7 years ago

Georgia’s Poor Infrastructure Led Our Water to be...

by Rawan / Her

Two weeks ago the craziest thing happened with our water system. We had moved into our new apartment about a week prior and our first problem already arose. Justin gives me a call to inform me about our problem and all I could say was “What do you mean our water is blue?!” Justin literally said that our water had turned blue. Like Royal Blue. I was perplexed as to how that happened. But at the same time I was not that confused because the water system in Georgia is complicated. Also, it is Peace Corps; therefore, unexplained $hit happens all the time.

He calmly tells me that the blue tablets that I bought for the toilet bowl is the culprit. I had bought one of those blue gel tablets that slowly dissolve in your toilet tank each time you flush. Attempting to keep our toilet bowl always sanitized, we placed one tablet in our toilet tank before our Tbilisi trip.

Bought this German toilet tank blue tablets

When Justin came back a day earlier than I did, he naturally wanted to use water. Except, he didn’t get clear and clean water. He got bright, royal blue water that is coincidentally the same color as the tablet. He turned on each faucet in the house and they were all blue- including the shower. The conclusion was clear: the water from the toilet tank “backwashes” into the reserve tank of the apartment. The silver lining is at least it isn’t the toilet bowl water that goes back into the tank- just the toilet tank. But I can still say gross?

I can't believe the water from the toilet tank goes back to the reserve tank! — I can’t believe the water from the toilet tank goes back to the reserve tank!

Before I move on with the story, let me try to explain why we even have a reserve tank in the first place. In the United States, I don’t know a single home that has a water reserve tank in any of the states I’ve visited/lived. In Georgia, despite having rain all the time, we don’t always have access to water. I have been without running water for days in this country multiple times. This is not because there is drought (far from it), but because the water infrastructure is poor and crumbling. Therefore, the city water is inconsistent and does not run all day. Each neighborhood in the same city has a different schedule as to when the water runs. Better yet, even the schedule is flimsy. At our apartment, the city water supposedly runs in the early morning. However, I have come home sometimes to have it still running at 2:00 p.m. Other times, I wake up and the water still hasn’t come from the city. To combat not having water, each home has a reserve tank. Thus when the city water is running, the smart thing to do is to fill up the reserve tank. That way when the city water is not running, you simply use the water from the tank.

Our water reserve tank in the "basement" — Our water reserve tank in the “basement”

Back to the story…

Since I was still on the bus and was useless to Justin, he immediately went to problem solving mode. He tried emptying out the entire reserve tank. We obviously can’t use the contaminated water to shower, brush teeth, or cook with it. Problem was that he was not able to empty the tank completely. The pipe that is connected to the tank is placed almost to the bottom. Therefore, the last few gallons of water cannot reach the pipe to be emptied out. Worse yet, the tank would need a professional or someone with tools to dislodge the tank and drain it.

Once I returned to my site, I called every friend who lived in Georgia for a while to see if they had any suggestions. None have encountered the problem before or even knew how to contact a plumber. They did laugh (rightly so) at our misfortune.
Desperate, I called my supervisor at work late at night to see if he could help. It took him a while to actually believe what I was saying since our situation was so odd. After he understood everything, he was able to call our landlord and explain everything in Georgia. Since we couldn’t do anything at this point, Justin and I went to bed with no access to clean water. End Day 1 of no water.

The next morning, our landlord came over. Unfortunately, the city water filled up the tank so the water got diluted. Therefore, the blue chemicals were no longer super visible in the tank. In disbelief, our landlord wanted to see the tablet that caused all this trouble. Once we were about to hand it over, he was going to take the second tablet and put in the toilet bowl. Justin and I jumped to our feet with a firm no!

"Ara!" (no in Georgian). Don't put the second tablet in the toilet tank! — “Ara!” (no in Georgian). Don’t put the second tablet in the toilet tank!

I had my boss call him again and explain to him that the water is diluted. It was important that our landlord knew that the water was still contaminated. Once he believed us, he said he will come back the next day with the proper tools. So there goes the second day with no water. End Day 2 of no water.

