6 years ago
0

Three Things that Georgians Find Odd about Americans

by Rawan / Her

After living here for some time, I’ve realized that there are some things that Georgians just simply find odd about Americans. Of course, I’m talking in broad brush strokes here. I’m writing in generalizations (on both respects- Americans and Georgians); however, there is truth to this pattern.

  1. That we want to live alone

    When I first told my supervisor at work that I wanted to move out and I would appreciate if he kept an eye out for apartments, his first response was, “I know another great host family for you.” I said, “Oh, I don’t want another host family. My host family now is really great. I just want my own apartment with Justin.” He then was a bit worried about how I and Justin would manage to handle things on our own (see number 2 below). He did not understand why we needed our own space. Last week, I showed my English club this video. The National Geographic video highlights a man, Billy Burr, living alone in the Colorado woods. The point of the video was more along the lines of climate change. We were supposed to discuss climate change. When the video concluded, want to venture a guess what we ended talking about for twice the length of the video? “Why did he live alone?” “What happened to him that he is living alone?” So after explaining how living alone in America is not weird, I laughed and said, “It is funny how my take away is climate change and yours is him living alone. This is how you can tell we come from different cultures.” We both laughed and moved on to the lesson at hand.

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    My old neighborhood of my first apartment where we lived independently

     

    Georgians have an amazing sense of community and for the most part, they enjoy living together. Once, I delivered a training about “Identifying your Assets” to increase awareness of internal and external resources and talents that they could use to improve their employability chances. One of my students listed her neighbors as external assets. This is something I would have never thought of writing down. Coming from very large metropolitan and overcrowded cities in the United States, I sometimes had no idea who even lived next door to me.  I’m sure that rural America has a stronger sense of local community than Los Angeles or San Francisco, but I wouldn’t know since I’ve never lived in rural America. Even in cities in Georgia have a strong sense of local community. Thus, that would be my guess why they cannot conceptualize why we would choose to live alone.

  2. That we know how to cook and fend for ourselves

    This one is reserved mainly for the older generation. When I lived with my PST host family, the host mom joked that I will take her back with me so she can be my maid. I told her that my apartment was about 700 square feet and so I won’t need a maid. Apparently, all the American movies that she must have seen included only rich Americans with maids. She was thought I was pulling her leg when I told her that I do all the cleaning in my apartment. Correction- Justin and I do all the cleaning. I made sure to add Justin to break stereotypes when I talk to Georgians and also give credit where credit is due. My older colleagues at my office now were pleasantly surprised when I would bring leftovers that I cooked for lunch the next day. I seriously have no idea where this stereotype about Americans originated? Maybe because in TV shows and movies we tend to be eating at restaurants?  Other Peace Corps Volunteers have also experienced the same thing from their colleagues or members of the community.

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    Prepping for Thanksgiving 2018

    One of my Georgian friends, Ana, even confirmed this stereotype last week when we went out for some tea. I was telling her some weird conversations that I have had with other Georgians and she even confirmed this one with me. Honestly, I never know how to respond. I simply say, “yes, I love to cook and I enjoy doing it.” It is possible that my host families made these comments as an indirect way for wanting to continue to host us. My host families were in charge of providing meals for us on a daily basis. Maybe when I indicated that I wanted to cook in their homes, they felt that I no longer wanted them to host me? This is pure speculation- but I do know after 3 years living here at Georgians take pride in being great hosts to their guests.

  3. We exercise by choice and run for fun

    I’ll just point out very quickly that I have yet to run recreationally in Georgia. Right before our Peace Corps departure date, I was training for a half-marathon for months. However, it is very odd to see someone running here for “fun” or “exercise.” I already stand out and I just wasn’t in the mood to deal with more ogling stares. It is a lazy excuse, I know. But nonetheless, it is the excuse that I’m sticking with. Other, more motivated, Peace Corps friends of mine have continued their running regime. They do get questioned why they are doing it and they do get stares during their runs.

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    There is a local central park in my town; however, I can’t recall seeing anyone run for recreational purposes

     

    I’ll also say that is odder for women to exercise than it is more fun. Georgian men participate in sports such as Rugby, heavy lifting, and boxing. I have male PCV friends that would go to their local gym and have a friendly boxing match with their local Georgian male friends. With the exception of large cities in Georgia, I do not believe that female sightings at gyms are very common. I live in a large city and I’ve been to an all-female gym in town. However, I do not think that participating in an active lifestyle is on the mind of an average Georgian outside of Tbilisi.

