Friends and family,

Today, I leave for Thailand in exactly one month. I am excited to once again live in another country. Georgia, however, will not be forgotten. I met wonderful people in the Republic of Georgia, I will always remember the friends I made there. My summer in the small and mighty country has taught me many lessons that I will carry through life.

So I am off to Thailand, with the memories of Georgia and the 2008 Presidential Campaign (I interned for the "Campaign for Change" in Missouri) with me to teach and be taught more lessons about life. I am participating in the Community Development program and am excited to work and live with people in a region in Thailand.

I had a very nice holiday season but throughout it my boyfriend (who also served in Georgia) and I could not help but wonder how our friends in Georgia were doing four months after the Russian invasion.

Until next time,

Heather

We have been in Armenia for a week at a very nice hotel. They have been keeping us busy, which is a good thing, but I am starting to get bored and antsy. We took a cultural trip to a pagan temple and a beautiful old church on Friday, then on Saturday we went to the capital, Yerevan. We get to go back this weekend. It's a very nice city. There were many outdoor cafes and it was much cleaner than Tbilisi.

Right now, the PC Georgia volunteers are organizing olympic games, the regions of Georgia are competing against each other. Unfortunately, I have a minor kidney infection so I shouldnt do any physical activities (I am on anitboitics and am doing fine). Tomorrow we are going Lake Savan, its suppose to be beautiful. I am looking forward to getting out of the hotel.

I think they will start sending people home not this Friday, but next Friday. The Russians are not leaving! I have a couple ideas in mind to keep myself busy until I receieve a new assignment or figure out something else.

This experience has been crazy, I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. The people I met here are amazing, Georgians are amazing and I wil be back someday. Its funny to think that I was a part of history and one day I will be able to tell my children and grandchildren (or at least my nieces and nephews) that I was in Georgia when Russia invaded in 2008.

Everyone is safe and sound. We crossed the border yesterday and are now in Armenia. I was never in any real danger. I will keep everyone posted with any new developments.

Keep Georgia on your mind,

Heather

Well a few things have happened since I posted last. I am loving it here more and more everyday. I went to a big Georgian Wedding in Agara, there were close to 300 people there! The Georgian dance was very fun to watch. I dance with a lot of the girls from my village, it was fun. My host mom's nephew died, he was an only child. He was only 19. He drowned swimming in the Black Sea. I helped my Host Mom make a presentation for a program she is trying to start in her school. She has to present it to Gori and if they like it they will give her funding. Lets keep our fingers crossed! Next week I will give a training in the school about how to start after school programs. There is a big drug problem in Agara because there isn't much to do, so we are hoping this may get them thinking about how to create things for the kids to do. and now the fun stuff:

I got my assignment Friday! I will live in Poti, it is a port city right off the coast of the Black Sea! I will work for an NGO called MEGA, it works on Business Development, Gender issues, and youth development. They just ended a project on domestic violence, giving women free legal council, and they want me to help them start a program that trains women in starting their own business so they are not economically dependent on men!! I am so excited! We would train them in computer skills, management, and marketing so they can get loans easier. They are also interested in starting English classes and computer classes for the youth here as well. I will help them run a AIDS/Healthy living for the university students here. Poti has one of the largest PLWA population in Georgia.

My host family will be great. I live in a big house with grandpa, grandma, mother, father, and 3 year old sister. I am a 10 min walk from the shore and a nice park (where I will hopefully start running) Poti is a large city, with about 47,000 people. It has subtropical weather so the winters will not be as cold, but still cold.

Funny Story time:

My host mom leaves for Tblisi at 7:00am, so I needed to get up and fix breakfast all by myself...funny, i know, at 22 years old, So I get up, get dressed, and walk into the kitchen to hear water running. I thought, oh, my host mom must be here. I walk into the hallway and its flooded! I open the abazana (washroom) and a waterfall is coming down from the ceiling! I go wake up my host dad, but we have no communication what-so-ever so I am just saying tskali (water)..pointing up...abazanashi(in the washroom)...then making hand motions that mean water is coming down from the ceiling(to me anyway). No doubt, he is confused! We go see it and the water stops and he doesn't know what to do and asks me where my host mom was and why she was in Tblisi. I am like even if I knew I couldn't tell you!! Well I get it all cleaned up (by carrying a heavy water soaked hallway rug out to the line and taking small towel and ringing it out every 2 minutes while my host dad was watching) so my host mom wont come home to a flooded house!

