As our time here is winding down (50 days!), I am beginning to mark time by completed projects. This past week was a huge milestone as I finally finished a project I have been leading since January. Interestingly enough, all of my secondary projects have related to health education, and this one is no exception.After surveying PCVs, I realized that the biggest barrier to PCVs leading health education in their communities relates to the fact that Americans, especially young Americans, are not seen as experts on health here. Fair enough. When people have held a certain belief about health their whole lives, it's going to take a lot more than a 25 year old American to change their minds. The information really needs to come from Georgian health professionals, but legitimate ones don't exist outside of the major cities. Taking these doctors to dozens of villages is totally impractical. So I thought, what if there was a way to record these doctors and provide the videos along with supplemental material to PCVs. They could then play the video where a Georgian doctor or health professional would deliver the health information, with the PCV just leading a discussion and activities afterwards that related to the lecture. It seemed like the communities would be much more willing to accept the information in this format.Thus we (Peace Corps Life Skills Committee) kicked off a 5 month project where we created 12 training modules in Georgian on the following health topics: Alcohol Awareness, Reproductive Health, Women's Health, Driving Safety, Tobacco Awareness, Drug Awareness and Peer Pressure, Physical Fitness and Nutrition, Mental/Emotional Health & Self-Esteem, Peer Education, Hygiene and Communicable Diseases, Men's Health, and HIV/AIDS. We were fortunate to have contacts with some great organizations and in February and March we filmed the lectures. Then we worked on putting together all the companion guide materials in English and Georgian so that each module contains important facts, discussion questions and suggested activities.Meanwhile, our expert editor was busy putting together all the video clips and companion guides onto a DVD. And by expert editor, I mean Jeff! He worked so hard on helping us with this project, and he's the reason the video came together and looks as good as it does. Of course what seemed to be totally straightforward wasn't at all, and so he had to do a lot of creative problem solving with technology. I like to think we gave him good stories for his future interviews.We had some last minute scrambling, but in the end we finished our project. We're having 200 copies made of the DVD so that we can distribute them to all PCVs and trainees for use in their communities. The organizations that helped us also expressed interest in using the DVDs. Even the Ministry of Education in the Georgian government wants to see the DVD. Apparently this is a totally unique idea in Georgia and the first of its kind. Hopefully it will be useful for everyone and health education in regions will be much more possible.So the Rutherford partnership turned into a great Peace Corps accomplishment!~ http://heather-jeff.blogspot.com

The Georgian political system consists of the National Party, which enjoys over 70% of the people's support, and dozens of small, unorganized parties called opposition parties. For the most part the platforms of these opposition parties consist solely of criticizing the National Party and the current leadership. They never express ideas or even put forward a viable candidate. Instead their mantra is kick out the current leadership and vote for us. We have to be better than they were! They also love to stage rallies and protests. In the summer of 2009 when we arrived in country the main street of Tbilisi was shut down for months as the opposition parties set up booths in the street in front of the parliament building. There they staged rallies and protests. The current government ignored them and the city yawned and just went around the closed street. When U.S. VP Biden came late that summer, the booths along with the protesters were removed overnight. Since then the political stage has been relatively quiet.But in the last few weeks, things have started heating up in preparation for May 26, the Georgian Independence Day. And the opposition parties are at it again! One day we had bus loads full of people driving through Telavi, waving opposition party flags and cheering on their way to a rally near our town square. We were surprised so many people turned out with such enthusiasm until one of our friends told us it's a well-known fact that this particular opposition party pays people 10 lari to show up. I would cheer if I was earning 10 lari to stand in the sunshine too! Peace Corps tells us to stay away from any rallies, protests and demonstrations which is fine by me. The last thing I want is to be captured on camera and asked to explain my opinion of Georgian politics as a token American.Things got even more interesting last weekend as protests in Tbilisi resulted in some minor altercations with police. A few people were injured, and a few cars got smashed. To me it seemed mild compared to the celebrations in LA after a Lakers victory. We happened to be in Tbilisi over the weekend, but weren't anywhere near the events. Nonetheless our PC safety and security officer requested on Sunday morning that we leave Tbilisi immediately. We were a little surprised, but mostly just annoyed that the protests kept us from getting McDonald's for lunch. On Monday we were officially put on alert and travel to or even through Tbilisi was prohibited. For those of us in the East, our travel becomes pretty limited because there's no way to get to the rest of the country except through Tbilisi.This past weekend also happened to be the weekend that the newest group of PCVs (G11s) were visiting sites all over Georgia for job shadowing. We had 2 people with us in Telavi who were watching the unfolding events with some alarm. They were supposed to go back to their training site (on the other side of Tbilisi) on Wednesday. Fearing further escalation on Wednesday, the trainees were told to rendezvous in a central location on Tuesday, and proceeded back to their training sites with a PC escort a day early. The trainees in our region were especially bummed out because a bunch of us had planned a wine tour and tasting for them on Tuesday which they had to miss. So they joined our protest of the protests.As I write this today, the expected escalation has yet to materialize. The crowds are trickling away and the opposition party leaders are almost pleading with people to come out and join their rally. But I think most Georgians, not knowing what these leaders stand for, are pretty tired of these pointless protests. There's a year left of the current president's term and he certainly has no intention of resigning just because there's a few people shouting in the streets. He was elected in a democratic election and his party still enjoys over 70% approval. As for us PCVs, we just want to be able to get back into Tbilisi. McDonald's awaits!~ http://heather-jeff.blogspot.com

On Saturday Jeff and I had the chance to help a couple of our friends with a spelling bee they organized. Now, a spelling bee is a totally foreign concept in Georgia. Even spelling itself is a totally foreign concept to Georgians. The one thing easy about their language is that it is phonetic. You write what you hear. Done. (Unless you're a foreigner and you can't hear the difference between their four "k" sounds.) 4 PCVs and the government English teacher volunteers in their towns introduced the concept and held spelling bees at their schools. Then the top students from each class in each school all gathered together at the regional center for the big spelling competition. Overall it was a great project as it gave the kids a chance to do something fun and educational. Here are my observations from the event.1. If you make learning fun, the kids are eager to participate. These kids were so excited to be at the competition. They had studied hard, and really wanted to do well. When we gave out certificates and some small prizes to the winners at the end they cheered for their friends and everyone had big smiles on their faces. A reward for an accomplishment? They loved it!2. Georgian kids can memorize! There was a word list for each grade that was given to the students ahead of time. Each list had at least 60 words on it. Usually in each grade there were 2-3 students going back and forth spelling everything correctly. That's a lot of words and letters to remember!3. Georgian kids don't actually know how to spell. Once it became clear that they knew every word on the list they had been given, we moved up to words for the next grade level. These words were generally not that much harder than the ones they had been spelling but all of a sudden they were clueless. For example one kid, after standing with a blank stare on his face for about 5 minutes, started spelling refrigerator V...L....Really? 4. Since they were trying to spell in a foreign language, we let the kids write the words first if they wanted, and then they could just read them out loud. But writing the word first doesn't help if they later can't read their own handwriting and don't engage their brain. Another girl when trying to spell refrigerator, spelled it RefrigeratoN. Really?5. Everything involves a supra. After the competition was over, each school broke off into its own group and ate khinkali! At least they weren't drinking. Although it would have been nice for the kids to mingle with kids from other schools in other towns, it was still a great experience for them.~ http://heather-jeff.blogspot.com

One of the surprising things about Georgia is that America and Americans are on the news every day. The U.S. Ambassador is a celebrity and his actions are carefully recorded, along with broader U.S. policy and important happenings. Sometimes this is good, such as when the ambassador or Obama is sending an important message about human rights. Other times it's not so good. For example, last "black Friday" I was a bit dismayed to see lines of people holding tvs and computers and pushing each other in line at Wal Mart. I think we can all agree that's hardly an image we want to proudly broadcast to the world.Yes America gives a lot of money to Georgia and in the words of Georgians "Georgia and America are special friends". So you can explain their interest in America as self-serving and merely financial. But I think it's more than that. Despite it's problems America is a great country. Our nation is a leader, a beacon of freedom, unlimited opportunity, and wealth. People in many countries around the world can only dream of what we take for granted. We respect the rights of our own citizens and fight to defend the rights of the oppressed around the world. We hold ourselves up to be an example of moral behavior, and the world looks to us to be this example.Which is why it is so troubling for me to see the celebration in the wake of Osama bin Laden's death. Is it a great accomplishment for our military? Absolutely. Is the world better off without him? Yes. Should we as a country be celebrating his death and the death of others around him? No. As a disclaimer, I wasn't personally affected by the events of 9/11 and I can only imagine what it must have been like to lose a family member or friend that day. I'm sure that those who were personally affected feel relief, and probably joy that justice was finally served. But what I'm talking about is 1,000s of regular Americans out celebrating in the streets and our major media outlets covering the celebrations with glee. How is this any different than citizens of the Middle East dancing and singing in the streets, and their news outlets triumphantly projecting these images around the world? Remember how outraged we all were?I've heard people refer back to those celebrations as the reason we should celebrate now. It's an attitude of revenge - haha, they're getting what they deserve. Maybe it's fair, but I believe we are better than that. The world holds America, and America holds itself, to a higher standard. It's time we took this responsibility seriously. Both Obama and former president Bush issued appropriate, measured statements about the incident. It's the people that went nuts! Georgia, a country that most Americans couldn't pick out on a map, is watching. You can be sure that countries in the Middle East and around the world are watching. Let's set an example worthy of being called American.~ http://heather-jeff.blogspot.com

Here's a few new pictures from Telavi and Batumi. Enjoy!Telavi 2011Batumi 2011~ http://heather-jeff.blogspot.com

Hope everyone had a happy and blessed Easter!Our 2nd Easter in Georgia has come and gone, and we celebrated it the same way as last year by escaping to Batumi on the Black Sea. Despite the millions of lari poured into the city as part of the government's "Batumi Miracle", the city looked almost exactly the same as last year. There were a few more abandoned buildings and a few more skeleton hotels and monuments going up. There were a few more paved streets, but many more that looked like they had just managed to survive a zombie apocalypse. Although it certainly is no model city, it was nice to get away for the 4 day weekend and see some new scenery.The rest of Georgia celebrated Easter a bit differently, and here's a rundown of the basic Easter traditions. On Red Friday (Good Friday for us) people go to church which features the usual reading and chanting by the priest. Saturday night around 11pm people start going to church where they stay until about 4am. Interestingly enough, at least 75% of the church-going population is female. From 4am until early afternoon it's nap time until the women have to start preparing the Easter supra. The Easter supra features all the usual foods including the traditional Easter aspic which is meat fat suspended in clear gelatin. Man they love that stuff.The Easter supra also marks the end of a 40 day fast, one of the longest fasts on the calendar. I don't know exactly how many fasts there are on the calendar - but there are 2 long ones (Christmas and Easter) and at least 5-6 shorter ones. Basically there's almost always a Georgian fasting for one reason or another. Fasting is an interesting thing here. Maybe only one member of a family will fast. Some people observe only one or two fasts in a year. Again it's usually the women who fast. No one really knows why they fast, and if you ask people about it you get many different answers. Here's what I've been able to figure out. If you want to fast you have to get permission from the priest. If you don't get permission it's worse to fast than not to fast at all. Traditionally it means no meat and no dairy for the duration of the fast. But you can receive special medical dispensation which will allow you to have cheese and whatever else you want. Some people say everyone can and should fast. Others say you only need to fast if you've done something really bad. During lent some people fasted every day, but others only avoided meat and dairy on Wednesdays and Fridays. One of my counterparts says it's forbidden for women to wear pants on Wed and Fri while fasting and she always wore a skirt. Other women I talked to said they had never heard of that.This culture of fasting has spawned a whole line of products here in Georgia - samartkhvo, meaning for the fast. There's fasting mayonnaise (heaven forbid you go without mayo!), fasting pastries, pizza and even fasting shaurma. Now I'm all for the entrepreneurial spirit, but doesn't it kind of defeat the purpose of the fast if you can still eat whatever you want so long as it's samartkhvo? When I went to McDonald's in Tbilisi last weekend I was stuck behind a woman asking what on the menu was samartkhvo. She finally settled on coffee and a cherry pie. So even in the land of cheeseburgers, something can always be found.Once all the supras are finished on Easter Sunday, it's time for Easter Monday, also known as the day of the dead. On this day families take flowers and food to the graves of their relatives. They hang out in the graveyards and have mini-supras. Other Easter traditions involve baking pascas which are dry cakes with raisins that look like mini castle turrets. They also hard boil and dye Easter eggs, but only in red using beet juice to symbolize the blood of Christ. On Easter kids will choose an egg, then bang someone else's egg end to end. If your egg cracks the shell of the other person's egg with your egg shell remaining intact then you are the winner. We did eat some pasca and eggs. 2nd Easter - check!~ http://heather-jeff.blogspot.com

