writing practice highlighted once again how challenging the language barrier can be. A “chain story” (where one person writes a sentence and hands their paper to the person on their right, who adds a sentence and hands their paper to the person on their right, etc. for four or five turns) resulted in many stories about… chains. That’s after chaos ensued from the “hand your paper to the person on your right” instructions. (I know you think I must be an idiot to be stymied by things like this, but you truly have no idea what it’s like…)

But — language issues aside — the sessions were a success. On our last day, the kids wrote some practice stories and I was encouraged by their creativity and use of adjectives, similes and metaphors.

We ended up having 150 kids turn out for the writing competition, which is wonderful. My room — 8th graders — were what I would consider to be well-behaved, with only semi-frequent blatant cheating and talking. All five of the Peace Corps volunteers in town helped out, along with our Georgian friend and tutor, our host sister, her cousin and their friends. By all accounts, it was a success.

When “wins” here as a PC volunteer are sometimes few and far between, the last week was a big win. Maybe one of our kids’ essays will even go on to win the competition, making the circle complete.

Here They Come To Snuff The Rooster

24 Friday Feb 2012

Posted by in Culture, Food, Village

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Evidence.

A week ago we had the privilege of spending the weekend in a small village in far eastern Georgia, not far from the border with Azerbaijan.

I say “privilege,” and I mean it. First, when you live amidst the hustle-and-bustle of a city as we do, even though that city may not be NYC or Chicago or even West Des Moines, the village is a reprieve from congestion, urban noises and day-to-day habits. Things simply move at a different pace in the village. Slowly. Purposefully. Languidly. In a very good way.

Secondly, this marked an opportunity to spend time with one of our best friends in Georgia, Kamran, whom I hadn’t seen since before we went back to the States for Christmas. We went out to his village last fall to make wine and haven’t been able to make it back since. Cross-country travel is long and arduous here, especially in the winter, but the number of weekends we have left for such trips are disappearing rapidly.

Finally, last weekend’s trip was a privilege because we spent a good deal of it in the kitchen, where you know we both love to be. This was extra special, however, because we were under the instruction of Kamran’s host mother who, hands-down, makes some of the best Georgian food we’ve ever had. Buttery and gooey khachapuri (cheese bread). Zesty lobiani (bean bread). Fragrant walnut sauce (bazhe). And last weekend, she taught us her secrets.

And oh yeah: I chopped the head off a rooster.

McKinze mashing the cheese and egg mixture for the khachapuri. We also learned how to make cheese from scratch, using milk straight from the cow in the yard.

Rolling out the khachapuri, under the watchful eye of Kamran's host mom.

The stove.

The finished product. Folks, it reeeeeally doesn't get any better than this.

The rooster. One year old, bred for this very moment. You see, on Saturday night we had a commemorative supra in honor of this woman's husband, who died several years ago. His favorite food? Rooster. By pure coincidence, Saturday was also one year to the day since my dad died. Mixed in with the traditional supra revelry were some somber and thoughtful toasts, celebrating the lives of both men, half a world apart, who never knew each other, but whose spirits were brought together over food and wine and togetherness, the way it should be.

The slaying.

No, I didn't LIKE killing the thing... but I think it's a little rite of passage for many PCVs, to kill their own food. And I believe that if you're gonna eat something, you better be okay with how it got to your plate.

Kamran's host mom did the "dirty work."

Later that day. Truly farm to table.

Grinding beans for the lobiani.

Mixing up fresh grape juice, sugar and flour, that we would dip stringed hazelnuts in... and eat straight off a plate, topped with chopped walnuts.

We are so appreciative of Kamran and his family for opening up their home to us. They were all so very hospitable, warm and helpful. We made a bounty of food, learned a lot, had a few supras (and several glasses of wine, of course), sat around the petchi (wood-burning stove) and talked, and generally had a wonderful time.

And I know that some PCVs probably think all of this is no big deal. The killing of the rooster, the milk straight from the cow, the sitting around the petchi, etc. Which, for those whose everyday lives take place in a village, it probably isn’t. But one thing I’ve learned over here is that every volunteer’s experience is different. And for us, a weekend in the village was a step outside of the ordinary. Almost a step back in time. A step I won’t soon forget.

More photos from the weekend are right here.

