I am now in Denver, Colorado. As most of you know, because I came home for my mom's wedding in May I had to stay in Peace Corps until August despite being finished with all of my primary and secondary projects. My final month was very frustrating as there was just alot of sitting around eating sunflower seeds and drinking tea with my host sister Thea. Plus almost all of my G6 friends had left... I was scheduled to close my service and leave Georgia on August 17th. However, Russia's aggressive invation of Georgia aroudn August 7th changed my plans. Peace Corps deemed Georgia too unsafe for Peace Corps Volunteers so the last two weeks of my service were consumed by the Russia/Georgia conflict. During those two weeks I kept a journal of what happened each day, which I have typed up. Here it is:

Approximately Tuesday August 6th: Robin told me that there was some situation in South Ossetia where hundreds of women and children were being taken to Russia in trucks because of fighting.

Thursday August 8th: PC told us that fighting had broken out in S. Ossetia between separatists and Georgian troops. I had planned to go to Gori the next morning to see the Tenadzes to say goodbye. I texted Safety and Security Nino and she told me that it was still safe to go there. My family was still nervous about me going but I planned to go anyway. (There are always conflicts in Ge) Natela told me that if war broke out I should return immediately. (It made me nervous that she was nervous)

Friday August 9th: I caught the bus at 10 and paid the full price to go all the way to Tbilisi (12 GEL). My drivers right hand man had me sit in the front of the bus, which I hate because it is scarier. On top of that the driver was drunk and driving terribly. (Georgian drivers are often a little drunk but this one had had one too many. I think because of the conflict). On the main road between Kutaisi and Zestaphony there were so many military men coming from the West headed towards Gori/S. Ossetia. I am glad I had the front seat to take pictures of them, but it was scary too because my driver was driving on the wrong side of the road to pass them up. When we passed, the people in my bus waved in support. The young men packed into their trucks wither their guns and smoking the cigarettes gave a strong fist sign as to say “Go Georgia”. Some smiled. Some more serious. There was a feeling of togetherness. My driver knew I was American and people made remarks, though I don’t know if they were good or bad-just jokes about the foreigner.

About mid way there Thea called to tell me that Gori had been bombed. I gave the phone to a boy sitting on the steps beside the driver so Thea could tell them. It was the first they heard of it, but the driver in his drunkenness was determined to go anyway. I texted SS Nino who called me back and told me not to go to Gori because they were evacuating all volunteers from Shida-Kartli region. Before she called I was sitting in the bus telling myself that I should get off and just flag down a marshutka going the other direction, but I felt a magnetic attraction to the war zone. I guess I wanted to see what was going on or get close to it somehow. But when Nino called I told the driver to stop because I was getting off and that the American government told me I couldn’t go. There were some women a few seats behind me crying. I think they had family in Gori. I was out of Lai Lai money on my phone but the bus didn’t stop near a market. I flagged down a marshutka going to Zugdidi and it took me to Kutaisi. On the way I sat in the front between the driver and a passenger. The passenger was talking angrily to the man in the seat behind us about Russia, Germany, America, and big Europe. He was spitting on me as he spoke. Back in Kutaisi I just watched the news. PC had told us we were on “Standfast” which meant we needed to have bags packed and phones charged. I had a suitcase, my laptop case, and my backpack to take. I spent the night watching news with my family. That night they bombed Gori more and more fighting in Ossetia. They bombed Marneuli, Poti, Kutaisi airport, Senaki, Oni… I was upstairs in the bathroom when they bombed the Kutaisi airport and I thought I heard a noise…don’t know if it was the bomb. It was about 1:00 but I called Nino and asked her “shouldn’t we be getting out?” and she said they were only bombing military targets. (I had sent her a text earlier telling her that she should probably send a text out to everyone about what’s going on because it was hard to tell by the news all being in Georgian. Plus, we got different news on TV than outsiders.) She said we would be consolidating to Bakuriani in the morning, most likely. When they bombed Poti, Batcho was in the room with us and since her daughter Tatia was in Poti she got scared. Thea started crying and went in the back to light incense and a candle. Tatia was crying on the phone. I took a shower because I didn’t know when my next one would be and I went to bed at 2:00.

Saturday August 10th: The next morning I got up early. My family hadn’t slept much. Tiniko was asleep on the couch. Thea told me they weren’t showing news anymore. I wasn’t positive I was going to be consolidated but expected it. I gave my family the photo album I had made them. They loved the photos and we sat around laughing at pictures. Natela was crying a bit and Thea and I got teary eyed. I planned to go to the hotel for internet. Natela had been talking about getting me a present, but I guess this provoked them to go get me one. Natela and Thea went downtown. Thea told me they had “business” and would meet me at the hotel. I said OK. When they were gone Mary texted me and said that PC Georgia was consolidating. I told Tini who told Thea and they came back. Mary had said to pack one carry-on bag so that meant I couldn’t bring my suitcase. That upset me. I only brought my backpack with Jeans, my green tank top, long-sleeved blue shirt, and blue sweater. I took final pics with my family and they took me to Johannas. I had time so I went to the hotel and wrote an e-mail to all friends and family to tell them what was going on. I gave Tini and Tengo hugs and said bye and they left. After e-mail, I said bye to Abrahm and Natela. Thea and I took a taxi to home again because I decided to get my laptop with pics and chargers. I am SO glad I did! I said bye to Irakli (little blonde boy in my neighborhood who wants to be president) and on Agmashinebelli gave Thea a bighug and told her that I loved her and I went to Johanna’s where I waited. I ate lunch at the Khatchapuri restaurant in the city center with Paul and others joined us as they came in. Matt (G6) was there too, though he had COSed. The footage on the TV of Gori was terrible…people on the ground and bloody and fires in apartment buildings. Back at Jos, Lisa said that Mark had news that Gori bridge had been bombed. We weren’t sure we should be going that direction since we had to go through the main tunnel. We thought maybe they were targeting infrastructure. Teo picked us up at 2:30 and we loaded perfectly in the Marshutka. PC let Matt and Drew (Lisa’s son visiting) come as well. The ride was beautiful and it was hard to imagine bombings going on so close by. We got as close to Gori as Khashuri. The hotel was surprisingly nice and I felt guilty. I was also tired. I roomed with Jess and Johanna. Teo had told us what happened on the marsh ride over and Tengo told us more in a meeting that night. The conflict had begun when S. Ossetians set fire to 2 Georgian villages. Georgians retaliated with guns and it just expanded from there . (I had called my Gori host family and they left for Tbilisi.) Teo tells us that only men are left in Gori. They have to stay because of looting. Rustavi base bombed too.

Sunday August 11th: By Sunday morning Russia had bombed a Tbilisi marine base and Poti again. Over the day Russia moved 10,000 soldiers into S. Ossetia and Abkhazia. They bombed a resort in Upper Abkhazia, Zugdidi, and sent 2 ships towards Ge via the Black sea from Ukraine. Georgia called for all Georgian men to take up arms in military. Thea told me 300 Russian tanks were in S. Ossetia. Georgians left Ossetia and there was word of Russian soldiers in Georgia. I spoke to Thea and she said that Tamta, Gio, and Sasha had headed back to Russia via Turkey. Thea and Natela have passports but Tengo and Tiniko do not so that concerns me. I told Thea to stay safe and to go south and told her to tell her family I love them and we said we loved each other.

It was in our meeting at 3:00 today that Tengo told us that we would be reallocated to Armenia but not evacuated and told us all the other news above.

Thea told me today that she saw Russian planes in the sky.

During the Sunday night meeting they told us that 10 bombs were dropped in a village near Zugdidi where there is a radar station. It was not hit.

Paul who is a PCV in Racha said his friend told him that Russians were in Racha.

Diplomats came to Tbilisi today to talk. Discussion not producing many results though. Nobody taking action.

The markets in Bakuriani here are running out of food. We have eaten pasta with beef or mushroom, eggs for breakfast, and tonight had friedspotatoes for dinner and cucumber with bread and butter and honey and tea.

Saakashvili seems hopeful and calm on TV but someone remarked that he must be watching a different news station. Thea texted tonight to say she had gone to the protest in Kutaisi. Said reserve boys are back home. Said there are 2,000 dead.

Monday August 12: In the morning briefing they said that 5 bombs were dropped around Zugddi over night, 3 around Batumi, 2 around Tbilisi (one of which on a base near Tbilisi sea). International community still can’t agree on a statement to make to Russia. Russia says the only agreement it will make will be to keep Russian troops where they are. All Georgian military being brought back from Iraq.

I spoke to Sofia via text and she was in Svaneti and had spent 12 hours using back roads to get back to Tbilisi.

This morning all our food in the hotel was white- oatmeal and spaghetti with cheese and tea.

Monday on the border of Armenia Brian told us that his girlfriend said that Russia occupying Zugdidi.

Cris called and Lena texted when I was on the Georgian/Armenian border.

Tuesday August 13th: We were in the Hotel in Armenia. Last night we arrived after 12 hours of driving. We ate one meal in the morning and snacked along the way. I had fruit and 3 candy bars. I was so exhausted. I ate quick and luckily was in a room with Sara and Laife. We talked for a while and fell quick asleep.

In the afternoon meeting the Charge d’ Affairs Pennington spoke.

He said that last night there was concern of Russia occupying Tbilisi-there was a mass exodus of Georgians and panic in Tbilisi. In the morning things changed. Russian advance stopped for now. OSC vehicle went from Tbl to Ossetia and saw very little military. Poti not functioning. Not sure if ships still in Black Sea. People stocking up on food and gas. Many Americans have left Georgia. Many displaced and wounded. 1500 in Tbilisi Embassy working on aid to displaced.

Sarkozy in Tbilisi this evening. Written commitment to no-violence by Saakashvili. US convoy in Tbilisi figuring out solution. Pres. Medvedev said military operation has finished, but we’re not sure. Regime change not in line with US policy. West says we need to go back to what it was as of Wednesday. No indication that Russia will return to status quo. Humanitarian aid will come from Tbilisi. Airport is open. 250,000 from US already. Pretty much all Georgians have left S. Ossetia. Georgians want something more from West so far. Frustrated. Medvedev agrees to sign cease fire.

Tuesday afternoon –Medvedev signed cease fire agreement with Sarkozy in Moscow. Beforehand 3 bombs dropped on Gori and right afterwards low flying helicopters threw fire on fields in Gori. Thousands of Georgians and others protesting in the streets. Dutch journalist and 2 Georgian journalists killed. 100,000 displaced persons in Georgia because of conflict. Saakashvili spoke in front of parliament to Georgians and gave press conference saying ethnic cleansing happening in Kodori Gorge via point blank executions. Said Russians targeting police so that there is no rule of streets of Georgia. This evening Tengo told us that more bombs had been dropped on the village of Ruisi and in Samagrelo region-not military targets. Not sure if anyone dead. Tonight I signed up to be on activity committee to get busy and my mind off of things and be active.

Wednesday August 14th – On BBC Sarkozy brought peace agreement to Georgia for Saakashvili to sign. But news still says Georgia came into S. Ossetia first and Russia responded to it. They ignore the separatists actions. Saakashvili modifying agreement – he wants international observers in Abkhazia an S. Ossetia.

Russian tanks in Gori and burning homes. Will international community do anything?

Wednesday afternoon Bush announced that Condi is going to France and then Tbilisi to talk to Sarkozy and Saakashvili. Bush/US is sending a military plane and ship to Poti with humanitarian Aid. I don’t think Rusia expected this. Russia thought it could keep bullying Georgia. Georgians (Laife’s boyfriend (Shota) and Tengo) are worried this will cause WW3.

Thursday August 15th – US aid arrived –Russian military pulling out of Gori and telling police to take charge. Sofia told me there were mass graves in Gori.

Friday August 16th – I left for US.

Since arriving in Denver I have been trying to figure out what I can do to help Georgia. I wanted toraise money but I think the AID community is better at that than me. I told Thea to give all of my clothing that I left behind in Kutaisi to the refugees. I am also thinking of starting an NGO for Georgia.

I spoke to boht of my host families yesterday and I have heard that they are fine. The Pkakadzes in Kutaisi were carrying about life as normal, anthough Thea is now very invovled in helping the IDPs in Kutaisi. I spoke to the Tendazes in Gori and Nino said that her parents had gone back to their house and the Russian's had not looted anything and that their dog Basa is fine. Thank God.

