Another Late Post Means I Fail at My New Year's Resolutions

I keep writing blog entries, then not liking them and putting them in a folder marked “Blogs” that I never touch again. Here’s my third attempt at trying to write. I have a lot on my mind, between giving my best description of Georgia to the G-11’s (which I’ll do in a few weeks), my impressions of the current education crisis in the United States (a boring historical depiction of anti-intellectualism that has infected America since the colonial era), to my current wins/losses in my town, and finally the things that have been going on the past month. I’m going to go with the last, and make it short but sweet.

In two days I will be leaving Keda for two weeks. Why am I doing this? Did I suddenly snap from the craziness of my classroom and the boredom of winter to run away to Turkey without telling Peace Corps in order to get myself AS’d? In short. No.

First, I am going to Kobuleti for a Peace Corps training on writing grants and getting money for projects. Then I’m off to Tbilisi for a day, and then I board a plane on 5am to go the Kiev, Ukraine. Yep, I’m going to Ukraine. Long story short, there is this program called FLEX (Future Leaders Exchange Program ) that sends students to the States for a semester to go to school in a U.S. high school. Well, they have these orientations in the summer where they learn everything they need to know (or everything we can teach) about living in America, living with a family, making friends, sports, culture, etc. Well, a bunch of us applied for the position and we got interviewed. A few weeks ago I got a call and they told me I was chosen to be one of these teachers. Going to Kiev is just training for me and a time to work with my FLEX alumni helper to make interesting and informative lesson plans for the actual pre-departure orientation in the summer. I’m really very excited.

When I get back from Ukraine I will be taking part in some safety and security videos that we’re doing for the G-11’s. So basically I won’t be back home until the 27th, something I know my host family is very sad about. The last time I was gone for a training (one week) my host mother said my host father kept going “When is Tom going to come back, I miss him”.

Basically I have an awesome new family here. On March 3rd it was Mother’s Day, and then of March 8th it was Women’s Day. Basically a day for men to drink, but thank the women extra special. Well this day my host father and I made all the food (I made khatchapuri), and did all the dishes. My host mother tried at one point to stop me from doing the dishes but I went “Ara, dedis dghes aris, me vretskhav tchurtchels” (No, it is Mother’s Day, I wash the dishes). On Women’s Day I bought my host mother and her mother (who doesn’t live with us, but in a village 30 minutes away) some chocolate, and then tried to make hamburgers. All was good, but there was no way of controlling the heat well, so the outside got cooked, but the inside was all red (which I like, but Georgians HATE). So my host mother cooked hers again and goes “next time we’ll do it together.” Still, they lied enough to let me save face in front of friends and family. Here's a nice picture of us (minus my host mother, but with, Alissa. Ignore her and see the happy family.

So now I’m tired and want to make sure something goes up. Until next time, people… And in the meantime, maybe leave a comment and tell me what you’d like to hear about.