Hometown Pride

16 Thursday Feb 2012

Posted by in All Posts, Landmarks

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Since getting on a Russian history kick I’ve been wanting to visit the Stalin museum in nearby Gori.  Stalin (born Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili) was Georgian and like any proud hometown, Gori has a nice museum and, until recently, a statue in the town square to honor their first son.

Since starting to learn about Stalin, I’ve been asking Georgians for their opinion on him.  Our host grandfather loves to toast to Stalin – we’ve heard his speech a few times already.  However, another (younger) friend tells us that the reverence older Georgians have for Stalin is a habit from years of living in fear.  If you weren’t for Stalin, you were against him.  The more I learn about him and his philosophies, the more this makes sense.

For some reason we – Sean, our friend Kelley and me – chose the coldest day this winter to make the trip.  It was about 10 degrees that morning, but as I tell everyone here, “Hey, I’m from Iowa.  I know cold!”  And although it was a chilly two-hour ride to Gori, surprisingly, the coldest part of the entire day – and, I think, the coldest I’ve ever been in this country – was inside the museum.

The museum was in this really cool old building. However, they didn't even attempt to heat it and the marble floors were like ice. Seriously, I think it was below zero in there!

As you might guess, we were the only visitors and we believe they had to fetch the English-speaking guide from her home to give us the tour.  Still, it was really interesting and I’m glad we went.

Sean and me with our friend Joe.

I will say that the museum’s depiction of Stalin was overwhelmingly positive.  The exhibits were in Georgian and Russian, so we can’t be sure, but our guide definitely highlighted the good.  For example, she made no mention of the thousands of Georgians that were shot during his rule, as blatantly emphasized in the last museum we visited an hour down the road.  But we expected this.  Who wants to admit their hometown boy was actually responsible for thousands upon thousands of deaths, not to mention gulags and forced collectivization?

Stalin as a Young Man next to a Stalin tapestry, in the room of Stalin-inspired art.

Stalin's book has been translated into many languages, as evidenced here.

Churchill, Truman and Stalin at the Potsdam Conference in 1945. I wonder what these guys actually thought of Stalin?

Stalin's actual phone, chair, desk and other furniture from his office in the Kremlin.

Stalin's "funeral mask," an actual molding of his face at his funeral. It's one of six created.

Probably most exciting for me was seeing Stalin’s train.  In the museum yard, they had the two cars he used as his living quarters and meeting space while on the road.  He took this to the Yalta and Potsdam Conferences, among others.

This wasn't a reproduction, either - the real deal!

You can imagine my excitement when the guide mentioned (in passing, as if it wasn’t the coolest thing about the entire tour!) that the train was also used by the Romanovs…Nicholas, Alexandra, the whole family!  My friend Kelley and I squealed for a good two minutes over this.

Yes, this is me being all nerdy and pretending to write important letters - like Stalin, Nicholas AND Alexandra probably all did.

After touring the train, we snapped this photo and found ourselves a warm cafe and some khatchapuri. Desperately needed at this point...did I mention it was cold?

I should also mention that right after we came to Georgia, many people contacted me about this story.  In June of 2010, the government secretly took down the Stalin statue in the city center in the wee hours of the morning, part of its on-going battle to remove Soviet imagery from Georgia following the 2008 war.  Rumor had it that the statue would be taken to the museum, but our guide said it is still missing…although they’re still hopeful.

Can You Help?

14 Tuesday Feb 2012

Posted by in All Posts, Work

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My office has a women’s medical clinic on the first floor.  All services are complimentary, which I think is pretty stellar for this part of the country and incredibly important for women in the region.  I’m raising money to help my office buy new medical equipment for the clinic, and I hope you’ll watch the video below (or on YouTube) and consider helping.

Since I arrived in July of 2010 (wow, I’ve been here for a long time!) the clinic has offered gynecological services, including pelvic exams and contraception, for free.  Last year, we acquired a mammogram machine from an American donor and we now offer breast and cervical cancer screening – again, complimentary – through the Georgian government’s National Screening Center.  We have a laboratory and try to do as much work in-house as possible to lower our costs.

What’s so important about the work of the clinic is that it provides preventative care.  It’s often said that women here go to the doctor twice in their lives:  to deliver a baby and when a problem becomes too big to ignore.  I can say, anecdotally, that this is entirely true.  Our office is working to encourage annual screenings and check-ups so issues can be detected and dealt with before they reach the crisis stage.

