I must apologize to everyone for my last post. I was reading it and I have no idea what I was talking about. Talk about poor proofreading (my college professors know about me and my lack of proofreading). Half of the sentences didn’t even make sense, and somehow I forgot articles, probably because Georgian doesn’t use articles and now I get confused. Or I’m just really bad at writing, which sounds like more sense.
I have talked too many of my friends and family about my current situation since leaving PST and Kvishkheti. If you’re interested in the story please feel free to ask me, but my blog is not the place for such sob stories. Nonetheless, for those who do know, the situation has improved and I thank everyone, both in Georgia and back in the USA for their support.
My birthday was last week, July 11, two days after my arrival here in Keda. It didn’t feel like my birthday, it honestly didn’t feel different than any other day. I still appreciate everybody’s “Happy Birthday”. So what did Tom Lyon do? Well I woke up nice and late, continued reading my “Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy” series, dabbled into Facebook, studied some Georgian, and generally did nothing. Around 4PM my neighbor called me to come over to her house, and when I arrived there was a whole table of food set up. So we ate, drank some homemade win (which I’m hoping to learn how to do before I leave). I came back around 11PM and my host family gave me a nice shirt, overall a good day.
I’ve been in Batumi, once with my neighbor friend to meet her friends. We had a good time. We swam in the water and dived for the mussels, which we cooked up on the beach and had a little picnic. Then we came back to Keda (with her friends) and had a supra at her house. That's all I'm going to say about that day.
The next day I met with one of my counterparts and the head of the educational resource center in Keda. We talked for a long time, and then he asked me if I wanted to come to his house for the night. I asked permission from Peace Corps; made sure my host family was okay with it and then went to his house in the village. He has a beautiful house, and a huge garden. His wife is also an English teacher at the school and they have some great children. We took a hike, but on the way down I lost my footing a cut my hand a bit. It’s healing well, but was quite embarrassing. At night we had a little supra and I helped his kids with their English, while they helped my pronounce Georgian words.
The weekend was nice, and relatively uneventful. This coming weekend I am going back to Kvishkheti for a wedding, it should be nice seeing my old host family, meeting my friends (my cluster mates former host brother) new wife, and relaxing back in village life.
Which brings me to a new point; I don’t miss the amenities of a nice toilet and shower. My village had an outhouse (that often smelled), and a shower with enough mold to give a family of elephants asthma. Nonetheless, I really enjoyed it. Keda isn’t big, but I do have a flush toilet, a real tub, and a hot water heater (my old place had a hot water heater, too, but it was with a wood burning stove). Good times. I guess being here has taught me a bit about what’s important, and a nice bathroom and toilet (or even taking a shower everyday… or every five days) is not terribly important.
So what is important? Look below...
Nachos. Til next time...
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Friday, July 9, 2010
Changes
I am finally sitting in the living room of my new house in Keda. I am here not as a guest, trainee, or tourist. As of today I officially became a volunteer. We took our oath (the same one the President takes), had a big fancy show, a group of us sang the US and Georgian National Anthems (without music), and then left with our new families to a strange new world. PST was comfortable, I loved my family, they loved me.
Peace Corps asks you to change a lot very quickly. From the time of my invitation to departure I had a little under 6 weeks. PST was 10 weeks. It sucked saying goodbye back home, but now I had to do it again. My host mom in Kvishkheti has been crying on and off for the past 4 days, the last day of language class was like part of my life was being ripped apart. It was sad spending my last few nights with my cluster and the other volunteers.
The truth is, this is what I expected before I left, but I didn't take into account how much 10 weeks was going to define me. Maybe in a year I'll think differently. Despite all the hassle of PST, all the rules that made me want to rip out my hair, four hour language classes 6 days a week, being told where to go and when; PST was really awesome (I'm sure several volunteers will want to punch me in the throat for saying that).