Instead of sleeping and enjoy the Giorgoba Holiday, we woke up early. We took empty huge bottles and filled them up with the clean city water (since we didn’t have to use the tank during these hours). Our landlord was coming after the city water’s schedule, so it was important that we fill up those bottles. He rolled almost two hours late to detach the tank from the basement. Justin and the landlord proceeded to empty out all the wasted water in the yard. Then they took the new mop I bought and cleaned the inside of the tank. By the time they were done fixing everything, the city water had stopped. End Day 3 with no water.

So the takeaway is just because a country rains a lot, do not assume clean, available, running water is a thing….

For more information regarding the water supply and sanitation, click here.
It is not just my site with problems, read here for another example.

7 years ago

Having a Dog in the Peace Corps

by Justin / Him

I’ve always had dogs growing up as a child, but that came to a screeching halt when I left for college. The reason why was simple. I could ‘t have a dog at most of the apartments I lived in, and I worked too much to provide the amount of time a dog deserves and needs. Eventually, when I stop moving around (if that ever happens), I will have a dog.

Low and behold, in late September I was walking outside into the backyard, and I see a puppy chained up to the once-vacant doghouse. The chain was several sizes too big and would have been better for locking up a motorcycle instead of a Cocker Spaniel. I immediately lost my shit. We never expected to have a pet in the Peace Corps! I ran inside to ask my host family where the dog came from, and they told me our neighbors gave him to us. The dog also shared the same name as U2’s lead singer, Bono. The similarities end there though because Bono the dog does not possess the singing ability or the desire to rid the world of HIV.

I ran back out to play with him and pet him, and I noticed that something was wrong with his stomach. It was extremely swollen, hard, and protruding from his sides unnaturally. He had some difficulty in breathing and was wheezing a little bit. I thought that he was suffering from bloat, and was afraid that what Rawan wrote about was going to happen all over again. Fortunately, Bono didn’t have bloat. He was just extremely overfed, and his stomach shrunk down to normal the next day. Unfortunately, Bono being overfed would become a common occurrence.

Typically, dogs in Georgia are not fed very well. You will see many stray tags with colored tags on their ears indicating that they have been given shots. The dogs will be lying on the sidewalk conserving energy or hovering around patrons of restaurants for table scraps. Most of the dogs in my city are extremely friendly, and will almost instantly fall in love you if you pet them. Keep in mind that Georgians do not touch these stray dogs, and you will set off the “weird foreigner alert” if you show any kindness to the strays. Dogs are infrequently kept as pets for companionship, but you will see them in villages to help heard cows and other animals. Village dogs, in my experience, aren’t very friendly and were a constant stressor in my life. The Peace Corps had to teach us that we should pretend to pick up a rock to scare away aggressive dogs. Those dogs often aren’t fed or treated very well, so it was common to see them starving hungry.

Bono is not going hungry in Georgia. My host family lets no food go to waste; they feed all the old food to the dog. Nothing goes in the trash. Bono eats almost a half a loaf of bread every day, triple-fried potatoes, and whatever random thing that wasn’t eaten. I tried to tell my family he’s eating too much, but they’re unaware of the fact that dogs don’t get “full.” They keep telling me that he’s so hungry, and I keep saying he’s getting big. Then, my family laughs and says, “Yeah, he eats a lot.” To top it all off, our neighbor uses Bono as her garbage disposal too, so he’s eating two households worth of old food as a 5-month-old cocker spaniel. That’s like shoving the population of China into the state of Texas. It’ll fit, but it’s going to need some rapid expansion.

***

Flash forward nearly two months later, and Bono is the same loveable dog I met months ago. He knows how to sit, lie down, and bark on command. He also loves sitting on feet (very weird). Oh, he’s also really fat now (surprise…surprise). His entire body is a love handle, and he runs a 15-minute mile. Rawan and I recently moved into our own place sans Bono, and I was Bono’s only source of exercise… God help that poor, chubby dog. He was getting fat when I was there. I don’t even want to imagine how fat he’s going to become now. It’s a real possibly he could become the fattest dog in Georgia.