Best of all, these preventative care services are free.  I’ve talked about unemployment and the incredibly challenging economic situation here.  Medical care is expensive, and while our doctor friend will occasionally accept pumpkins for payment, hospitals aren’t so flexible.  Health care, especially for the female caregivers in the family, often falls to the bottom of the list of priorities.

The project I’ve written would help our medical staff so much.  Our laboratory technician would have new slides, syringes and shipping containers.  (Currently, to send a specimen or sample to Tbilisi, she wraps the slides in paper and hopes for the best, so you can imagine how many are contaminated, lost, broken, etc.  Plus, the equipment she has is really, really old.)  Our doctor would have a new sterilzing machine, so she could see more patients every day.  Currently, patients must wait for her to clean equipment between appointments.  Our mammogram technician would have a new table where she could develop and read the mammogram films, cutting response time from one month to ten days.  The doctors told me that with these upgrades, they can see 40% more women each month.

Sean filmed me giving a short tour of our clinic, so you can see our space and meet our doctors and technicians.  I hope you’ll watch.  But before I send you there, I wanted to include a few statistics about women’s health in Georgia:

  • Breast cancer is the leading cause of death among Georgian women aged 14-49.
  • In 2009, 61% of cervical cancer cases and 58% of breast cancer cases were discovered in Stage 3 or 4.
  • Georgia has the highest rate of abortions in the region, at 3.1 abortions per woman.
  • Only 16% of Georgian women use modern contraceptives.

Below is the video tour of our clinic that Sean put together for me.  (Please excuse my crazy facial expressions.  I had no idea I was, well, so expressive.)

I hope that no one reading this will feel pressured or obliged to donate.  However, if you do feel compelled to support my work here, and the efforts of the doctors and medical professionals in our clinic, I would be incredibly appreciative of your support, as would all my co-workers.  Thank you in advance.

If you do choose to donate, you can do so here.  My project is called “Preventative Health Care for Women:  Improving Access and Quality.”

Finally, a big thanks to my mom, who helped me decipher all the technical medical language necessary to write this project.  (For fun, you can imagine me, in my limited Georgian, talking to my director and trying to understand what exactly these pieces of equipment do.  There was lots of breast-squeezing and drawing of ovaries, to be sure!)

In Our Own Backyard, Part Two

10 Friday Feb 2012

Posted by in All Posts, Culture, Landmarks, Tbilisi

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Sunday was colder than Saturday. On our way to Samitkitno (for the second time) we stopped for carry-out coffee (rare) at Luca Polare, the gelato/coffee shop in Old Town.

On our way up the steep path to Narikala Fortress, the snow started falling.

Halfway. Snow. Sameba (the cathedral we went to Saturday) in the background.

At the entrance to the fortress. Snow in my hair... and in my beard, where it still hasn't melted. Right? Anyway. Narikala Fortress has been sacked and rebuilt so many times that historians have a hard time saying with certainty who constructed the current incarnation. Today, it stands how most ancient fortresses stand: bricks on a hill. Impressive, yet benign.

A good day to go climbing about on slippery rocks. Me up high, McKinze down low, right before she climbed up the narrow stairs to join me at the top of the fortress.

An ancient Georgian lookout becomes a present day perch for Georgian lovebirds.

The sun starts to peek through, highlighting the cathedral within Narikala Fortress, leaving eastern Tbilisi still shrouded in clouds far below us.

Moving past the fortress toward "Kartlis Deda" (Mother of Georgia).

The Mother of Georgia -- a bowl of wine in her left hand to welcome friends, and a sword in her right hand to meet foes.

Hello, Tbilisi.

After climbing around in the cold, we warmed up at an Ossetian restaurant for a bit, and then really warmed up at a Turkish-style bath in the Abanotubani District: the place where Tbilisi was founded ("tbili" means warm, like the natural sulpher water that bubbles up from the center of the earth at this spot). The bath wasn't as nice or as polished as those we went to in Istanbul, but it was plenty warm. This was actually the second place we went to, after getting the cold shoulder at the Royal Bath (which, although it was recommended to us, I can't pass that on). At this place, for a reasonable fee, we had our own room for an hour... although we passed on the 20-lari massage, most likely given by the sketchy-looking smoking Georgian man in a sweatsuit, watching TV in the entryway.

