I can’t believe how much as taken place since I left Georgia in July. As you know, Georgia has been devastated by Russia’s invasion. Peace Corps Georgia was shut down shortly after I left the country. My training village, Karaleti, outside of Gori and on the road to South Ossetia was reported to have been looted and burnt by Russian troops. I saw the report on a Chinese news station while in Nepal and was horrified.

Since the economic crisis has hit and the election heated up, the devastation in Georgia has been overshadowed in the news. I have been distracted as well from traveling and now that I’m home, catching up with friends and family, getting rid of intestinal parasites, looking for jobs, and so on. But, I figure it’s about time I do something (besides join anti-Russia facebook groups) to support the people in the country I called home for over two years. Georgia has come so far in the last 15 years and it’s incredibly upsetting to see their development set back at least a decade. My heart goes out to friends in Georgia who have endured enough hardship even before all this happened. Russia bombed Georgia’s only cross-country railroad, essential roads, ports, set fire to national parks, and committed countless monstrosities in villages including raping women and girls, executing innocent citizens and pillaging and burning houses/entire villages.

Soon it will be winter in Georgia, which is a miserable time anyway and now that so many people are homeless, will surely cause more deaths due to lack of heating and food. My friend and fellow volunteer Jen McFann has made us all look bad and organized a blanket drive which I think is an excellent idea and encourage everyone to donate old blankets and extra money (even in our recession!) to help Georgians who have lost everything.

Here is her link: http://jeningeorgia.blogspot.com/

“Megobari” is the word for friend in Georgian. Some of the volunteers in my group have formed the “Megobari Project” which is working under the newly formed NGO “The Megobari Foundation.” I am so impressed that volunteers in my “G6” group have founded this NGO! Please go to the link below for a full description of the project and make any sort of donation you can before winter arrives in Georgia.

http://themegobariproject.blogspot.com/

Thank you!

The hospitality shown to me over the past few days has brought me straight back to Georgia. We are staying in this adorable guest house called "RN Haveli," run by three women, which is very unusual around these parts. It was so refreshing to meet these hospitable and awsome women who defied cultural norms to open their own buisness. Here is an article written about them in the Los Angeles Times..

http://www.worldhum.com/dispatches/item/girl_power_in_the_land_of_the_maharajahs/

The last night we played dress up and they fixed me up in this sari with bright purple lipstick...

We've been in Varanasi for the past couple days and here are the pictures!

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=44080044&l=4aa75&id=4910034

The city is so interesting and gorgeous. And miserably hot..

I'm trying to see how many forms of transportation I can take on this trip. So far I've got nine: car, ferry, train, plane, camel, bicycle, bicycle rickshaw, auto rickshaw, and bus... There's a chance that an elephant might happen, crossing my fingers...

We're in Calcutta (Kolkata) now, and heading to Varanasi tonight. Really excited about Varanasi...

Even though it rained a ton, I loved Nepal. We're in Darjeeling now and I found out that sadly, the Darjeeling Limited doesn't actually exist :( The city is also famous for its tea and spectacular Himalayan views which we couldn't see at all because of the thick fog. Monsoon season apparently isn't a smart time to be here, go figure.

Here are some more pictures from Nepal. One of the coolest things we saw was one of their many festivals. This one was the "Cow Festival," to honor those who have died in the past year. It was soooo cool.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2414046&l=f835d&id=4910034

Yesterday we came across a Tibetan protest in Darjeeling. Don't worry, it was peaceful. Here are some pictures and other random Darjeeling shots...

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2417368&l=77904&id=4910034

I LOVE this place. Its so interesting and different.. We spent the entire day today walking around and taking pictures.. I will try to post them when I can but the computers are really slow..

Uploading isn't going so well.... :( I was able to upload a bunch on facebook so here is the link..http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2413618&l=d1573&id=4910034

Ruins of the ancient Greek city of Ephesus in western Turkey..

The Celsus Library.. Built by Gaius Julius Aquila in memory of his father ın AD 125. He is buried here as well... It was massive!

