A True Hero

He-ro noun

1. A person, typically a man, who is admired for courageous or noble qualities.

2. Dean Lyon, see picture below

Dean in Afghanistan: 2008

I have already dedicated a full post to my older brother, Dean. I've written a lot about him, and after reading my last post it was hard thinking what more to add. I focused before a lot on our relationship as brothers, and spent less time on just him. I'm not going to tell the whole story, because my sister-in-law has already told it. I think she can do a MUCH better job at this than I can, but I'm going to give it a shot. I'll just say, unfortunately, my brother is being deployed to Afghanistan--AGAIN. Leaving... soon.

I haven't seen my older brother since 2009. I won't see him again until 2013. I really don't think that's fair. Nevermind that, though, the fact remains that despite the hardships he and his family go through they are AMAZING. Seriously. He, his wife, and their 5 children. Each of them is their own hero in one way or another. Sometimes thinking about everything they go through I feel bad for whining and complaining about MY hardships.

I sit here and feel frustrated, because people aren't translating what I need on time, or writing a proposal, or teaching in a positive way, or because that smelly/drunk guy keeps talking to me on the marshutka, or because it's too cold in my room. You know what I remind myself in those times? My brother does everything that I do multiplied by 100, while other people are shooting at him, while missing his wife and children. Also, I get to take pictures of myself in a luxury hotel in a developing and now peaceful country. We really have it going pretty well in Georgia. It's a good country to be in. Plus, nobody is actively trying to kill me. My brother doesn't complain, and he does his duty, because that's the type of man he is.

And do you know what?

He may not like doing everything that's expected from him, but he does it, and he does it well. I've never met a more dedicated and loyal person in my life. Dean's accomplishments, which he doesn't publicize, because he doesn't need the advertisement, and he's just a humble person. Don't take humbleness for weakness, though. Dean is an Army RANGER. I know, because I was there. Oh, and Dean may not want to brag, but I'm more than happy to brag in his place. Now, when I say "My brother could beat you up!" I REALLY MEAN IT.

Rangers jumping out of helicopters.

Lyon men at Dean's Ranger graduation. By night we save the world in Call of Duty.

Then of course you have the other side of Dean. See on one side he's the fierce Army Ranger who can turn normal objects into weapons, and then, well, you have the Dean below who makes a good horse. A great family man, who even after long and stressful days at work can come home to be with his family.

Dean and bug.

Joining the Army is a courageous thing for anybody to do. People who join each have their own reasons to do so. Dean has never sought glory, he never needed to prove anything (to himself or other people), and he certainly had/has other options (did I mention he went to Cornell and was SUPPOSED to go to grad school?). Dean is selfless and believes in serving and helping others. He doesn't like war, but his family and country come first. In his selflessness he decided to enter a career with a lot of hardships, because he cares about all of us.

All soldiers should be honored and treated with respect, but in my opinion Dean is an actual hero. He's the best-of-the-best. He's not just a soldier-hero, he is a HERO. He didn't ask to be, he didn't want to be, but he is. He is his wife's hero. He is his children's hero. He is my hero. Whether you like it or not, whether you realize it or not, he is YOUR hero too. So, if you get a chance between buying the iPad 3 and waiting for the iPhone 5 to come out, keep in mind that Dean doesn't fight for you to have the iPad, he fights so you, and your children, have a future. I certainly won't forget it in nine-months he will be gone for.

Good luck, Dean. We all love you.

P.S. Playing Call of Duty when I was home was awesome!

A "Simple" Vacation

The past week as been amazing, if you exclude weather storms that causes planes not to land where they are supposed to, a flu bug that leaves me bed-ridden for five days, or your long-distance girlfriend leaving after a great trip. I just want you all to know that we stayed in places like this:

I lead a HARD Peace Corps life. Anyway, we spent her birthday here, which was AMAZING. Then we went to Tbilisi where I started running a fever, then took a train back to Batumi where I was still sick, and now Anastasiya's gone, I'm in Keda, and I'm STILL sick. Anastasiya had to run out and walk all over Batumi and get physically harassed by beggars (but saved by an old Georgian lady) to get me water and antibiotics while I ran a 104 degree fever. Joy. We went to Keda for a few days and played in the snow, and Tbilisi where I managed to walk around for 6 hours with a fever, pull weird hairs out of my beard, and have new girlfriend bought Soviet pins (sweeeettt).

