One Year!
Our one year anniversary at site was August 18th, whahoo!! We’ve been in Georgia for about 15 months now. Everything I expected out of it I’ve experienced so far, with a more than a few extra little surprises.. I wanted to travel, learn another language, immerse myself in another culture, be challenged, help people, experience the way most of the world lives…and now this is starting to sound like my application essay but you get the point. It hasn’t been a bad year.. I think I can honestly say that I like it here (keep in mind its summer). I was recently reading through blog entries from a year ago and laughing at myself for being so naïve. On August 04, 2006 I actually said, “I basically live in a tropical paradise where the mountains meet the ocean.” HA. Actually, when I’m trying to conduct meetings at school and it inevitably erupts into a screaming fight I take a deep breath and wait the usual 30 minutes before I can get a word in, look out the window and think…at least this place is beautiful...
So what have I actually been doing? Looking back I think I’ve accomplished at least a little bit more than your typical broke college grad that still has no clue what s/he wants to do with their life… I’ve traveled to 4 new countries, read 28 novels, learned (if you can call it that) the hardest language ever, somehow managed to avoid getting worms (knock on wood), wrote a grant for a DVD player and 20 DVDs for my school, perfected my squatting technique, saw more Stalin statues than I ever thought existed, ate lots of yummy village fruit, drank lots of homemade wine and Turkish coffee, became a cheating Nazi at school, wrote an introductory English textbook with another volunteer that will hopefully be printed in the next year and helped organize and run the girls sports camp.
What I REALLY miss:
Athens
Food variety
Riding my bike
Concerts
GENDER EQUALITY
Movie theatres
Exercising without people staring
What I don’t miss at all:
Traffic
Parking lots
Fayetteville
Football
Strip Malls
I’d say what I struggle with the most on a daily basis are the gender roles. I was never a feminist in the states but here it just comes naturally! Here is a list of things you ladies back in the states should be thankful for:
~ If you want to smoke you don’t have to go into the bathroom so nobody will see you and think you’re a prostitute.
~ If a relationship you’re involved in isn’t really working out, you’re allowed to end it and even enter into a new one.
~ If your husband cheats, it’s considered wrong and not something permitted, expected, and talked about in front of you.
~ If your husband is sitting on the couch and says to you, “Woman, go get me some water.” You can say, “Get it yourself you bum!!”
~ You can drive!!!
~ You don’t have to leave your house worried that you’ll get “bridenapped” and forced to marry someone you don’t love or even know.
~You can go out with your friends at night.
~Chores that the family shares aren’t considered ‘women’s work.’
*A lot of these things only apply to the villages. The cities, especially Tbilisi and Batumi, are more progressive. “Bridenapping” was made illegal in 2003 but still happens in most villages. In my village there have been about 5 in the last year. Here are some summer pics…it’s a tough life I tell you!
So what have I actually been doing? Looking back I think I’ve accomplished at least a little bit more than your typical broke college grad that still has no clue what s/he wants to do with their life… I’ve traveled to 4 new countries, read 28 novels, learned (if you can call it that) the hardest language ever, somehow managed to avoid getting worms (knock on wood), wrote a grant for a DVD player and 20 DVDs for my school, perfected my squatting technique, saw more Stalin statues than I ever thought existed, ate lots of yummy village fruit, drank lots of homemade wine and Turkish coffee, became a cheating Nazi at school, wrote an introductory English textbook with another volunteer that will hopefully be printed in the next year and helped organize and run the girls sports camp.
What I REALLY miss:
Athens
Food variety
Riding my bike
Concerts
GENDER EQUALITY
Movie theatres
Exercising without people staring
What I don’t miss at all:
Traffic
Parking lots
Fayetteville
Football
Strip Malls
I’d say what I struggle with the most on a daily basis are the gender roles. I was never a feminist in the states but here it just comes naturally! Here is a list of things you ladies back in the states should be thankful for:
~ If you want to smoke you don’t have to go into the bathroom so nobody will see you and think you’re a prostitute.
~ If a relationship you’re involved in isn’t really working out, you’re allowed to end it and even enter into a new one.
~ If your husband cheats, it’s considered wrong and not something permitted, expected, and talked about in front of you.
~ If your husband is sitting on the couch and says to you, “Woman, go get me some water.” You can say, “Get it yourself you bum!!”
~ You can drive!!!
~ You don’t have to leave your house worried that you’ll get “bridenapped” and forced to marry someone you don’t love or even know.
~You can go out with your friends at night.
~Chores that the family shares aren’t considered ‘women’s work.’
*A lot of these things only apply to the villages. The cities, especially Tbilisi and Batumi, are more progressive. “Bridenapping” was made illegal in 2003 but still happens in most villages. In my village there have been about 5 in the last year. Here are some summer pics…it’s a tough life I tell you!
The village of Sarpi, on the border of Turkey and Georgia.
The toughest job you'll ever love..
posted by Amy @ 3:14 AM
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