Nato's Birthday.

5 July 2005

Oh, Nato’s birthday…

In case you did not catch my first installment, things are going well in Georgia. I have been in training for a little over two weeks. Training entails 3.5 hours of language training in the morning and 3 hours of NGO training in the afternoon. We have an hour for lunch in between. We “train” Monday-Saturday. However, on Fridays all of the volunteers meet up in my town and have cross cultural, medical and project area training.

Last Sunday, we, Peace Corps, did not have our picnic. I did go to Nato’s birthday, which lasted from about 6pm-2am. Yep, you did read that correctly. It was quite the party. My future husband was toasted several times. In Georgian there is a word that means, finish what is in your glass, similar to ‘bottoms up’. Well needless to say, everytime I had a glass, albeit very small, in my hand that word was shouted out. It was humorous. I, of course, did not do it everytime, just a few. I ended up having to sleep in the car towards the end of the night, because I was soo tired. Women do not really drive in Georgia, really only in Tbilisi. The party was quite a distance from the house, so walking home was not an option, besides it is really not a good idea for a women to walk alone at night. It really was a great party. The people are so much fun. My Georgian is progressing enough that I can be a room with Georgians who speak a little or no English, and I do not just sit there and smile.

There was quite a bit of dancing which of course also turns into, watch the funny American try to dance. There are several traditional dances here. At one point I was asked to show them the traditional American dances. Yeah, I explained that in American, we do not have a traditional dance. There is also some sort activity in which a napkin is placed on the floor and a person is to go almost into a split and pick up the napkin with their teeth. I have had to do this before. It has been funny each time. I have been able to do it two of four times. I was actually quite good at Nato's party. Again, I think this is also done sometimes to laugh at the funny American. Good times.

The day-to-day activities are of course interesting and a bit frustrating, but to be expected. Again, I cannot really complain because I not only have running water, but hot water for the shower and electricity. I have used my computer a bit. I was able to download America: A Citizen’s Guide to Democracy in Action, the book by the Daily Show, which has provided me a great deal of amusement. I do spend a good deal of time studying the language. There are a great group of volunteers here. We are now down to 45, but since it is such a large, it is to be expected.

We have a test at the end of training to demonstrate our competency in both the language and in our specific project area. Nothing is guaranteed until we take that test, however, pretty much everyone is expected to pass. The NGO people will be meeting with our permanent site NGO counterparts in a couple of weeks. It is at this point that we will also meet our permanent host families. It seems like it is awfully fast, but you know at this point it is a matter of going where we are supposed to go. There is so much that is out of our hands and unknown. We have all come to accept it.

Again, this is rather random so ask me some questions. A random note: calf highs, have proven to be rather useful. Take care all. I will try to update again within a week.