I was told that today after classes we’d all be heading down to Ozurgeti to give “the poor peoples” mandarines. I sorta chuckled when they said this, but I suppose for Georgia, many of the families in my village have enough to eat and drink and live a comfortable life. We loaded up in the [...]
About Juniper
6th Grade SURPRISE!
Today was the big day! (Read this page first to find out why I have been fundraising to get my entire 6th Grade class new English Level 3 books!) So, I was able to catch a ride in a car all the way to school so I didn’t have to carry all 21 books and [...]
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To and from T’bilisi in a day
Our train took all night and we arrived in T’bilisi at 6:30am. It was still dark outside so we grabbed a taxi and headed to a hostel where some of his friends worked. We were allowed to take showers and change, get on free wifi and make some coffee. As the sun came up, others [...]
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Tchanieti Village
Tchanieti village is just 5 minutes outside of Ozurgeti and is where Cajun has been teaching all semester. I was invited to stay because he was having a goodbye supra to celebrate his time teaching. The school is much different from Shroma in many ways. It’s about as large as mine, but there aren’t nearly as [...]
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Picking up the books!
Last week while I was in Batumi I ordered the English World Level 3 books for my 6th grade class so this weekend they were ready to be picked up! I grabbed those along with the maps for this class…plus I found a donor to match the Grant amount we received so I ordered 4 [...]
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Operation Installation
I arrived to school much earlier than I needed to because I had a feeling at least one of the chalkboards were going up today…and I guessed right! I walked straight to my 6th grade class and sure enough the one of the male teachers had already gotten to work. I “assisted” by taking pictures. [...]
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Chalkboard Supra
After school today we celebrated the arrival of the chalkboards! In Georgia, a Supra, or large party with food and drinks, accompanies any celebration you could think of. From weddings and birthdays, to funerals and anniversaries and even anniversaries of funerals! All of my teachers add something to the event, their signatures dish, cups/plates/forks/and napkins, [...]
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Update on 5th Grade
When I told my 5th Grade class that they were going to be receiving one of the new Grant Chalkboards – they went wild!!! This is the other class that I provided “Special English Notebooks” and am also working towards an Ice Cream Party if they all continue to try throughout the semester. There are [...]
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Chalkboards in Transit
If you all remember I applied for the GreenHeart Travel grant to purchase new Chalkboards/Whiteboards for my school in Shroma. We were awarded $250 USD which equals about 400 Lari. I found out this week that there was one more place I could check to see if we could buy Chalkboards rather than the more [...]
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WE DID IT!
Check out the new and improved Donate Page…now called the WE DID IT! page to find out more!
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Batumi and a Mountain Village
I took the morning marshrutka to Batumi today to do one final search for chalkboards instead of whiteboards. Cajun and Kanise joined me there and showed me the market called Hoppa….and yes indeed: We found chalkboards! I ordered them from Emzari, the owner, who said they’d be there tomorrow. So we all went to meet [...]
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Last Day to Donate…
You see that yellow DONATE button on the right side of this page? Yea…head on over there and make 21 little Georgian students day. I dare you!
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Mandarini Season
Toma had to miss school the past two days because he had to help Nino and Medico and a bunch of the neighbors pick the mandarins off the trees on their land. I came home to find the garage packed full of them. I’ve never seen so much fruit in one place before – and [...]
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No electricity for how many days?
So…when I did finally arrive home…there was no electricity…and there hadn’t been for the past 4 days….. Excuse me, What? In the end we didn’t have electricity for 8 days total. This means no showers, everything in the fridge had to be thrown away, and all my electronics died. Not the end of the world [...]
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7 books needed / 3 days left The Final Countdown!
Hello! After an entire week of not accessing the internet, I was greeted with more donations that have flowed in this past week. We are so close to reaching our total of $525 dollars to supply my 6th grade class with the Level 3 English books they will need for next semester! There are still [...]
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Hello, I’m Melony
I'm a 28-year old Optimist who loves exploring the world by moving to new places. Originally from New Mexico, I've moved to Busan, South Korea to teach, pay off debt, and find my voice online before setting out for a new adventure! Each day, I try to view the world around me with a positive twist and would love to share it with you. Welcome to a fresh new day!