Then of course there was the fun with her flying to Batumi. Basically the evil airlines (and weather) took a whole day and night away from us. To make a long story short, I woke up early on the 16th and saw her plane had a 70 minute delay. That's unfortunate, but not the end of the world. Then she gets to the airport and she spends the next 10 hours in the airport waiting for the plane to take off, because apparently the wheel is broken. It finally take off 12:30am Georgia Time, so I take a taxi to the airport to wait for her plane which should come in at 2:30am. I'm waiting, and then I find out their plane isn't going to land in Batumi because of snow, and is going straight to Tbilisi. I'M PISSED. Then I find out from Anastasiya that there's no representative from the airline to help them. Some people are getting buses and taxis to take out west. I tell her NOT to do that, because the snow and lateness would make it dangerous. I promptly go back to the apartment in Batumi, get online, find phone numbers for Airzena offices (and employees) and proceed to call every one of them--at 3:30am. I yelled at a guy in Georgian for the 10 minutes using the simple Georgian I knew and trying to Google Translate words I needed--I wished I had spent more time studying my Georgian). THEN, I wasn't able to get in touch with Anastasiya, because her phone was out of money. It's 5am at this point, my two host sisters, and their two roommates and trying to help, but employees stopped picking up their phones to my number.

I fell asleep about 5:30am.

I woke up to a text message from Anastasiya that said she was on a train and would be in Batumi by 1:30. Rejoice! So, she got to Batumi (with her own adventure story of even more epic proportions). They took a whole day away from us and ruined my original plans.

Oh, and then there was this whole thing of me getting sick on Thursday and running a fever every single day (and now) until the moment she left, which caused us not to take advantage of the great weather.

But you know what?

It was still an amazing visit and I'm so happy she came. Words cannot describe how happy I was/am. But, I won't be that bloggy-PDA person here, and instead keep all the happy memories comfortably in my own brain. Because, well, I hate sharing.

Nearing the End

Wow. It’s been an exhausting (but awesome) week. I’ve been working hard trying to figure out a lot of the stuff for my fitness center. Unfortunately, right now there are contracts and bank transfers involved that use vocabulary I am unsure of. I guess this is a good thing, because most decisions are going thru me, but not necessarily done BY me. We are really encouraged to be facilitators in our projects as PCVs, and as a facilitator we can direct things, but we shouldn’t be DOING everything. This project has been great for that. I had an idea, and now everyone in town is getting into it; from preparing the room, to writing the contract, to raising more money, to negotiating with the store, everyone is doing something. Sometimes I have to keep myself motivated and on track, while my Georgian counterparts are waiting for me to catch up. This project has been all I could believe and more. The gamgebeli, or mayor, of my town wants to hire someone full-time to work at the center. So, now there’s work for someone, too. People from the USA may think our 7-9% unemployment is bad, but they can’t imagine the 25-40% unemployment is places like Georgia. So, work, any work, is a great thing to provide. Still, I couldn’t have done it without everyone’s donations. So, again, THANK YOU.

I also spent last weekend with some friends at a ski resort north of Tbilisi, near the border with South Ossetia, called Gudauri. This is one of the most famous resorts in Georgia, and is an up and coming attraction for Europeans looking for new slopes. I have not been skiing since I was 7, and I have never been snowboarding. It was a friend’s birthday, and she wanted to have a party here (she’s a big skier). I decided to try snowboarding, and my friend said he’d teach me a bit. Well, he stayed with me for about 30 minutes, and then my friend whose birthday it was stayed with me for another 30 minutes. I just kept falling on my butt. I wasn’t on the bunny slopes either; I was on the lower-intermediate slopes. I fell A LOT!! By the end of the trip I was starting to get the hang of it, but I took a really nasty fall on my last time down and decided to stop. Great vacation, though.

Then we returned to Tbilisi for our Close of Service (COS) conference. Here we learned a lot about reverse culture shock—something I haven’t thought too much about, but something it seems most returned Volunteers face—finding jobs, health insurance, and all the paperwork and medical tests we have to go through before leaving. We got to stay at a new, and very nice hotel in Tbilisi—the Holiday Inn. You may laugh at that, but the Holiday Inn here is like a Radisson in the USA (the Radisson here is like heaven). On the last day we had a big dinner to celebrate the end. We also got to meet the ambassador and had a reception with news crews to discuss our service. It was great, but sad at the same time. Many of the Volunteers in my group I will not see again before leaving Georgia. We came over together, and we’ve done a lot together, and now this is it. In three months I’ll be out of Peace Corps and looking to the next thing in my life. What will it be? I don’t know yet.

These are my updates for now, but I’ll write more this weekend, because I need to catch up on my blog posts.