The Georgians have a legend about how they first settled in their lands. They're very proud of this story and we've heard it many times since being here. At first I thought it was cute but now I see it in a whole new light. Since I fear I'm getting way too cynical for my own good I won't write any snarky comments about my new views on the story. Instead I simply leave you with the story so you can judge for yourselves.According to ancient tradition, when God was giving land to the peoples of the world, the Georgians were busy eating, drinking and feasting at a supra according to their national tradition. When they finally approached God to receive their land it was too late. All the land had been given away and there was no land left for the Georgians. The Georgians told God that they had been toasting to his health and invited him to join them at their supra. God had such a good time at the Georgians' table that he gave them all the land he had been saving for himself. This is why Georgia is God’s own country.~ http://heather-jeff.blogspot.com

I am in the process of trying to wrap up my 2nd SPA project. SPA projects are small community projects where PCVs and community members write a proposal, and can receive funding from Peace Corps if the project proposals are accepted. You may remember that Jeff and I both did one of these projects last summer/fall. Being extra ambitious (or foolish) I decided to take on a 2nd one, and it hasn't gone nearly as smoothly as my first. When I communicated to our villages last fall that I was accepting ideas for projects I got 2 applications that were both equally terrible. After seeing the terrible applications I didn't want to work with either village, but my co-workers talked me into a new idea - combining the 2 projects into one decent idea. So we (mainly me) worked on a new proposal and Peace Corps liked the idea and funded the combined project.The project establishes two handicraft workshops in 2 villages. One village (Eniseli) has no experience at all with this kind of thing and so they started a basic shop for making pressed wool items. These items are really popular here. They're also easy to make as you just need the wool, warm water and some soap. The second village already has experience with making these, and they offered to share their expertise with this village. (Meaning we told them they had to if they wanted their own new workshop funded). In return the 2nd village (Napareuli) got a quilting workshop which involved purchasing sewing machines and other equipment. Overall the budget for the project is about $2700. In both villages 15 women and 15 older girls were supposed to receive the training. The idea being that they could then work on their own to make things they can sell, and have a small income for their families. Seems pretty simple right?Wrong. Most of you have heard our stories about the Georgian work ethic and their inability to plan ahead, stick to a time line, or budget appropriately. Never mind other things like monitoring and evaluation which the project requires. I was gone the month of January on vacation and when I came back in February they had done...nothing. The project was supposed to start at the end of December and has to be finished by the end of May. Ordinarily the ending time isn't critical on these projects, but I need to have time to write the final report and have everything cleared by Washington DC before I can leave country. So this project must finish on time!!! Otherwise Jeff will be off traveling in Europe by himself while I'm stuck here with the mess. =)From February on I have made sure that I meet with them 2-3 times a month and give them specific tasks to accomplish in those two weeks. In other words I am micro-managing them to death. They don't like it very much, but once they were held accountable progress happened. Some equipment was purchased and training started although each village could only manage to find 10 women to attend training instead of the 15. When I asked them about it they were so surprised that they were supposed to have 15. They wrote the project!!!!! They said there aren't any other women in the villages that want the training, which I think is ridiculous but I decided just to let that one go. I think we'll have more than 15 children from each village so we'll make up our numbers there. Good enough for Georgia. They were still dragging their feet on a few things and so I told them at our last meeting that Peace Corps says if the money isn't spent by the end of May the villages lose the money. It was a little white lie, but it sure kicked them into gear! Now, with just a little over a month left, I feel much more confident that this project will actually finish on time.You can see more pictures of the workshops and some of the finished products by following the Heather's Work link.~ http://heather-jeff.blogspot.com

I’m sitting here totally cracking up over what’s printed on my notepad purchased in Georgia but produced in China. “Yayuan notebooks, made with future technology, for tomorrow’s most outstanding achievers.” And speaking of tomorrow’s most outstanding achievers…I’ve had the chance to work with some Georgian youth recently and from my experience so far I have to say that about 1 in 30 can be classified as an outstanding achiever.One of my NGO’s development activities that I am involved with is setting up journalism and eco-clubs for youth in the target villages. The idea is to give kids from 7th grade-11th grade something to do and give them a voice in community development. It’s also a good place for them to learn teamwork, leadership and organization skills which they don’t get from school. Unfortunately the clubs haven’t exactly been a huge success. The staff members here are already pretty busy with running 3 large programs in 21 villages, and these students have little motivation and very few have any existing skills. Really working with these students would involve regular meetings in the communities, something my counterparts just don’t have the time to do. So in general, the clubs do about one activity (usually a newsletter or cleaning up the church yard) every 6 months. It drives me crazy that there’s no accountability for these kids; they’re going to need to learn responsibility if they’re going to help their country develop. But it’s out of my hands and I’ve come to realize something is better than nothing. At least the few smart, motivated kids are doing some small things and gaining some great experience. In this environment I was asked to teach the students how to write a CV. Now I don’t have much experience with CVs since in America we write resumes. I also couldn’t figure out what I would tell 15-year old kids to put on a resume or a CV when they live in a village, go to school and then sit by the stove or stand in the street with their friends. So I decided that instead I would teach them how to write a personal statement or a basic biographical essay. This will be useful for them in applying for anything from an exchange program to a job. It's also something everyone can do, whether you have a lot of experience or not. The problem is that Georgian kids never learn how to write properly. They might do a report about a church or a region in Georgia where they write a couple paragraphs, draw some pretty pictures, and then get told how smart and good and wonderful they are. So not only was I going to have to teach them how to write about themselves, which is always a difficult thing, I was also going to need to teach them about paragraphs and topic sentences, and arguments. In a half an hour. With a translator. I’ve done this little seminar 3 times now with varying degrees of success. I tried to keep everything really simple, and tell them exactly what to do and write. This has been my biggest adaptation as a “trainer/facilitator” in Georgia. In America, I rarely told my audience anything, instead using questions and experience sharing to teach. But here it’s so much more effective just to tell them exactly what you want. Then they don’t learn to think for themselves, but I feel good because they actually learn something. After I told them what to do, I asked them to write me one argument paragraph where they had to choose an adjective to describe them and then defend it with facts.I got a lot of “I’m nice” and “I’m friendly and I can prove it because I have a lot of friends”. We all got a good laugh over an employer caring about how many friends their employees have. So fortunately they at least understand that! I did have one girl that totally blew me away though and so even if it was just helpful for her it was totally worth it. She is a leader in one of the clubs and stated that she was a fast learner because when she became the club leader she had no idea what to do. So she asked a lot of people what they thought made a good leader and tried a lot of different styles to see what fit her best. She had to learn leadership and delegation from her personal experience because no one had taught her those things. Hooray!!~ http://heather-jeff.blogspot.com

The US Embassy Public Affairs office put together this video from our COS conference. Thought some of you might be interested in seeing it. Just click on the link below.Embassy Video~ http://heather-jeff.blogspot.com

I've never been much of a cook. My Mom can tell you I hated the very idea of cooking before I left home. Once I was on my own, I survived by making meals from pre-made components and already packaged ingredients. A few years later Jeff and I graduated to looking through cookbooks, picking out a few things and making those recipes over and over again. While using these recipes I felt brave enough to try adding a little extra of this, or substituting one ingredient for another. From that point in our cooking lives we landed in Georgia.In PST we ate well. Summer is a great season in Georgia because of all the fresh fruits and vegetables. Our host mom was a good cook, and Georgian food was new and still interesting for us. Then we arrived at site where our diet mainly consisted of bread, fried potatoes, mayonnaise salads, and stew. Although we had enough to eat I just didn't feel fulfilled or healthy as our nutritional intake turned the food pyramid upside down. In visiting other PCVs and spending time with my site mates who have a lifetime of creative cooking behind them, I realized it was possible to eat much better in this country than we were. So it was with a lot of excitement and some trepidation that over a year ago we stopped eating meals with our host family and struck out on our own cooking adventure. With no safety net of restaurants, grocery stores, or take-out we had no choice but to succeed.To be honest, there are days when we just make grilled cheese sandwiches, hot dogs, or frozen packaged pelmeni (meat dumplings that are one of the only pre-made items here). And okay, I still use the internet to find inspiration (recent search: recipes with cornmeal). But often it involves major substitutions and completely different measurements because of our situation here. Sometimes it involves pure creativity driven out of desperation. Guess what? It's fun! Early spring is the worst time for fruit and vegetables. The winter citrus fruit and spinach are gone, and the summer bounty is still distant. For example, right now the only vegetables we can get are carrots (and cabbage - but cabbage is only good for borsch, tolma and stir fry). The carrots are good, but eating plain carrot sticks gets old quickly. We don't like boiled carrots, and sauteeing/glazing is too difficult here. So I shredded them, and mixed them with a dressing made from oil, vinegar, Italian seasoning (thanks parents!), salt, pepper and sugar. Presto - delicious carrot salad! Sounds ridiculously simple right? It has revolutionized our carrot eating. And yesterday we mixed up an awesome chicken salad with carrots, apples, green onions and a sauce made from mayonnaise, curry, ginger, mustard, salt, pepper, and chili powder. It took about 4 hours to make but what else were we going to do on a rainy Sunday? Soon strawberries, the first fruit of the season, will be available. Then come the tomatoes, cucumbers, sweet peppers, peaches, cherries and our cooking life starts to get a whole lot easier. My site mate Barbara said that having to cook here will make me a better cook all my life and I think I agree. Just have to find the time to keep cooking once we get back to our fast-paced, busy American life!~ http://heather-jeff.blogspot.com

Hey, some more pictures are uploaded! Check out the Telavi album to see some of the Writing Olympics we did in Telavi, then go to the COS Conference. Enjoy!!