Well, training is half way done, and the end cannot come soon enough, they keep us so busy! I am doing well in language class. It is difficult not to get discouraged and just give up, but I am hanging in there. I just had my interview for final site placement, so in two weeks I find out where I will be spending my next two years! I am very excited to find out. I will let everyone know as soon as possible.This week I am job shadowing a current volunteer who works at a women's wellness NGO, it is very interesting. I think this is the type of work that I will be doing. She teaches women about breast cancer awareness and reproductive health. Information that is greatly needed throughout Georgia! In September, I plan to help with and walk in the Breast Cancer Awareness walk, work at the Girls Sports Camp, and Girls camp called GLOW. These two years are just going to fly by!

Not much else has been going on, I am making a trip up to the mountains soon with some friends here in a couple of weeks. I have been taking pictures I will try to get them up soon!

I have been traveling a little bit, I hiked up a fort in Gori and took some wonderful pictures. But mostly I have been hanging out in Agara.

I went to buy shoes at the bazaar and let me tell you that was funny! There was a sticker on the bottom of the shoe that said 6, and I thought that meant 6 GEL, but really it meant the size! The sizes are usually in 34-36, not 6 or 7. So there was this huge confusion on why the woman wanted 20GEL from me and not 12GEL, so I told her that I don't want them for 20GEL and gave her 15GEL, she was very mad at me and tossed the shoes at me and waved me off. I was like oh well, I got a cheaper price!

My hair situation has gotten better! haha, I actually don't mind the bucket baths anymore, there is a certain escape that happens. Another volunteer loves washing her clothes by hand, she finds it therapeutic. Its always the little things here!

I am thinking about all of you!

Heather

It feels like I have been here a month, I am already in the swing of things. I met my host family on Saturday. I live with only a mom and dad, they do not have kids. It’s a small house with only one bedroom. My parents sleep on the bed in the living room, I feel kind of bad. I have an indoor flush toilet, so that is very nice. A girl that lives just down the street has a very muddy outhouse, so I lucked out. There is no hot running water so to shower I heat a big pot of water on the stove and carry it into the bathroom (not where the toilet is). I stand in a bucket and pour the water over me with a smaller bucket. It is quite a task. I have not yet figured out how to wash my hair yet; it’s so greasy I could butter bread with it! I will find out the best way to do it, I am still thinking I could cut it short, my host mom cuts all the women’s hair in the village so it would be the perfect time to do it if I wanted to! I have 10 weeks to decide. My host family is warm and friendly.My host dad is very funny; he works at the sugar factory here in town. My host mom is a Russian and German teacher; they are very patient with me and my Georgian! They call me Helda instead of Hezeri, because even that is too hard to say. So for the next two years I will be known as Helda in Georgia, I love it.

The food is good and plenty! I am pretty sure I am going to put on 20 pounds while I am here. The Georgians love to eat and drink. The wine here is very good and all home made. Most of the stuff here is homemade: the cheese, butter, honey. The vegetables are all grown in their backyards, I have fresh eggs from our chickens every morning. Since there is a sugar factor everything has sugar in it! Tea, hot chocolate, cakes, so much sugar and salt, since that is the only preservative they have here. Mom, you would be jealous, I had fresh green tea from the garden before bed at night, its so good, especially with the homemade honey! I must say though I leave the meat alone, all it does is upset my stomach. My typical day is four hours of Georgian lessons in the morning, an hour and a half for lunch then 3.5 hours of business training. This week at BSE we learned about strategic planning and talked with current NGOs that we may be working with. There is one called Save the Children that works with disabled children and women that I may look into working with while I am here. We will see!Heather

I am off to the Republic of Georgia in two weeks. It is unbelievable that I am going to be a Peace Corps volunteer, instead of just wanting to be one someday. Its so close. It seems like yesterday that I was standing in the hallway on the third floor in Old Main opening up my invitation packet. Georgia? I thought. Now, I am so excited to get to know more about this tiny former Soviet-satellite state.

I call my blog Georgia on My Mind because when I called my mom to tell her, the first thing she did was start singing Ray Charles. She is great. Plus, it works because the first reaction I get from people when I tell them I am going to Georgia is, "Like the state?"

So here it is, my first blog.

Until next time,

Heather