7 years ago

Apartment Hunting: Finding Our Own Apartment in the Pea...

by Rawan / Her

Apartment Hunting in Georgia as a Peace Corps Volunteer is so different than what I did back in ‘Merica as a corporate professional. If you got some serious dough, you hire a realtor. But for me, apartment hunting in California is somewhere between an art and a science. The science is carefully researching Yelp, Craigslist, and Google mapping every prospective apartment’s distance to your job. The art is trying to judge the apartment and neighborhood by the pictures and reviews alone. Then you check-out the apartments in person. After the leasing agent gets your ID, you get a tour of the unfurnished apartment, the complex’s facilities, and possibly a furnished model. If you like it, you sign a lease. To Americans, this system makes absolute sense, right? Don’t even bother thinking it is the same system in Georgia.

How does it work in the Peace Corps Georgia? Let me outline the loose steps for ya:

First, you inform the Peace Corps that you would like to move out. They will provide a checklist of the minimum requirements that your apartment needs to meet. For example, the apartment must be pre-furnished with the basics. This isn’t difficult, because all apartments for rent come furnished. Ironically, a fridge is not a requirement for the Peace Corps.

Second, you awkwardly break-up with your host family. You use the “it’s not you, it’s me” cliche, expect Justin and I actually meant it. Our host family was textbook perfect as far as host families go. We moved out because Justin’s commute to school was 45 minutes away. Since we don’t own cars here, walking up hill during the winter will be an extremely unpleasant experience.

Third, you ask your community members if they know any apartments nearby for rent. Within the first few days, my sitemate* and I checked out our first lead that her host mom recommended. The experience was something out of a Three’s Company episode. Once we got there, we saw a “hostel” sign. We assumed that maybe the apartment was behind or next to the hostel. It was not. The apartment was the guy who owns the hostel trying to convince me to rent out a room in the hostel. We both looked at the nice guy and said that we would keep him mind if we have guests from out of town. Next (or as we say in Georgian, shemdegi შემდიგი!)

Fourth, you now solicit a friendly Georgian to come to every apartment you want to see. This is to prevent any more language misunderstanding and/or being ripped off. My sitemate’s main counterpart** was nominated as the Designated Apartment Hunting Buddy. The second and third apartments were also suggestions from my sitemate’s host family and other colleagues. The second was a great price point, but there wasn’t any room to cook nor have a place to eat your meal in peace. The third apartment was too expensive and had a sketchy landlord. She reduced the price by over 30% if I would spend an undefined time teaching her young children English. To her, that was a selling point. To me, it sounded like a whole lot of favors for a place I would be paying for. Next.

Not paying rent and providing services for this apartment. Next!

Fifth, you now solicit the service of a Makleri (მაკლერი). They are literally the real life Craigslist. You simply go the main park and approach a bunch of bebias (the term for grandmothers in Georgian). Don’t approach just any bebia, you go up to the ones with a notebook and a cell phone from 2005. These bebias know everything you need to know. They know which apartments are available, the earliest move-in date, the price, and the landlords. They are the Georgian version of Google wrapped up in scarves and warm jackets.

These are the Makleris (მაკლერი). They are your apartment finders.

My sitemate’s counterpart was awesome. She negotiated everything for us with the Makleris. Once we got some leads, we immediately walked to the apartments and checked them out. Apartment number 4 was very promising. However, it got quickly demoted once I discovered there is no heater, chairs, sofa, or table. My husband was able to join us for apartment number 5, which was just terrible. The kitchen was the size of the pantry and there was literally nothing in there. It also smelled of mold.

Now, I was perplexed what to do. Nothing seemed feasible for the price that I wanted to pay. One of my coworkers suggested an apartment to me, but the price was slightly higher than what I wanted. I didn’t even want to consider looking at it. However, with the options that I saw, my husband and I decided to take a look. My sitemate’s counterpart called up the landlord and we met her at a bakery near my job. The second I saw the landlord, we immediately recognized each other. She goes to the same church I do! What a small world!

It turns out the place wasn’t an apartment after all. It was a Georgian version of a very small townhouse or as Georgians like to call it, an “Italian yard.” As we were waiting for her husband to come with the keys, we started chatting. She asked me if I saw the Pope while he was in Georgia in October. I admitted that I got food poisoning (yet again) and had to forfeit my tickets that I had for weeks. She could tell that I was really upset about the missed opportunity. She proceeds to pull out a rosary out of her purse. She hands it over and says in broken English that she would like me to have it. The Pope had given her this rosary during his visit. “Think of me and the Pope every time you look at it,” she said. What a beautiful moment! I hugged her and was so happy and grateful for such a thoughtful gift. I knew this was a genuine moment and it was touching.