Telavi 2011

COS Conference~ http://heather-jeff.blogspot.com

For a second year Peace Corps Volunteer, there is one big milestone - the COS (close of service) conference. At this conference you are granted official license to start thinking about THE END. With just about 3 and a half months left, we have enough time to wrap up projects and complete all the necessary paperwork and medical exams.We had our conference last week in Tbilisi. Although we were a bit disappointed with the hotel (we've heard fairy tales from other posts about resorts, swimming pools, American food and flowing alcohol), it was still nice to be in a hotel for a few days. In these economic times.... As a side note, I was thinking that we're probably one of the few Peace Corps posts around the world where we desperately crave heated rooms. In most countries where Volunteers serve, it's all about the A/C. Or in the really cold posts in central Asia (Mongolia, Kazakhstan, etc), all buildings have some kind of heat because there's a real danger of freezing to death. We decided it's mainly the Caucasus region (Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan) that are cold, but not deathly cold and thus we find ourselves giddy over radiator heat.Besides the heat, the highlight of our conference was getting our cash in lieu of a plane ticket home. Since we plan to travel for a few weeks before heading stateside this is a really nice bonus. And let's just say we got enough cash to pay for our ticket with a little extra to spare for our vacation! Score! We also had sessions on all the administrative stuff we need to know as well as career skills workshops. Yours truly led a session on interviewing that I think will be really helpful for everyone. The most striking thing about this conference was the type of discussions being held at every table over meals and breaks. We're a close group of 28 that's usually just hanging out and enjoying being goofy Americans for awhile. Not at this conference. Most conversations were serious and about the future. Things such as what are you going to do, what kind of job do you want, where are you going to move to next, what are you going to miss about Peace Corps, what are you least looking forward to in America... It was a little weird but I guess it makes sense. Generally Peace Corps Volunteers are in transition mode because who else can afford to take 2 years out of their life to move to a foreign country? Usually it's a transition after university, or a transition to retirement, or in our case a transition between careers. In some ways I think it was easier to leave 2 years ago because we were ready for a change, chose Peace Corps and the next steps were decided for us. Although we are again ready for a change, we're solely responsible for what happens next.On day 2 of the conference our group got a personal invitation to meet the Prime Minister of Georgia (the #2 guy after the President). He thanked us for our service and for spending 2 years of our lives in Georgia. We then had a discussion about what Georgia is doing or can do more of to function more effectively. It was interesting, but he was a total politician all the way, smiling, saying the right things while mentally checking out. Still, it's not an experience you get to have every day. Later we had a reception that was attended by the Georgian Minister of Foreign Affairs and the U.S. Ambassador to Georgia. It was a huge media frenzy and since we weren't expecting it at all, it took us by surprise and was really just a huge blur. We had one final dinner together as a group and that's it. Now we're on our own to finish out our work, choose our departure date, complete all the administrative hurdles and fly off into the sunset.~ http://heather-jeff.blogspot.com

Two posts by Jeff in one day??!?! What's going on? Well I guess when it rains, it pours.

And speaking of water, we don't have constant running water at our place in Telavi. We don't even have a consistent schedule of when we should have water. This makes it difficult to bathe, do laundry and keep our buckets filled so we have water when there is no running water. It also gets pretty annoying when you have to get out of your warm bed and venture out into the 40 degree room to see if the water is on, only to find out that it is not. Many mornings were started with "It's your turn to go check if the water is on!" "No, it's YOUR turn!!"

One day out of frustration Heather blurted out "We need to have an alarm go off so we know when there's water!" I think that she forgets who she is talking to sometimes, because the seed was planted in my head. A water alarm... hhmmmmmm. After some thinking and planning, I came up with a few ideas that might work, all having to do with somehow getting the running water to trigger a wireless doorbell to ring.

Well my friends, I am happy to announce that the Water Alert System (WAS) version 1.6* is fully operational! In short - the water gets one paper clip to contact another, thereby completing the circuit and ringing the bell in our warm room. But I know you're all more interested than that, so check out the Telavi 2011 album to see the detailed build process. Here are a few key photos:

The supplies - main components are the wireless doorbell and plastic bottle top

From above - the water hits the screen, pivoting the top paper clip into contact with the bottom one. Round disc is a magnet.

From below - you can see the two paper clips connected, thereby completing the circuit and ringing my bell!

In place. When the water comes... DING DONG!

*yes, there were different updates before it worked completely, and yes, I am a nerd for giving it a version number~ http://heather-jeff.blogspot.com

We have four computers in our office that are supposed to be used for "office work". We used to have more that were going to be used as an internet cafe, but the director got rid of them because she thought they were too old (even after I checked them all and verified that they worked fine).

Anyway, two of the four computers are typically in use by either the computer teacher or me, leaving the other two open for other work. Recently there has been a group of students that like to run into the office, get on the computers and play games or waste time on facebook. This didn't really bother me, until I found out that they were supposed to be in class. The teachers came in and started yelling at the students, telling them to get to class like good boys and girls. Of course, this was ignored by the kids. If the teaches yelled enough they would actually get a response from the students, which was usually "Oh, I'm working," or "Yes, I'm coming now." The teachers would leave and the kids would continue to "work" on the computers for the duration of their lessons. Even the director couldn't get them to go to class.

At first I didn't think there was anything I would be able to do to get the students to class. Why would they listen to me? Then the idea hit me: I'll just turn off their internet. The next time the students ran in and jumped on the computers, I jumped into the router/modem settings (I'll try not to get too technical here). From there I was able to find the computer IP address, and on the next screen was able to block the two computers from having access to the internet. About 10 seconds later the room was filled with cries of "Oh, the internet isn't working!" and "Facebooooooook, where are you??!?" Since only these two computers were blocked, the computer teacher was still able to access the internet on her computer, so she pretty much just ignored the kids. After a few minutes of frantic page reloads, the students finally accepted the fact that the internet was out. With nothing better to do, they decided to go to their lessons like good boys and girls. Now when I hear the bell for class I block the two computers from the internet. The students go to their lessons and I don't have to hear the teachers scream by my ear anymore.

One other computer related story. Our host sister Natia, who is disabled and in a wheelchair, goes to my school. The other day she only had one lesson in the morning, so the rest of the day she was in the office where it is warmer. I was talking with her throughout the day, but she didn't really have anything to do. When I would look over at her I noticed that she kept looking at one of the unused computers. I asked her if she wanted to use the computer, but she shook her head and said "No, it's not allowed for me." I told her of course it was allowed... if the other kids can use it why can't you?!?

I got her all set up so that she could reach the mouse, then asked her what she wanted to do. She wanted to look at pictures, so we found some different slideshows that she could click through and I let her go wild. Every now and then she would call my name and I would look over to find that the taskbar took up half the screen and various other programs were open. We laughed while I fixed it for her, then she went back to looking through pictures. She then wanted to play a game, so I opened up Minesweeper and she said, "Yes, I know this game. I like it." The teachers and director were surprised that she was using the computer, but they all seemed happy with it. I don't think that Natia has ever touched a computer before, and the teachers probably thought that she wouldn't be able to work it.

That night at home Natia looked at me very seriously and said, "Tomorrow I have a lesson in the morning. After that, can I have another computer lesson?" That just about made my week. Now when she has free time after lessons I get her set up on the computer and show her a few different things. Hopefully when I leave the teachers will have learned that Natia can use the computer just like all the other students.~ http://heather-jeff.blogspot.com

For those of you who know me (Heather), it should come as no surprise that I have a running countdown of days left in Georgia. For those of you who know Jeff, it should come as no surprise that he put an automatic countdown on our computer that tells us days, hours, minutes, and seconds. 127, 11, 16, 45, 44, 43... We are more than ready to leave Georgia, and we are also ready to start on the next phase of our life even if we haven't quite figured out yet what it's going to be.Although we've definitely enjoyed our Peace Corps experience, we've never fallen in love, or even in like, with our country of service. It's not something you often hear about from the RPCVs (returned PC Volunteers), or at least not the ones who are on the recruiting circuit and used in publicity materials. But I think it's got to be one of those things that everyone knows, but no one talks about. Anyway, we've accepted it and moved on with our work and projects. And I have to say that we've done a pretty darn amazing job!Before we get any closer to fulfilling our In 'n Out fantasy I thought it would be appropriate to make a list of some things we will miss from Georgia. These are things about Georgia specifically and not about the general PC experience.1. Abundance of maghazias - or small markets. You can't walk 10 feet without finding one. Think tiny, family-owned corner store in NYC and you come close to what these markets are like. But the fact that there are so many of them is amazing. Out walking and get thirsty? No problem, a coke or a water is just a few steps away. It might not be cold, but it's there! Want some chips or a candy bar? The chocolate might be melted, and the chips broken, but you don't have to walk far to get them! One market doesn't have tomato paste? Just walk next door! This might sound a little silly but I've missed this on every vacation we've been on. Markets aren't nearly as common in other places. Of course you could argue that drinking less coke and eating less chips will be good for us...2. How cheap stuff is! I'm very thankful that stuff is cheap as we live on about 250 lari each after paying rent (slightly less than $150 USD). But the other day I went to the store and got 3 rolls of "toilet paper" and a package of napkins for 2 lari, just a little over $1 USD. And to a Georgian, this would be an exorbitant purchase as toilet paper is one of those things meant to be bought by the single roll (see the previous blog post called Just 1 Piece for more details). Pounds of fresh veggies for a week cost less than $5 USD. Public transportation in the capital city costs 50 tetri a ride, about 30 cents.3. Being regulars. The ladies at our market know us and always talk to us when we go in, which is about once a day on average. Recently a customer asked about us if we were German, and one of the store ladies answered no, they're American. Yay! We also have a vegetable lady at the bazaar who's always so happy to see us. She talks to us, never rips us off, and gives us free presents of extra greens and veggies. Getting cheap, fresh produce with a smile is something we will definitely miss.127 days, 10 hours, 36 minutes, 55, 54, 53...~ http://heather-jeff.blogspot.com

Drip, drip, drip. Melting snow hitting metal roofs, metal drain pipes. At home and at work, all day and all night. Ordinarily this sound would make me crazy, but now it's soothing as I imagine all the nasty snow and slush washing away, giving way to green meadows filled with wild flowers with bunnies and fawns frolicking in the sunshine. Okay, so that last bit is from a Disney movie, and bears no resemblance to spring in Georgia. A girl can dream right? Except that while all this dripping is going on, it's still snowing! Not having any experience with this kind of weather it's a mystery to me how the snow can be simultaneously melting and still falling in frozen form from the sky. We've seen the sun one day in the last month. The weather forecast keeps promising sun, but when the fateful day arrives there's only more snow, more fog. I think weather forecasts in Georgia are like the Georgian people themselves. Never delivering bad news, never talking about the hard truth, merely glossing over reality to tell people what they want to hear. And yet I fall for it every time.There's an expression in Georgia that adolescence is March's age because of it's changeable and often contradictory nature. I think there's a lot of truth to that statement but I'm clinging to the old American saying about March, "In like a lion, out like a lamb".~ http://heather-jeff.blogspot.com

In case you weren't aware, March 1st marked the 50th anniversary of the Peace Corps! Not only is this a special day for Peace Corps worldwide, but it is especially special (like that?) for Peace Corps Georgia because we're celebrating 10 years of service here! That's right, two big anniversaries in one day!!

Now, I'm sure that you are all very excited and want to know more, but instead of giving you all the information in one small blog post I'm going to point you to some websites dedicated just for that purpose.