 

6 years ago
0

Thoughts on Georgian Transportation

by Rawan / Her

Transportation in Georgia is very different from the freeway jungles of Los Angeles. Here are some of my thoughts on how we get around in Georgia.

Marshutka:

When I’m not walking, I’m taking a marshutka. These mini-buses or large vans are a very soviet thing, in fact, the word itself is the modified Russian word “marshrutka.” The public transportation system is very efficient in Georgia. I can go to almost any remote village by marshutka. However, they are not necessarily comfortable. All seats are basically the “middle seat” in the smallest Honda Civic and definitely more uncomfortable than the most economical plane seat.

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When entering the marshutka, you open the passenger door and not the large side door. All the seats have been configured to fit more passengers. Side note, the two machines on the left side of the photo are pay boxes!

Even though they are very efficient and cheap, I’m just going to throw it out there that I am not a fan. Since I was 17 years old, I grew a distaste to crowded places. I’m not claustrophobic, but cramped spaces are physically and mentally uncomfortable for me. I am short and people tend to just squish me. Because marshutkas are inherently small, everyone gets squished. It is not so bad in the winter, but the summer makes for a lot of sweat swapping. Also, there is an old wives’ tale that if you open the windows and the breeze hits your chest, you will get sick. So imagine being cramped in a small space with no AC and no open windows. If you can imagine that, then you have successfully imagined every marshutka ride in the summer.

My family asks me, “why don’t you just take a bus?” And the answer is, “I’ve only seen modern, large buses in Tbilisi.” At my site, there is one route that has a bus. However, same as all the other marshutkas, the buses are given to us by Germany (not sure if donated or paid). Once Germany deems the bus or marshutka too old or unusable, they ship them off to Georgia. So the buses and marshutkas in my town (and likely all of Georgia excluding Tbilisi) are run-down and unsafe in accordance with American standards. I’ve seen broken down marshutkas on the side of the highway on the way to Tbilisi countless times.

On another note, the way we pay inner-city marshutka is also different. In the U.S, there is generally some sort of coin machine or card reader once you enter the bus. In Georgia, you generally pay when you are leaving the marshutka. There are few exceptions where you pay before the ride starts. Of course, there is not a written down system. For example, in the inner-city marshutaks, I pay when I leave. If I’m going to Tbilisi, I pay before. It is such a funny system. Regardless, drivers prefer if you pay with coins for shorter rides because there is no such thing as a coin machine or a card reader.

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The driver has a stash of coins and some bills on the dashboard of his marshutka. They sometimes put a small board or plastic to keep on top of the coins to keep them from moving around.

Riding to a different village or a town, it is prudent to bring the exact change. Many times, these prices are not posted anywhere. Locals know the prices and as Peace Corps Volunteers, we learned quickly to become local when it comes to marshutka prices. Since they are not posted anywhere, the marshutka can easily take advantage of foreigners if they wanted to. However, Peace Corps Volunteers speak Georgian and we know the routes well. Thus, we don’t usually get ripped off. It may just happen once or twice in the entire two years, which is a very low number. Personally, I have only got ripped off once because I did not have exact change. Such a rookie mistake.

Private Transportation/Cars:

In regards to private transportation, as Peace Corps Volunteers, we are not allowed to drive or own vehicles in the country in which we serve. Even though many (if not most) Georgians do not own a car, some do. I still see many Soviet vehicles still on the road and some people turn them into makeshift taxis in the small villages. My friend Nicole who visited me last year jokes that I should give her one as a gift and ship it from Georgia. Seeing them on the road is like opening up a time capsule.

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Two different Soviet cars back-to-back driving around town.

Of course, there are plenty of people that drive more updated versions of cars. However, if you visit Georgia you will still see plenty of Soviet cars. Speaking of modern cars, a lot of times, bumpers just somehow get lost. If the car gets into an accident, they just remove the bumper. They will tie the license plate with some rope or hammer in some nails and call it a day. I see a missing front bumper as least once a day. A lot of Taxis will also have lost bumpers and I still ride in them.

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To protect the privacy of the owner, I’m only going to provide a side image of the SUV. This picture was provided to me by a friend of mine, John.

Taxis:

Taxis are available and frequent in Georgia. Every town and village has a local taxi driver. In some remote areas, the only way in and out is by taxi. Some villages only have a marshutka going to and from Tbilisi or the next largest town once a day. I’ve visited some other Peace Corps Volunteers at their sites and I had to take a taxi. They are affordable but can get pricey if you make it into a habit. Therefore, as Peace Corps Volunteers, we usually do not take taxis unless necessary. I generally only take them in Tbilisi if I have a lot of luggage/equipment or if there isn’t a public transportation route in that direction.