PST also pushed me to try harder. Never in a million years did I think I could pass my language test. In order to pass your language test you need to at least scare in the Intermediate Low range. If you don't score that you are required to hire a tutor and then retake the test in 3 months. Three/Four weeks ago I scored Novice Mid/High. I had been struggling with the Georgian language since I arrive 10 weeks ago. Part of it was a complete lack of confidence in my ability, second guessing myself, and being to scared to make a mistake. Plus, as most of my friends and family know, I learn a bit differently. Instead of study ups and make huge leaps then stop. I learned to crawl and walk late, but when I started to crawl I walked very soon after. The same goes with my learning I just need a bit more time for everything to "click", and then I'm good. About 2 weeks ago something clicked and I've felt 100x more comfortable speaking and I understand so well, too. I took my final test on Wednesday and today I picked up my results: Intermediate Low!! So I'm excited about that. Am I beast at Georgian? Heck no. But I did have a 5 minute phone conversation with my Kvishkheti family. Considering we used to rely upon various grunts and gestures (mimicking throw up and diarrhea were fun) to be understood, this is a big positive step.
So now I settle into my new house, in a new town, and try to find useful things to do.
Nakhvamdis
Peace Corps asks you to change a lot very quickly. From the time of my invitation to departure I had a little under 6 weeks. PST was 10 weeks. It sucked saying goodbye back home, but now I had to do it again. My host mom in Kvishkheti has been crying on and off for the past 4 days, the last day of language class was like part of my life was being ripped apart. It was sad spending my last few nights with my cluster and the other volunteers.
The truth is, this is what I expected before I left, but I didn't take into account how much 10 weeks was going to define me. Maybe in a year I'll think differently. Despite all the hassle of PST, all the rules that made me want to rip out my hair, four hour language classes 6 days a week, being told where to go and when; PST was really awesome (I'm sure several volunteers will want to punch me in the throat for saying that).
PST also pushed me to try harder. Never in a million years did I think I could pass my language test. In order to pass your language test you need to at least scare in the Intermediate Low range. If you don't score that you are required to hire a tutor and then retake the test in 3 months. Three/Four weeks ago I scored Novice Mid/High. I had been struggling with the Georgian language since I arrive 10 weeks ago. Part of it was a complete lack of confidence in my ability, second guessing myself, and being to scared to make a mistake. Plus, as most of my friends and family know, I learn a bit differently. Instead of study ups and make huge leaps then stop. I learned to crawl and walk late, but when I started to crawl I walked very soon after. The same goes with my learning I just need a bit more time for everything to "click", and then I'm good. About 2 weeks ago something clicked and I've felt 100x more comfortable speaking and I understand so well, too. I took my final test on Wednesday and today I picked up my results: Intermediate Low!! So I'm excited about that. Am I beast at Georgian? Heck no. But I did have a 5 minute phone conversation with my Kvishkheti family. Considering we used to rely upon various grunts and gestures (mimicking throw up and diarrhea were fun) to be understood, this is a big positive step.
So now I settle into my new house, in a new town, and try to find useful things to do.
Nakhvamdis
The End of the Beginning
Tomorrow I take that big leap and become a true Peace Corps Volunteer (until this point I've been a "Trainee"). PST has been a rigorous time, imagine finals week that never ended, and if you think about it, PST is longer than the Army Basic Training. Not that it's anywhere near as physically or mentally demanding, but another 10 weeks of PST and I might dig my own foxhole, crawl in the fetal position, and cry... loudly. Okay, maybe not, but it was still hard.
PST was also a comforting time. Back home in America, whether working at the Nursery School, being unemployed, going to graduate school (minus student teaching), or being a student at AU I had a lot of free time. Sometimes the free time can be a real pain in the ass, because you'd go to sleep at night and go "shit, I didn't do anything worthwhile today, yesterday, last week, the past year..." and a mini panic attack would ensue as I tried to mentally force myself to do something worthwhile besides achieving level 70 in Call of Duty, or knowing I could totally own my 7 year old nephew in Halo 3 (which I don't think I could anymore). In PST I always felt useful in some way, shape, or form; even if I complained bitterly about being treated like a 7 year-old day in and day out. I will certainly miss some of the structure of PST, but more importantly I'll miss the closeness of my friends here.