Peace Corps 50th Anniversary

Peace Corps Georgia

The latter of the two was designed and created by yours truly (see, I am doing SOMETHING), and will be updated throughout the year with pictures, videos, events, games, etc. For now, go check it out and learn something about Georgia and let me know what you think. Oh, and I want to see all of you signed up for the "Live Like a PCV" Challenge.... if you think you can handle it!~ http://heather-jeff.blogspot.com

Less than 5 months left as a Peace Corps Volunteer. It seems like such a long time, but it's also a very short amount of time. I thought the last few months would be the easiest, but they're not. I'm exhausted from the cold (it hasn't gotten above freezing the entire month of February), from trying not to slip on the ice, the lack of heat, and having sketchy water and electricity. Mostly I'm tired of facing the same problems day after day for a year and a half with no noticeable difference. I'm disappointed that I'm not more integrated into the community, but I'm tired of trying in this community that doesn't seem to want to have anything to do with us.But it's not all doom and gloom and my glass is (almost) always half-full. The calendar has rolled into March which means that spring must be coming soon! I have my second SPA project which has established handicraft workshops in 2 villages and is teaching women a skill they can use to make money for their families. The Life Skills Committee is making excellent progress on a health DVD for the Volunteers and their counterparts. Preparations for our girls GLOW camp are well underway and if we can actually get funding and pull off this project it will be one of the biggest accomplishments of my life. So there are things to do, projects to be excited about.And as much as I'm craving real Mexican food, real barbecue, and all the creature comforts I have to say I'm not sure I'm ready for re-entry into the States. I'm not ready for all the ridiculous politics and assault on education and women's reproductive rights that I only hear whispers about from this far away. I'm not ready to drive a car, pay bills, look for a real job and have money worries. And what is an appropriate number of days to wear the same clothes without washing them anyway? I enjoy being in a community of Volunteers where we all understand each other and have shared such intense and hilarious circumstances. Most Americans won't understand why we wanted to have this experience, let alone the experience itself.As it comes down to the end, what do we have to say for ourselves? What did we accomplish? What did we learn? Who are we now, and who do we want to be?~ http://heather-jeff.blogspot.com

Round 3 of my project design and management training is now complete. It was the smoothest yet, perhaps proving that the 3rd time is a charm! I think finally we developed a great model for training this difficult topic to village representatives. I'll have to see if there's a way to pass on this hard-earned knowledge. We also had a good group this time who participated well, yet listened to each other and kept the side conversations to a minimum. But I did have one interesting experience on the 1st day of training that really got me thinking about what we learn and how we learn it.As part of our introduction we asked each participant to say one thing they love and one thing they don't love. (Quick cultural explanation - it's rare that Georgians will use the verb "to like", instead using the verb "to love" for all basic likes and dislikes. So this question would be like asking an American, tell us one thing you like and one thing you don't.) Think for a minute about your expectations of answers from adults for this kind of question. Okay, now you can continue reading. The first person said, "I love my family, my neighbors, my children, grandchildren, children in general, friendly people..." At this point my counterpart interjected with okay, what don't you love? The participant thought for a long time and finally answered with what was translated to me as 'mean people'. The second person in line picked up right where the first left off, "I love my family, my neighbors, children.....and I don't love mean people." The third person had clearly had enough of the lengthy list provided by the 1st two and answered "I love everything that's good, and I don't love everything that's bad." This response was then repeated by every one of the remaining 13 participants in the room.So there are a couple points of consideration here (besides the fact that most Georgians are incapable of listening and following simple instructions). The first is a lack of creativity and unique answers. No one had a problem with saying the same thing as everyone before them, they heard a good idea and wanted to share it, attach themselves to it. Contrast this to an American training seminar. If asked to do this exercise you would probably come up with a couple different answers in case someone "stole" your idea. Heaven forbid you give the same answer as someone else. Where does this idea come from? I certainly don't remember every being taught this specifically. Rather the message of creativity, being unique, doing your own work comes to Americans in subtle ways. A little from teachers at school, a little from parents, a little from peers, and maybe some from favorite books and movies. It becomes so much a part of who we are that we can't remember ever learning it. So if I want to teach a Georgian about creativity, independent thought, and doing their own work, where do I start? Obviously they went through a similar cultural learning process but came up with a completely different conclusion. Certainly we can find some explanation from Georgian schools. Teachers instruct solely through lectures, students learn through memorization, homework and even attendance is optional, and cheating is expected and accepted. But what other factors need to be considered?The second thought that struck me during this training exercise is the lack of critical thinking. Everything that's good? Everything that's bad? What does that even mean? Scholars debate for entire careers about positive and negative situational effects of things like religion, war, love, death and so on. And of course there are so many personal preference about things like weather, food, sports and so on. I do remember being taught to think critically in college. To read something and question it's premise and arguments and not just accept information. To make every statement specific, to back up my opinions with evidence. It was difficult, but first you have to understand that this is important, to be willing to learn, willing to ask questions. And it's this desire for knowledge, to think through an idea or to persuasively present an argument that's missing here. And I'm even more lost when it comes to teaching this to someone. I think it's linked to my first observation.I think I've been able to manage my expectations for my work. I'm more able to think about these things without getting emotionally involved and frustrated (mostly). I understand what the cultural differences are, and I know how to navigate them during training sessions. Give them mostly what they're used to with just a few things to stretch them. This is what development is all about. But I still wish I could better understand where it comes from to speed it up, see more change. ნელა, ნელა - slowly, slowly.~ http://heather-jeff.blogspot.com

I'm sure you've all been wondering what's been going on since we got back from our European adventure. Well first there was the 4 day snow storm that started the day after we got back. And it's been cold! Even though it's been over a week and a half since the big snow storm, there is still ice on the ground and even some snow left in some shady patches. The ice creates interesting navigational challenges as we try and get from place to place without cracking a tailbone. Grit? Salt? Apparently these are ideas no one here has thought of yet. Or maybe Georgians think they don't need such kinds of things - walking on ice must only be dangerous in America and Europe. With the cold weather has come electricity and water problems. Our life now revolves around when the water comes and Jeff has been great about going to work late or coming home early to fill up our buckets and wash clothes. Also, losing electricity is a big problem when your source of heat is an electric heater. Without it our room is 40F. But enough about all of that.The real story is that I've been a training fool! Almost immediately after getting back I went off to Bazaleti to lead a 2 day ToT (training of trainers) with the other lovely ladies of the Peace Corps Life Skills Committee. This is a conference that our committee plans everything for from the curriculum to the session plans and everything. We had about 50 participants, half PCVs and half Georgian counterparts and we taught them about life skills (physical health, emotional health, self esteem, communication to name just a few), the growing threat of HIV/AIDS, and finally about behavior change. Behavior change is a really interesting model that looks at the reasons why people do or don't change their behavior. Often in development work, people think that they just need to provide information and people will "fall in line". But there are so many other factors involved, and the behavior change model is a way to look at and analyze the impact of these different factors. One of my sessions was on communication, and how the way messages are communicated can have a big difference. We talked a lot about positive messages, fun ways to reinforce messages, and how to frame your communication. I had a lot of fun with it and the group seemed to really like it. Of course we got many suggestions of improvements (for the next group of PCVs to do *smile*) but overally I think the conference was a great success!!Then I had just enough time to catch my breath before going to Tbilisi to lead a 3 day communications seminar for 11 epidemiologists from Georgia and Azerbaijan. The training was sponsored by the NCDC, the new Caucasus region Center for Disease Control. It was a very interesting experience for me as I don't have much experience working with scientists, doctors and public health officials. So the training plan that I initially came up with had to be modified many times during the three days but I think I demonstrated good flexibility! I did sessions on giving and receiving feedback, communicating with employees and managers, body language, strategic planning, and team building. When I introduced team building no one had idea what I meant by that and said this will never work for us. It's something that foreigners do when they come, but it's not for us to do. Really??!! So we went through an activity, and I really made them think about what they could teach using these activities. And they came up with some good ideas. Afterwards 2 participants said they would try to use an activity with their department teams! Yeah!!! I also had one participant who said he had never thought about giving positive feedback but that he really wanted to try! Yeah!! They also seemed pretty interested in the SWOT analysis I introduced. Of course I had all the usual frustrations of training in this part of the world: translation, endless side conversations, people working on their laptops, even one girl vamping as she took pictures of herself during the session! Despite these barriers to effective communication I think I'm calling this training a success!At World Vision I have been working with staff to establish new youth clubs in 8 new villages. We are also preparing for Round 3 of project design training. So my month of training is not yet complete! Additionally I am in the middle of my 2nd SPA project where two villages are learning handicraft skills and we are setting up workshops in their communities. For now I am happy to report that I'm busy, having small successes, and feeling good. I guess it's true that as a PCV you get busy and really find your stride in the second year. Of course we are still eagerly counting down the days until we can be back with you all in the good ol' USA where people just "get it"!!! Maybe I should consider a career in training when I get back?~ http://heather-jeff.blogspot.com

Our vacation pictures are posted!  Click on the link below to view them.  Enjoy!

Europe January 2011~ http://heather-jeff.blogspot.com

Hello all of you devoted readers! I heard that it was getting cold in America... I hope that you all are staying nice and warm in your centrally heated homes and offices. Weather related topics aside, we haven't posted in a while and that's because we were on vacation!

That's right, we got to take a little break from our post-Soviet wonderland and again experience the joys of some Westernized countries - specifically Germany, Czech Republic, Austria and Switzerland (with a short visit to Latvia). We spent 18 days in these 5 countries, and in short - it was pretty awesome. Not only did we get to enjoy central heating and hot showers in nice bathrooms everywhere that we went, we also go to see some wonderful sites and beautiful scenery. There will be pictures posted... soon I hope, but until then here is a breakdown of our thoughts of each place that we got to visit.

Berlin, Germany

Not a very pretty city, but it was basically leveled in WWII and has had to be rebuilt. Besides the memorial spots, you wouldn't really know that the legendary wall was ever there. There is a ton of construction going on and they just build right over where the wall used to be. There was a slightly different feel between West and East Berlin, but for the most part it is one unified city now. Pretty incredible considering that the wall only came down 1989.

Prague, Czech RepublicThere was a feeling of being transported back in time. The small cobblestone streets were fun to just wander and then find yourself in a courtyard. Standing in the large squares it was really easy to imagine yourself in a medieval village. There is a blend of different styles between the old and new buildings, but even the new ones have a ton of character. The stories that we heard about the resistance to Nazi and Communist occupation showed that the people really value their independence. More importantly, they've done something with it!

Vienna, AustriaMuch bigger city than either of us were expecting... I thought that we would be enjoying some sprawling town in the mountains. (that would come later) Historical sights were just incorporated into the new city, especially Stephansdom (Gothic cathedral next to some high-end shopping - what??). Loads of cultural events - you could easily see a different opera/play/orchestra every night, and for pretty cheap! The 19th century buildings were beautiful and there were tons of great gardens. Quiet - even at the opera that we went to there was enthusiastic clapping at the end, but no standing or bravos.

Salzburg, AustriaBeautiful town and of course there were amazing views in the mountain and lake districts. This is where they filmed "The Sound of Music," and for good reason. The old town area was much more commercial than we were expecting, with lots of modern chain stores. It was more touristy feeling than old town feeling. Mozart is everywhere here. He was born and lived here for a while. One big speciality is chocolate balls wrapped in foil with a picture of his face on them. You can't turn around in this town without hitting a church, abbey or monastery... they are everywhere!

Munich, GermanyGood beer! I'm just gonna come out and say it... I love Weißbier! (weissbier - wheat beer) The food is delicious too. Actually, all of the places that we went had really good food. Munich (and Germany in general) has had a really troubled past, but it seems to have been acknowledged and they have completely moved on. Locals (and plenty of tourists) drink at the Hofbrauhaus. The locals like to make a night of it and will even get dressed up in traditional outfits. Yes, it is packed even when it isn't Octoberfest. Even the smaller breweries pack people in at night, elbow to elbow. Did I mention that there was good beer??

Lucerne, SwitzerlandNice little old town area with narrow streets and character filled squares. Kind of like a mix between Prague and Salzburg. The river through town was really cool, and the flowing water was very clean and clear. The Alps are amazing! We took a day-trip up into them and the scenery was breathtaking. Very impressive views, but COLD and kind of bleak... no alpine mountain climbing in our future! Cool to see everyone out skiing and sledding. Everywhere we went we saw people carrying their skis with them. It was a busy little town. Places open early and people are out early too! EXPENSIVE! This is true for all of Switzerland, and we just weren't prepared for it, especially coming from Georgia. Example - a bowl of soup as an appetizer was about 13 bucks! We had quite the feeling of sticker shock.

