As with all types of culture shock, amazement is paired with the stuff that takes a bit longer to get used to. I first want to say that by no means am I complaining about anything here. I am so glad to be here, learning new things, experiencing a different lifestyle and culture and connecting [...]

So, when I googled Shroma before my arrival there were only about 3 pictures of this village….none of which were very good. I’m proud to say I think I have found the best lookout of the city and have captured some great photos. I’m definitely going to find a way to upload them onto google [...]

Have not done much the last two days. Still feeling a bit slow now and then but I think I have recovered from my water-episode. Thank goodness! We visited a few neighbors, I have thrown lots of rocks, we found a frog, I got stung by a wasp and today we drove to the town [...]

Well, I guess that’s all I can say I did today: acclimate to the water. Yesterday I drank about a quarter of a cup of water to test it out and see how I would fare, I felt fine all day. Today however, is a whole different story. I stayed in bed nearly all day [...]

Full day of games today. Toma and I played “baseball” with his ball and stick, and then lost the ball for about an hour. We blew up some balloons and hit them back and forth until they popped. I taught him Kings in the Corner (Shout out to Noni for teaching to me!). I spoke [...]

Today I took a walking tour of Shroma with my dzma Toma (my brother Toma).  He is an excellent translator with a lot of patients. Every conversation I have would take much longer if it were not for him. Later in the day I thought we were going to buy Internet, however I guess I [...]

Before I get started I wanted to throw in; as all the volunteers were gathered in the lobby I went around and asked for donations for a 15GEL bottle of wine that we could present to Tamara (our volunteer coordinator all week) as a thank you. Nearly everyone pitched in (I even had to go [...]

After spending only this short time in Georgia, I have come across some peculiar things that have the opposite meaning in English and/or America, I want to share some of them: The first thing that really throws English speakers for a loop is the Karuli words for mother and father…. deda means Mother, and mama [...]

Hello all! The last days of orientation went by so fast! I was given my location, family contact name, and general family member outline….which is: Village Shroma in the Guria region of Georgia. My contact is the mother named Nino, and the family is made up of Nino, a grandmother, and an adult male brother [...]

Another full day of cultural classes, language classes and methodology (of teaching). The most interesting part of cultural class today was about the different in the roles of the men and women. Roles here are very traditional with the women staying at home raising children and the men out working. The main industry here is [...]

Today we learned about “Georgian Maybe Time”.  (aka: GMT)  It is said that Georgian’s are at peace with the unknown. To put it another way they are ok with not always knowing what will happen next. The lifestyle here is relaxed and rather spontaneous when it comes to plans and schedules. So, if a person is [...]

Today was filed with Kartuli (Georgian) Lessons. The alphabet has the “Kh” sound, which sounds like you are clearing your throat and the French “R” sound which are fun. This language also has a few silent letters which are challenging, individuals letters for the “sh” and “ch” sounds, and a few others that take two [...]

It was hotter today. Much hotter. Good thing we only had half a day to explore. First we all completed our medical exams – only one vile of blood needed! Then we were dropped off in town. A few people from yesterday and I walked down Rustavelis Gamaziri and stopped in the Georgian National Museum [...]

Today….well still part of “yesterday” since we did arrive/depart from the plane at 3:30am.  Anyway: Today, after about a 3 hour nap we decided to meet in the lobby of our hotel, grab breakfast and go exploring! We all stepped outside and realized none of us knew where we were or how to get to [...]