The rosary that my new landlord gave me as a present

Once her husband arrived, we all stepped inside the apartment. Justin and I knew that this Italian Yard house was our future home. It had a kitchen, albeit small. It had a big bedroom- and a guest bedroom, gasp! It had a dining room table, but no couches. Even though the bathroom was outdoors, it was attached to the house.

My sitemate’s counterpart translated everything for us. And here comes the final and sixth step: you say you want to move in. Simple as that. No contract needed. The only paperwork we had to fill out was the one for the Peace Corps.

We moved in our apartment about two weeks ago and it has been an interesting ride…more stories to come.

*Sitemate refers to a Peace Corps Volunteers who lives in the same site as you do (in a village, town, or city). Not every Peace Corps Volunteers is lucky enough to have a sitemate.

**counterpart is a host country national (in my case, Georgians) that you partner with at your school or organization. This tends to be the main person that you interact with and do projects with. At schools, English volunteers’ counterparts are their fellow Georgian national English Teachers. At Organizations, it can be tricky as you may have a single or multiple counterparts.

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7 years ago

Teaching Gmail to Others: A Slow and Stubborn Process

by Rawan / Her

I refuse to believe that you “can’t teach an old dog new tricks.” It just completely goes against the Peace Corps philosophy of Human Capacity. We build people up, not buildings. Yesterday, my goal was to teach Gmail and Google Drive to our community workers. I wanted to increase their technological skills so that they could collaborate with each other in a more efficient and secure way. (Read my previous blog post for more details).

PeaceCorps.Gov — Peace Corps Definition of Development from peacecorps.gov

Before I started my PowerPoint presentation, I saw some blank, unhappy looks. One with a slight annoyed tone of voice protested, “არ ინტერნეტი მაქვს (ar interneti makvs).”

I don't have a Smart phone. I don't have internet. — I don’t have a Smart phone. I don’t have internet.

Perfect comeback in hand I said, “According to the needs assessment we conducted with all of you, I am aware you have internet once a week.” Bam! She continued glaring me down, “Tea told me that you are able to access internet at a cafe, or school, or someone’s else’s home since you access your Facebook at least once a week.” Double Bam. Of course, I said this with a smile on my face and I was very friendly and diplomatic.

I'm aware you don't have Internet, but I know you can access it :) — I’m aware you don’t have Internet, but I know you can access it 🙂

To avoid further discouragement, I had my coworker hand them printed versions of my PowerPoint presentation. I explained that when they log-on to the internet, having the instructions with screenshots will enable them. This way they feel more confident to start using Gmail on their own. Providing this explanation helped ease them up a bit.

I started the training with why Gmail is better than Facebook. I knew that I needed to get their buy-in and many Georgians (especially in the villages) are convinced that Facebook is the ultimate end all-be all. Explaining that World Vision has child protection policies and how Google can increase their privacy got several nods of approval.

However, the second I started with the technical portion of the presentation, I saw overwhelmed expressions. Some of the community workers looked as if I was teaching them Chinese.

I tried to increase participation and involvement by having them come to the laptop and send a test e-mail. I tried asking questions to see if they understood the material we just reviewed. The “asking questions” method completely backfired. My colleague simply answered my questions for them in Georgian. He did not allow them to ask and fail. Therefore, I can’t tell how much they actually grasped the new information. Allowing an individual to answer a question wrong and have them correct themselves is such an American concept. Georgians answer questions for each other. They truly believe that they are helping their friend and saving face.

The second part of the presentation focused on Google Drive. To my surprise, they loved the idea. None of them have heard of it before, but they were interested in knowing more. The idea that you don’t have to carry a flash drive was liberating. The idea that you can access your documents anywhere with internet was freeing. The fact you can save attachments directly from your e-mail to the drive was mind-blowing.

Google Drive Happy — Google Drive sounds amazing!