Gruyeres, SwitzerlandOk, so we didn't really stay here as it was just another day-trip, but this place was really cool. The perfect example of the idyllic Swiss countryside. Authentic square and a beautiful setting in some small foothills to the Alps. Really good cheese! We went to a factory and got to sample some, then we got some fondue. Delicious!

Geneva, SwitzerlandGeneva didn't really have anything special to set it apart. We were kind of surprised by this. Visited CERN and the UN buildings, which were really cool to get to see. The feeling here was just like any other large international city. We could have been anywhere in the world... except Georgia of course, so that was nice. :)

Riga, LatviaWe only had about 36 hours here, due to a change in flights, but thank you AirBaltic for letting me get to see a city that I never knew about before coming to this part of the world. Latvia is another post-Soviet country, but what was interesting was getting to see what they've done with their independence that Georgia hasn't. With some luck, in 20 years Georgia will be where Latvia is today. Much more developed than I ever expected. Drivers were courteous and even stopped for pedestrians crossing the street!

Yes, it was an amazing trip and we had a wonderful time! One of the biggest reasons I'm thankful for Peace Corps putting us in Georgia is that we've had some really good opportunities to explore Europe, and for much cheaper than trying to get there from America. We have no more vacation time left, but hopefully this one will keep us going for the last 5 and a half months that we have in Georgia. Next time we travel we'll be on our way home! Stay warm out there!~ http://heather-jeff.blogspot.com

HAPPY NEW YEAR! We hope that you all celebrated with some friends and family and that you're throughly enjoying 2011 so far. We were in Tbilisi and rang in the New Year with a few friends and some other Volunteers from Armenia (apparently Volunteers from Armenia come to Georgia to have a good time... go figure). Apart from eating some really good food, which we usually do in Tbilisi, we enjoyed some hot showers, warm rooms, movies on a normal-sized TV screen, and shot off some fireworks! That's right, fireworks are not only legal here, they are encouraged for you to really celebrate the calendar year switching over another digit. We just shot some off in front of the hostel that we stayed at, but they were going on all around us from other apartments and homes. It sounded kind of like a war zone. The thing you have to remember is that none of these were "professional" shows. These were all basically set off by kids hanging out their apartment window, holding the roman candles in their hands and tempting fate to just blow a finger off. We practiced "safety first" and can happily say that we still have 20 fingers (10 each). Needless to say, it was a pretty good way to celebrate New Year's Eve, especially compared with last year.

Go see the pictures in the New Year's Eve 2010 album, and check out the videos of the insanity of fireworks below!

~ http://heather-jeff.blogspot.com

2010 was quite a year! Of course we had more than our share of challenges and frustrations, but the year was also full of amazing travel, successful projects, and great memories. As the calendar rolls over to 2011 (otherwise known as our last 6.5 months in Georgia) here is a recap of some of the year's best moments.

Best shower: Courtyard Marriott, Tbilisi

Best breakfast: Courtyard Marriott, Tbilisi

Best lunch: Gyros, Mykonos

Best dinner: Gorgonzola mushrooms & Lasagna bolognese, Tbilisi

Best "American" meal: Planet Hollywood, Disney Paris

Best appetizer: Tzatziki sauce, Santorini

Best dessert: Homemade pumpkin pie

Best cooking discovery: Homemade pasta sauce / Eggplant parmesan

Best market find in Georgia: REAL cheese

Most comfortable bed: Acropolis Museum Hotel, Athens

Biggest work accomplishment-Heather: Women's health fair

Biggest work accomplishment-Jeff: Drug & Alcohol training

Best new skill-Heather: Knitting scarves

Best new hobby-Heather: Yoga

Best beer: Leffe, France

Favorite historical sites: Aya Sofya-Istanbul, Ephesus-Turkey, Delos-Greece, Chateau de Chenonceau-France

Best silly moment: Star Tours ride in French (Bonjour, je suis Rex...), Disney Paris

Best summer past-time: Grilling hamburgers

Most absurd: Jeff's hobbit hair

Best tv show new to us: The West Wing~ http://heather-jeff.blogspot.com

Here in Georgia you can buy just one of a lot of things. You can buy just one egg. You can buy just one candle, one pack of tissues. You can even buy only one feminine hygiene product or one diaper. No one thinks this strange. If you just need one right now, why pay for a whole pack? If you need another one tomorrow, you can get it then.

There is one place however, where you can never get just one piece - the bazaar. Only need one tomato? You are guaranteed to get strange looks and a sigh that says these foreigners just don't know Georgian very well. Surely they can't have meant just one. Want just one bunch of lettuce or spinach? Outrageous! At the bazaar everything is sold by the kilo, or the half kilo. I've given up on arguing that I only want just one piece. Instead I accept my half-kilo of whatever it was I needed. It's far easier to think of uses for those extra tomatoes or just eat salad for an extra few days!~ http://heather-jeff.blogspot.com

For those of you that didn't know, we got to celebrate Thanksgiving twice this year. The second iteration was just this last weekend, and it was wonderful. We had some of the other Volunteers from nearby villages come over and join in the fun. Good food, good friends, and some amazing pie! Who could ask for more, right?

Pictures have been added to the Thanksgiving 2010 album. Check them out, and HAPPY THANKSGIVING again!~ http://heather-jeff.blogspot.com

This Thanksgiving we are thankful for many things that we have now, as well as many things we have come to appreciate due to the lack of them in our current situation. Please eat obscene amounts of sweet potatoes and cranberry sauce for us! We love and miss you all!

Here are just some of the things that we're thankful for:

Supportive familyFriends, new and old, near and farEach otherFree timeVacationTravel opportunitiesCare packages

Sleeping bagsTurkish heaterRunning waterRunning hot waterGood showersElectricityNatural gasThe trifecta - water, electricity and gas all at onceShock absorbers in carsTraffic lawsSunshineDelicious foodGood cheeseSite-matesCard gamesSuccessful projectsMeaningful workNew experiencesOur educationLife lessons2 years of not having a "real job"Peace CorpsAmerican tv showsAmerican moviesFast internetFree yoga downloadsSkypeHappy Thanksgiving!~ http://heather-jeff.blogspot.com

This article goes along with the latest post we made. Check it out - it's special!

http://www.georgiatimes.info/en/articles/45835.html

~ http://heather-jeff.blogspot.com

The government's program Teach and Learn with Georgia (the one that was going to bring over 1,000 native speakers to teach English in the schools) has actually succeeded in bringing people to Georgia. I've heard that anywhere from 350 to 1,000 volunteers are here in the country now, depending on who you ask.

Here are some of the highlights of the program. They receive around a week of Georgian language training, and about 1 hour of cultural training. You may remember that we had 9 weeks of training. The government trainers told them, "Of course you will have running hot water every day in your village." Hmmm... Our safety and security coordinator was told not to give the speech she gives us about dangers in Georgia, because theft and assault "don't happen here anymore." Best not to waste your time learning how to recognize and avoid potentially dangerous situations, because they won't happen anyway. They also refused to talk about any emergency evacuation plans with the volunteers, calling these plans a "state secret." They didn't get any water filters so parasites and other illnesses abound. And for their health care they get to go to the local clinic with a community member to act as a translator. Since this a small country, people talk and even we know about some of the health problems of the TLG.

All of this makes me very grateful to be a Peace Corps volunteer! It's still difficult, but we get great staff support, great language and cultural training, and great medical care.

This TLG situation would just be mildly interesting to us, except that we get confused with them all the time. To the average Georgian, we are all just foreigners in their country. They don't know we're Peace Corps - just that we're American. We don't have TLG in Kakheti yet, but they are coming soon. We may have 10 of them coming to Telavi sometime this winter. And every surrounding village where my World Vision program works has been promised a volunteer. The government went public with the salary they are paying the TLG - and it's twice as much as the average Georgian makes. And they don't have to pay their host families anything. So it just makes things that much harder for us when we say we don't have a salary. They say, yes you do - I saw it on tv! In addition to all of this - teachers here have lost their jobs, and not gotten promised raises, but the government is paying a lot of money to bring in all these foreigners.

Now I'm sure there are many TLG who are responsible, endowed with common sense, and doing great things in their communities. We see them on tv in the government commercials on the government tv station. But of course we mostly hear the sensational stories of topless sunbathing in a sheep pasture and wild drunken escapades. One poor volunteer in particular has made the news due to some questionable judgment. A link to the story published by the Georgian media is below. It's also an interesting example of what's considered professional journalism in this country. The headline and last 2 sentences are my favorite. Think about what it's really saying and it tells you a lot....

http://www.georgiatimes.info/en/news/45579.html

By way of follow-up, the volunteer is suing the Georgian media.

http://www.media.ge/en/node/39261

I wonder how long this program will last.~ http://heather-jeff.blogspot.com

Some new pictures are up, including some from the All-Volunteer conference/Thanksgiving dinner and some from Erekleoba! Check out the Thanksgiving 2010 and Telavi 2010 photo albums on the left side of the blog. Enjoy!~ http://heather-jeff.blogspot.com

The sun is out, our tummies are full of Thanksgiving dinner part 1, and we are busy! All of this means the last few weeks have flown by!

Last week was our 2nd (and last!) All-Volunteer conference. This year there were 2 groups of volunteers represented which made it a true All-Volunteer conference. Last year it was just the same 28 of us scratching our heads wondering what the heck it was all about. This year, both Jeff and I were busy leading sessions for the other volunteers. Jeff put together some great instructional materials and taught a group of other PCVs how to make a basic website. His session was so popular, he had to bring in extra chairs! Since being in PC he has made 3 websites which makes him something of an expert. And although he will never admit it, like in America, he has developed quite a reputation as a technical guru. As for me, I led 2 sessions - one to pass off our hard-earned knowledge from the women's health fair project Alene, Alison and I led back in June, and one for starting up the GLOW girls' camp. Two outstanding volunteers are running with the health fair concept which is awesome! And Lauren and I have some excellent help with GLOW and so we move onward with that planning.

We also got to enjoy a very early Thanksgiving dinner. The G10s were in charge this year and did a great job of coordinating food for almost 90 people. Once again the Radisson chef donated turkeys and stuffing. Delicious! Other highlights included green bean casserole, cheesecake and Ocean Spray cranberry sauce! Yum, yum. But don't worry Grandma - my title of undisputed pie champ remains intact.

In other work news, I scraped together an application for the next SPA project deadline through Peace Corps. I tried the same process of encouraging our WV villages to compete, and this time I got 2 mediocre projects applications. Thanks to an excellent suggestion from my director we found a way to merge the two projects into one much stronger one that will benefit both communities. So it was several days of wrangling that project into line at the very last minute but we managed to slide it in just in time. I am reminded of how much I hate pushing work off until the last minute. Procrastination is all well and good, but this place takes it to a whole new level. So now we wait and see if we get funding. Our GLOW team also submitted our first application to an embassy for funding - we need about $17k. Add grant-writer to my list of skills acquired in the Peace Corps!

The weekend was also busy as Kakheti celebrated Erekleoba (Telavi) and Iliaoba (Kvareli). Last year's Erekleoba was awesome, with an outdoor stage and loads of outdoor vendors - and we had terrible weather. This year we had awesome weather, but there wasn't nearly as much going on. Oh well, we still got to drink a beer in the November sunshine! Iliaoba was about the same let-down as it was last year, but again the weather was awesome, we got to buy some tasty wine, and had a good lunch. Success!