This theatre held 24,000 and was a common site for animal fights and gladiator competitions. St. Paul also spoke here against paganism and the Greek goddess Artemis. After he spoke, the people chanted "Artemis is great!!" for 3 hours and St. Paul had to leave the city. It was built in the 1st century AD but was damaged heavily in an earthquake a couple hundred years later.The virgin Mary came and spent time in Ephesus later in her life. This is whats left of the "Church of Mary" and the only place that the virgin Mary and I have both stepped foot!

We stayed in the town of Selçuk, a couple miles away. Here are some pics of the town and and some sort of street festival that we stumbled upon..

So as soon as I leave the country, all hell breaks loose. Its really depressing... Its been the top story on BBC for a couple days now...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7550804.stm

The volunteers are consolidated in this ski town called Bakuriani awaitıng evacuation to Armenia. There was a hospital being built in Gori over the past 2 years and the rumor goiıng around was that it was going to be used for the upcoming war in South Ossetia.. and everyone thought it was just a crazy rumor!

Luxor is an interesting city. Locals have spent hundreds of years perfecting the art of ripping off tourists. I don't think we met an honest person the entire time we were there. The minute we got off the train, we were attacked by herds of hotel owners trying to lead us to their hotel. This went on for a good hour while they followed us around town. Hassling is an understatement... harrassment was more like it. The train ticket situation was the worst though. The guy working at the train station would look you in the eye and say that there were no tickets left when there clearly were. The hotel owners buy up the "tourist" tickets, charge you out the roof, then the train ticket guy gets a cut, the "tourist police" get some (their job is to "help" tourists), and of course the hotel owner gets a cut. Gotta make a living any way you can I guess :/

We took the 12 hour night train into Luxor from Cairo and the night bus back. At first I thought that night travel would be a good way to save time and money but after taking 2 buses, 2 flights and one train overnight in the last ten days, I realize that if I keep going at this rate I'll have aged ten years by the time I get home... Who woulda thought!

We spent the first day biking around Luxor. The pictues above are of the city and the ones below are this village that we explored outside of Luxor on the Nile. It was a great time and the people in the village that we met were so much more genuine than the ones in the city.

The whole dressing conservatively thing was really cramping my style! In this heat, soccer shorts and a sleeveless tee would've been just a tad bit more comfortable!

The kids in this village were so warm and friendly. And for some reason, they all wanted us to give them pens. Not money, pens. The second day we went outside of the city to the Valley of the Kings, the Valley of the Queens, and the Temple of Hatshepsut. At the Valley of the Kings, we saw the tombs of Ramses I, III, and IV. The Valley of the Queens also contained many tombs for the children of the pharoes. We saw the tomb of Queen Titi, the wife of one of the Ramses (I would be a great tour guide), and her nine year old son. She miscarried in her 6th month and was so upset by her loss that she had the fetus mummified. It was in the tomb with her son! 3,000 year old hierglypic writing in the temple. The hierglypic writings that we saw inside the tombs were from the Book of the Dead and contained recipes for the afterlife, spells, etc. The pic below is an example of the artwork in the tombs... The paint is 3,000 years old! They used eggwhites to keep the color (that's what the guide said at least!)

Yes I know its cheesy.

Cemetary that I fell in love with, known as "City of the Dead." It was designed like this so family members could picnic and even sleep among the cemetary.

And I thought Tbilisi was chaotic.... The honking, screaming, and constant hassling of people trying to sell you things made Cairo stressful and fun (in short bursts). Good thing I got so much practice jaywalking across major highways in Georgia! Also, I think its a cultural thing to give someone completely wrong directions rather than admit you don't know where something is, which also made our lives fun. Other than that I thought it was a great city! :)

I don't have any pictures of the Egyptian museum because cameras weren't allowed, but the most bizarre thing in there was an entire room dedicated to mummified animals. There were dogs (fur intact!), gazelles, fish, an alligator, and a baby alligator! Also, they had the entire set of treasures uncovered from Tutankhamun's tomb which was the only tomb that wasn't robbed. And tons of other jewlery, sphinxes, shrines, statues, and mummies.More to come when I have more time on the internet...