This past weekend after going to Tbilisi for my final medical exam I went with five of my fellow PCVs to Svaneti. The five guys were in my G6 group and had just ended their service. Svaneti is a region in the Northwest region of Georgia on the border with Abkhazia. Peace Corps has banned PCVs from travelling there until just now due to its reputation for kidnapping and banditry. Its a population that lies so far up in the mounatains that has been largely untouched by other people and unaffected by surrounding invasions. However, going up there was quite different than I expected. I guess I had heard so much hype from Georgians and Peace Corps about Svaneti being dangerous that I expected something scary to happen. But, nothing remotely more dangerous than anything that ever goes on in Georgia happened up there. Anyway....

So on Thursday night I took the night train from Tbilisi to Zugdidi with Cuttino, Tim, David, and Matt. Since the train compartment sleep four ,I slept in the neighboring compartment to the boys' with four Georgian women. And since Georgians have a fear that wind causes pneumonia or sterilization or infection, our train window was closed the whole night and I sweated on my top bunk. We were all pretty exhausted when we arrived in Zugdidi but had to find a marshutka to take us up to Mestia (the capital of Svaneti). We met Seth at the train station and walked about 10 minutes around to the "Svani Tower" square where we found a marshutka. Marshutkas up to Mesti cost 20 GEL, which seems expensive for the distance but given the road conditions it is understandable. We waited around at a nearby cafe where some of my group ate a meat stew and were encouraged by a Georgian man, in typical Georgian fashion, to join him in drinking some early morning vodka. It was 7 in the morning. They all declined. We all thought maybe he was our driver. Fortunately, he was not, but unfortunately he was on our marshutka ride up and spent the whole ride lecturing us on how Georgia was much better in the Soviet times... The ride was bumpy and long and there were many stops.. One of our first stops was for a food break where our new drunk friend managed to hold up our trip by spending an hour in the restaurant finishing his bottle of Vodka... Here is a picture of our faithful marshutka at the rest stop. Notice the lady in the back. After finding our marshutka we had placed our bags in the back where we wanted to sit. Upon returning after sitting in the cafe, this lady and another man had removed our bags and taken our seats. When I confronted her about it (as I am prone to do these days) she just mumbled something about how she needed the window because she was sick and made no effort to move.. So three of us took seats that faced backwards on the ride up, and she drank her coffee, which I'm sure helped her queasiness...

One of the next lengthy stops we made was when the road had apparently washed out in the rain storms they had had over the past three days.. So we waited for the tractor to clear the road. Much of the road up looked just like this.. narrow with a direct death plunge to the right... maybe it was good I was facing backwards to whole way.

Our next stop was in a small village once we arrived in Upper Svaneti near Mestia. Our marshutka driver had to personally deliver someone home. So I took a short walk while waiting and came upon this old sawing machine.

We finally arrived in Mestia, dropped our bags at the guesthouse, and took a walk around the city. There weren't any real gift shops, but this was as close as it came to one... Some woven wall hanging of the Svani towers and some used clothing....not sure if the clothing was for sale or just out there to dry...I guess

the tour industry isn't quite developed..

We just walked around through the old alleyways taking pictures of the towers from various angles trying to capture the perfect tower picture....

Here is one up close...

Here we all are... in all our blondeness, above Mestia..

A random sleigh... or something...

Towers!

If noone else can infiltrate the Svans, Coke will

We visited the local tourist center where we were able to go up inside a tower.. Here is David on the first of the four ladders we climbed up.

And from the top of the tower a somehow tower-less picture of Mestia...

The next day we were going to go to Ushguli which is a town further up than Mestia. It is actually the highest occupied settlement in Europe. However, the road was flooded so we rented bikes instead. Cuttino, Seth and I rode back along the road until we saw Mt. Ushba in the distance. Cuttino and Seth tried to psych out the locals by dressing identially..

Here is Mount Ushba ... one of the larger mountians in the Caucases..

On the ride back I asked this boy for a photo. He has to be about 9.. no saddle, no parental supervision... Oh well!

After returning we went to the ethnographic museum which carries artifacts, many of which had been brought up to Svaneti to keep them safe when invasions occured.. Here is a picture of Mestia from the museum.

Back inside the city, here is a group of local Svani men in the traditional Svani caps..

The next morning I woke up at 5 because all marshutkas from Mestia leave early. I caught the marshutka at 6:00 and 7 hours later was in Kutaisi. This ride also had alot of stop as we had a sick baby on board who needed to throw up every 30 minutes. We also stopped once when we saw a crowd gathered at the edge of the road. Apparently a 38 year old man had just driven his car off the cliff. We all got out and looked down, but luckilly saw no remains.. just a boat and a scuba diver in the water searching .... So overall impressions of Svaneti: I'm not sure why it is considered more dangerous than other areas of Georgia.. but I WAS with 5 males the whole time so that probably offered a barrier of protection. Overall people seemed very friendly, and not even obnoxiously friendly. There was noone pulling us in their houses for supras. We just got alot of friendly hellos by the older generations, and then curious youth passing us along the road in their cars multiple times. And police men stopping to ask us where we were going. Plus, our guesthouse was packed with Europeaners and Americans both nights so I think the Svans are getting used to tourists very quickly. However, I'm still not sure if a large influx of tourism will be a good or bad thing for Svaneti...

Ok, sorry for not writing or posting for a while. I did have other pictures of my birthday party but I put them on facebook. So if anyone has an account there then check them out... http://www.facebook.com/

As for current happenings.. I was in Tbilisi this past week, first to see Condoleezza Rice and then to hike in Kazbegi and also to do final reporting for the grant I had received for my youth project.

Here is a picture my friend Sofia forwared me. Condi gave a talk to Peace Corps and Embassy folks at the Marriott and afterwards went around and shook hands. I told her I was a PCV and had gone to the same Graduate school as her. Then I had her sign my notebook.. Cool lady :)

My friend Sofia, who also went to GSIS was there too. Sofia is Georgain but we went to grad school together in Denver. In Georgia we live 4 hours away from eachother so the only times we have seen eachother have been by chance. She works at the US embassy in Georgia so she was at the Condi event.

The next day I went with a number of other PCVs to the town of Stephanstminda where we took a hike to the nearby town of "Tsto" on the border with Russia.. We were looking for a gorge and ended up hiking straight up over rocks and through tall grass to see the gorge... there was no gorge separate from the one we had been hiking along ... but there were some nice views..

Me after crawling up the mountain..

The gang: Amy, Tim, Me, Liz, Nitivia, Maritza

The next day we hiked up to Sameba church and Mt. Kazbegi. It was foggy so we waited at the church for an hour or so for it to clear up..

Here is the church in the fog as we aproached it...

Here we all are after eating a early lunch.. waiting for the fog to clear so we can see something...Amy, Maritza, David, Me, Liz, Tim, Nitivia

The fog slowly clears and we can see Mt. Kazbeki...

The boys went on to climb Mt. Kazbegi and we girls climbed to a nearby hill to look at the view. In the backgound you can see the church we came from...

Sameba Church... A cross outside the church...

Today is June 14th and I am sitting in my host family’s front room upstairs looking out at the neighborhood…which consists of my neighbors two houses and a 9 story soviet block apartment complex. Things are relatively quite today.. the host parents are gone so there is no yelling, but of course Thea is blasting the stereo downstairs, dogs are barking, and the occasionally neighbor is yelling. My host aunt and uncle also just got new baby chickens and they don’t stop chirping. It is great weather here these days too. I’m no longer freezing in my bedroom but not yet sweating either. But its getting hot quickly and the mosquitoes are coming out. I already have bites all over my arms and even some on my face. Attractive….:) Since I last wrote I’ve have gotten a few things done. I turned in my final trimester report, wrote my Description of Service (though haven’t turned that in), and turned in my first draft of my thesis. The calendars are still printing and of course there are never ending issues with that. When I got back Eka told me that the company would not print them for the amount they had originally told us (10 GEL per calendar) and had increased the price to 20GEL so we had to opt for smaller calendars. Then yesterday Eka told me that they had been printing the calendars off a computer printer instead of a print machine, so the colors were turning out bad. They told her that we had to print a minimum of 200 calendars for them to use the machine and we were only printing 120. Eka somehow made a deal with them so they are printing 150.. and somehow printing the extra 30 for free.. They are supposed to be printed by June 25th, and hopefully people still want to buy them even though they are smaller than what I originally told people and the same price. In other things work wise, I was going to do a program for the youth this summer with the 200 GEL from the exhibit we made but somehow I didn’t find time for that and the youth club has finished for the summer anyway. These days I have been focusing my efforts on of course my thesis and looking for jobs, but also helping my host sister Thea find a program with which she can travel abroad.. we have looked at different Au Pair programs and today are going to look at some work programs. The problem is that she doesn’t have child care experience outside of the family. Babysitting is not a common job in Georgia. Of course there are kids everywhere all the time but there is always family around to take care of the kids. People never hire a babysitter. But we are still looking at those programs as well other work ….but the problem with these crappy jobs in America is that Georgians are very prideful people. I think Thea might rather stay in Georgia than be a dishwasher or amusement park attendee in America… and I almost don’t blame her. But we will keep looking.. Aside from that work I am actually very busy with my Choir every day. We have a concert coming up the beginning of July and starting next week we are practicing every day for that. I really like my group though I wish I understood better everything they said in class. They are always joking around. We have a lot of songs and they are not only Georgian. We have many Mengrelian and Svanetians songs a well. These are other much smaller dialects inside Georgia. I also am getting a Georgian traditional dress made, so that should be interesting. I also learned this past week that we are performing in the opera house here in Kutaisi and people are actually paying to see us, so I am really trying to memorize these songs. I’m already the only blonde up there so I don’t want to draw more attention by screwing the songs up. My director’s children’s choir will perform too and they just won some nationwide competition in Batumi last week so I guess my director is pretty good. An interesting thing about the choir (name is Adila) is that they don’t use any sheet music. We write the words down but have to memorize the melody in class. I’m sure this is a money issue, but also how they have done it forever… They are also very loud… not sure where this comes from.. maybe the fact that they are traditional songs and they didn’t originally have speakers? I don’t know.

Other things in my life.. I have decided to stay in my host family’s house. I looked at the apartment with Irakli our home stay coordinator and it was super nice. But when we went we had the impression that it was not on the top floor which meant that it did not need bars on the windows, but it WAS on the top floor and it would have cost me a lot of money to install the bars, so I figured it wasn’t worth it for my last 2.5 months. So I am staying with my host family and I’m actually fine with it. I save money this ways and despite the yelling and food pushing they're a good family. And I’ve corrected the lack of food problem by telling Thea repeatedly that I need more fruit. Tiniko is coming back today from college and that will make for a more eventful summer as she is always very cheerful. I really enjoy Thea too. This past weekend we went to Tbilisi together for a GLOW meeting since she is now a counselor. We stayed at Tiniko’s apartment which was funny in itself since we had to share Tiniko’s single bed together (Tiniko stayed at a friend’s) which dips like a hammock in the middle. So we had to spend all three nights trying to get away from each other in bed. We also ended up breaking one leg of the bed at one point. It was actually already broken but had been taped up and the tape hadn’t held. My response was to go by more tape, but Thea and Tiniko’s roommates’ response was to unravel the tape, pull it apart so it was flat again, and reuse it to re-tape the leg. Georgians’ resourcefulness amazes me. And they did it very quickly and quietly so Mimosa, the crazy lady who’s apartment it is and who cooks and cleans for the girls, would not find out. It is hard to know what to say about Mimosa. She is an older woman with eggplant colored hair who obviously lived through soviet times.. Everything she does is very sneaky. When someone comes to the door she makes us all be very quiet while she looks out the peek hole. When a man came to fix the pipes she talked to him the whole time about her husband (who is dead) as if he were alive telling her that her husband wasn’t good at fixing the pipes. Did she think this man was interested in her or did she just feel that she needed an excuse that the pipes weren’t fixed? I don’t know. She is also very pushy with food. When I told her I didn’t want any more stew she physically pushed my hand away and forced her spoon full of it into my bowl. This is also the same woman who, last time I stayed there, after she thought that I had not bathed for a day asked me if I didn’t even want to wash my armpits and crotch.. making a wiping motion at both… Anyway! Besides Mimosa’s strangeness, the weekend was great. The first night I made Thea come out with me for Italian food. I always try to get her to try new food when we come to Tbilisi. She’s already had Thai and Indian and liked them both. I had an Italian place picked out which I knew was good, but I opted for another place close by because they had an outdoor patio. However, bad choice in term of food as they only used Georgian cheeses on the pizza and ceasar salad. The salad wasn’t even ceasar either. It was cucumber and tomato with celery seed and mayonnaise. Nevertheless, it was good. Afterwards I took her to Old Tbilisi and we sat outside and had some beer and watched some of the Euro cup. Then we went to a café for Ice cream. For me it as a chill night but for Thea it was very exciting, so that made me happy. The next night we just went out for some beers on Marjanishvili with Tom, Tim and the two Amys. The next night Robin had invited Tom, Amy, Thea and I out for dinner at his new restaurant at the Mariott. It is French and Georgian combination restaurant and of course the food was excellent. Thea had never been to a nice dinner like that or probably even such a nice place. When we went to the bathroom she had me cracking up because she didn’t know how to flush the toilets or turn on the water in the sinks. The toilets flushed themselves and Thea was pulling up the drain to turn the water on. Afterwards, we went to Acid bar and just chilled for a little while then back to Tiniko’s apartment and laughed with the other 2 girls about who knows what for a long time. It’s strange I get along so well with these college-age girls. I need to grow up.

