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.