The domed tops of the sulpher baths, Abanotubani District, Tbilisi.

After a relaxing hot bath, we hopped back into the cold for only a short time before discovering a perfect Turkish-style tea house near the bath, where we further warmed up over spiced red tea and baklava. The owners even tried to give us our treats, "upaso" (free), but we insisted on leaving them money. Wonderful place, wonderful experience.

 

When we emerged from the tea house at dusk, we were greeted with this stunning view of Narikala Fortress and the TV Tower.

After this, we broke from the tradition of the weekend and hit up the Thai place close to the opera house for dinner, instead of Georgian. Shortly thereafter, we headed back to the guesthouse to rest up before our plan to get up at 3 AM and go back to Old Town to the Hangar Bar — a popular ex-pat hangout — for the Super Bowl.

At 3 AM, the alarm went off and we quite easily talked each other out of getting up, getting dressed, getting a cab, hoping for a seat at the bar, etc., and we ended this football season — our second in Georgia — as we began: with an internet stream on our computer. As we drifted between watching and dozing, we knew we had made the right decision. We’ll save the big screens for next year.

Plus, it turns out that we would need our rest: the next two days would not be nearly as fun as the last.

See all the pictures from the weekend here.

Training Trainers

09 Thursday Feb 2012

Posted by in All Posts, Work

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Outside of writing what felt like writing a ba-jillion grants in January (actual count: four), I spent a lot of work-time preparing for my committee’s ToT conference.

For this year's conference, we eliminated all the handouts and created a workbook (translated into Georgian, of course) for the participants to use throughout the sessions and as a reference for future use.

I’m on Peace Corps Georgia’s health committee and I feel like we do a lot throughout the year.  We develop and promote resources for volunteers and Georgians to promote health; we raise awareness for the need for health education across the country; we do whatever we can to help volunteers and their communities implement health projects.  However, the ToT has to be one of our biggest projects:  a two-day conference for interested volunteers and their counterparts.  We talk about the Life Skills model, HIV/AIDS transmission and Georgia-specific information (which is quite interesting, by the way), Behavior Change Communication theory, project design and management, funding sources…you get the idea.  We pack a lot in to two days.

Melissa and I hawking the Life Skills goods (activity books, lecture series DVDs and companion guides, reference books, brochures...) the day before the conference.

While I was a part of putting on this conference last year, I was so new to the committee that I didn’t do much besides prepare and give my presentations; however, this year was a lot more work and responsibility.  And thankfully, I’ve met my organized-to-the-point-of-ridiculousness match in Melissa, my friend and fellow G10 member of the committee.  Additionally, the committee took on three new G11 members in November and our newbies did an awesome job of jumping in and taking ownership over their sessions.

Connie introducing the Health Education Lecture Series DVD and Companion Guide, a resource we developed last year that has presentations in Georgian by Georgian doctors on a variety of health-related topics.

What I didn’t mention is that this conference was held in Bazaleti, resort area next to a lake in the mountains north of Tbilisi.  This area – as well as all of Georgia and most of Europe, you might have heard – has gotten lots of snow as of late.  So while it’s beautiful, transportation was a bit of a problem.

The gorgeous, but frozen, Bazaleti Lake. Our first day here was incredibly windy and snowy, and I woke up at four a.m. wondering if we were being bombed by the Russians. Thankfully that wasn't the case, but in our fourth-floor room it sounded like someone was twisting a huge baking sheet outside our window.

On the first morning of the conference, we were without our staff liaison, who was scheduled to open the conference; our translators, who are pretty important considering half the room spoke Georgian or Russian; and our Georgian HIV/AIDS expert speaker.  Most of these poor people were stuck in a snowbank halfway between Tbilisi and Bazaleti.  So after a few minutes of minor internal panic, we managed and only pushed the schedule back by 30 minutes.  Win!

Melissa stepped in as the "expert" speaker for our HIV/AIDS in Georgia presentation (and rocked it!). There is no formalized health education in schools - although it's coming - so she spent a lot of time de-bunking myths about how you can and can't get HIV.

The rest of the conference went smoothly.  Of course, it wouldn’t be a Peace Corps conference without games to stimulate discussion…

Poor Jack was our "rat" for the activity and discussion about stigma and discrimination.