Oh, and I failed to mention my birthday party. The weekend of my birthday I went to Batumi with a bunch of others. Robin and I got there early and just wandered the city. It was a bit rainy but cleared up by Saturday. Then on Saturday night Tom and Amy had set up a dinner on a ship that was converted into a restaurant. It was really nice weather and the food was pretty good as well. Afterwards we all went to the beach and made a bonfire where we burnt driftwood, old shoes, plastic bottles, and anything else we could find on the beach.

Anyhew… not much else to say. I’m here for 2 more months just wrapping things up. Jocelyn has already closed her service and others have just terminated their service. All other PCVs are leaving around July 16th… except Laife, Sara and I (what hard core NGO girls!). After my service I am planning on visiting Clare in London for a week and then Lena in New York for a week to see them and possibly look at some organizations there. PC has some strange policy that they won’t give me the money for my ticket till 30 days before I leave so Robin has been nice enough to lend me that money for the time being, in addition to the money I already owe him for my last trip to Denver. This girl really needs to get job! Ok, until next time!

Ok, May 18th and I am back in Kutaisi after attending COS conference in Tbilisi and then going home to Colorado for mom’s wedding. Thankfully I am feeling much better about my last three months in Georgia than I did when I left. I think the week in America was good for me…. a breath of fresh air to let me reevaluate what I’m doing. As one can tell from my last blog, I have been fed up here recently…The day I left Kutaisi for Tbilisi I had another outburst… It was the day after Easter (according to the Orthodox calendar) and I was to catch the regular bus that leaves every hour. I was aiming for the 2 o’clock bus and made sure I arranged a taxi pick up for 1:30… It never came so I ended up at the end hauling my large suitcase packed with my winter stuff and my large PC sleeping bag and backpack down the dirt road to Rustavelli Avenue to flag a taxi down...in the rain. I got to the bus station just as the number 2 was leaving… told my taxi driver I wanted that bus, but he wouldn’t stop to flag it down..and kept telling me “another one will come” and I was all the time saying “yeah, at 3, but I want to leave at 2!” Grr,… turns out that bus was full anyway because when I got to the ticket booth it was unusually crammed with people who also could not get on the 2 o’clock bus. I didn’t realize there would be such a post-Easter crowd waiting to get back to Tbilisi. Everyone one was in a typical Georgian line which was basically a crowd of people packed as tightly together so others would not get “in front” of them. Of course my bags and I had to join the crowd so as to assure myself of place on the next bus. There was no place under the awning so I stood in the rain. To make it worse, the ticket booth wasn’t selling tickets yet either. They had to wait for the next bus to come in order to start selling tickets. So we all waited there packed like sardines for an hour as more and more people came to join the crowd… finally a bus came and they stared selling tickets which just made matters worse… everyone started pushing harder and knocking my suitcase and sleeping bag over and reaching over me and just yelling at each other to say who was ahead of who. One lady started yelling at me too, telling me that I had broken line.. First of all, there wasn’t a line.. it was a large group with a small tail going around the side of the ticket booth... The only obvious end was at the end of this small tail which no one in their right mind would go to since those people are assured not to get tickets. Plus the people in that line had others with them who were in the crowd and just had their backs covered by having people in both locations. So I did the only thing I knew how to do and just stood there giving a confused smile which basically said “I don’t know what you’re talking about”. So the yelling and pushing continued and I hit the end of sanity and without any planning and not knowing where it came from I yelled (in english) “Oh my God, would everyone just shut the F$#@ up! Mokete (Shut up in Georgian)!!” Everyone became really quite and stared at me. They said things like “oh the foreigner is mad.” “Don’t upset the German girl,” and old ladies started patting me on the back... I didn’t tell them I was American, not German.. but as Amy later told me.. sometimes it best to just let the Germans take the fall when we do embarrassing things. When we do good things of course make sure they know we are Americans. She told me she had had a recent similar outburst as well… so atleast I know I’m a normal PCV. On the topic of Germans I do have to say that I was impressed by my German pilot on my flight to America on Lufthansa via Munich. We were arriving in Munich from Tbilisi and we had just touched ground and about 5 Georgian men stood up, got their bags, and started walking towards the front of the plane. So the German pilot got on the intercom and said “Passengers, Pleeeze Siiit Down!!”. He continued taxiining and noone went back to their seats. Then he slammed on his breaks and said “Sit down! I veell not conteenue taxiing unteel you have all sat Down!!” So of course only a few of them sat down because I’m sure the others were thinking he still wasn’t serious, but we sat there until they all stuck their tail between their legs and went back to their seats. It was great. Go Germany!

Ok, so back to the bus station. I eventually got on a bus. Three buses came at 3 O’clock to take us to Tblisi (including a city bus) and I ended up having to pay 5 extra lari, but I didn’t mind. I was just ready to get there. I arrived in Tbilisi to more rain. Checked into the Nika (PC hostel) and then had a Thai dinner with Robin. I had come early to Tbilisi before the conference to go to the doctor and then to get some work done with Eka. And this was good because I got to spend more time with Robin. That might have been the second time we had been able to spend more then 3 days together in the same city. The first time was our trip to Denver for Christmas. So that week was great. We both did our work during the day and got to be with each other in the evenings. Close of Service (COS) Conference was Monday and Tuesday. It was really well organized and gave a lot of important info to us about finances, re-integration, various safety and security statistics from over the past 2 years, etc. And then some PCVs had made a number of funny videos starring PCVs and staff and there were photo slide shows too. The slideshows were good but I wasn’t included in many pics, which made me realize that I supposed I never really bonded with my PC group. I spent the first year with my site mates and the expats living in Kutaisi and then their friends in Tbilisi. I guess that’s just how it naturally happened.. But I do have a great group and it’s always strange to be seeing many people for the last time. I also felt odd since I was headed to America right afterwards and therefore wasn’t able to be as focused on the conference as I would have liked to have been. On top of that awkwardness, PC restricted us from going to Rustavelli Avenue again during the conference so I had to go haul my bag from Robin's place to the hotel and we had to hang out in the hotel and go from there to go to the airport when I left for America. Always awkward times for the two of us.. But luckily, I think I will be getting an apartment of my own in Kutaisi so atleast when I am restricted from going to Tbilisi and Robin comes here, then we won’t have the awkward host family situation to deal with. We’ll see if PC approved my apartment though...

On to America…..My trip over was great. Robin coordinated my ticket and got me a stress free flight from Tbilisi to Munich to Denver. I didn’t even have seat mates either flight. However, about 8 hours before arriving in Denver I became very nauseous and felt like throwing up the rest of the trip. I don’t think it was anything I ate. Maybe it was just Georgia stress working its way out of me. I never threw up but was feeling so horrible when I got off the plane I was doubled over in pain as I waited for my bag and I stared crying. To make it worse, I told the attendants I felt like throwing up and they took me to the bathroom but didn’t even offer to help with my bags. Then I couldn’t find my mom…. yaddayadda… Anyway, mom and grandpa finally picked me up and I felt so relieved. I slept the whole day and then was ten times better the next day. This trip was a bit less busy than when I went back in December though still a lot of preparation for the wedding. That day mom and I took grandma to her daycare program, picked Rocky up from the airport, and went shopping for a dress for me for the wedding (though unsuccessfully since I still wasn’t feeling great). The next morning we spent up at my aunt and uncles where the wedding was to be, cleaning out their garage and doing last minute preparations… the plan was to have the wedding outside but we had to prepare to have in inside too in case of bad weather.. and it was fortunate we did since it was very windy the next day. We went shopping again that day and finally found a dress for me. Then we spent that night at mom’s old ranch house they are trying to sell were Don (mom’s new husband) now lives. So I got to stay in my old room and wake up in the peace and quiet looking at a view of the Rocky Mountains. Don had wanted to prepare all the food and had worked the past three days preparing all the food and even stayed up that night cooking salmon, beef, potatotes, etc for the guests. It was all very good! We were all working up until the last minute to prepare for the wedding, hauling stuff up to my aunt and uncles’ house and setting up. The wedding ended up being in their living room since it was too windy outside and then we set up the tables in the garage to eat. It was a very sweet ceremony and as I hadn’t even thought about before I now have a whole new side to my family. Don is part Latin so his family is rather large. It was overwhelming at first but they are all very nice people and I think it is a nice addition to my own WASPy family. The next day we said bye to Rocky and then I went up to Evergreen to Mom and Don’s church with his family and then to his daughter's baby shower up in Boulder. The next day I was off to Creede with dad and Stephanie. They had just arrived back for Savannah and I met them at the car shop and after a brief stop off at Wal-Mart we drove to Creede. Southern Colorado was beautiful. The next day we did some shopping for my host family and drove up Bachelors loop to my dad’s property he is planning to build on. That night I attended the city council meeting in the city. My dad is now mayor of the city so he ran the meeting, which was interesting to see. He and his city council don’t see eye to eye so there is a lot of conflict, but he seems to still enjoy it. It was back off to Denver the next day via a small plane that left from Alamosa. We had a rushed but very good Mexican brunch beforehand. Mmmm! Mom, Grandpa and Grandma picked me up and that day in denver and the next day was the first time I was able to just chill. I did some last minute shopping for the host family and others. It was tempting to want to get myself things but I didn’t … first because I don’t have much money at this point, but also because there is no point in getting anything new when I just have 3 months left in Georgia. I might as well just wait till I have a job. But the last day was nice just hanging with and talking to my mom. My flight back was pretty easy as well. Same flight pattern though I had a 12 hour layover in Munich, but Robin had booked me a room in Munich so that made things much more tolerable than the last trip when I was sleeping on airport benches in the Istanbul airport with my hands on my bags. When I arrived Robin was there to pick me up. He was told by our Security officer that we were on Standfast alert stage which means we were restricted from even being in Tbilisi, so I couldn’t go to Robin’s apartment because it is right beside Parliament. Instead we had to stay at the Nika hostel. But after my exit interview the next day I was told that we were not on Standfast until the next day so I was able to stay at Robins that night. PC is so confusing. Anyway, the next morning we got to meet up with Clare who was back in town to observe the elections. Then I had my exit interview with Kathleen, and then Robin and I had a nice Chinese dinner, walk around Tbilisi, and a movie. It always sucks to go back to Kutaisi, but the next morning I was off again.. And aside from a suicidal bus driver, it actually wasn’t that bad. It now felt more like spring and the land was SO green and I actually felt happy going back. In the next few months, work wise, I have to turn in my SPA report for my Photo project, write my Description of Service, turn in my final Trimester Report, and maybe create a small project with Youth with the money we made from the project. These next two weeks are Jocelyn’s last weeks so I’m going to hang with her as much as possible. I also have a birthday coming up in two weeks so a lot of PCVs are going to Batumi that weekend to party.. mostly not for my birthday but just for a last hurrah before we leave, but my birthday makes a nice timing. When I return that same weekend hopefully I will be moving into a new apartment too which will make things better. Then I think I will just completely focus on writing my thesis and maybe a small project, and hopefully get some last minute traveling done to places like Kazbegi and Vardzia before I leave. I suppose I should also apply to jobs as well! Ok, onward!

Ok, the exhibition is over and 2 week left till I get to go home. I've already packed my bag.. pathethic I know. I don't have time today to download pictures from the exhibit but want to give everyone my freind Tom's website he created where he posted the pictures. http://www.newkutaisi.com/ For those non-Georgian readers, just click on the button at the top of the page and it will take you to picures from the exhibit. I didn't have as large of a turnout as I would have expected. I think its largely due to the timing of the exhibition (after school for the kids and during a sunday) and the location of the building.. outside the city. But what could I do? I had to have it at those time in order for the kids to run the exhibition. Anyway, we did it and I think the kids learned and enjoyed it in the end.