Remember Freshman year of college when you get to the dorms excited but nervous to be doing something totally out of the ordinary? When you know many of your high school friendships won't last (I'm lucky enough to still talk to all my best high school friends on a regular basis), and you'll naturally grow apart. You look towards the people on your freshman floor. Certainly my freshman year, the epic "black hole" of Letts 6 became my best friends, and most remained so for the remaining four years. It's the same here in PST. I am within a 30 second walk of most of my cluster, and we find ourselves doing almost the same types of things as I did Freshman year. Then there are your friends in other dorms that you don't see as much, except on weekends at parties, or in class. That's what my friends from other clusters are like. I will miss having all of my friends really close, BUT i joined Peace Corps for the chance to grow as an individual. It's comfortable to be near people, to rely on them, to complain, joke, and act like we're freshman, but I've been there done that. It's time to move on the real reason I joined Peace Corps, which was to help the people and students of Georgia.
Now I'm not big into Top 10 lists, because I try to be much funnier than I actually am, but here's a few Top 10's.
Top 10 Experiences of PST
10. The bus ride from Tbilisi to our clusters and the anxiety that I felt. Then arriving in my village and dragging my bag 3/4 mile up a steep hill while thinking "What the hell did I get myself into"
9. The absurd amount of time we spend talking about our bowel movements. I know the bowel movement of at least half the TEFL Trainees. Just as they know I can squat for 45 minutes in my outhouse playing snake on my phone... Strange? Maybe. High score of all G-10's in snake? Yes.
8. The several supra's I have been to and at every one they ask me to make a toast. I use the only three words I know, "America", "Georgia", and "Friends"... They love this toast.
7. Losing about 15 pounds here and having my cluster (this was yesterday actually) say, "Tom, we want your butt back, please eat more".
6. Being asked to name every animal my family sees. My host cat I named "Persephone", and I've named three of the four kitten Persephone had "Brasdias", "Pericles", and "Aspasia". Now my family can't pronounce any of these names, so I don't think they'll stick.
5. Playing games with my host brother and sister, and finally being a big brother (which I must admit, I need to give credit to Dean for dealing with me for that long, I would have tied myself to a chair and left me outside, too).
4. Trying to unsuccessfully explain I cannot drink water out of the tap. Sometimes I do anyway... thinking about it now... maybe I've lost 15 pounds because I have a worm... hmmm. Maybe I should look into that. Just joookkiinnggg.
3. Eatting brains... pig or cow, I'm not quite sure.
2. My view (pictures to come)
1. Finishing PST.
Top 10 Things I Don't Miss About America
10. Oprah
9. The Twilight series
8. The variety of weird people you find at the Jersey Shore
7. Not knowing what to do during the day.
6. Waking up and facing the same boring house with the swimming pool.
5. 24-hour CNN
4. Selfish people
3. Walking around and not having every girl within 50 meters want to marry me (which also gets annoying)
2. Public transportation
1. The Twilight series deserves to be on this twice... because really... it just sucks
Top 10 Things I Miss About America
10. My privacy
9. Driving
8. Hoagie Haven
7. Taco Bell
6. Indian Food
5. Nachos
4. Going to New York City
3. Clean toilets (with seats that flush)
2. FDA approved food
1. Be able to drink out of the tap
PST was also a comforting time. Back home in America, whether working at the Nursery School, being unemployed, going to graduate school (minus student teaching), or being a student at AU I had a lot of free time. Sometimes the free time can be a real pain in the ass, because you'd go to sleep at night and go "shit, I didn't do anything worthwhile today, yesterday, last week, the past year..." and a mini panic attack would ensue as I tried to mentally force myself to do something worthwhile besides achieving level 70 in Call of Duty, or knowing I could totally own my 7 year old nephew in Halo 3 (which I don't think I could anymore). In PST I always felt useful in some way, shape, or form; even if I complained bitterly about being treated like a 7 year-old day in and day out. I will certainly miss some of the structure of PST, but more importantly I'll miss the closeness of my friends here.