But they did truly learn how to use it? Nope. Can they go home and replicate the tricks at home? Another no. We ended my presentation with my boss telling me that this simply serves as an introduction. We will most likely do one on one meetings with each community worker on how use to Gmail. Even something as “simple” as teaching someone how to use e-mail takes time.

Some of us newbie volunteers don’t realize how slow development can be. Some people back home think that Peace Corps Volunteers create so much change and increase human development ten-fold. The truth is that human development can be painfully slow. It is not like America is much faster than the developing world. In the United States, it took about a hundred years from the Civil War to the Civil Rights Act. Therefore, to enact a change in a country that is as old is time might take longer. The United States was born as country by being rebellious against the British. Georgians, however, only survived as a country because they were stubborn (and rightly so) to keep their language and culture when the Russians occupied them.

Therefore, when you mix a culture of holding onto traditions with a world that is vastly changing, you get interesting results. Having worked in Silicon Valley, each calendar year is equivalent to dog years. Things change so FAST in the Bay Area. However, some parts of Georgia is catching up on things San Francisco would consider outdated years ago.

It leads me to think that there will be a huge technological stratification between the rich countries and the poor countries. There is already a huge stratification on health care and with human rights among various countries. If the U.S does not take the time to think and invest in the other countries, a huge polarization of technological skills will take place. From an ethical and business perspective, it just cannot be good for entire populations and markets to be completely left behind.

Therefore I take pride and joy that I’m contributing to the human capacity of my fellow community members. Even though it sounds silly to Americans that I’m literally teaching someone how to use e-mail, I’m contributing to increasing the technological skills of others. I’m trying to ensure that at least 7 middle-aged women are not left behind on our technological wave of our era. Change is small. But done right, we could contribute to increase the skills and confidence of others. Even though they sometimes they exhibit stubbornness and unwillingness to do so.

7 years ago

Google vs. Facebook: Teaching Georgians that Google is ...

by Rawan / Her

A couple of weeks ago, I sat in on a staff meeting. It was all in Georgian of course. Instead of sitting there like a complete fool, I busted out my smart phone (yes, you can have those in the Peace Corps). I opened up Google Translate and translated words on the printed agenda that I could not understand. I puzzled things together and figured out what they were discussing. Somewhere on the agenda, I saw that “Google Calendar” was a discussion point. I assumed that this was in relevance to me. About a month or two ago, I taught my organization how to use Google Calendar. And it was a hit! We use it all the time and transparency and productivity has increased seamlessly. It was a good sign that my activities started permeating the organization’s agenda and objectives. Teaching my organization how Google can benefit business was beginning to take off.

To that note, they wanted me to me to conduct a training on how to use Facebook for the newly hired Community Workers. We hired 7 of them to essentially check-in on the World Vision Sponsored Children in the communities. Like any other organization and company, a team needs to collaborate and access the same documents. Want to take a guess on which platform was first suggested they would like to do the business collaboration on? Hint: I just mentioned it. Facebook.

Even though I’m not a fan of using Facebook for business purposes, we conducted a Facebook skills pre-test. I wanted to see how well the Community Workers know Facebook in the first place. When I got the answers back, I wasn’t not sure whether or not to be surprised. Most said that they know how to create lists, shared photo albums, events and the like. Yet, most also said that they do not have an e-mail address. Normally, I take people’s word when they answers questions about themselves on a simple test. However, you need an e-mail address to access Facebook. You cannot open an account if you don’t have an e-mail address. Therefore, how does someone not have an e-mail address and yet know how to conduct all these savvy things on Facebook? My conclusion is that they don’t. They probably misunderstood the question or misinterpreted it for something else.

My colleague also gave me some cultural insight when I was trying to make sense of the data. Apparently, many adults have their children create and open accounts for their parents. Therefore, the parents are probably completely unaware that their children created an e-mail account for their parents in order to access Facebook. Thus, the parent is not in the know that there is an e-mail address attached to their name in cyber-space.

So I dug a bit deeper into the activities that World Vision wants them to do on Facebook. I asked the following: how many pictures are they posting? Who is the intended audience of the photographs? Do they need to edit and send files? Sure enough, the answers told me that Facebook is not the right platform. Thus, I turned to show one of my colleagues the wonders of Google Drive and how compatible it is with e-mail. At first he was not aware that Google had more capabilities than the Calendar and Gmail. Giving a quick tour, he agreed that the G Drive was a much better internet platform for our business needs.