Attendees chose their favorite pictures which will now go into a 2009 Calendar I will publish for the NGO and hopefully they will sell throughout the year. If you go to the website, the winners were the photos entitled:

1. “Gypsy Child” – Merabi (16 votes)

2. “Botanical Garden” – Inga Kopaliani (11 votes)

3. “Bagrati” –Sergo (8 votes)

4. “Houses on the Rioni”? –Giorgi Butskhrikidze (8 votes)

5. “Spring Water” –Lika Jamburia (7 votes)

6. “White Violet” – Giorgi Butskhrikidze (7 votes)

7. “Kelly” –Giorgi Kobakhidze (7 votes)

8.. “Kharebis Church” –Meri Mikautadze (6 votes)

9. “Bagrati’s Front View” –Sergo (5 votes)

10. “David Agmashinabelli –Giorgi Butskhrididze (5 votes)

11. “Saint Nino’s Church – Salome Chumahvili (5 votes)

12. “Boy in Buttercups” -Lika Jamburia (4 votes)

13. “Lilac” -Merabi Khubua (4 votes)

We also had an auction and sold a few photos, though not as many as I would have liked. We started the bidding at 5 Lari. If anyone would like to purchase a photo you see, just contact me. The children get half of the money and the other half goes to the youth clubs. Those already purchased are :

“Bagrati’s Front View”, “Kutaisi View” , “View from Red Bridge” , “Gypsy Child”, “Botanical Garden” , “Houses on the Rioni” , “Avdido”, “Bagrati”, and “Kelly”.

Today is Wednesday but I’m at home working because it’s a holiday and my office is closed. Normally I would be happy for a day off work but I have a lot to get done with my youth photography project and since things haven’t been going well with it lately it would be nice to be there for the kids to hand off cameras. But this is Georgia and things rarely go as planned.Since I’m home today I can’t get on the internet and therefore don’t know what my last blog was about, but I’m pretty sure I described the photo project I was working on with the youth. Well, things were going fine until circumstances beyond my control got in the way and screwed everything up. I am in the middle of correcting things still, but it has not been easy. So for the past 2 months my Georgian counterpart (Marika) and I were teaching classes on 5 topics of cultural anthropology to my 15 students (all IDP youth in CHCA’s youth center). I had given them each a disposable camera to take 5 pictures each week relating to the weekly topic and write descriptions of their photos for the final exhibition. Of course there were small issues of kids not showing up to class and not writing their photo descriptions well, but nothing I couldn’t manage. It was under control. However, I came back two Mondays ago (which was two weeks before the exhibition) after a weekend in Tbilisi and I texted Marika telling her that I would be a little late and asking if she could make sure the kids have all turned in their cameras.. She replies back that she isn’t in the office because she got married in Tbilisi this weekend.. and a few texts later informs me that she won’t be returning to Kutaisi as she is now permanently living in Tbilisi. As you can image, I flipped out… we had been working on this project together for 2 months, so she was the only one in the office that knew the program and is the best English speaker in the office… and now she’s just told me that she has dropped our project completely 2 weeks before the exhibit! I was shocked because she is normally very professional but its a cultural thing that people get married suddenly without any warning, and suddenly the previous commitments are in the trash. So I shuffled around trying to find various people who could help me and various times to translate to the kids… though no one really understood the program or could fully commit to it. Luckily my host sister Thea helped me in the beginning in film developing and translating for the next class. The second major issue came that same week when I went to develop the film. Thea and I dropped the film off and told the Kodak people to develop the film. However, when I went to pick it up they had only developed half of each child’s film claiming that all the pictures looked the same and that the photos were bad. The first part I could deal with.. all the pictures were SUPPOSED to look the same since the kids were taking 5 pictures of each subject. Kodak workers were just choosing their favorites to print. Ugh! However they were right about the bad pictures… many that I saw were blue or fuzzy. But I didn’t care, they were the kids’ pictures and it was up to them to choose which pictures they wanted, not the people in the back of Kodak. I told them to develop ALL the pictures no matter how bad they were. They said ok and to return in 2 hours. I returned in 3 (because generally 2 means 3 in Georgia), looked at the photos again and they STILL hadn’t developed all the pictures. SO I ended up going into the back room and standing behind the developer to hand pick which photos I wanted developed. The development machine is a computer where film is inserted into a hole in the bottom and pictures show up on the screen above and you just touch the ones you want printed. Easy enough. The developer was a 20-something boy who although had a lot of orders coming in still had time to simultaneously chat and send kissy icons to all his Russian internet girlfriends. I was furious.. They had screwed up my order twice and now were putting other orders in between my order and this boy was sitting there chatting on skype! Ugh! Luckily there was one boy in the shop who knew English well and was helping me translate. And I’m glad they didn’t print all the pictures because some were completely black or blank..(turns out the film was old) but there were still many that I was glad I went in the back room for. They made me pay for the extra photos printed, and made me pay an extra lari for giving me each youth’s film back..which put me about 10 lari over budget. Customer service is NOT one of Georgia’s high points. After thoroughly looking at the photos, I decided I would have to take a new direction with the exhibit. Even the photos that developed clearly left much to be desired. And I can’t blame the youth entirely, but more the legacy of the soviet system. Many youth, it seemed, listened to the examples I gave in class and instead of thinking about how they could take a photo of something related to the topic but still creative, went out and took pictures of exactly those things I gave examples of. And I understand that in their schools they are taught to memorize and regurgitate information. The whole mentality of “tell me what to do and I’ll do it exactly like you tell me” is strong here. Youth can recite long poems written by Georgians before Soviet times but there are likely few that create their own. Creativity and “thinking outside the box” is not something they are familiar with. But I guess that is why I am here… So I came up with a plan… We are now pushing the exhibit back one weekend. I have given each youth a day with my personal digital camera, and CHCA’s organization digital camera, and I have told them to no longer think about the 5 themes of the class. I simply want them to go out and take pictures of Georgian culture… and I didn’t give them any examples except to say that this could be nature, architecture, people, animals, transportation, markets…etc. However, I specifically told them that I don’t want 15 pictures of Bagrati church (the main church in city center). And of course the first boy that took a turn with the digital camera went out and took 5 pictures of Bagrati church… One other girl who was the first to take the camera took pictures of a poster in her house. Ahhhh!! So I had to go back to the youth the next day during their English class and say “I don’t want ANY more pictures of Bagrati Church. Don’t take pictures of other pictures or posters because these are not yours! You cannot claim another person’s picture as you own! ” I think they finally got the idea because the last two girls to turn in cameras took some really cute and interesting pictures. Another problem is that these photos will be auctioned at the exhibit. Winners will also be chosen and the winning photos will go into a 2009 calendar. I had told this to the youth but they hadn’t registered that the pictures they were to be taking had to be interesting to viewers, not just themselves. So I got back numerous pictures of their friends posing for the camera and I had to tell them that no one would buy a picture of other people unless they had a great expression on their face or were doing or wearing something interesting. I told them to take time and hang out with people until they forget that they are there taking pictures so they could get natural poses. So I think they’re getting the idea. Yesterday one girl turned in a very cute un-posed picture of two girls in the grass listening to their ipod. I think things will go smoothly now. One co-worker decided she needed to use the company camera and took it from the kid and some kids missed their chance with the camera. But if I can get the kids to keep turning the cameras’ in on time and cameras out of the hands of co-workers I think things will go ok. Plus, I now have an assistant for the whole exhibit. It turns out that the English speaking boy from Kodak was needing English practice for an upcoming exam so he can go abroad, so he offered to help me with the exhibit for the next two weeks to practice English. Works out for the both of us! Just hope he keeps coming….In other things…After April I feel that I am done here. My anthro/photo project will be finished, then our PC close of service conference will be early May and then I actually get to head home right afterwards for my mom’s wedding. It feels ridiculous to return after that but I have to come back to Georgia until mid August to finish my service. Most PCVs are leaving in July but I cannot. Since my mom’s wedding is in May and we are not allowed to leave the country during our last 3 months of service I have to stay till the bitter end. I’m not sure what exactly I will do. I obviously need to start working on and finish my thesis that I always talk about but rarely have time to do anything about. I also need to work on designing and publishing the Calendar from the Photo exhibit. In addition, my director of course wants my help in finding and applying for grants for the organization. Of course this is difficult to do together since she is in Tbilisi and I in Kutaisi, but she has a new British volunteer in Tbilisi so maybe they will work on that together. Plus I’m tired of being seen as a means for the organization to gain money. I came into PC wanting to work on administrative and policy issues and instead have ended up doing youth programs, trainings, and fundraising… and I feel most of my work has been on my own instead of WITH people. Frustrating… Anyway, other than that I need to start thinking about jobs in June or July. Peace Corps is strange. There are so many ups and downs. In the beginning it was all fun and then mid point sets in and you realize that its not just an exchange program. You actually live here and this is your home, the good and the bad. And its odd when you feel so much a part of a community that you don’t realize that you’re a foreigner until you walk down the street with another foreigner and people start making remarks at you being the foreigner. You get defensive and feel that you have been here long enough to be able to say something shocking back to them which makes them think you’re actually Georgian.. but realize that no matter how good your Georgian is (and mine is bad), you’re not Georgian, you are a foreigner and the reality is that you don’t belong. It not your culture. One weekend when Robin was here we were crossing the street and a Georgian man backed his car into Robin which later revealed a nasty bruise on his leg. I went over and started yelling at the driver but completely forgot Georgian in doing so saying "What are you doing?! God! Ugh!" to which the man got out of his car and just stood there with upturned hands and a shocked look on his face. The same day (bad mood day) I was walking through the university and two Georgian boys pass me and say "F- You...". And this is normal here. It's more like them knowing I speak english and since this is all they know how to say in English, it is kindof like "Hello", so I got mad and turned around (Again forgetting my Georgian) and said "Bodishi (excuse me?), Did you just say F- You to me?" and of course the shocked boy goes "ara!ara! (no!no!)" and I said "Good" and walked on. Anyhew, I guess in alot of ways I feel that I understand Georgian culture but its hard not to see the way they do things as backwards and the way people act as frustrating. As PCVs we have been here 2 years and may have changed a few people slightly but may never change the society. People are loud; marshutkas are crowded, smoky and dirty; drivers go fast without thinking of consequences and the more times you travel to Tbilisi you know the greater your chances of death; for as much as Georgians rave about their food, its really never grown on you; you’re young but feel that you’ve aged twice as fast in the last 2 years; you’ve forgotten what it is like for it to be a Friday night and have plans to go out and be entertained instead of getting together with fellow PCVs and trying to think of creative ways to pretend that the beans and Georgian cheese you bought at the bazaar could actually taste like Mexican food if you manage to put yourself in the right mindset; etc… But another hard part about this the pressure. I know many PCVs who have had to check into the doctors for depression counseling at this point. I too find myself walking around unable to think just feeling numb, confused, and disinterested in life. We are about to face one of those dreaded transitional phases from which there is little escape, unless you go right into graduate school or somehow have a job lined up. I applied for the foreign service, but there is no telling what will come of that. In terms of other jobs, you can look and apply from Georgia but it is rare that someone is going to hire you unless you’re actually living in the city where the job is. So its going to be hard to escape living with mom for a few months or more while sorting things out. Even then, though necessary, it’s difficult to go right into looking for a job. Peace Corps is tough and afterwards you feel that all you want is to go home, stare at a wall and let everything from the past 2 years catch up with you and digest. But I know this is not a luxury I can afford with money and time constraints. So I’ll just keep trucking and try to make the most of it. I know that as much as I complain about my time here there are going to be things, like my host family and the simplicity of Georgian society, that I will miss. So hopefully I can just take a day at a time and try to look on the bright side… but I'm still SO ready to go HOME!

Ok, so as promised, here are some pics of Robin's new place in Kutaisi. When you walk in almost straight ahead is the kitchen (though we don't go there), ahead and to the left is the bathroom, and to the immediate right is the bedroom.

Here is the lovely bathroom. There used to be a tub to the right...but the landlords took that out. I guess when there is no tank to hold water and no way to heat it up, you won't be taking a bath anyway... The sink is new and behind it along the floor is the new plumming which actually works now when the water comes every two days.. the cement on the floor is new (courtesy of the landlords) and it actually looks better now than before when there was just broken tile. The daisy rugs are from the bazaar (a Robin purchase). A toilet seat will be purchasd on Robins next trip. The walls will likely remain ...natural...

On Robin's last trip the pipes hadn't been working the week before so we had no water in our buckets to flush the toilet, but luckilly it had been snowing so we filled up the bucket with snow hoping it would melt..but due to freezing temperatures in the bathroom, they didn't melt so Robin later put them next to the heater in the bedroom:)

A view into the bedroom. Thanks to Chris there is now carpeting on the floor, wallpaper on the walls and paint on the ceiling.