Remember Freshman year of college when you get to the dorms excited but nervous to be doing something totally out of the ordinary? When you know many of your high school friendships won't last (I'm lucky enough to still talk to all my best high school friends on a regular basis), and you'll naturally grow apart. You look towards the people on your freshman floor. Certainly my freshman year, the epic "black hole" of Letts 6 became my best friends, and most remained so for the remaining four years. It's the same here in PST. I am within a 30 second walk of most of my cluster, and we find ourselves doing almost the same types of things as I did Freshman year. Then there are your friends in other dorms that you don't see as much, except on weekends at parties, or in class. That's what my friends from other clusters are like. I will miss having all of my friends really close, BUT i joined Peace Corps for the chance to grow as an individual. It's comfortable to be near people, to rely on them, to complain, joke, and act like we're freshman, but I've been there done that. It's time to move on the real reason I joined Peace Corps, which was to help the people and students of Georgia.
Now I'm not big into Top 10 lists, because I try to be much funnier than I actually am, but here's a few Top 10's.
Top 10 Experiences of PST
10. The bus ride from Tbilisi to our clusters and the anxiety that I felt. Then arriving in my village and dragging my bag 3/4 mile up a steep hill while thinking "What the hell did I get myself into"
9. The absurd amount of time we spend talking about our bowel movements. I know the bowel movement of at least half the TEFL Trainees. Just as they know I can squat for 45 minutes in my outhouse playing snake on my phone... Strange? Maybe. High score of all G-10's in snake? Yes.
8. The several supra's I have been to and at every one they ask me to make a toast. I use the only three words I know, "America", "Georgia", and "Friends"... They love this toast.
7. Losing about 15 pounds here and having my cluster (this was yesterday actually) say, "Tom, we want your butt back, please eat more".
6. Being asked to name every animal my family sees. My host cat I named "Persephone", and I've named three of the four kitten Persephone had "Brasdias", "Pericles", and "Aspasia". Now my family can't pronounce any of these names, so I don't think they'll stick.
5. Playing games with my host brother and sister, and finally being a big brother (which I must admit, I need to give credit to Dean for dealing with me for that long, I would have tied myself to a chair and left me outside, too).
4. Trying to unsuccessfully explain I cannot drink water out of the tap. Sometimes I do anyway... thinking about it now... maybe I've lost 15 pounds because I have a worm... hmmm. Maybe I should look into that. Just joookkiinnggg.
3. Eatting brains... pig or cow, I'm not quite sure.
2. My view (pictures to come)
1. Finishing PST.
Top 10 Things I Don't Miss About America
10. Oprah
9. The Twilight series
8. The variety of weird people you find at the Jersey Shore
7. Not knowing what to do during the day.
6. Waking up and facing the same boring house with the swimming pool.
5. 24-hour CNN
4. Selfish people
3. Walking around and not having every girl within 50 meters want to marry me (which also gets annoying)
2. Public transportation
1. The Twilight series deserves to be on this twice... because really... it just sucks
Top 10 Things I Miss About America
10. My privacy
9. Driving
8. Hoagie Haven
7. Taco Bell
6. Indian Food
5. Nachos
4. Going to New York City
3. Clean toilets (with seats that flush)
2. FDA approved food
1. Be able to drink out of the tap
Monday, July 5, 2010
Long Updates
Now it has been a long time since I've written in my blog. Three days ago I went to the Magti Store (the phone company) and paid 200 Lari to get the internet USB plug-in for my computer. I am now connected to the outside world, which is interesting to me, because I can be using an outhouse and a whole one minute, to surfing the latest gossip the next minute. I can look at Facebook, check my e-mail, and even kick butt in some ნარდი ("Nardi" or Backgammon).
Which conveniently brings me to my next point, learning the Georgian language is like being hit in the repeatedly with a steel pipe. Our LCF's (Language and Cultural Facilitators) are amazing, especially mine, but nonetheless the Georgian language is hard. Take for example the verb "I Travel"; it is spelled ვძგზავრობ but it sounds like "Vmgzavrob". Nonetheless, I have progressed quite well in the language, and I pick up new words and rules every day.