November - keep the sun, food, fun, and work coming!!~ http://heather-jeff.blogspot.com

Both of us applied for and received funding in May from the SPA (small project assistance) program through Peace Corps.

Jeff

Even though my organization received the funding in May, we just started implementing our project today. I know, way to start on time, right? Anyway, my project is a training for youth about the dangers of drug and alcohol abuse. As far as I know, this isn't a part of any type of standard education program in the public schools, so I was really impressed that one of the teachers here wanted to do it. She actually did most of the work of planning and coordinating with our partner organization, Bemoni Public Union, and all I really had to do was help her with some of the details and completing the SPA application.

The training will take place over two weeks. The participants for the first week will be 15 students and 7 teachers, and participants for the second week will be 15 parents and 7 teachers. Teachers and parents were included so that they can help encourage the students to share the information with their peers. Once the two week trainings have been completed the two groups will work together to create a play that deals with the dangers of drug and alcohol abuse. The participants will also create posters and other marketing materials to advertise the play in other schools and public places. We hope to have about 200 people attend the play when it is presented to the public, thus reaching a much broader audience than we ever could have by just doing several trainings.

Since today is the very first day for our training I don't have much to report just yet. I've been popping in and out of the training since my language isn't nearly good enough to sit in there and understand everything that is going on, but it seems to be going well. During one of the breaks I asked some of the participants how it was going and all reports were good. I'll be sure to keep you all updated with how this turns out. Stay tuned.

Heather

In case you don't remember, my project was to teach 150 women from a village about breast cancer, and then take them to a health clinic where they could receive a free breast cancer screening. And that's basically what happened. The women ended up coming from 2 villages, but we had 150 women attend a doctor-led training about symptoms, self-testing, and the importance of early detection. For most of these women, average age about 50, this was the first time they ever heard this information. Local government officials came to show their support, and an article was written about the project in the local newspaper. Great success! According to my co-workers at WV, there was a good buzz about the project around the villages. Word of mouth is so powerful here!

Next step - transportation to the health clinic and this is where things got interesting. Firstly, we were delayed slightly due to the grape harvest and wine-making season of rtveli. In Kakheti this is a huge deal involving every member of the family and the women couldn't get away even for a few hours. Didn't think about that one but finishing a few weeks late was no big deal. Also, as women started going to the center, many of them were told they may have cancer or pre-cancerous cysts, and were referred for more tests. Which is sad, but hopeful because if it can be caught early, their odds of survival are so much greater. Already I've heard a few amazing stories of women who discovered they had a small, possibly cancerous lump, got it removed, and are now expected to make a full recovery. One of these was the project coordinator's neighbor, and so she had a firsthand look at how successful her project was. And if we only saved one life then this was totally worth it.

In the end we only had 100 women attend the screening center. Others cited busy schedules, and according to the project manager - fear....Because as women came back with their diagnoses, other women started thinking they might have it, and were too scared to face the truth. *Sigh*. I guess you can't expect to change everyone's mind through 1 training, but that was the whole point of the training. To finish up the project, the coordinator met with local government officials who agreed that they would continue to provide free transportation to take at-risk women to the center for their free screening. The women just need to ask for this benefit. Also, a training was done for 15 village girls from the 11th and 12th grades. So hopefully if they hear this message a few more times before they hit 40, they won't be too afraid to get screened!

And so, with 100 women directly impacted and an unknown number of people indirectly impacted, I'm calling this a successful project. Finished!~ http://heather-jeff.blogspot.com

The rain is falling, leaves are changing colors, and the sleeping bags are in use. It must be fall. But the leaves aren't the only changes occurring in Telavi.

Here's a rundown of some of the changes that occurred in September while we were gone.

1. 2 shaurma stands opened in town. Shaurma is the Georgian version of the Turkish doner kebab. It's lavash (thin flatbread kind of like a tortilla) with shaved grilled pork, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, ketchup, mayo, and if we're lucky hot peppers. The whole thing is rolled up and put in a panini press and it is pretty tasty. Up until now they were only available from street vendors in Tbilisi and in Western Georgia (because it's closer to Turkey?). But now we can enjoy them in our very own town. The only problem is that they are 4 lari, and when our regular lunch is 1 lari, I think our budget may be taking a hit.

2. New crosswalks were painted. This does not mean that pedestrians have the right of way, or really that anything has changed in terms of crossing streets in town. However, you can't enforce stopping for pedestrians in crosswalks if there aren't any crosswalks, so I suppose this is the first step.

3. A new speed limit and no-stopping sign were put up on the main street. Again, nothing has changed yet...But once again, if there was never a posted speed limit you couldn't punish people for speeding, so maybe it will start happening...sometime in the next 10 years.

4. Our firehouse was painted pink. Nothing says fire safety like the color pink.

5. A new anti-littering law went into effect. If you throw trash out of a car window, theoretically you can get fined 200 lari. This happens so frequently I have no idea how the police plan to enforce it. But the law is now there!

6. New rumors abound. One is that according to the tv news a water park has opened in Telavi. Except no one in Telavi has seen or heard of this water park. And it's supposedly opening in October? It's cold! The second is that the government is considering a new law that will make it mandatory for the driver and front passengers to wear seatbelts within city limits. Currently the law only mandates seatbelts for front seat people on the highway. And that's not even enforced so we shall see.

P.S. In addition to the pictures featured here, there are a few more new ones in the Telavi 2010.~ http://heather-jeff.blogspot.com

When you first arrive in Georgia, you are immediately aware of being a foreigner. Georgians stare, and the first question they ask when introduced is, “How do you like Georgia?” Though asked with some uncertainty, this question suggests pride in their country. But, as we looked at our surroundings, this pride didn’t seem to match the reality of crumbling buildings and an infrastructure that has broken down from years of neglect.

Georgians can be both generous and hospitable. They give to beggars sprawled in the pedestrian passageways under major streets or in the Metro entry tunnels. They also willingly share what little they have with visitors, as we experienced when staying at our four-room “hotel” in Akhaltsikhe. It appeared to Heather we were the first Americans this landlady had ever met, but she cheerfully let us use her shaded patio for lunch. When we asked for a knife to cut up the sausage and cheese we had bought, she opened her whole kitchen for us with plates, glasses, and utensils.

For one’s own safety, it is imperative to understand Georgia’s ‘rules of the road.’ We think pedestrians are seen as inconveniences by drivers and treated like slalom cones for sport. Crossing streets (with or without traffic lights) becomes a very courageous act. First you cross halfway with toes on the centerline and then wait for an opening to make it across the rest of the way. On larger streets with multiple lanes, lines are totally ignored, with most drivers staying centered on the lane marker just inches behind the car ahead. We weren’t sure if this was to keep from being passed, or to intimidate the car in front to move over. In many cases, cars simply pass by veering into a gap in the oncoming lane, making it the responsibility of the oncoming driver to veer off the road if necessary. This brings up the most harrowing taxi ride we’ve ever experienced. All we wanted was a timelier ride out to the cave city of Vardzia. What we got was a Space Mountain-type ride that had come off the track, careening around mountain curves at speeds up to 80 mph. At least with Disney, you have seat belts or safety harnesses. Despite the sheer drop on one side, and cars coming from the other direction, we still passed on blind curves and uphill grades. After taking some air off a rise in the road, Jeff politely asked if we could slow down. The driver responded by turning down the radio. Changing transportation at this point was not an option, so we prayed it wasn’t our time.

What probably affected us the most, however, was arriving in Telavi on a day without water service after traveling for three weeks. We knew this would be the case, but actually living in that moment was disheartening for us. Tired, hungry, and needing to wash clothes, all we could do was prepare a meal with no running water to rinse food, hands, utensils, or wash dishes. The only available water (other than some bottled for drinking) came from a large plastic bin Jeff and Heather had remembered to fill up before leaving. Planning is essential, and they handled the situation with such ease. How the Georgians can continue to be so inconvenienced without questioning a dysfunctional system is difficult to understand, especially when services are available. Maybe this is where an attitude change needs to start…

God Bless all the Peace Corps Volunteers in selfless service to others!

Mom and Dad Detherage~ http://heather-jeff.blogspot.com

And now for your viewing pleasure, the pictures from the Turkey portion of our vacation have been uploaded! Follow the link below to see them all!

Turkey Vacation Pictures~ http://heather-jeff.blogspot.com

Alright all you excited readers, the pictures from the Greece portion of our vacation have been uploaded! Follow the link below to see all of the awesome stuff we got to do in Greece (and don't be too jealous)!

Greece Vacation Pictures~ http://heather-jeff.blogspot.com

What percentage of our lives is routine? 50? 90? 99?. We get up at the same time every morning, go to bed at roughly the same time every night. We eat at the same times, maybe even eat the same foods much of the time. If you're lucky, you have a job and you go every day at the same time. You probably do much of the same work every day. Generally, routines mean stability and comfort. People speak longingly about getting back into a routine after a chaotic event has "messed" things up. Part of this is necessary. You can't work effectively, or expend necessary energy on your relationships if you feel unsettled in your life, and are using all your energy just to adapt to a changing environment. But how much does routine dull our creativity? Keep us living and thinking inside a giant construct of "what's expected"? What does the balance look like? And is the answer different for everyone?

I find myself pondering these questions as I officially enter year 2 of my Peace Corps service. As I understand it, the idea behind serving for 2 years is that it takes you one full year to adapt, learn the language and the culture, and make relationships. Supposedly everything is easier in the 2nd year, and volunteers usually report doing their best work in the 2nd year. This seems to be true according to some of my English teacher volunteer friends. They report that their relationships with counterparts are better, teachers want to lesson-plan with them, and the kids are more eager to learn and participate in after-school clubs. But how about in an NGO? Much like businesses in America, life just goes on without the clear start and finish points of a school year. The meetings get repetitive, the projects are similar, and I can't help but think, "I have to go through this all again?" Another winter, more training sessions, another SPA project? But development work doesn't end in a few months, or after a few projects. It takes decades and 1000s of projects. So I'm starting to think maybe the long, hard slog of development isn't for me. I hope to work on some elements of it in my career, but the full-time work is too slow, too frustrating.

On a personal level I have a very low threshold for repetition. Most people welcome the expected and fear the unknown, but I feel just the opposite. I fear "getting stuck" and welcome the unknown. I get bored very quickly and lack motivation without new challenges. Sure there are lots of challenges remaining here, but it's the same ones of trying to motivate a population that doesn't want to change and I'm tired of doing that. But maybe this is good practice for me. When this fatigue sets in my first response is to completely change my situation. But I can't move away from this situation - at least not for another 10 months. So here I am, searching for motivation and trying to think creatively about old problems. Meanwhile I am trying to find strategies for achieving inner peace, for quieting that voice that chants "what's next, what's next" over and over in my brain as soon as I get comfortable somewhere.

Welcome to year 2.~ http://heather-jeff.blogspot.com

Coming back from vacation to reality is always difficult. It is even more difficult when coming from a place with good food and consistent hot showers to a place with neither of those things. In America, my favorite part about coming home is running through a drive-thru, throwing in a load of laundry (what can I say, I like to clean), and relaxing on the couch. In Telavi, we have no drive-thrus, "throwing in laundry" requires having water which we often don't have, and there are no couches to relax on, only straight-backed chairs. Needless to say, coming home here is a discouraging experience.

But this time, my parents were with us and got to experience a Telavi homecoming. I will not try to capture their feelings towards Georgia here, because soon they will be writing their own blog entry so they can share their experiences in their own words. I will give you the small teaser that my dad said running errands in the lunch rush-hour traffic in Orange County was calm and mellow compared to road conditions here. Stay tuned for more!