This is not a picture of me. This is a picture of the newest craze in Kutaisi (well for PCVs and the Chinese shop keepers). Notice the ketchup bottle in the top right corner... then right above it is a piece of meat.. yes, Turkish Donor has arrive in Kutaisi.. hello Donor, goodbye Khatchapuri... (although they might have to start selling Khatchapuri to stay in business)

Another new craze for PCVs.... Trash bins! And they are divided into plastic, paper, and general trash... It doesn't seem that most people have figured out that they are supposed to divide their garbage (despite the signs in Georgian on the front), but atleast there is less trash on the streets now... which means less street dogs!

And here is a photo of a new church in Kutaisi near Robins' apartment. Its nice inside so we light candles here sometimes when he comes. Here is a photo of the Georgian English school where I teach an English club. The name is Progress.. hence the Georgian "P" and English "P" on the gates. And another new craze in Kutaisi... Populi grocery store... quite a contrast from the bazaar... everything is organized, its warm inside, noone is yelling at you, and best of all it is a 5 minute walk from my house. Here is Robin surveying the dairy section.. a constant longing for mayonnaise and cheese runs in his Dutch blood :)

Today is Tuesday and my director as well as all other staff from our branch offices are here in Kutaisi for a meeting... not sure if I will see all these people again before I leave Georgia since I'm not sure if this is our monthly meeting or bi-annual meeting...I've never gotten it straight how often we meet, but that's likely since the meetings are not on a schedule. Anyway, ever since I came back from America I've been in the home stretch of my Peace Corps service. My service officially ends in August but PC allows us to leave a month early in July... which I was planning on doing but I may be taking another trip to America in May which would mean PC would make me stay until August since I would be leaving during the last three months of my service if I left in July (which is not allowed). Anyway, either way won't really make a difference to me since I will be working hard core on my thesis during that time anyway. But as for what I am doing right now and will be doing until the end of my service... Every Wednesday I lead an English club for 12-18 years old at the Georgian-American school. So far I have just shown them little videos on my laptop and have them answer questions and have competitions with eachother based on those. Tomorrow they are going to debate interracial relationships for a nice and tense Valentines day class :) This English club will go on until the kids break for Summer in June/July (or whenever the teachers decide to stop coming to school) The other thing I am doing right now and for the next two months until mid-April is a cultural anthropology/photography class I designed for the teens in the youth club at my organization (CHCA). The title is "Capturing Georgian Youth Culture" and during the first 5 weeks every Friday afternoon my counterpart and I will lead trainings on such topics as communicative culture, physical culture, religious culture, culinary culture, and structural culture. Each kid will be given a disposable camera and every week after class they are required to take 3 pictures of one image related to the topic of the week before. Then after the classes are completed we will have a photography exhibition on April 4th where participants to the exhibit will have the opportunity to choose their favorite photos. The top 12 photos will then be printed in a 2009 calendar for CHCA and hopefuly this will generate some income for the Kutaisi youth club in the following year. We had our first class yesterday where I explained to them what cultural anthropology was and presented a powerpoint to give them tips of how to take pictures taking into account light, subject, weather, type of people, number of peopel, etc.. The kids seemed really interested and we actually had more kids attend that allowed. I only have room for 15 and around 20 are interested. So that's a good sign, but its unfortunate to have to turn kids down. So these two classes I am teaching are consuming all of my time these days. Robin and I are actually both so busy that neither of us have much time to come to eachother's city much. I think I have seen him three times since returning from America. He came two weekends ago and we had fun furnishing his apartment. When a fellow PCV who lived in Kutaisi (Chris) was medically separated Robin decided to rent his apartment since he figured it was cheaper to rent an apartment for 80GEL per month than to pay 40-80 GEL per night to stay at a hotel when he visits Kutaisi. And although we are very glad he made this decision, you definitley get what you pay for. The apartment is very post-Soviet, located in the large gray concrete buildings one finds all over Georgia. When we first saw the apartment there was no paint or carpet, but luckilly Chris wallpapered the wall, painted the ceiling and carpeted the floor of the bedroom and put plastic on the windows to keep the wind out. We had to pay in advance so that our landlords could fix the faucets because there was no water. However, the water still does not come through the faucets in our bathroom even when the water does come (which happens every two days). But even if our faucets did work, there is no tank to catch the water when it does come, so I have to go fill up the water bucket to flush the toilet from the yard tap when the water comes every two days..teeth must be brushed with bottled water. But this is not a major problem since we are hardly ever there. And of course, no toiletpapter in the toilet or it will clog, so that is placed in a plastic bag. There is one electric outlet in the bedroom and even though we have a multiple outlet adapter we cannot plug in both the electric tea pot and the heater in the at the same time or the outlet will blow. There si a kitchen but no gas or stove or water so we don't go in there. But shopping for the apartment at the bazar was fun...we got him a matterss and pillows, sheets and a blanket, heater, tea pot, cups, bathroom floor mats, and them basics such as candles and matches (for when the power goes out), tp, bottled water, napkins.... anyhew, I will post pictures soon :) Wheh Robin is not there he is renting it out cheaply to PCVs since it is often they they get stuck in Kutaisi or just want to stay here to get away so he rents it for 10GEL/night. So far he has had one guest. Ok, other than that I'm going to see Robin this weeekend and likely won't see him for another 20 days after that since he got offered a job as excutive chef in Budapest as is going there for an interview after doing something very expat and skiing in Austria . So jobwise I'm looking into jobs in Budapest too and also applying to the US State Department as a Foreign Service Officer. I have a test on March 8th at the embassy so we'll see how I do. Ok, off to take a run!

.......and more Kerrs :) Julia, Tracy, Andrew, and Gary

Dad and Stephanie

Rocky and Mom dancing to "Summertime"

and Leigh and Rocky during the last dance :)

Robin gave me his old camera so now I have no excuse for not posting pictures :)

I took Robin to brunch at the Country Club with my family. "Ok Robin, just do as I do and you'll blend right in"...

Steph and dad during a jot around the town of Estes Park before the wedding..not sure what dad's reaching for....

Mom and Don during the wedding reception :)

Lena and Annie. How do we always manage to dress alike?

Me and my flower girl and dancing queen cousin Julia :)

The lovely new Mr. and Mrs. Calandruccio...

The Calandruccios.... We make you an offer you can't refuse..

My granny and I... :)

Momma, Rocky, and Don

Me and my bro :)

Rocky and the Kerrs: Grandpa, Bill and Jeff :)

More of the Kerr clan... Sherry, Dave, Katie loo and Davey

Today is Monday January 07, Christmas day in Georgia, so I don’t have to go to work. I just got back from a two week long trip to America at 3:30 on Friday morning and successfully slept for the next three days. Today is the first day I’ve actually woken up at a decent hour and gotten moving and done something. But this blog is about my trip to America. Robin was able to get off work for a week and join me for the first week in America. So we left on the 20th at 5:00ish but we had to take different flights because dad had bought my ticket earlier with his air miles and got some deal which meant I had three stops before arriving in Denver, but this flight was too expensive for the average ticket buyer so Robin got a cheaper more direct flight and arrived before me in Denver. Thus, mom picked him up at the airport and they got to know each other before I even arrived...which included a trip to the Brown Palace for lunch and Whole Foods so Robin could do some PR for Dutch cheese. I was too excited to be going home to even sleep much on the plane and when I arrived I used pushing skills I learned in Georgia to be one of the first off the plane. Mom, Rocky and Robin were there waiting for me at the exit and it was great to see them all…and good to hear them tell me that I hadn’t aged much…and somehow I had actually lost weight, not that I had any to lose when I left. But I was fully prepared to gain some weight in America. I think the last few months in Georgia I had become fed up with the food. Especially with winter being in full swing food selection becomes sparse, as in khachapuri or lobiani for every meal. Anyhew, we got my bag (which was actually Robins heavy duty suitcase that I was glad to have with all the Georgian souvenirs I was bringing back) and went to mom’s house, which I had never seen before. It’s a cute house and a lot closer to town than the previous one. My grandparents were home and it was great to see them, although my grandmother’s alzheimers prevents her from recognizing me. Robin jumped in and fixed us a vegetable dish and we all went to bed soon thereafter. The following day Robin and I followed Rocky up to Estes park. Rocky had renovated an old Ghost Buster style Cadillac for the wedding so we went up to make sure the car didn’t break down on the way and also because I had to get my bridesmaid dress altered. It was a beautiful slow drive up and nice to be able to drive for the first time in a year and a half, and especially nice to drive on roads where there are laws and laws that are generally obeyed. The next two days we spent up at mom’s cabin about 45 minutes away up on Evergreen Lake. We left that same night, but as we were leaving my mom’s brother Gary and his wife Tracy and kids Andrew and Julia came over to the house and it was great to see them again and see how tall the kids had become. Once in Evergreen we met up for a good colorado dinner with mom’s new boyfriend, Don, who lives up there. It was beautiful up there and nice to get away for a while. The following days were spent doing nothing… just sitting around the fire, taking small walks in the snow with my dog Wookie, and eating. It was great… In Georgia it is hard to get away from noise, but up on the lake is was great to experience silence for the first time in a long time. The following Sunday we went to Don and mom’s church up there and afterwards Robin and I checked out Red Rocks Amphitheatre on the way to the club for brunch with my grandfather, Gary’s family, mom, and Don. That day Robin and I did some shopping down in Cherry creek and then at night went downtown to check out the scene. I had planned to get Robin a horse and carriage ride downtown for Christmas, but it was too freaking cold so my Christmas present failed. We ended up going to a comedy show at Comedy Works instead and then dinner at a Rioja in Larimer Square. The next day was Christmas Eve and we had a small dinner at Gary and Tracy’s house. Afterwards Robin and I went to Christmas Eve service briefly and then to the airport and picked up Lena (aka Bidonka). It was good to see Bidonka again and we talked for a while around the kitchen that night about the old days. The next morning my grandparents, mom, Robin, Lena, and I had a good time just opening presents and drinking coffee. Anyway, Christmas day Gary and Tracy put on a huge dinner for the whole family: my mom and her three brothers’ families plus dad and Stephanie, Rocky and Leigh, Robin and I and Lena. It was a great Christmas all the way around. Unfortunately, Robin had to leave the next day, so mom and I took him to the airport early and said good bye:( Then Lena and I went to the mall for some last minute shopping, and then headed up with mom to Estes Park for the wedding rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. My dad’s whole side of the family was at Leigh’s parent’s house and it was so good to see my aunts and uncles and more cousins and my grandma Betty. We had a brief rehearsal for the wedding and then all met at an Italian restaurant for the rehearsal dinner that night. It was a great night being with almost my whole family in one room plus Leigh’s whole, soon to be, side of the family. Dad was the toastmaster and many others gave toasts as well. I gave Rocky and Leigh khanzies and a knife from Georgia and gave a toast based on that gift partially in Georgian. The next day I walked around town with family and then got pictures with bridesmaids and family. Then was the wedding ceremony which was very beautiful, but hard to describe. Leigh planned every detail perfectly. There were more pictures afterwards and then a great dinner and then the dance party, which was a blast. My whole family left the next day and then it was back to Denver with Lena, Don, and mom. Lena and I went out downtown with some grad school friends that night… Ana, Raslan, Chris. The following day Lena went skiing and I picked up dad and Stephanie at the Nissan store and we went for a good Mexican meal at Las Delicias. We then did a little shopping at the mall. That night I had a sushi dinner at Tazu with mom and Lena and then we went out downtown to Swankeys with an old friend of mine named Mike. The next day I said good bye to Bidonka as her other Denver Family picked her up. The day was filled with shopping as well with dad, while Stephanie recovered from the wedding at the hotel. That night we met up with Leigh and Rocky, Wes and Tanya and Sofia at the Brown Palace for dinner. The next day, New Years Eve, I went out with dad and Stephanie to get my computer fixed. We also got some Thai food. Then Dad and Steph and I tried to go to museums, but they were closed so we opted for the mall because I still had things to buy for family and friends in Georgia and for myself. Its amazing how plain colored shirts, new underwear, and new pair of jeans can satisfy me :) New years eve night was spent at the Oxford Hotel with Dad, Stephanie, Rocky and Wes. Leigh had crashed early from wedding fatigue and Tanya was up woth Sofie. So we spend New Years the traditional American way...watching someone on TV break a world record by jumping his motorcyle over the length of a football field. Then it turned 12, we said hurray, and went back home to bed :) New Years day I spent with mom. We had a lunch at Villiage Inn together and then it was back to the mall to buy gifts.. then I went home and organized and packed. Leigh and Rocky were over too so we sat around the fire and talked to grandpa. The next morning Rocky and mom took me to the airport. My bag awas 51 lbs and luckilly they didn't make me pay extra for the 1 pound. My backpack was stuffed too and mom was nice enough to buy me a rolly so didn't have to haul that around through customs during my 33 hours in transit. The trip wasn't terrible but not great either...10 hours in the Istanbul airport (or any airport) sleeping on chairs with a hand on each bag like a homeless woman is not fun. But when I arrived in Tbilisi at 3:30 am Robin was there to greet me with a taxi to take us to Kutaisi, and that made things better. I was exhausted and spent the next three days sleeping. Hard to do anything else in the freezing Georgian winter except stay in your sleepign bag anyway... but Kutaisi was basically the same with the exception of the new Populi grocery store that has been built in my neighborhood.. its strange to see Kutaisians in a supermarket standing with space between them and in lines not pushing and yelling as is the case in the bazaar... I also came back to Orthodox Christmas and New Years .. but I can't really say that its the same as in America.. its not as hyped as in America... They tend to focus on strange things like God and praying instead of Santa Clause and presents. What's that all about ? ;) But it was good. I gave them presents for my family which they seemed to love.... cow girl belt buckels, Body shop stuff, and bangel bracelets for the girls; a rechargeable emergency flashlight and mechanics hand soap for Tengo; and Channel no 5, body shop stuff, and kitchen towels for Natela. Anyhew, It is definitely tough coming back and its SO cold here. I’m very ready for spring/summer. But I have 6 months left and spring will be here in 2 months.. and I have alot of work to do... so I think I'll surive and hopefully have some more good times here:)