I'm now recovering from our exhausting but awsome Egypt trip at a hostle in Istanbul so I'll periodically post photos when the computer isn't busy.. The first day in Cairo was the most stressful but ended up being the best day. We went to Giza and saw the pyramids and afterwards rode camels for 3 hours in the desert, watched the sun set over the city, had a little campfire with our nice and knowledgeable camel riding instructor, Samir, and rode back in the dark to the pyramid "light show." It was kind of scary when my camel, Charlie Brown, started running and evenutally it turned painful :/ After 3 hours of riding, none of us could sit down the next day!

We are hanging out in Istanbul for a couple days before heading off to Cairo and its soooooo nice to be here. After not leaving Georgia for over 7 months I'm having a little bit of culture shock, in a good way. Plus, since I have done the tourist thing here before its nice to just relax and enjoy it at a slower pace. I'll be back after Egypt to explore Eastern Turkey for a bit too. I think I need to change the name of this blog to "Georgia to Sakartvelo to Turkey to Egypt to Nepal to India!"

Taking the ferry across the Bosphorous from the European side of town to the Asian side..Dining at a nice restaurant with no Russian pop!

Yummm. Baklava and Turkish delight, and more importantly, free samples..

I am officially an RPCV (aka jobless and homeless!), leaving Georgia for Egypt tomorrow with two volunteers! The past week we’ve been bumming around Adjara, living the easy life, hiking and sunbathing. The biggest decision we’ve had to make lately is how we want to spend our leisure time… there’s the beach, the park, getting an ice cream…

It’s nice not to have to tell Peace Corps where I am all the time but not so nice to be without the cushy medical care I’m used to. It seems like since I’ve been cut off, my body has decided to start falling apart. I have two allergic reactions on my neck (from falling in the bushes in Kazbegi) that look like massive hickies. I recently got rid of a non-symptomatic parasite and now I have another symptomatic one comfortably living inside my intestines and wrecking havoc about 4 times a day. I survived two years w/o a parasite so it would be just my luck to get one now… On top of that, my arms and fingers are swollen due to some sort of spider attack a couple nights ago.

It will be good preparation for India during monsoon season. I start to cringe just thinking about the creepy crawlers I’ll have to encounter. Egypt is going to be a treat as well, one of the hottest countries in the world during the hottest month of the year. What was I thinking!!!! :)

Meeting Condoleezza Rice, just another day in the life of a Peace Corps volunteer :) In the picture I'm just gaping at her but I actually did shake her hand. She came in for exactly 16 hours for some quick speeches and meetings. And I was on TV. The best thing about this event though was that is forced me to update my ratty wardrobe...

It’s been an eventful week… I left my village for good, got a parasite, met Condoleezza Rice, and visited the most beautiful place in Georgia that I've seen so far, about 3 hours North of Tbilisi. Mount Kazbek's peak is about 14,600ft above sea level, and its only the 3rd highest mountain in Georgia and the 7th highest in the Caucasus Mountains.

The first couple hours of our hike were so foggy that we couldn’t see more than a few hundred feet in front of us. Here we are thinking that our day would be ruined.

But we just had to push through it! Here is the 14th century church, Sameba, silhouetted multiple times as we hiked up because I couldn't choose just one! Every time I turned around the view was different.

I don't understand these cows. If I had to basically crawl on all fours and hold onto grass while hiking up some of these slopes, how do these cows get up here?? And why? Is the grass up here more delicious than in the valley? And why do their owners just let them scale mountains like that, don’t they have any idea where they are? It makes me feel a little inadequate to be shown up by a cow.The village at the bottom of the mountain was adorable, but I can't imagine what hell it would be in winter. This man was impressed that we knew Georgian and wanted his picture taken. We also hiked about 10 km North to Darial Gorge which is on the border of Russia.

My last two weeks of service have been very similar to the first two weeks: constant overwhelming hospitality and force-feeding! I have drunk with a toddler twice in Georgia: in my first week and last week at site.