My technical training has gone alright, and I had the opportunity to teach several classes before the school year ended. Teaching in Georgia is very different than teaching in the United States, but I won't get into that more until I teach next school year. I am still in Pre-Service Training, but only for another week. I am in a village, Kvishkheti. It is a beautiful place, but I can't find it on Google Maps, but type in Borjomi and look north, then find Khashuri and look south. I'm right in there. I have the coordinates for my house, but I don't know if it's appropriate to post them online, so ask me and I can send them to you.
Last week my cluster mates (me and four girls) are leading a 4-day summer camp and we played games, tossed around a Frisbee, played Kickball, had water balloon games. It’s fun, but soooooo tiring. I buzzed my head and now I get sunburned on the top.
If you can’t tell, I wrote a bunch a few days ago and then saved it in a text file, but now I’m going to continue.
Yesterday was had an awesome Fourth of July party ion Borjomi. We played the water balloon toss, three-legged race, egg on a spoon race, and a few others. We had some American food, ham sandwiches, chips and salsa, cherry pies, etc… We were allowed to take two host families members with us and I brought my host mom and host sister. I think they had fun, especially when I took my sister, Ani on the Ferris Wheel (though she wasn’t so pleased about me standing and rocking our cart. Then a group of us went into Borjomi to celebrate one of my cluster mate’s birthdays. Overall a very good day.
Today we drove into Tbilisi to see Hillary Clinton. We get to the Peace Corps Office around 1:00 (after a boiling hot Marshutka ride) and then wait around for a while before going to the Marriott to see her. As with all politicians she was late and we waited around for four hours in a boiling hot conference room. She finally comes, talks for 10 minutes then leaves. I took a bunch of pictures and got to shake her hand. The best part was after when we stopped at McDonalds and got myself a Big Mac, fries, and a strawberry milkshake.
PST ends on Friday. Then I’m off to my permanent site, Keda. Write more soon!
Which conveniently brings me to my next point, learning the Georgian language is like being hit in the repeatedly with a steel pipe. Our LCF's (Language and Cultural Facilitators) are amazing, especially mine, but nonetheless the Georgian language is hard. Take for example the verb "I Travel"; it is spelled ვძგზავრობ but it sounds like "Vmgzavrob". Nonetheless, I have progressed quite well in the language, and I pick up new words and rules every day.
My technical training has gone alright, and I had the opportunity to teach several classes before the school year ended. Teaching in Georgia is very different than teaching in the United States, but I won't get into that more until I teach next school year. I am still in Pre-Service Training, but only for another week. I am in a village, Kvishkheti. It is a beautiful place, but I can't find it on Google Maps, but type in Borjomi and look north, then find Khashuri and look south. I'm right in there. I have the coordinates for my house, but I don't know if it's appropriate to post them online, so ask me and I can send them to you.
Last week my cluster mates (me and four girls) are leading a 4-day summer camp and we played games, tossed around a Frisbee, played Kickball, had water balloon games. It’s fun, but soooooo tiring. I buzzed my head and now I get sunburned on the top.
If you can’t tell, I wrote a bunch a few days ago and then saved it in a text file, but now I’m going to continue.
Yesterday was had an awesome Fourth of July party ion Borjomi. We played the water balloon toss, three-legged race, egg on a spoon race, and a few others. We had some American food, ham sandwiches, chips and salsa, cherry pies, etc… We were allowed to take two host families members with us and I brought my host mom and host sister. I think they had fun, especially when I took my sister, Ani on the Ferris Wheel (though she wasn’t so pleased about me standing and rocking our cart. Then a group of us went into Borjomi to celebrate one of my cluster mate’s birthdays. Overall a very good day.
Today we drove into Tbilisi to see Hillary Clinton. We get to the Peace Corps Office around 1:00 (after a boiling hot Marshutka ride) and then wait around for a while before going to the Marriott to see her. As with all politicians she was late and we waited around for four hours in a boiling hot conference room. She finally comes, talks for 10 minutes then leaves. I took a bunch of pictures and got to shake her hand. The best part was after when we stopped at McDonalds and got myself a Big Mac, fries, and a strawberry milkshake.
PST ends on Friday. Then I’m off to my permanent site, Keda. Write more soon!
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