Sorry I haven't posted since Nov 12... not sure why I'm not blogging lately except that my digital camera is really blurry and doesn't take decent pics, so I don't really carry it anywhere these days. I guess I figure I might as well not blog if i can't put up pictures. But things have been normal here... Since my last blog I have started teaching an english club at a nearby Georgian-American school in Kutaisi every Wednesday. The kids seem cool adn eager, though I haven't been able to teach a full class yet because the first day was introduction, the second day I had a stomach infection, and the third day there were technical problems with the movie I wanted to show them (DVD player was wrong region for my DVD..annoying). The fourth day, though, my friend Jarrod came in and taught them baseball, and he's been nice enough to take over teaching the class while I'm in America. So yeah I've been sick a bit lately too which increases my desire to go home ;) Thanksgiving was the next week and I guess I feel so distanced from America that it didn't even feel like it was supposed to be Thanksgiving, but an expat in Kutaisi threw a party for us which was nice and then we had another dinner during the PC ALLVOL conference. Robin had the Turkeys cooked at Marriott for us, and they were very good ;) Over Thanksgiving I was also applying to take the foreign service exam, but that fell through because after I applied to register I missed the date to actually register for a slot to take the exam because I was sick. Oh well! the only other work-wise thing I did is I wrote and received a grant to teach anthropology to the youth in our youth center and to have them take photos of their culture. This program will end with a fundraiser which will be a photo exhibition of their photos and the publishing of a calendar which includes the winners photos. Thsi will start in February and I'm alredy nervous about it..how do you teach a culture about themselves? Anyway, I guess the main thing I've been into these days is seeing Robin as much as I can. Every weeekend consists of him coming to Kutaisi or me going to Tbilisi. I can only go to the capital once per month for personal leave time, which makes things difficult, and the trip between out cities is 4 hours long, which wears us both out. Of course he is freer to come to Kutaisi on the weekends, but then its always so awkward especialyl in the winter now because he has to pay for a crappy hotel and then there is very little to do in Kutais so we spend the rainy days sitting in my kitchen with people running in and out. Needless to say, we are ready for a vacation. The only other thing I have been able to think about this past month is going home. I know that I appreciated America before, but I definitely have a new found appreciation for it, and hope that returning back to Georgia after vacation will not be too difficult.. tho I know it will be. Anyway, I'm excited to see my family and buy some new clothes ( if I can afford them), and eat all kinds of good food!! I was just in Tbilisi with Robin this past weekend and did alot of Christmas shopping so I hope there are no weight problems with my bags and really hope that nothing gets stolen or lost along the way! Ok, headed home now... one more day of work in Kutaisi and I'm on my way to Tbilisi and then to America! Cannot wait!!

A photo of Robin and I in Borjomi.... can't say there is heck of alot of alot to do in Borjomi so we ate some Khachapuri (chese bread), fried eggs, and satsibelli (tomatoe sauce) (which ended up giving Robin food poisioning..:( ) then walked around, sat around, then walked around some more...here is a sitting moment :)

Here are some photos from Natela's birthday party. Here is my little host cousin Sasha who is in town visiting from Russia. He is living next door right now so I get to play with him every day. He speaks to me in Russian because I'm the foreigner and he figures I know Russian better than I know Georgian, though obviously my Georigan (though weak) is far better. Anyway, I've taught him to refer to me as Princessa, which makes up for our lack of communication.

Here is Host sister Thea (cell phone always in hand) and another host cousin, Levani.

Host cousin Leila (Levani's sister), Me, and Thea. Btw, you'll be seeing alot of this sweater on me in pictures this winter. I've decided to only go for warm clothing, and reject my nicer, less warm sweaters because its so frikkin cold, and wet and windy in this city...

Pic of Natela and Tiniko. Tiniko was in town this weekend for Natela's birthday day and was able to come in early on Friday because the government has shut down all schools and universities due to the state of emergency... but they opened again on Monday so after a trip to the salon and a new pair of boots later my high styling Tbilisi sister is gone again!

Here my Host God father, Host father Tengo, and boss of Natela's hotel (Abram from Israel)discuss the current political situation, in between toasts. Tengo was Tamada (toast master).

A random gatherig of guests.. Top left host uncle Givi who lives next door, below him is neighbor named Batcho, then Leila, Tiniko, Host grandmother, and in front is Levani.

Tiniko and I... a rare moment when the TV is actually not turned on...:)

Another group photo...top left... Host cousin Natia, her father Givi, son of Natela's God sister, Batcho, Host father Tengo..bottom left..Natela's god sister, Natela, host cousin Lasha. You may wonder why Host God aunt, Natela and Tengo are giving what looks like a salute. This is something called "check it" that my real dad taught them when he visited. Its like a motion you do when you know you've done something cool and everyone else realizes it. But it can also be used in pictures to simply express your coolness. My did will be proud that this is spreading internationally..

When the Hotel boss left, the dance party began.. here are Tengo and Natela dancing :) Woohoo! My ipod does wonders for a Georgian living room party :)

Thea and Tiniko shakin' in... excuse the spots on the picture. My digital camera bites, and these were the only pics on my camera that weren't too blurry to post.

Today is November 9th and I’m way past due for a blog entry... I’m sitting in my office and its rainy outside as it has been for the last week or so.... fitting with all the political unrest that is going on. Since I wrote last time I’ve been struggling to work on a few things in my office, mainly public relations stuff. I’ve been trying to get a system of online donations set up on our website and had a successful meeting with my director about that. She then went to the bank to try to set this up and they said that others have inquired about this and they are planning on getting a system like this set up by January. So until then I’ve been trying to do more back ground work on setting up a system of annual/monthly donations for my NGO so they have a more sustainable system of income than international grants... Other than that, I just applied for a grant for a project in our youth centers where I would teach anthropology and then the youth will take pictures of various aspects of their culture and then at the end we will have a photography exhibit of their images to raise money for the youth centers and also produce a calendar to sell...aside from that, I spent a few days going around with my counterpart Marika (whom I thankfully now share an office with) and advertising for the youth centers in the schools and collective centers (old hotels, hospitals, schools where IDPs now live) and that’s always interesting to get out of the office and away from my computer and into the community..

I’ve also done some work on my thesis lately. I had a successful meeting with a man in the Eurasia foundation just asking him questions about Georgia’s NGO sector. I also found some good articles on my topic, which I haven’t read yet, and am working on interview questions to ask my fellow PCVs and their directors. However, my power adaptor broke so now I can’t do any work on my computer at home until I can’t get a new one, which will be a while now that Georgia is in a state of emergency and I can’t go to Tbilisi.

As for my weekends, they have been quite filled as usual.....Sept 28th was Theas’ birthday and Clare was in Kutaisi for a final time before she headed off to England permanently.... so we had a chill supra and then went out to play billiards... The next day, the 29th, we went to a honey festival put on by fellow PCV's business in a small town called Muxuri and then that night I came back to Kutaisi for my co-worker, Onise’s, wedding. I had a great time sitting at a table and drinking with the older men in my NGO. The next Sunday was chill and then Monday I took Clare to the bus station to send her back to Tbilisi :( It really sucked to have her leave...Georgia has just not been the same! The next weekend (Oct 6th) was a Breast Cancer 5k Walk/Run hosted by JSI here in Kutaisi. My friend Robin came in for it and I spent the weekend showing him Kutaisi and some sites outside the city. The next weekend was quite uneventful except that I went to a new church on Sunday. But then the following weekend I went to Tbilisi for meetings and hung out with my host sister Tiniko in her new apartment now that she has moved there for school. I also hung out with Robin a lot. We took a trip out to the East where I had never been to see Telvai (not much there) and then to Chavchavadze’s family estate where they make the Tsinandali wine. We met up with his co-workers and went to Alaverde church with them. Then on Sunday we spent some time checking out the events surrounding Tbilisoba (Birthday of Tbilisi) in Old Tbilisi. The next weekend I went to Gori for the annual Halloween party and stayed with my host family. They were hosting the Georgian women’s Judo team in their home so that we interesting to see :) Robin and I had plans to go see some nearby caves the next day, but he surprised me by coming to the Halloween party the day before. Then the next day I just showed him the Gori and Stalin sites. The next week I decided to bring some American tradition into my family's house by buying pumpkins and carving them, so that was fun evening with Thea and my little host cousin Sasha. Pitures to come...The next weekend I spent Friday morning in Zestaphony because the director of PC international was visiting our site and we all met him and some other PC staff for lunch in Zestaphony. Robin came to Kutaisi later that day though his bus was delayed because of the protests going on in Tbilisi. We had plans to go to Vardzia caves down south but those plans fell through as it was monsoon weather and our marshutka got caught for 30 minutes in waist high water under a bridge in Zestaphony. When it happened we were ready to jump out and swim across the street because sparks and smoke were coming from under the drivers seat where he was trying to start the battery, and we were standing on our seats to avoid the calve-high water in the marshutka. Anyhew, a tractor eventually pulled us out and we just decided to get out and go to lunch instead of wait of the driver the fix the marshutka. We ended up just going to Borjomi instead, but still had a good time.

In terms of the current political situation in Georgia, basically it was a mess in Tbilisi on November 7th. I came home early that day because Robin told me the military had come out to Rustavelli Street to break up the protesters so I spent the day watching the news. Since then PC has put us on the second stage of alert called stand fast which means we cannot leave our site and can only travel between work and home. So yesterday I went home and packed my bags to prepare for leaving if necessary. It was definitely a strange feeling, because sometimes I feel fed up with being here, but when I am faced with actually leaving it makes me feel sad. But then last night I was made to go to a supra and I got so fed up with being made to go to a supra without any previous notice, and then made to eat, and then everyone yelling around me, and then knowing that I was going to have to make toasts when I didn’t feel like I that I just got up and said “you know what, I’m tired” and I left.. The first Supra I’ve ever walked out on :) I think that I’ve been here too long and am just ready to go home for Christmas and take a break, then hopefuly come back and have a fresh start...