The goodbye gift count:

2 pairs of underwear

2 pairs of earrings

A necklace

4 kanzis (a horn for drinking wine that looks like this)

2 wine bowls

Bottle of homemade vodka

Bottle of wine

Massive bag of acorns

It has been intense. Saying goodbye to so many people knowing you’re most likely never going to see them again is not easy. The 2 most common questions have been “Do you want to go home?” and “Are you ever going to come back??” I tell them I will come back if I have the money in 5 or 10 years, and they say of course you will have money, you are an American!! Luckily, two people in my village (that I know of) out of a couple thousand have email so we will be able to keep in touch and maybe I’ll maybe even remember some of my Georgian.

Considering all the complaining I’ve done over the past two years, everything has ended on a really positive note. In the next 2 weeks I’ll be hitting up some more sites in Georgia that I haven’t seen: Kazbegi, a famous mountain, and Svaneti, a mountainous region of the country that is really out there. Anthropologists go there to study the mountain people, the Svans, who are notoriously…a bit on the wild side. My friend’s host dad told us, “In Svaneti, time has stopped.” There are gorgeous stone towers along with the mountains. After a year of not having a camera in this country where I’m constantly seeing things I want to photograph and wanting to pull my hair out, I finally bought a fancy digital camera with my readjustment allowance. It’s the best thing to ever happen to me:

Can’t believe it’s finally over! Not before all the paperwork gets done though :(

I was walking home yesterday and an old couple in an old Ladda pulled up beside me and motioned for me to get in. I got in..

Old woman: Who are you?

Me: I’m a guest, an English teacher.

Old woman: Ohhh, this is our girl from England!! I thought you were a schoolgirl!! Where are you going??

Me: Home.

Old woman: You’re coming to visit us, and then we’ll take you home.

Me: Ok….

I’m really going to miss stuff like this. And hitchhiking..

And not paying bills… And being within walking distance of places I need to go..

And eating good fruit that’s growing on the side of the road. Now that summer is here, all sorts of stuff is in season: strawberries, pears, cherries, and this yellow plum-like fruit called “mushmula.”

With less than a month to go, my Georgian friends/neighbors/coworkers are starting to think about what food/gifts they want to make me lug home… Already I have to make room in my pack for homemade vodka, homemade wine, fruit and nuts. I might have to ship a separate suitcase of gifts home, or just eat/drink everything before I get on the plane. :)

Post Peace Corps plans include trips to Egypt, Nepal, India and possibly Thailand! Then returning home to try to become a responsible adult in late September..

Stay tuned for a silhouette shot of me on a camel with the pyramids in the background!

And, thanks to anyone who donated to SELF Camp. It was miraculously funded!

Sorry to write and beg again, but SELF Camp needs lots more money ($2000) in a very short period of time (2 weeks or so) in order to survive. If this doesn't happen, there will be many disappointed girls that will not develop their Self Esteem and Leadership through Fitness! Plus, all of our hard work will go down the toilet. All you have to do is go to this link and press a few buttons: https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.donors.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=242-057 Pleeeeeease give a couple bucks...

Peace Corps is a lot like high school. With such a small group of (bored) people, there are cliques, gossip and rumors abound. We’ve had a pc “prom” and superlatives were even given out at our “Close of Service” Conference a couple weeks ago. I received 2 very flattering awards: volunteer most frequently mistaken for a schoolgirl, and the “Best Petchi Scar” award.

It was a close call for best petchi scar award. The other contestant, Ariana, had hair and eyebrows fried off when her petchi exploded. How could I possibly compete with this?? The answer lies in the fact that my scar resulted from my own stupidity. Ariana had no way of knowing that the petchi was going to blow up in her face, and I burnt my chin trying to open the petchi door with my sleeve… Also, I had an actual scar on my chin instead of just missing hair so I was clearly the winner. :)

As usual, the best part about the conference was the showers, mainly the water pressure… I’ve been lucky enough in my service to have running water most of the time, UNTIL NOW!! Lately, I’ve been taking bucket baths because it’s not the rainy season anymore and now the water just drips out of the faucets. I can’t figure out the water system exactly, but it’s basically just rainwater from the mountain… Bucket baths are a huge pain, and I cannot even imagine having to take them in winter...

