Why the dangerous things are just more fun to do.

After a week or so of living in my host village, and counting the 23 houses and rows of corn (I got up to 145 before I got sick of that activity), my family took me to Batumi to stay with some of their relatives. It was a good break, and I was excited to see the city with the company of locals.

Waiting for the Marshutka 

The first day here I bought some train tickets, and then we just hung out after  along supra where we mixed half a glass of vodka with half a glass of beer.  At night we walked on the blvd that is right beside the black sea. My host sister then decided that it was time to take some pictures, so we practiced doing our georgian faces (serious) and then American faces (smiling). See below for details.

Goergian face

American Face

The following day we went to go swimming in the black sea, which wasn't possible the previous day due to thunderstorms. So we made our way via the #31 marshutka to a spot that the locals knew that was a bit outside of the city that was essentially an abandoned soviet pier, complete with rusted out moors and everything that one could want for a good time. the thing was about 20 feet high, and we each took turns running and jumping off the end. My host sister Kristina decided it was picture time again, and she got some pretty sweet shots of me jumping off the thing.  The black sea is extremely polluted, but I did my best not to swallow too much water, and it had the added benefit of being much warmer than the river that I had been swimming in at my permanent site in Tsoniarisi. One of the kids I was with couldn't remember my name, so he started going through a list of Georgian names like Tedo, Nado, georgi, etc. finally I told him that if he was going to call me these things, then I was going to start calling him Rhianna, and magically he remembered my name.

Nothing like this would happen in america. Such a structure would be closed and condemned well before the rust starts to set in. That's why the kids play so many video games, we never let them take any risks or have any adventures. I saw really small kids taking the plunge, and they certainly weren't any worse for wear.

Note the rusty pilings 

Hanging from rusty structure. glad I got my tetanus shot 

Jumping off a dangerously high pier 

After we came back from swimming we went to go and watch my other host sisters play rehearsal, and I had no idea what the heck any of them were saying, but it was pretty cool to get to sit there and watch them perfect their craft in a smoke filled, excessively hot room. and of course afterwards I was asked to give a piano concert, so that was fun. Also I got to eat my first Adjaran Khatapuri, which is in the shape of a boat (since we're by the sea), and has an egg on it (to symbolize the sun). No, it's not the first raw egg I've eaten since being here.

I go back to Tsoniarisi tomorrow for a few days, then I head into Tbilisi for the weekend to see friends and check my mail. It's kind of wild that I have to travel across an entire country to check my mail, but it is what it is (or in georgia, esse aris ras aris). All in all a great few days.

My craptastic (literally) last 24 hours. (or, don't eat the yellow melons)

So, I'm supposed to be leaving for my permanent site tomorrow morning, and I don't see how that's going to happen. I'm sitting in my room right now typing this, which is quite an accomplishment considering what went on the past 24 hours, but nothing is packed as of yet.

My clustermates decided to hold an American supra last night in honor of our host families which consisted of pizza, pasta salad, and real salad (well, cabbage, carrots, cucumbers, and tomatoes). It started out super awkward because we had made all this food for hours, and our host families just basically sat there and stared at it. We kept bringing out food but no one would eat it. I ate a huge portion of yellow melon (think of a cantaloupe, the outside was similar), and then we started toasting to various things and drinking some pretty rank wine. but it was so awkward with no one eating or talking that that was all we could do. Then my LCF (Naili) said that I needed to stand up and sing, so I proceeded to sing the national anthem, Shenandoah, and Danny boy, which in retrospect were not exactly party songs. then other volunteers stood up and sang songs, which were all met with polite applause. Finally we just gave up and drank, and then somehow it turned into a massive photo session. My host sister Mary took 64 pictures in the span of 15 minutes, it was impressive. I walked home in the dark (which was super scary) and went to bed around 11:00.

At 4:00am I was awoken to the sound of a super intense storm, and rain hitting me even though my bed is about 12 feet from the nearest window. the storm was so bad that it had blown open all the windows in the house and everything was getting wet. On top of that my stomach was making some terrible sounds which I originally chalked up to being the usual diarrhea that accompanies a night of drinking. I battened the hatches, and went back to bed. It looked like bombs were going off though, and the power was out, so we had this weird affect of going from pitch black to completely visible. I imagine someone suffering from video game seizures would have a relapse.

Then this morning the power was out, and many volunteers reported structural damage to their houses (like, the roofs blowing away). myself, I was busy in the family outhouse trying to master the technique of taking a massive poop of liquid and throwing up at the same time. Apparently the melon I ate was of poor quality, and I can now say I've had my first food poisoning experience as a peace corps volunteer. It got to the point where I was crapping out the water I had drank not even 5 minutes ago, and as I told the doctor, I didn't know how I could keep doing this since there wasn't any poop to be pooped any more. I went to sleep and have been sleeping most of the day, missing out on a chance to see Gina one last time before we depart, and also missing the farewell dinner. At least now I don't feel entirely like death, so I'll take it. So if you ever go to Georgia, be very weary of eating the yellow water melon from the Kakhetian region during the summer. I know I will from now on. Now I have to figure out how to pack all my stuff.  

Preparing for the next phase: Tsoniarisi

So I'm finally coming up to the end of my pre-service training. 11 weeks of working about 11 hours a day, 6 days a week. it reminds me of my time when I had a real job back in the states. I feel comfortable with basic verbs now, and can speak in future, present simple, past progressive, and past simple tense. I no longer go on long conversational rants about how I have 20 pens and that I live with 50 cats, but I don't know how much beyond that point I am. On friday morning I'll be shipping out to my permanent site for the next two years, a small village called tsoniarisi. It has about 850 people in it, and the school that I'll be teaching at has about 145 kids. the village of Tsoniarisi used to be a communist collective farm, so now actually no one lives in the village, it is instead comprised of 5 small villages that circle the former farming central, and I have yet to learn their names.

My new village is known for two things: a big tank that stalin gave them after WWII, and for good tasting water. here is a picture of the tank

Kids playing on the tank

And here is the view from out my window (high mountains, and a river. not bad.):

Finally here is a nice picture of a big water fall in the closest village to mine that has a PC volunteer in it:

I've had a good time living in Khotashini, I had a great host family with some nice (though gossipy) younger kids who actually spoke english very well. I don't know when I'll be back to visit them, my cluster mates keep saying that we'll be back in october, but I think that might be a bit of an assumption considering how hard it is to travel around this country, despite its small size.

I have internet now too, which is really good, so I'm looking forward to being able to update my blog on a more regular basis. I know I went awhile without saying anything, but the combination of how poor I am plus the very busy schedule we had in PST made it difficult to update. I'll have about a month off now before I have to start planning for my summer camp, where I'm probably going to have a sports camp depending on the weather. Stay tuned for more!