September 22 and I am finally back in Kutaisi after a week of being in Tbilisi for Clare’s birthday and then in Gudaury for the Peace Corps Mid Service Training Conference (MST). Was welcomed home with a dance party featuring Thea, Tiniko and I, then got to play with Anita (baby host cousin) for a while, and then of course sat in the kitchen with Thea drinking tea and catching each other up on all the latest… Currently listening to an Italian Opera CD I finally broke down and spent 10 Lari on in Tblisi and loving it:) A nice change from the Russian pop and Georgian folk songs ... But since I last wrote I guess what I’ve been doing is a lot of reassessment of what I’m doing in Georgia. During MST they showed us a chart of the adjustment cycle of a PCV and apparently right now, mid point, is a down point in our service before we hit a year of highs before our Close Of Service conference (COS)…and as much as I hate placing myself in a chart like that, its pretty much accurate. The mid point of service has been very stressful I guess because although it feels like so long ago that we arrived in Georgia, time has flown by quickly too and I end up feeling like I haven’t accomplished as much as I wanted to, even though I feel like I’ve been busy every second since I arrived in this country. So I set up a meeting with Eka (director of CHCA) on the 11th and we discussed my future direction at CHCA. I rode into Tblisi with Andy that day to see his final presentation on Urban Institutes Housing Vouchers program that was done jointly with CHCA. So it was good to hear and understand that program, all the players involved, and how the government plans to take on that program. Anyway, afterwards I met for a long time with Eka and we determined that I would help Zaza in the income generation program, help CHCA in general with fundraising, and also try to create some programs in the youth centers. These are the main things I want to do with my next year in Georgia, but in addition to that I also have to write my thesis which is not where it should be…. Gotta do research and hopefully have time to create questionnaires and interview people for it… in addition, I’d like to not spend any time unemployed after PC so I need to start looking for jobs or atleast making connections. So it’s a stressful time but I think I’d be more stressed out if I had nothing to do, so I can’t win! :)

As for the past two weeks… so Andy’s program was ending and he was moving to Tblisi for a few weeks before being posted somewhere else, so Tom, Amy, Thea, and I had a farewell dinner for him at a nice restaurant here, “Chemi Sopeli” and then the next day I attended his final dinner at another nice restaurant “Evropa” with all those involved in his program. It’s sad to have him leaving after having lived in Kutaisi with all us PCVs for as long as we have been here. In addition, Clare will be leaving too…so the two people I would talk to about CHCA and stay with in Tbilisi this past year, in addition to travel with and party with, are leaving! Another mid point stresser! But Clare is coming to Kutaisi this weekend, which happens to be Thea’s birthday, so we’ll have another final hurrah…and if lucky repeat New Years dancing till 7 in the morning. Ok, so after Andy’s farewell parties, we went to Tbilisi for Clare’s birthday party which was a blast… started with a western version of a supra (still lots of food but less toasting) at the Beer Garden, and then ended with a bunch of us dancing at the Sheraton till 3 in the morning. Unfortunately I have no pics as I’m lazy to take my camera anywhere these days. Plus, I’ve been relying on Andy and his fancy camera but guess I gotta stop being lazy now that he’s leaving… Then, I was going to go back to Kutaisi, but decided it best to just stay in Tbilisi and get my mid term medical and dental exams since we all had to be in Tbilisi Wednesday to go up to Gudaury..so I got those which were very thorough, and hopefully I’m well J Then we had our mid point conference which was actually very informative and helpful, especially when they talked about “life after peace corps”.. because apparently there is one… they also tested my language ability.. little scared to get those results back since I don’t really speak Georgian during the day…!

In other things, I have a new Georgian language teacher who is excellent so I’m excited to have her. Also, Tiniko got into the University of Tbilisi which is a really good school, she also got a 50% grant, and is going to study to be a lawyer.. smart cookie.! Its sux to have her leave Kutaisi and not see her every day, but the benefit is that I now have an apartment to stay at in Tbilisi! She leaves this weekend…

My PC Program Manager is coming to my office this week….and then the Director of Peace Corps, as in the man in charge of all Peace Corps programs worldwide, will be visiting my NGO in a few weeks to talk to me about the Masters International program…shew!

Ok, not sure when I’ll get a chance to post the next blog entry…

This past weekend I and seven others went hiking in Borjomi-Khargauli national park. The first day we hiked 16 kilometers up.. way up... Then on the way back down the group split and five went back down, but Andy, Clare and I went even futher up and around the ridge line before descending. Here is Andy's website of pics from our trip :)

http://picasaweb.google.com/kavkaskiplenik/HikingInBorjomiNationalParkArtsveriPanoramaLoop

Dad and I in front of the Parliament building in Tbilisi :) Here is a pic of mine and Stephany's behinds as we look at the David Gareja monastery...

Here Stephany and dad pose in the monastery :)

Here is dad on the Azerbaijani border on the montain above the monastery.. Behind him are caves carved by the monks

Stephany and dad at the top of the mountain..Azerbaijan to the left and Georgia to the right of the ridge...

Me walking back down the Georgian side :)

Dad and I at Mtskheta Jvari overlooking the city of

Mtskheta ...

Stephany at the main bus station in Gori :)

At my home in Kutaisi: Thea, Stephany, Dad, Me, and Tiniko "Cheking-it" in the caps they had made for us:)

So this past week my dad and Stephanie came to Georgia to visit me. It was an exhausting trip for us all as I wanted to show them as much as possible in Georgia where I hang and work and live, but also wanted to take this time to see for myself some new areas of Georgia. So I picked them up from the Tbilisi airport Friday night August 17 at 4:00am, and of course dad had to start the trip by embarrassing me. When he came through the exit doors where everyone was standing waiting for their arrivals he saw me and said loudly “Dasvidanya!” which means “goodbye” not “hello” and is in Russian not Georgian :) Crazy dad… But luckily I was able to teach them some key Georgian words while they were here… Stephany is natural at languages, and dad just reverts to Spanish and sign language when he forgets words :) .. but both methods worked just fine. So that night we took the cab to hotel Sharmi in Old Tbilisi and I let them sleep till late afternoon. But then when they awoke we took a walk around Old Tbilisi and to the baths and mosque area and then took a hike up to the Narikala fortress and the aluminum Mother of Georgia statue where there were great views of Tbilisi. Then we walked back down through Old Tbilisi to Freedom Square and ended up having dinner at a new Thai restaurant on Rustaveli Avenue. Afterwards we walked up to the Philharmonic and watched the kids playing in the fountains and then walked back to Old Tbilisi were we had desert and coffee at a trendy little coffee shop.

The next day I tried to get them up early to get to David Gareja monastery, but they had had to take sleeping pills the night before to fall asleep so were quite groggy the next morning. But I woke them up anyway and we had a lovely Georgian breakfast of toast, cheese, hard-boiled egg, and tea. We then got a taxi to take us to Davit-Gareja 1.5 hours away. This monastery was out on the border with Azerbaijan. The Monastery itself was very cool as it was basically caves carved into the stone and then extended with more stone and added on in front. However, the hike above the monastery was awesome. Once at the top we were standing on the border of Azerbaijan and Georgia and there were only mountains as far as you could see and hardly any sign of civilization except the caves the monks carved into the hillside along the ridge where we walked. That day was exhausting so we went back to Tbilisi, checked out the craft exhibit by the riverside, and went to Kaiser Brau where I ordered a hamburger and coke :) Afterwards, we went to the really nice section of Old Tbilisi and sat outside and had coffee and cake. While we were sitting out there we hear a car crash, as happens often in Georgia, so Stephanie ran down to see if her EMT skills could be used. Luckilly no one seemed injured although she said it looked like the child’s head had cracked the windshield...

The next day we headed to Kutaisi though on the way stopped my Mtskheta Jvari and city, then to Gori. We took a taxi to Mtskheta Jvari and city. I had never seen the Jvari monastery on top of the hill so that was really cool for me to see the views up there. Then I showed them the church in Mtskheta, which was the city that was the first capital of Georgia. We had a small snack in front of another monastery there and thought we would have to take a marshutka back to Tbilisi before heading to Gori, but we got a cab driver to take up there for a really good price. Unfortunately my family there was hosting the Greek Judo team in their home so we couldn’t see them for fear of stressing out my host mother, but I showed them the outside of the Stalin Museum, Stalins train car, childhood home, and park..then the government building with the large statue of Stalin out front. We had a large Georgian lunch at the “green awning” place I would often eat at while living there and then caught a marshutka to Khashuri, where we caught another marshutka to Kutaisi. I had wanted to keep away from marshutkas while they were here because of their danger factor, but they are often hard to avoid. I have gotten used to riding them, so having dad and Stephany there reminded me of their danger. While INSIDE the mountain tunnel on the way to Kutaisi, our driver decided to risk our lives by passing another marshutka. Then once outside the tunnel he stopped our marshutka to get a drink of water.. and the other marshutka we had passed then passed us by.. Idiot. Anyway, once we arrived in Kutaisi, dad was shocked at the condition of the city but all was forgotten once we arrived to a large greeting by my host family :) They all kissed us hello and although dinner was already prepared and on the table they had heated the water to let us take showers first. After showers, began dad and Stephanie’s day and a half of non-stop supras. That night was their first and I had forgotten to teach them Supra etiquette but luckily it didn’t really matter because my host family is easy going. So there was no real Tamada and dad and my host parents made most of the toasts. Then dad and Stephany gave cowboy shirts to all my family and “check it” hats and earrings to my host sisters :) They tried to help clear the table, but of course Natela wouldn’t hear of it so we took a walk on Agmashinabelli Ave then came back for another miniature supra of fruit and homemade liquor with Natela in the kitchen. The next morning we awoke to Thea piling the food on the kitchen table before us. Then I showed them the city center of Kutaisi, the various building around the park, and my office and co-workers. Then we sat in the park’s central café and talked. We then went to see Natela’s hotel, and she had prepared another miniature supra for us. So we ate and toasted with her, Mr. Abram who is an old man who owns the hotel, and another coworker Irma. It was funny. Mr. Abram is set on marrying me off to a Georgian, and was also trying to steal Stephanie away while dad was off to the bathroom. After that we took a cab to the churches of Gelati and Motsameta, but then had to be back home to go to my family’s village for yet another Supra. So we all pilled in the car together and once there introduced them to my external host family. They showed dad and Stephanie the well and had them eat figs and grapes off the trees and vines. Then we sat around the table and toasted. My host uncle Tengo was Tamada and he also insists I marry a Georgian. We talked about how he wants to marry Condolzza Rice and dad quizzed him about his concrete company business. And my host grandmother flirted with dad. Natela and Tengo (hostfather) had to leave early so Tengo took us home and showed us his business on the way there.

The next morning we awoke to a supra breakfast Natela had prepared. She gave dad and Stephanie wine cups and a bottle of good wine and she and Stephanie got teary-eyed. She paid for our taxi to the bus stop and we bought a bunch of roses and returned to the house with them. We three then set off to Batumi, again via marshutka because there was no bus going that day. I told the driver and others that dad and Stephanie were scared and dad used hand signals to describe why, which was amusing to all the Georgians around us ;) The driver said he would go slow, but of course did not... Once in Batumi we had to first deal with getting a ticket back to Tbilisi the next day. We wanted to take the train, but there was no train so with the help of a Georgian man named David we got bus tickets instead. We then took a taxi to Kvariati beach with was much cleaner and nicer than Batumi. We got a hotel right on the beach which had its own restaurant so we were set. Stephanie and I swam in the ocean while dad stayed out of the sun. Then we ate on the beach, took a short walk down the beach, had dessert at another nearby restaurant, then sat on the beach a while longer in front of our hotel. There was a live band at our hotel so we tried to play chess outside and listen, but the electricity went out so we just headed to bed. It was a very nice evening on the beach and I didn’t want to leave the next day…I wished the didn’t have to leave and we could just stay there another week :( But the next morning was nice. We had Atcharuli khatchapuri and tea for breakfast, the manager came over to ask me why I speak Georgian and not Russian, then we sat on the beach talking 'till we had to go back to the station and catch our bus. The bus ride was 8 hours long, but luckily it was air conditioned and it was good weather outside for them to see the Georgian landscape one last time. Once in Tbilisi we were able to drop our stuff off at Andy’s apartment. Then we went to dinner at Maidan Restaurant in Old Tbilisi where dad kept trying to convince the staff that we bring in the wine that Natela gave us (since they couldn’t take it on the plane), but they didn’t let us. Afterwards we walked around a bit then came back for the male Georgian dancing show which is of course always impressive. We then had tea at a nearby coffee shop and then walked all the way back to Andy’s apartment in Saburtalo. They had to catch their plane that night so I told them what to say to the cab driver and then we said goodbye from the apartment. I had a great time with them and it sucked that they had to go. But luckily I will see them again soon in December for Rocky and Leigh’s wedding!

Me and Lena in a city street of Krakow :)

Me in front of the main shopping center and train station in Krakow.

The sign outside Auschwitz which reads something like "Work for Freedom"

Inside Auschwitz...

A church with a long history that I read about but now forget :) Alot of Royalty buried here...

Lena inside the top of the bell tower in the same church...

Pope John Paul studied here...

I think this was Saint John Paul and Mary Church... or something like that :)

A man with an Elvis puppet dancing to music :)

Me pouring Tea at a sushi restaurant...

View out my window of the Caucasus... alot prettier in person tho:)

Here are Lena and I in Kiev city center :)

Here are Lena and Nadya and Ura and his fiance whose name I forgot:( in their apartment where we had dinner that night

Here is Lena in front of a large church in Kiev :)

Here Lena and I prepare for life in the nunnery :)

Me in some pretty gardens outside the main church :)

Lena in our train cabin preparing morning coffee :)

Me and Lena in another large square in Kiev...