The vacation itself? Fabulous! In Greece we visited Athens and the islands of Mykonos, Santorini and Rhodes. We saw amazing archaeological sites like the Acropolis, Delphi, and Delos - thought to be the birthplace of Apollo. We got in some quality beach time on white sand in Mykonos, and red volcanic rock on Santorini. We hiked Santorini and visited a medieval castle and walled city in Rhodes. Finally we ate, and ate, and ate. Delicious feta, great vegetables, amazing gyros, and the best tzatziki of our lives. I think there was some kind of illicit substance in that sauce, it was just that good. Then it was off to Turkey! We spent time in two coastal areas, Fethiye and Kushadasi. We saw more Greek ruins at Ephesus, walked on white cliffs in Pamukkale, and went on boat trips to remote island swimming spots where we even saw some sea turtles. Then we headed inland to Cappadocia for a few days where we got to see some amazing rock formations and stayed in a traditional-style cave hotel. A highlight was getting to take a sunrise hot-air balloon ride over the area to see all the caves and rock formations from above. Finally we finished up in Istanbul, which was a really interesting and vibrant city. And of course we kept eating all that wonderfully spiced Turkish food.

So that's the trip in a nutshell. We should have pictures posted in about a week so stay tuned!~ http://heather-jeff.blogspot.com

Pictures from the Heather's Work folder have been updated to include the World Vision summer camp. Enjoy!~ http://heather-jeff.blogspot.com

Last week I had the opportunity to participate in a week-long summer camp in Bakuriani put on by World Vision. We had 56 high-school students, representing 15 villages from Kakheti, Imereti, and Samstkhe-Javakheti (3 regions where our program works).

The journey there and back was actually the most painful thing about the week. Not 15 minutes outside of Telavi, the bus we were all on got a flat tire. 30 minutes later we were all patched and ready to go. About an hour later, the "air conditioning" (meaning some warmish air flow) went out. We cruised down the highway in style, sliding doors wide open, and still sweating from the lack of air. About an hour after that, there was some kind of engine fire. Two water bottles were poured on the smoking parts, some rubber tubing was pulled out and tossed on the ground, and on we went. After 6 hours total we arrived. The ride home, we only had engine trouble once, and the "air conditioning" worked the entire time. But that ride took 7 hours, because we had to stop at 8 villages on the way home to drop kids off...

But on to the good stuff! The theme of the week was environmental action and our entire staff put months of planning into the camp. So I was really excited about the camp, but trying to keep those all-important expectations low so as not to be disappointed. In an ironic twist, I am considering this camp a success, while my NGO director was a bit disappointed. Her expectations were too high! But in talking with her about it, it's a different situation for us. For me, I just have to keep sane for 2 years. This is her life's work we're talking about (at least until she can find her ticket out of this country). But anyway, on with the story.

I had encouraged the staff to use a system of team points to provide a fun and positive reinforcement for good behavior. I was a little unsure how it would work in the Georgian context but was really eager to try something concrete to enforce timeliness, active participation, etc. And it worked! We had 56 kids up and ready to exercise at 7:30 in the morning, and they were using peer pressure to get their teammates ready too. Amazing! I think the only fault with the system was that we didn't use it broadly enough. If we could have applied the points to being on time for sessions too, we might have been able to start those on time too. But as it was, we were usually only starting about 20 minutes late, so not too bad.

At the camp, my primarily responsibility was to deliver 7 hours of project design and development training to the camp participants over 3 days. I took the training agenda I had used back in March for the adults, greatly simplified it, and put in more activities. The training flowed really smoothly, the timing was perfect, and the kids were really active and involved. Weird to realize that without really thinking about it, I've become pretty good at training design and facilitation. And I really enjoy it. Hmmm. Thanks Peace Corps!

After the training the kids are supposed to go back to their communities and come up with an environmental-related project that they can do in their villages. WV has some funding for them if they like the proposals, so it's really cool that they have this opportunity. There was some time at the end of the training for the villages to start working together with their adult mentors and I witnessed a really cool thing. My counterpart for the SPA project (the one about women's breast health) was a mentor and her group had the best idea and best-written project proposal. So here is this young village woman, who 6 months ago had no knowledge of this process at all, not only leading her own project, but helping to teach the kids as well. Wow!! That'll make you feel good!! So the rest of the proposals needed a lot of work, but I'm choosing to focus on the positive. The rest will get better too.

There were a couple other interesting things about this camp. First, it was the best camp I've had the chance to witness here, it was well-planned, organized, and the staff worked really hard. I think the kids actually learned something. Okay, it's still Georgia and there were some extremely frustrating aspects that I won't go into here, but it made me feel like there is some hope if you can get the right people together with the right resources. It's nice to feel good about the work your co-workers are doing. Secondly, in a society that is so driven by village and family connections, kids don't often have the chance to interact with kids from other places. Although they kept their distance at first, by the end of just a week, they were in tears at the thought of having to leave their new friends. And extending those connections can only help this country. And finally I witnessed real enthusiasm and energy during this fashion show we had one night. With only black plastic trash bags and clear plastic sheets, these kids put together some unbelievable outfits. More importantly they demonstrated initiative, hard work, and teamwork in putting these together. Okay, it was just for a silly fashion show, but it showed such great qualities that hopefully a leader will be able to tap for more important events.

Pictures will be posted as soon as I can get them!~ http://heather-jeff.blogspot.com

While walking home from work, I noticed a little market along the main street of town has started carrying a lot of fresh produce. This is very exciting as the main bazaar (which was the only place where you can buy produce) is about a 10-15 minute walk downhill from our house and offices. This means the walk back is uphill, and not a lot of fun in the heat when you've acquired lots of fruits and veggies. Disclosure: Yes, I am very thankful and appreciative for a bazaar and fresh veggies and fruits. So anyway, I stopped on my way home yesterday at this little shop to pick up a fresh melon.

Melon in-hand I waited for my turn as the lady in front of me was buying lots and lots of greens. PCVs, you know all about greens. For the American readers, greens are the generic term used for any herbs; basil, parsley, dill, cilantro - and Georgians eat them on everything. Too bad I've discovered I hate parsley. Anyway the girl helping her looked up at me with fear in her eyes and called her friend to come out from the back and help. Her friend came out and stood next to me.

(in Georgian)

1st girl: What does she want?

2nd girl: She just wants a melon.

It's my turn and I hand the melon to 1st girl to weigh it.

1st girl (in Georgian): It will be 2.85.

2nd girl (in hesitant but proud English): It is 2 lari and 85.

Of course I'm dying laughing on the inside but I politely smiled, said Gmadlobt (thank-you) and left. I thought about telling them I live there and know Georgian, but 2nd girl was so proud of her ability to help out the poor foreigner in her town, that I didn't want to ruin her moment. Plus it's great customer service as our town has been crawling with tourists for the last few weeks, and I don't want to ruin their system for the next foreigner who walks in and really does need the help. Don't all tourists buy melons??~ http://heather-jeff.blogspot.com

The training was scheduled to start at 11. We arrived a few minutes "late". We were greeted by the project coordinator and led to the training room. About 15 women were seated in the room. We were expecting 50. 20 minutes later we had 40 women and the training began. A few more trickled in later, bringing our total to around 45 participants. Success!

The training was supposed to last 45 minutes and cover topics related to the symptoms and importance of early detection for breast cancer. Breast cancer is a huge problem for women in this country. They don't know what to look for themselves, and they rarely get screenings. So when the cancer is finally caught, they are very sick, and there's only one unfortunate outcome. To combat this, the Georgian government pays for women to receive free screenings and certain treatments are also free. And yet the women still don't go. Our SPA project (small project assistance grants offered through PC) aims to provide women with the information and the incentive to take care of their health so they don't become another sad breast cancer statistic.

One of the villages that attended our project training came up with this project outline on their own and after several drafts together, we came up with a winning project. We are now about 2 months into the project and it's going really great. I meet with the village coordinator every few weeks, and give her specific instructions to follow over the next few weeks. And so far, so good. For never having done a project before, and having admitted she was nervous to run this one, she is doing great. She listens, follows-through and asks good questions. She also went above and beyond by inviting the local newspaper to cover the training, and also got the village mayor and the local representative from the regional parliament to attend the training. It was great to have the support from the local government officials, and I think it was also important for them to see that men (because they were all men) think women's health is important. Georgians place great importance on formal authority and so this was a really big deal in local context.

Of course when I hear training, I think interactive discussions, activities, hand-outs, and pictures. This was just a doctor talking for 20 minutes. But my WV counterpart was impressed with his knowledge, professionalism, and ability to break a scary and difficult topic down into basics to persuade his audience. And I have to remember that this is the first time these women have ever gathered to get information on this topic. They were absolutely riveted for those 20 minutes. No side conversations, no cell phones.

2 more trainings of 50 women each to go, plus we are coordinating transportation for these women to the local screening center. Our hope is that if we can send out 150 knowledgeable women, through word of mouth we might reach 200, 300, maybe more. Plus 1 village woman has gained confidence, leadership and project management abilities. Sometimes it only takes 1!

Our Life Skills committee liaison told us a few weeks ago that volunteers haven't been too involved with health projects in Georgia. In fact, there have only been a few, and they were all in the large cities in Western Georgia. To her knowledge, there has never been a health project in the Kakheti region. And I've already done one and am in the middle of my second! So that was pretty exciting, and helped to put everything in perspective. It's frustrating and slow, but it's groundbreaking!

Pictures from the training are posted in the Heather's Work folder.~ http://heather-jeff.blogspot.com

This past weekend we went to the town of Gori to visit our friend Kakha. He was the business technical trainer for the G10s and we got to know him while helping with some of the training. No volunteers are currently placed in this town, despite it's size of about 60,000 people, a handful of NGOs and tons of good schools. This is because it also happens to be the nearest large town to South Ossetia, one of the breakaway regions, and was the city hardest hit during the 2008 conflict. In fact, Kakha told us stories about feeling the impact of the Russian bombs falling, and looking out over the city and seeing it burning. Scary! Fortunately, the city has mostly recovered at least architecturally and everything is calm and life as normal now.

Gori is also famous or infamous (depending on your perspective) as the birthplace of Joseph Stalin. Yes, he was a Georgian! There is a museum in town celebrating his life as a revolutionary, and the eventual victor over the Nazis during WW2. Not surprisingly, nothing is mentioned about his murder of millions of innocent people after the war, nor his carving up of Europe into a Soviet Communist sphere which resulted in the Cold War. So he was responsible for the decades of chaos and the post-communist legacy that we have come to know and hate. Stalin, I shake my fist at you!

We also got to see the Gori fortress, several old churches, and Uplitsikhe cave city. Although not as visually stunning as Vardzia, this cave city is thought to be one of the oldest settlements in the Caucasus and was still a really interesting place to visit.

Pictures are posted under the Gori link. Thanks for your hospitality Kakha!~ http://heather-jeff.blogspot.com

We were on our way home from the eco-camp, 6 adults and 2 kids crammed into the ranger's pick-up truck. The truck pulls off the main highway and turns down a village road. There is a young woman standing there and it quickly becomes clear that we are picking her up and taking her to Telavi with us. One of the kids (probably about 6 years old) gets out of the back seat to make room for her. So now Barb, me, and 2 young Georgian women are crammed in the back seat of the truck, one of whom has a 1 year old child in her lap. Since Jeff is a man he was given a seat in the front. But I don't think he was too comfortable either! The kid gets in the front, sits on the driver's lap, and puts his hands on the steering wheel. Don't worry Moms, the driver had his hand on the wheel the entire time too!