As I started researching topics to include in my training, I reached a fork in the road. The problem was that the G Suite is not translated into Georgian. Facebook is ahead of the game and has its content available in Georgian. How am I supposed to teach people to use a platform in which they cannot read its content? G suite does have Russian, which was a glimmer of hope. (Historical context: most older Georgians know Russian because it was required for them to learn the language when they were occupied by the former Soviet Union. Read more about that here). However, they do not use their Russian skills frequently and they are somewhat rusty. Thus, do I give them the right tools in a language they are not fluent in? Or do I train them on the less effective platform in a language they are fluent in?

This thing kept me up at night thinking. These questions would have NEVER happened to me in the United States. The content on the Internet is overwhelming written in English! Over 50% of the content on the web is in English and all the other languages don’t even come close to that percentage (if you want to see stats, read here). If you don’t speak, write, or read English, you are suddenly might find yourself excluded from consuming or sharing information. You speak a common language, there are things out there for you. But Georgian is not a common language. Heck, most my friends and family back home ask me if Georgia even has their own language.

Thus, I mentioned these concerns and thoughts to my colleague this morning. We both agreed that G Suite was the best option. The buttons on Gmail and G Drive are not complex. They will understand the basic words and format of the platform. I’m also assuming that Google will eventually translate things to Georgian. The community workers will be ahead of the game and know some Google skills before other people. May then they can train their friends and family on Google since they would have used it before.

Coming to this realization, I thought I’d share my conclusion: English speakers are privileged when it comes to the internet. This is privilege plain and simple. If you are reading this blog post right now, then you have a privilege that most of the world does not have. I don’t mean that in the sense that my blog is so fancy that you are lucky to read this. No, you are privileged because you can access and understand most of content on the World Wide Web. You have privilege because you can access internet in the first place.

It is moments like these that remind me why I love the Peace Corps. It opens your eyes to truly how privileged we are back home. We become more grateful and more kind human beings when we finish our service. But we also have a great opportunity (and responsibility I might add) to share the knowledge we have gained from said privilege and teach others. I am equipped with tools to transfer my “basic” internet skills to empower others to access a platform on knowledge.

8 years ago

Fall Season in Georgia: aka my Californian Winter

by Rawan / Her

Coming from the great state of California, I’ve gotten accustomed to not having a “real winter.” Of course, real winter exists in Tahoe or Big Bear, but I’m not from there. I’m from a city not too away from Los Angeles. So the middle of October in Georgia feels like my Californian winter: 50-something Fahrenheit degree weather with a chance of rain and wind.

Combine the lack of winter training with low blood circulation and you get me sitting in my bedroom under the covers at 4:00 p.m. wearing fluffy socks, a thermal shirt, a sweater, and two pairs of PJ bottoms. Seriously, I’m not over-exaggerating, my finger nails are slightly blue/purple-ish from being cold. The best part is that this is only FALL/AUTUMN in Georgia!

Sweater Weather, Fall in Georgia — Always wearing a sweater during the fall in Georgia!

Silver lining is that at least I don’t feel silly in my mismatched, warm, layered clothing. My host parents are also layering and wearing their jackets indoors. My host dad wore a scarf while eating dinner the other day. While making lunch, my host mom wore her fluffy, insulated boots yesterday. To answer your question, no they weren’t going somewhere or just came back from running an errand. We dress prepped for the outdoors even if we are remaining indoors.

This is because Georgia has no central heating system in their schools, offices, or homes. The buildings are also not insulated. So if it is cold outside, it is cold inside. If it is hot outside, it also hot inside. The only difference is that you aren’t going to feel the wind or the rain indoors. So at least that rainy cloud won’t be following you once you step into the front door.

Fall in Georgia, Trees in Georgia — At my site, leaves are turning brown…beautiful!

Even though I already started layering indoors, it has not gotten bad yet. I’m not sleeping in my sleeping bag yet. I’m not shivering when I’m momentarily changing clothes. I’m also not wearing multiple layers of fluffy socks (the real sign of winter for me).