Lena and I in front of a fountain in Kiev...

Daniel (a friend of Lena and Nadya's), Lena, and Nadya at a coffee shop...

Lena and her parents outside their home in Nizhyn... :)

Its August 7th now and I’ve just returned two day ago from my last Eastern European vacation during my time in Peace Corps. I have now officially spent almost all of the money I saved for my time in Georgia...which has actually lasted me longer than I thought it would. Also, aside from the trip I will take to go to America in December for Rocky and Leigh’s wedding my vacation time is almost all spent up.

Ok so Friday the 27th I took the 4 hour bus ride to Tbilisi where I met up with Clare and Jeff for Thai food:) Mmmmm, Thai food.... I didn’t sleep that night because I had to catch a taxi at 2 for my flight at 4. So I took the 2 hour trip on Ukrainian International that night and with the time change I ended up arriving in Kiev at 5ish. Arriving in Kiev it reminded me a lot of Georgia...in a Post Soviet way, but walking around Kiev that day I could tell that it was a lot more western in many ways than Tbilisi. There were more clothing shops and more kinds of food and coffee shops and the way people dressed was a lot less conservative... a lot of very short shorts and skirts and half shirts going around...very hip young crowd... :) Anyway! The main part of the trip was seeing Lena, and that was great...it didn’t seem like we hadn’t seen each other in a year... just picked up where we left off :) Anyhew, we spent much of that day (Me, Lena, and her friend Nadya) just walking around Kiev and looking for ATMs for Lena because the ATMs didn’t seem to want to take her card and give her money and she needed a lot of money for a trip she and Nadya are going on to Spain in two weeks. That night we went back to Nadya’s place and her brother, Ura, who I had met before in Denver, who lived upstairs, invited us up to his place. He had just returned from a trip with his girlfriend, and he had just proposed to her so she was moving into his place and they invited us over for a house warming. They had good cheese and meat and wine that I hadn’t had in a while and we just sat around talking and watching videos of their vacation. But, while we were there, my dad called Lena’s cell phone to tell me that my grandfather had died a few hours ago. I think we were all anticipating it, but it still made me really sad and it was even more difficult being in a foreign country that wasn’t the one I was even currently living in. But at least I was with Lena and others I felt like I knew. So that cut the night short, and we just went back to Nadya’s place and watched a movie and went to sleep. The next day we walked around Kiev a lot more. Only Lena and I went and we visited a small shopping district and lot of churches and historical sites. I bought a candle for my grandfather at a monastery, but couldn’t find anywhere to light it so I ended up carrying it around the city for a while till I finally lit it in St. Michael’s church in front of the painting of Jesus. We visited a few more churches and government buildings and squares and then stopped to eat at TGI Fridays. I had nachos:) Mmmmm...hadn't had those in a year and some... Afterwards, we went back to Nadyas and got our stuff and got on the train to Nizhyn which is a town outside of Kiev where Lena grew up and where her family lives. Her parents picked us up at the station and gave me really pretty flowers :) They were very cool and friendly people and I wish I could have spent more time there. I also wish I hadn’t eaten so much at TGI Fridays because her mom had prepared a very tasty big Ukranian meal for us. Her mom has a large garden where she grows a lot of her own fruits and vegetables and cooks from that :) I also met her younger brother Sasha who was quiet and too shy to speak English to me and spent a lot of time on his computer but seemed really nice. The next day Lena and I went into the city of Nizhyn and spent the day in the salon getting manicures and pedicures and I got my hair cut :) It was a really cute, pretty, and clean city. We then had another nice meal prepared by her mother and then we all piled in the car because her parents wanted to buy some honey from a friend. It started to thunderstorm, which is also somethingI hadn't experienced in a while, but we still drove to the local university to check it out. Her mom was singing the whole time which was really cool and pretty, but cracked us up at the same time:) I decided they could start a family business giving tours of Nizhyn together with the Osadcha family singers :) The next morning we headed out early for Kiev again to catch the train to Poland. We luckily ended up with our own room on the train even though it was made for three people. We were supposed to have another person in our room, but they never showed up. However when we got close to Krakow this college aged boy came to our room asking if he could hang out with us. Thus began a very awkward hour of him trying to practice his English on us and us trying to give subtle hints that we had had enough of his presence...like saying how tired we were or getting up and going into the hallway. I finally had to just get him into the hallway and then Lena and I quickly went in and started unfolding the beds. When he said, “ok, I won’t bother anymore” we were like “oh, you’re no bother”...while simultaneously closing the door in his face... then every time after that when we tried to go in the hallways he was standing there ready to try to give us helpful information about Poland. So my first impression of Poles...nice people but tend to overstay their welcome. Once we arrived in Poland the man who owned the apartment we stayed in talked alot as well though not nearly so much as our train friend. So for or first night in Poland, Lena and I went to the city center and just walked around the main square where there looked like there had been a bike tournament a few hours earlier. We had Italian food and wine and enjoyed the view. The next day we visited Auschwitz, which was a 1.5 hour bus ride away. It was a place I never thought I would go to, but it was an interesting trip and I'm glad I went there. We were there 2 hours, though probably could have spent another hour. However, we had taken our time that morning and had to deal with Lena’s travelers checks so we had arrived late and had to kind of rush through the second part. Anyway, hard to imagine the things that happened there... Afterwards, we went back to our apartment and then back out to the city. However we got to the city late and spent so much time looking for the right place to eat that all the restaurants had closed down and we had to end up going to McDonalds ...bummer, but thank goodness for McDonalds b/c we might have starved that night :) Afterwards we went around looking for a happening bar to chill in, but like dinner, that didn’t pan out either, haha... Krakow on a Thursday night is not exactly happening unless you’re a college student looking for a club. So we tried to walk back, but ended up walking the wrong direction and decided to take a taxi in the end :)

The next day we decided to take a tour of the city based on some guide books we bought the day before. We started at the Wawel Castle and made our way up the main road to the city center reading about various historical places, most of which we had no clue about:) That night was very good and chill. We ate sushi and then found a cool jazz bar to go to:) The next day we had some time before we went to the station to go back to Kiev so we tried to go visit the salt mines which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. But we ended up waiting at the wrong level in bus stop # 2 .. we didn't clue in to the fact that it said that bus was going to England and France...Hello Annie and Lena! So we missed the mines and spent the last hour or so shopping and doing last minutes stuff. I bought a few new clothing items which was really nice since I hadn't really been shopping in while.. Anyway, our train to Kiev was 30 minutes late so we waited in the cold just talking and laughing till it came. Then we had to share our room with an older lady till midnightish, but then she got off and we stayed up a little while later talking.. When we arrived I checked e-mail and we made aCD of all our pictures and then Lena put me on a marshutka to the airport :) It was a great trip and I will miss my roomie! ;)

OK, these past two weeks Me and 4 other PCVs along with 7 Counselors and 7 Junior Counselors finally held GLOW camp in Bakuraini. GLOW stands for "Girls Leading Our World" and it is a summer leadership camp for girls aged 13-16. There are 2, 4-day long camps each of which is attended by 40 girls. I did logistics for the camp which meant I had to organize the transportation and lodging for everyone and then do a number of odd jobs during the camp like come up the night before to organize and make posters and make roommate and color group lists. The camp was exhausting, but I think it went really well...

Here are some pics from the first camp...

Here are me, Lyssa, and Liz in front of the welcome sign we made. It says "ketili ikos tkveni mobrdzandit GLOW banakshi".."warm welcome to GLOW camp". I painted the butterfly :)

The mornin excercises were led by me in the beginning, but it was decided that I was wearing the girls out so the Junior counselors led them from there on out...here are some of the campers exercising.

The girls were divided into color groups and made signs for their groups. Here is yellow finishing up their sign.

We had competitions like tug of war too. Here are the two strongest girls battling it out in the end...

Here we are during the disco tech... all girls piled on me against a wall... :)

Here is a view from the confrence room of our hotel... :)

We had theatre too where the girls had to act out stories that we gave them ;)

We went on a hike one day... here's me and a group of girls stopping for a pic :)

It began to rain so the girls gathered the plastic picnic table cloths for shelter...

We put giant puzzle pieces on the wall for the girls to sign for eachother...

We had "olympic" games too like balloon toss...

That was the end of first camp...!! Then it started all over again!!

Here are all of us PCVS and Georgian counselors...

Oh and the First Lady, Sandra, came to our Second camp... She is third from right. Our PC Country Director, Kathleen, is third from left... :)

So two weekends ago was my one year anniversary in Georgia.. so we all went to Tbilisi for a 1 year party and to meet the new volutneers. On the way I stopped in Gori to see my old host family. On Saturday Clare and Ian and Jeff met me in Gori for a hike up to Gori Jvari. Here is a view of Gori from the top...

Here are Clare and I at the top...

Here are Jeff and Jobie at the top...

Here is a pic of the Church looking back up at it...

Her are pics from the Anniversary dinner. Tom and Amy... :)

Ian, Me, and Seke...

The cluster mates... (we three trained together in Gori) Seke, Me, and Tom...

Jeff, Tom, and Amy

A few weekends ago (June 8-10) I went with my friend Andy to Armenia. Andy was a PCV there a couple of years ago so he’s fluent in Armenian and makes for a great tour guide. The rest of my Kutaisi group had already gone with Andy this past year, but I missed that trip somehow… Anyway, Andy was nice enough to take me again:) So on Thursday we stayed in Tbilisi and then early Friday morning we took a cab from Tbilisi to Yerevan. Minus the fast driving and smoking by the driver, the drive there was beautiful. When you first enter Armenia from Georgia you go through a deep gorge then emerge into green green woods and then out into rolling green treeless hills. I had my first Armenian kabob at a roadside stand there in the gorge which was quite excellent. It was raining at the beginning of our trip from Tbilisi but by the end of our trip it had quit. We made it almost to Yerevan when at tire blew, so we dealt with that for a half hour and then finally made it to the city.

Andy has a number of PCV friends from his group still living full or part time in Armenia. One friend, older man named Peter, met us at the Marriot in Republic square where he has a little shop selling crafts done by villagers. It seems to be a very successful business of teaching crafts to villagers and then selling their crafts in Yerevan and abroad. We dropped our bags in his renovated soviet style apartment and then went to eat at a coffee shop book store. Here I had pancakes with REAL maple syrup. I hadn’t had those in a year… Mmmm… I drank tap water here though which may have had something to do with me being sick the rest of the trip. Later on in the day I began to feel really bad and ended up with sharp stomach pains the rest of the trip. Any hew, after lunch we visited two really cool old churches called Geghard monastery and Garni temple. Geghard monastery is named for the lance that pierced Christ’s side because apparently it was brought here after the crucifixion, though it is no longer here. It is very cave-like as it is built into the side of a rocky mountain. Inside it resembles Georgian churches with the icons and candles.. Or maybe I should say the Georgian churches resemble Armenian as Armenia was the first country to adopt Christianity as a religion. Georgia was the second. Anyway, it was very beautiful. Here is a pic of a small chapel inside a cave outside the church...

Garni was beautiful as well though a bit out of place it seemed since it resembles a roman temple…Don’t know much else about it:)

Here is a pic of Andy and I near the Temple..

But that’s when I started to feel really sick too. We took some really pretty pictures and luckily found a nice bathroom and then headed on to Yerevan where I rested for a few hours. The plan was to go to a Mexican restaurant in Yerevan afterwards, so I went with them, but started feeling really bad again and had to go back to the apartment... so I slept it off that night and the next morning we headed to the town of Dilijon where Andy did his PC service. I was feeling a little better and the more water I drank the better I felt so we think in the end that I might have just been dehydrated. Dilijon was really pretty as well! We arrived and everyone in town welcomed Andy back like a local hero :) We met up with his Armenian counterpart and hung out at his house for a while. While we were waiting for his kids to wake up, Andy and I took a small hike to a nearby view...where we took pictures.... :)

Here is a pic of Andy's counterpart's son Ravi hiding behind the door:)

When we got back his counterpart and family took us up into the mountains for a bar-b-q. We saw some very old churches up there and then picnicked at a private fish farm. Very pretty and really good food! And of course many toasts, but I didn’t drink because my stomach hurt and because I just can’t do shots of vodka... it was a family recipe and it smelled SO strong... I also came across a Georgian speaker while there and I realized how weird it is going to be to leave Georgia because only after 2 days it was so exciting to hear Georgian again... Here is his counterpart slicing meet before the first toast :)

Here is Ravi drinking Coke from a shot cup..

Here is Andy's picture site of our trip:)

http://picasaweb.google.com/kavkaskiplenik/TripToArmeniaWithAnnie