…and small group work…

A table of volunteers and counterparts discussing factors that promote and inhibit behavior change (and yes, the girl in the peach is our host sister - she came as the counterpart of another volunteer in town!).

…and lots and lots of flipcharts.

Small groups created and shared session plans on different health topics so all participants would have activities for their classrooms, organizations and various groups back home.

Probably most exciting about this conference is that all participants left with an idea for a health project they could implement, together with their counterparts, in their communities.  Some groups got farther than others in developing their projects, but it’s a great start nonetheless.  We can’t wait to see how these ideas are expanded or changed over time and which projects will be implemented.

Ariana, Abby and their counterpart are planning a campaign to get their high school kids to drink more water.

Jana and her incredibly sweet counterpart want to start a women's health and fitness club in their town.

My friend Amy and her counterpart are planning trainings and activities using the committee's resources, as well as some hikes and other outdoorsy stuff.

We’re really happy with the conference.  It is a training of trainers – meaning that our goal was to empower our attendees to leave with the knowledge, skills and attitudes (to borrow a well-used Peace Corps phrase) to become trainers and health promoters in their own right back at site.  Hearing that others, counterparts and volunteers alike, left motivated and excited to do just that made all our hours of working and planning completely worth it.  I even had a volunteer tell me that the conference completely changed her plans for what she wanted to accomplish in her community.  Wow!

This last picture is my favorite of the entire conference:  our committee, along with our staff liaison, Teo, took a “victory picture” after the room cleared out on the last day.  Thanks to everyone on our awesome committee for pulling off such a great conference.  I’m proud of us!

We did it! Jason, Jana, Teo, Melissa, Connie and me.

In Our Own Backyard, Part One

08 Wednesday Feb 2012

Posted by in All Posts, Culture, Food, Landmarks, Tbilisi

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Streaks of sunlight shine on parts of the Old Town district in Tbilisi, viewed from high above the city on top of Narikala Fortress.

Last weekend we decided to go on vacation… to be sight-seers… in Tbilisi.

We’ve been to Tbilisi many times in the last 21 months, of course. Usually, however, our visits have been strictly for business — picking up a package, meeting Hillary Clinton, going to the airport — or were a form of escapism from what Peace Corps volunteers often refer to as “the Georgian reality” — staying at the Holiday Inn, eating at non-Georgian restaurants, going to birthday parties, etc. We wondered: what would it be like if we were, well, tourists?

After a couple of planned trips that fell apart for one reason or another, we finally were able to answer that question last weekend. And it was great.

Freedom Square (or Liberty Square, as the automated voice on the Metro now says): statue of Saint George slaying a dragon in the center, Tbilisi City Hall behind, and the Mother of Georgia statue in the background on the left.

I arrived in Tbilisi Saturday afternoon, meeting McKinze, who was helping put on a Healthy Lifestyles conference in nearby snowy Bazaleti. We were both tired, so our plan that day was to see some sights but also take it easy: grab a quick lunch someplace new, hit up the National Museum, make our way over to the Sameba Cathedral (the largest church in Georgia), and finish up the day with a hearty Georgian meal.

Lunch was sandwiches (yeah! actual sandwiches!), coffee and tea at a lovely and eclectic-looking cafe in the Old Town area.

After lunch we paid the 5 GEL admission fee to the National Museum (that’s about $2.99) and checked out the two exhibits. The first documented the history of the Soviet conquest of Georgia in the early 20s and the subsequent brutality/atrocities committed by the hands of the Russians.

I walked away with three impressions: 1) The exhibit was very well-designed and executed — it looked great; 2) The Georgians don’t care much for the Russians; and 3) The Russians shot a ton of people in Georgia over the years. Thousands and thousands and thousands. I swear every picture in the exhibit ended with the words “and then he was shot.”

The first part of the exhibit, featuring a rail car riddled with bullet holes after a Russian massacre back in the 1920s.

The second exhibit was far less moving and impressive, for us anyway: a collection of ancient gold coins from pre-Christian times in Georgia. It was tucked in the basement of the incredibly large building (most of which was completely empty), and phones were not allowed. This may be the only place in Georgia where phones are not allowed. Needless to say, cameras weren’t allowed, either. So: Just picture a pile of tiny gold dimes… then picture several dozen similar piles… and then a few more gold coins under their own special glass and spotlight… got it? Well, there you have it.

