Nachos...

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...