It's that time of year again! The time when I beg you guys for money so girls in Georgia can learn about health and exercise. Aren't you excited? All you have to do is go to this website and press a few buttons...

https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.donors.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=242-057

Here is the project description incase you are too lazy/busy to go to visit the website:

Self-Esteem Through Sports and Leadership

In the Republic of Georgia, young girls wishing to participate in sports like their male peers, face many obstacles, including a deeply-rooted tradition of resistance to women in sports. Despite the self-esteem, leadership, and health benefits from such participation, girls are expected to engage in more traditionally “feminine” activities in the home. Preteen girls, ages 11 through 13, have an additional challenge to embracing fitness and sports - they feel increasing pressure to act feminine around boys and, furthermore, their bodies undergo changes that they are likely vastly uninformed about. Their isolation from sports and fitness is detrimental to their social development and to their general health as growing women. After two successful years, Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs), along with young female Georgian counselors, plan to hold a third year of Self-Esteem and Leadership through Fitness (SELF) camps in two regional towns. The goal of these camps are to develop self-esteem and leadership skills among Georgian girls by engaging them in sports and athletic training, in addition to instruction about basic health issues. Through two, four-day overnight camps, 60 girls will have the opportunity to learn these important life skills, including teamwork, nutrition, healthy body images, etc. These girls, rising seventh and eighth form students, will be recruited from villages and small towns in which PCVs live, where similar opportunities are rare, if non-existent. Because Georgian counselors lead the camp, a secondary benefit of the camp is their own development as leaders and examples for the younger girls. Counselors, who volunteer their time to lead the camp, facilitate all sessions in Georgian. In addition to their volunteer labor, additional community support includes free use of athletic facilities and discounted hotel rates. To supplement this community contribution, SELF Camp is requesting funds mainly for meals and lodging during the camp, in addition to some sports equipment (mats and balls).

After Saturday’s competition, I went to dinner with some friends who had helped out at the event and we were toasting. I toasted to the fact that nothing went too terribly wrong...

After living here for two years I have come to get used to and anticipate the...relaxed...nature of doing things. I had everyone meet two hours early just incase. My host mother was criticizing me for it until our driver was hung over and sleeping and we barely had enough time to find a new driver and arrive at the competition on time. Then, our lunch fell through. We had told the café a month in advance, two days in advance, and the day before that they would be needing to prepare lunch for 80 people but the day of they told us at lunchtime that they didn’t have enough ingredients. Thankfully we were able to pay one of the student’s parent’s to drive to Kobuleti and pick up some cheap khatchapuri and pastries. All things considered, I think it went pretty smoothly :)

There were 72 students from 6 villages surrounding Kobuleti participating. Each student’s final grade was determined by an essay and an interview judged by a volunteer. During their down time while everyone was being interviewed, we had each school make up a song or dance to represent their village. Then we had the awards ceremony/dance party/lunch.

There is a huge performance gap between city schools and village schools in Georgia. Usually in academic competitions the village kids get blown away so it was nice to give them a time to shine. We gave all the kids certificates (which are worth their weight in gold here for some reason), and the winners were given English dictionaries and books. I really wish I had thought of this project a year ago because it was one of the most rewarding things I’ve done here. My kids actually came to my English club to prepare months before and I must say they had a good showing :) Everyone is looking foward to doing it again next year. Here is one of our winners and our Georgian partner for the project, Madona.

Khulo, one of the only areas in Georgia that is still Muslim

Rustavi, a suburb of Tbilisi

Village Khutsubani

Batumi

With two and a half months left (75 days to be exact!) in my service, I'm trying to visit all the sights in Georgia that I've somehow missed. This past weekend a group of us went to Vardzia, a cave city built in the 12th century. It was really cool. Queen Tamar, Georgia’s famous female sovereign, grew up in the caves and got lost one day. The men soon began calling out her name and she replied, “Ak var dzia!” which means, “Here I am, Uncle!” According to legend this is how Vardzia got its name. The caves were heavily damaged by an earthquake and what you see in the picture is just a cross-section of what it used to look like. There is a monastery inside covered in frescoes where a few monks still live. It was built in Georgia’s “Golden Age” and is a great source of pride for Georgians.

Around the area there are fortresses and remnants of fortresses jutting out of the rocky landscape that were also built in that time period. We stopped in one on the way back..