All in all it was a good experience. Certainly worth the low price of admission. The museum needs three times as many exhibits, but this is a start. As more tourists start to include Tbilisi in their travel plans, the National Museum has something to build upon.

Next we took the Metro across the river to the Avlabari exit. It was easy to know which direction to go after exiting the Metro station: we just looked around for the top of Sameba — the Holy Trinity Cathedral.

Approaching the cathedral. Whoever signed off on the white tile perhaps didn't know that it was The Slipperiest Tile On The Planet when covered with snow and ice.

The views at sunset were gorgeous.

The church was very… Georgian. Only bigger. In fact, it is the third largest Eastern Orthodox cathedral in the world. Apparently it was built on top of an Armenian cemetery where 90,000 people were/are buried.

Curiously, unlike pretty much every other Georgian church we’ve visited, there were absolutely no frescoes adorning the interior walls whatsoever. However, inside the doors were the traditional vendors peddling an endless variety of crosses, necklaces, candles and other religious paraphernalia. Various large gold shadow-boxes with Orthodox imagery hung everywhere. Hundreds of Georgians rudely pushed and shoved their way past us to light candles, socialize and kiss the shadow-boxes (rude by our standards, but par for the course over here).

Outside it was much less congested, and much more impressive. Several other smaller cathedrals and buildings dotted the enormous campus, including a bell tower. At 6 PM, the bells sounded off very loudly and completely randomly. It was as if the tower was filled with ADD-afflicted children, each one with a rope and instructions to ring their bell as often as possible, as loudly as possible, never stopping to listen to what anyone else is doing. “Do NOT synchronize! More! LOUDER! Faster!” Repeat.

The bell tower.

By this time we were pretty cold, getting tired and ready for some good ol’ fashioned Georgian food. We found exactly what we were looking for at a place called Samikitno in Old Town.

I’ve heard other volunteers mention this place before, using words like “cheap,” “great food” and “chain restaurant.” It was all of those things. The people behind this thing know what they’re doing: fresh and delicious made-to-order Georgian classics, served up in an inviting and comfortable atmosphere, for a reasonable price, with better-than-average service. American readers, I can’t overstate how rare this combination is in Georgia. Plus, they had their own brand of delicious house-brewed draft beer (cheap, too!), in dark and light versions. And tomato-cucumber salad, even though it’s not in season. AND variations on khachapuri (cheese pie) I’ve never seen here before.

We ate there three times over the weekend — it was that good — so I can also say that the quality and service are consistent as well. Truly unheard of. I guess there are four or so locations in Tbilisi (all open 24-hours, or “24/24″ as they like to say here), plus one in Batumi. Well done, Samikitno. Well done indeed. We’ll be back.

Samikitno in Old Town; deep-fried khinkali (meat dumplings... fried was good, but not significantly better than traditional boiled khinkali); buttery & decadent acharuli khachapuri (cheese pie with an egg on top); a pot of lobio (spiced red bean soup); the cozy interior of Samikitno.

After dinner we went back to the guesthouse and watched about 30 seconds of pre-Super Bowl analysis on espn.com before falling asleep. Saturday was a good first day, and there would be much more to come on Sunday.

From the American People

02 Thursday Feb 2012

Posted by in Akhaltsikhe, Work

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Today was a big day in Akhaltsikhe:

The Americans came to town.

More specifically, an entourage from the Tbilisi office of USAID. For those of you who aren’t familiar with USAID, you need look no further than their rather brilliant acronym to discover what they do: they provide aid. The United States Agency for International Development works in over 100 countries around the world, furthering American foreign policy interests while at the same time improving lives in the developing world.

From their Georgian website: “The Georgia mission manages a wide variety of development programs including economic growth, democracy building, health, energy and social development.  It is also responsible for the largest share of programs fulfilling the U.S. Government’s $1 billion pledge of assistance to Georgia after the conflict with Russia.”

Go back and read that last sentence again. Yep, that’s right. One billion dollars. Since 2008. That may be a drop in the bucket in the American federal budget (or it may not, depending on your point of view), but let me tell you: a billion dollars is still worth something over in these parts. Why so much? Maybe this is a strategic geographic area that is vital to America’s long-term interests in the region. Maybe there is a lot of potential for a prosperous Georgian economy with just a little “boost” to get it going. Maybe the Bush administration felt guilty for watching Georgia get its ass kicked by Russia back in ’08. Probably a little of everything.