However, I do have a feeling that I’m going to embody everything listed on this Odyssey article come winter.

8 years ago

My Peace Corps’ Sense of Style

by Rawan / Her

Our entire wardrobe is smaller than what I’m assuming Kim Kardashian would pack as carry-on for vacation. Personally, I blame the airline industry. That’s right, I’m poking my finger (or should I say raising a finger) to the 50 pound, 2 bag limit policy for international flights. The shoes, coats, and personal items alone take half the packing space. I’ll put it another way, I had one suitcase that encompassed all my clothes for the next two years for all four seasons. That, my friend, averages to about one week’s worth of clothing per season.

Peace Corps Georgia Outfits — Me at the end of each season

By the end of the season, I want to take my clothes to a fire pit and burn them because I’m so sick of them. I’ve worn each item of clothing once every week or two. I also got to know everybody’s outfits around me by the end of the second week. In America, you wouldn’t be caught dead wearing the same thing twice in a row. Your snotty coworker might just joke out loud that you got drunk last night, passed out by a dumpster, and went to work the next day without showering. In Georgia, it is totally acceptable repeating the same outfits. *Gasp!* Perfectly normal looking fresh in yesterday’s clothing.

I spend a lot less time staring into my closest debating my outfits than I did back home. I’m not not worried about mixing things up or keeping up with the latest trends. Life is a lot easier in the fashion department…..until the food poisoning episodes started happening.

How are these two related? Good question. Each food poisoning episode lasted a few days. I had no appetite and my body rejected all foods (except boiled potatoes) for nearly 5 days! Today is my first day back to normal from my second food poisoning in Georgia. My first one was merely six weeks ago with the exact same symptoms. I probably ate less in those five days than one person would during a Thanksgiving meal. Naturally, I lost weight.

Keep in mind, I’ve been losing weight since I arrived in country. All the walking and no driving will do that to you. My husband lost nearly 30 pounds. I’ve had friends who lost over 20 pounds each. I, on the other hand, actually have no clue how much I lost. Now, I didn’t have 20 pounds to lose. I’m average weight for a short person. So even a mere 5 pound weight loss looks drastic on me. But I do know this: half my clothes don’t fit me. I bought so many new Fall and Winter clothes specifically for Georgia. And now, I only got two shirts that fit me. I’ll repeat- TWO! So I have no choice but to mismatch the clothes that do still fit me and layer them.

Or, I can simply wear the same two fall shirts over and over again. I’m going with the former option. Walking around the street wearing things that do not go to together is my jam.

8 years ago

Killing Me with Kindness

by Justin / Him

After nearly three months, my school finally started last Friday. And it couldn’t have started soon enough because I was running out of things to talk about on here.

My school is great, but there’s one big problem. The teachers I work with are too nice. When the Georgian language teacher is not showering me with compliments about my looks (Justin looks like a handsome Georgian man.) and 3rd-grade Georgian language skills (Justin’s Georgian is great!), the other teachers are peppering me with little jabs of kindness left and right. I’m not talking about one or two teachers either; the kindness crew is six strong and growing. They feed me. They make my tea. They always give me directions on how to get home. They disregard my reminders that I know how to get home by now because I’ve been living here for 3 months. I’m like their big, bald, 28-year-old Peace Corps man-child who can’t make it on his own.

One of their common tactics is paying for my bus (They are called marshutkas here.). Marshutkas run almost all day, and many people use them to get around; they cost about 20 cents. Not much right? So I will be sitting in the window seat with a rando Georgian sitting next to me because it’s a bus, and random people sit next to each other. Gee, Justin can you explain more obvious things to us? At this moment a teacher I work with will hop on the marshutka. The teachers I work with always get off before me because I don’t live close, and right before they get off, they look back at me and smile. By this point, I already know the deed is done, and there is nothing I can do to stop it. The teacher will say, “I’m paying for you; it’s my treat!” and hop off the marshutka. I can’t stop it. They won’t let me pay them back either. They are the Antonio Browns of paying for bus fare-flawless execution and quickness.