The young woman who had recently joined us spoke some English, and we had the usual "where are you from" exchange. She then asked us "What is your goal?" Barb and I looked at each other, stunned into silence. Many things were racing through our minds; surviving this car trip, surviving all subsequent encounters on Georgian roads, making it through another year with our marriages and sanity intact - but this can't be what she means. We finally decided to interpret her question to mean what are you doing here in Georgia. So we answered that we are volunteers in NGOs and that satisfied her. Whew!

But her question got me wondering, what exactly is my goal? A year ago my goal was to enjoy a new culture, have an adventure, and do some good helping people who really want and need it. I have experienced a new culture, and there are some things I like - the slower pace of life, the patience of the people, the focus on family. But there are so many things that I just can't get used to and will never enjoy. And I have come to realize that's okay. It's only 1 more year. Adventures I have had and there will be more of those! The helping people - well that's probably something I will never know the full impact of my time here.

So I guess my goals are much smaller now. In terms of my work - I want to successfully complete my SPA project with a community who has never done a project before. I want them to have confidence in their success that will carry over to other aspects of their lives. I want to actually put a GLOW camp together and see the girls learn just one thing that will help to improve their lives. Personally - it's doing the best I can every day, and just for once quieting that voice that says "what about tomorrow?" It's a successful shopping trip at the bazaar and cooking a tasty dinner. It's having enough water to complete a shower, or doing three loads of wash by hand.

So with these smaller goals I can only hope that my 2nd year in Peace Corps will bring more realistic expectations, different measures of success, and me finding happiness in the small things every day. ~ http://heather-jeff.blogspot.com

4 days of tent camping in a nature preserve with 17 high school students. 1 day of rain. Over 40 bug bites. Countless games of cards. 0 environmental sessions.

Thus went our experience with a Georgian eco-camp. To be fair, we did leave the camp 2 days early since a ranger was making the trip from the nature preserve to Telavi and we had had enough. So maybe there was a session or two and another hike in there that we missed. But here is the basic rundown of what we experienced.

There were 5 boys and 12 girls. They were divided into teams for doing chores. The girls of course were given the tasks of helping prepare meals, doing dishes and cleaning. The boys were given the job of collecting firewood and water. Basically this meant that the boys stood around a lot and waited for the girls to serve them. So I know this was not meant to be a gender camp, but I was already really annoyed. It took about 2 days with a lot of yelling before the chores were actually completed. Remember, discipline is basically unheard of in this country, and with no one holding them accountable, of course the kids would rather lay in their tents than do work. Until the yelling started. Then they did the work.

Between wake-up time (7am-ish) and lunch time (1pm-ish), there was one activity every day, usually some kind of active game that lasted about 15 minutes. There was also a 1-hour seminar. Apart from meal prep, the rest was free time. The kids talked and slept. We played game after game of cards. I had been asked to do a seminar about leadership on one of the days. I had planned a brief interactive introduction, then an activity, then a debrief, then a 2nd activity, and then a debrief. In my desire to keep it fun and active I forgot that Georgian kids are not used to learning from activities. They are either playing a game or listening to a lecture. And in an hour, there is no way you can teach leadership to kids with no concept of the idea. So I guess I got what was coming to me. Although it was still a shock when I asked my translator to ask the kids what they had learned from the activity and he responded to me, "I think nothing." Nothing indeed.

There was a hike one day that started at 3pm. It was supposed to be a short hike of about 3km to expose the kids to hiking since most of them have never hiked before. We walked for 3 km down a dusty truck road and arrived at a Chinese-owned and operated hydroelectric power plant around 5:30. Interesting. The kids were stretched out over probably a quarter mile, many of them had blisters, and all were tired. We thought okay, well I guess the 3km hike is actually a 6km hike and we should probably turn around to make sure everyone makes it back by dark. But most of the group with the leader decided to make a trek up to a waterfall another 2km away. We elected to head back to camp with a few of the campers and got back around 6. The rest of the group got back at 10pm, well after dark, with only a few cell phones for light. Of course the people who were back were really worried about those who had been gone so long for only a short hike. But the returning group decided to play a trick on them by faking a major injury. Much more yelling and tears ensued when the joke was realized. Sorry Georgia, guess I just do not get your sense of humor yet.

Other things witnessed at the eco-camp included a sheep slaughter and subsequent cleaning, slicing and cooking (by the resident rangers for their mini-supra), bags and bags of kitchen trash being tossed down the side of a hill (hey, our area was clean), campers brushing teeth, bathing and washing their hair in the stream that feeds into the water supply of countless villagers down the line. If the kids cannot learn environmentally friendly behaviors at an eco-camp where will they learn them??

All in all, a frustrating experience for the Americans in our group. I guess you can make the argument that at least 17 kids got out into nature, made some new friends, hiked for the first time, and camped in a tent. And so maybe, just maybe it was worth it?

Pictures are posted in the Nature Preserve link.~ http://heather-jeff.blogspot.com

Pictures are updated on the blog.

NEW - Armenia

NEW - Clinton Visit

UPDATED - Tbilisi~ http://heather-jeff.blogspot.com

It was a good Fourth of July weekend. We discovered a great Italian restaurant, watched some World Cup football, and just generally enjoyed being in Tbilisi together after over a week apart. On Sunday we got together with some other volunteers for a softball game. But this wasn't just any softball game as our opponents were Georgian girls between the ages of 10 and 18. In a country where girls are not encouraged to play sports or be active, this is a really big deal. Their coach is a Georgian man who really loves baseball, and had coached a girls softball team during Soviet days. He found an abandoned field on the outskirts of Tbilisi, put a fence around it, got some second-hand equipment and now runs regular practices for the girls. But, since they are the only softball players in Georgia, they don't get to play real matches. A group of Americans started meeting regularly to play against them and get them excited about competition. Since it was July 4, all the other Americans in Tbilisi were at embassy parties, but we don't get invited to those, so we were free to play! The girls are pretty good, especially at pitching. That ball was coming across the plate quickly! Fortunately for our patriotic pride, we won the game but it was a close match and a lot of fun.

Fast forward one day to Monday when we had the opportunity to meet Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Last summer we had such a great experience meeting Biden that we were really excited for this visit. We could already see a difference as we approached the Marriott as the main street was still open to traffic and security to get into the hotel was pretty light. We got there around 2:30, and waited in the lobby for a little bit enjoying the air conditioning and marvelling at the prices in the lobby bar. A little while later we got to go down into the ballroom where she would be making her appearance. But then the rumor started circulating that she wasn't going to show until 4:30. She actually didn't show until almost 5:30 so we had to stand and wait in the ballroom for about 3 hours. When she did arrive she read through a statement someone at the embassy had prepared for her that was really boring, and not really that relevant to the audience that was there. That lasted for about 5 minutes. She never once mentioned Peace Corps. Then she walked the length of the room shaking some hands, and I think it was mostly the Georgian staff at the American Embassy that had pushed their way to the front of the crowd. That was it. She looked great, much better in person than when we've seen her on tv lately. But the whole meet and great was an epic fail.

I got to thinking a little bit about what Americans want from their leaders. We loved Biden because he was a great public speaker, he was funny and charming, and said all the right things to the right people. He was a little creepy because of how smooth he was. But we left feeling good about the encounter. But does anyone know what he's actually accomplished? Does he work hard at getting things done or is he just a professional schmoozer? Clinton was stiff, boring, un-inspiring, and ill-prepared for this meeting. But she is known as a hard worker and she definitely wants to get things done. We ask for everything in our leaders - we want them to present a good image, wow us, schmooze us, then get into office and be the most intelligent, the hardest worker, and the best negotiator. Can we really expect to find all that in one person? No wonder we are constantly disappointed with those we elect.~ http://heather-jeff.blogspot.com

Happy 4th of July!! Eat an extra burger, hot dog, grilled chicken and ribs for us!

This past week another volunteer and I had the opportunity to visit Armenia to observe a girls camp being put on by PCVs in Armenia. It is an official PC camp, and we used to have it in Georgia, but the last time it was held was in 2007 and there's no information for us to go on to run this camp ourselves. So PC paid for us to travel and attend the camp. It was a really great opportunity to see the camp in action and we learned a lot, including how much work is ahead of us this next year in planning our own camp in Georgia. But it will be another great and fulfilling project to work on and I'm sure I'll be sharing more details as the planning process commences.

Also, it provided us an opportunity to compare life between Georgia and Armenia, because we just as easily could have been placed as PCVs in that country. Here's my opinion of the rundown between Armenia and Georgia.

Food - Georgia

The basic ingredients of the meals are the same - potatoes, bread, pasta, cabbage. But Georgian food has one important thing that Armenian food doesn't. Sauces! Everything was pretty tasteless and there was no tkhemali (wild plum sauce) or adjika (spicy red sauce) in sight. Plus Georgia has lobiani which is one of the only Georgian foods I might miss when I leave.

Climate - Toss-up

It was much cooler there which was nice since I've been sweating in the Georgian heat and humidity. However, I think cooler summers would also mean colder winters and so I think I'll call this one even.

Village Life - Same

Talking with the PCVs, they have the same problems with their communities as we do with ours. A conservative, closed-minded outlook, lack of initiative, sense of entitlement. The villages look very similar, and of course they also use marshutkas to get around. And an Armenian cow looks very much the same as a Georgian cow.

People - the opposite of where you live

I can't really speak to what the people are like in Armenia because I don't speak Armenian. Although I did learn the words for hello (bahrev zhes), yes (ha), no (che), thank you (merci - yes they use the French!), and I don't speak Armenian (yes chem hosem haieren). Their language is just as hard as Georgian! But I think in appearance it's a classic case of the grass is greener on the other side. We both thought that the Armenian people were more attractive, and had more diverse features. There was also quite a variation in dressing styles. But the Armenian PCVs who had been to Georgia had the exact opposite opinion. They thought the Georgian people were more attractive and more diverse in appearance.

Capital City - Upon arrival, the edge went to Yerevan. After further thought, I think I will give the edge to Tbilisi

The central part of Yerevan is really impressive. Parts of it look and feel a bit like Los Angeles due to the large SoCal Armenian diaspora sending money back to the homeland. Other parts feel very European with tree-lined sidewalks, great sidewalk cafes with WiFi, outdoor bars, and nice parks. The buildings are all kept up very nice, the streets and sidewalks are in good repair, and there is very little trash. At least in the central part it is very clean. So upon immediate arrival, Yerevan seems like a much nicer city. We had a great sandwich and ice tea at a sidewalk cafe and were enjoying our life.

Appearance of the city - Advantage Yerevan

We noticed two other things about Yerevan. One, pedestrians have a right of way. If you step out into the street, cars stop and wait for you to cross. In Tbilisi, cars aggressively have the right of way. I have never seen a car stop for a pedestrian in Georgia. Two, there were no beggars or gypsies (I think technically they are Caucasian Kurds and not Roma but gypsies they remain) in Yerevan. That was a nice change from being constantly hassled by them in Tbilisi

Quality of life as a pedestrian - Advantage Yerevan

Yerevan has a Yum Yum Donuts, and a Pizza Hut under construction. Tbilisi has 3 McDonalds and a pizza restaurant that serves root beer.

Western chains - Advantage Tbilisi

Tbilisi does have some very charming areas and neighborhoods, and the streets in these areas have a lot of character. The buildings may be a bit rundown but they're also pretty interesting. There's also a lot more things to do in Tbilisi. And after a year of being in Georgia, I know the pubic transportation system pretty well, and we know some great bars and restaurants that the average traveler wouldn't find.

And for these facts I give the final advantage to Tbilisi!~ http://heather-jeff.blogspot.com