Where does this enormous amount of money come from? Well, USAID’s slogan is “From the American People,” if that gives you a hint (the Georgian people thank you). So what are your tax dollars buying? Lots of things. Projects. Buildings. Infrastructure. It is impossible to spend time in Georgia, even in more remote areas, without seeing a big USAID sign somewhere. In a nutshell, their priority areas here are: Improving Economic Competitiveness and Welfare; Improving Delivery of Social Services; Strengthening Democracy and Governance; Enhancing Energy Security; and Safeguarding the Environment.

Today their work brought them to Public School #1, where my organization (Akhaltsikhe Youth Center) gathered a couple hundred kids from all over the region to give presentations about a USAID-sponsored project currently underway. In this project, the kids have formed Civics Clubs in their schools and are learning about everything from the principles of democracy to trash pickup at the park. I think it’s a good project, and by all indications my org is doing a great job of implementing it. They’re certainly always buzzing around the office working on it, and there is a steady stream of kids in and out of the computer room working on writing projects and reports.

So the Americans came to town. And when the Americans come to town, all of the organizations with Peace Corps volunteers loooooove to trot out their Americans, too. It’s like Show-and-Tell. “See? We have one!” Today I was the only other American in town (everyone else is at the health conference, but I went last year so couldn’t go again). Represent.

On my way out the door this morning, looking much more put-together than usual for the Parade of Americans.

We’ve often said that we get stared at and sometimes feel like celebrities over here, because of all the attention we get just because we’re American. Today, rolling with the diplomats, that was even more the case.

I got to the school a little early, before the entourage of four-wheel-drive Toyota SUVs pulled up (sidenote: the US government must have gotten a helluva deal on Toyota SUVs, cuz I swear every diplomat, from USAID to the Embassy to the Peace Corps, rides in one). I went up to the third floor where the couple hundred kids were waiting. As I walked through the door, heads turned, voices stopped, eyes grew wide, faces smiled and about half the kids immediately started clapping for me. After a few seconds, to their great disappointment, the kids who knew me, along with my co-workers who were there, quickly explained that in fact I was not the special guest they were waiting for. Back to talking.

A few minutes later, the USAID folks did arrive (to applause) and the program was underway.

The director of my organization kicking things off. Behind her are a hundred or so pictures of kids doing work as part of this project. The captions were all written in perfect English for the Americans to read by yours truly.

The director of USAID Georgia, Steve Haykin (on the right), and his translator.

When Mr. Haykin worked in Kenya, he met then-Senator Barack Obama on a plane and told us he was most impressed by the fact that when they got off the plane, Barack personally introduced everyone on board to Michelle, who was waiting at the airport.

Some of the kids I work with explaining their project to the crowd.

My director nervously checking out Steve Haykin's reaction. She was soooo concerned about the Americans liking the presentations.

Me and Paul, a former Georgia Peace Corps volunteer who now works for USAID. One of my co-workers took this pic.

Afterwards, they invited me to have lunch with them at their hotel, and I happily agreed. Over some really good lobiani, khachapuri and other traditional Georgian foods, we talked about challenges in the region, politics and how much of a pain in the ass it is to get a visa to Ghana. It was also clear that the USAID-ers work and live in places with plenty of heat, as they were cold (so cold that they were considering moving to a different hotel an hour away) but I was quite comfortable. I offered up our extra PC-issued heater but didn’t get any takers.

Next up was the ribbon cutting and grand opening of a new USAID-built community center in town, the Center for Civic Engagement.

Approaching the Center as part of the USAID entourage. I swear that half the town was there. Crazy scene!

It’s a fantastic facility, with conference rooms, audio-visual equipment, a computer lab and a kitchen, in a completely renovated old house near the center of town. And the best part is that it’s absolutely free to use (again, the Georgian people thank you) if you’re an NGO, civic group, student or just a plain ol’ citizen working on a civics-minded project.

Getting ready for the ribbon cutting. Not pictured: the throngs of people packing the street for a block in each direction.

It was standing-room-only inside the building, which was packed with just about every notable Georgian in town. I’ve been to plenty of events in this town and in general, but I was genuinely surprised by the turnout and excitement this one generated.

If this excitement can then be harnessed and used to make change in Akhaltsikhe and around Georgia, well, USAID may be on to something.

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