How can I pay them back? I got peanuts. Literally, I’ve got peanuts. I’m in the teachers’ lounge offering teachers my nuts during every free period. I’m pitching peanuts like peanuts are paying me more than peanuts. I’ve won over a few teachers, but progress is slow. I’ve tried telling them that peanuts are a great source of protein, niacin, and monosaturated fats. It kinda gets lost in translation, so I just say my nuts have lots of vitamins.

8 years ago

Where is the Cow?

by Rawan / Her

My favorite line that I heard yesterday was, “სად არის ძროხა?! (saad arees zrokha)” Which means “Where is the cow?!” The woman who asked me this was genuinely perplexed. Another woman echoed behind her, “და ღორები?! (da ghorebee?!)” The other woman was equally confused as to when I would take care of the cows and pigs during my day. These two simple questions truly highlight the differences between the lives women lead in American cities and Georgian villages.

Yesterday, I conducted one of the Participatory Analysis for Community Action (PACA) tools, called the Daily Activities Calendar, with two members of my organization. What are PACA tools, you ask? In simple terms, this is one of the ways we actually accomplish “being one with the community.” We get to learn how the community functions and see how their life is set-up so that we can work alongside with them in a more efficient way. The Daily Activities Calendar is a simple tool that is highly effective. Community participants are separated based on gender and they write down a typical day for the average woman/man in their community by hour/duration and by activity. It provides valuable insight on the different labor constraints that men and women have. It can raise awareness on the different contributions that each gender provides in the household.

Since it is still my first three months at my site, Peace Corps highly encourages conducting these assessments so that I can understand the community’s environment in which I’ll be serving in. Even though I live in a city, my organization conducts its activities in the surrounding villages. So along with my colleagues, we went to one of the beautiful villages we work in to conduct the Daily Activities Calendar PACA tool.

Persati Public School #1, where we held the Daily Activities PACA tool assessment

To increase understanding of the activity, I thought it would be best if I showed the 5 women and 5 men teachers in the room what a typical day is for a professional women working in a corporate environment in America. In essence, my previous life was summarized as such with the respective time blocks: wake up, take shower, eat breakfast, drive to work, go to work, eat lunch, make dinner, eat dinner, workout, write work e-mails and watch TV, then go to bed.

The second I was done showing them my old life’s daily activities, the infamous question was asked of “Where is the cow?!” It is because life in the village requires that the second you wake up, the women go and feed the cows and pigs before they even feed themselves. It requires tending to the chickens even when they are not in the mood for it. In American cities, if I was not in the mood to cook chicken, I can simply go to the closest grocery store chain and buy myself a warm rotisserie chicken for less than $10. You simply can’t do that here. If you live in a city in Georgia, you can be lucky enough to buy a ready-plucked chicken at the closest bazaar. In the village, simply go to your garden and you can pick which chicken you want to devour later.

So I stood there and tried to explain that they do not have to write down their activities of what life would be like in the city. I calmly told them that this just an example and they are to be authentic in explaining their lives in the village. For a second, I thought I just derailed the entire focus of the activity. Instead, I used this as an opportunity to show why this activity is important because it highlights the differences and brings awareness to what are lives actually are like. It brings forth the knowledge to effectively plan trainings and activities that would be effective in the life of the community.

This is a Daily Activities Calendar that the male teachers completed as a group

8 years ago

You Only Say That Once Here

by Justin / Him

Some things start awkward, but then time passes and you understand culturally that it’s not awkward. It’s been five months, and it’s still awkward. Georgians only say hello to acknowledge someone’s presence once in a day. When I see my host family in the morning, we say hello, but they’ll only say hello once. If I say hello a second time in a day, I get nothing. No small talk. No hand wave. No, “Hey Justin, how was your day?” I don’t even get a head nod. All I get is this:

As an American, I feel compelled to constantly say hello and exchange pleasantries. Foreigners have to be taught that Americans don’t want to be your friend just because they’re talking to you. We just act nice and talk to strangers because it’s in our culture. Try only acknowledging a person once in a day in the States. It’s weird. People are going to think you have Aspergers….

fuck-me-right

It’s just the normal thing here, so I’ve started starring down people too; I’m embracing it. It’ll only be weird when I get back to the States, but that’s a problem for future Justin.

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