Trains:

Trains, of course, exist in Georgia. They are most likely the least frequent method of public transportation that I embark on. The “fast” train does not really come through my site. It bypasses it, which is very annoying. If I were to take the fast train, I go to a neighboring village. At that point, it is just faster to take a marshutka from the bus station. Other volunteers take the take more frequently. It honestly depends where you are leaving and where you are going. For me, it just doesn’t make much sense. I do take the train when there is heavy snow and I need to go to Tbilisi. I find it safer than taking a broken down marshutka with a speedy driver through the rolling mountains of Georgia.

Metro:

There is only one metro system in all of Georgia and naturally, it is located in the capital, Tbilisi. While I’m in Tbilisi, I take the metro every single time. It is incredibly convenient and cheap. The metro only has two lines but Tbilisi is not a very large city compared to other capitals in the world; therefore, it works fine. It is 50 tetri for each ride, so it is cheaper than taxis and faster than walking. If you ever visit Tbilisi, I recommend the metro. It was built during the Soviet era and it still works great.

 

If you are curious about other people’s thoughts on transportation, read this article here.

 

7 years ago
0

We Are EXTENDING!

by Rawan / Her

So here is some exciting news- Justin and I are staying a THIRD year in Georgia! We applied to extend, and we got approved and accepted to continue our service in our community.

Last June, I remembered that Justin was flirting with the idea of staying another year in Georgia. At that point, we felt that like we were finally making significant headway with our projects. It felt weird even thinking of the idea of extending since we were only half way through our service in June 2017. Yet, our service was going by too quickly and we felt that there was a lot more to do in our community. However, we did not take the idea seriously until a couple of months later in September 2017.

In the fall, our Peace Corps Project Managers come to our sites for a “mid-service check-in.” They talk with our counterparts and our directors in the community to see how we are doing. We talk about the projects and the upcoming second-year activities. Justin’s program manager came about a week or so before mine. During Justin’s mid-service check-in, his teachers complimented him on his efforts and success at school. Half-jokingly, they said that they would love to work with Justin for a third year if possible. Justin was very touched by the sentiment. When I came from work, he told me that he would love to extend.

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Me and some of my coworkers at my organization. We love celebrating birthdays at the office 🙂

Since I love my job as well, I said, “okay, I guess I will talk to my boss about it tomorrow.” Justin was surprised at how quickly I agreed. There are two reasons why I agreed. First, I do love my job here and being a Peace Corps Volunteer has been a dream of mine. Second, my boss and youth counterpart have approached me about the idea before. In fact, I remember when the applications for the G17s came out, I told my boss, Dato, “The application to get a Peace Corps Volunteer has come out. Can you forward it along to neighboring organizations? Next year, if you want, you can fill it out.”

“Why would I fill it out?” Dato responds with the rhetorical question. I’m thinking, “Oh wow, I screwed up so bad in the first 4 months of service that he doesn’t even want another volunteer. That is not good.” But instead, Dato continues, “I mean, you are extending another year, so I won’t need to apply.” I nearly fell out of my chair with that out-of-nowhere proclamation. I composed myself and said, I was “Dato, extending is incredibly difficult. It takes months and only a few can extend. Since I’m married, Justin would have to extend as well. I just want to let you know it is unlikely.” This occurred around October 2016. The joke is on me, clearly, since I did apply to extend.

I figured that about a year later, he would still feel the same way. Sure enough, the next day, I approached my boss with the idea to see if he would be welcome to it. He was very pleased and gave me a hug saying he would love to work with me for another year. With that, I contacted my Peace Corps Program Manager and informed her of my plans. For the next 5 months, I worked on a plan that would be my “third-year” project.

In order to stay for a third year, we must justify to Peace Corps why our stay is necessary. Granted, this makes complete sense. Our projects are supposed to be two years long, so if we need to stay longer, a well-sounded reason should be necessary. Each of us worked with our counterparts to craft our third-year projects that would benefit the organization/school.

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Ainsley (right) will be extending with me for a third year! We are both G16s and on DREAM Camp together.

The paperwork was due in February 2018 and we submitted it. After that, we had to go through medical clearance again in-country. Then, we waited for all the approvals to go through, including from Peace Corps Headquarters.  Justin and I finally got our extension approved in early May after months of work and discussion!

It is an odd feeling because many of our friends are preparing to leave next month. Some of our friends are going to grad school, a couple will participate in Fulbright, and others will start working. Meanwhile, Justin and I just bought a food processor to make our last year even more comfortable.

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Cheers to our the third year of service! Some of these lovely faces will be leaving next month and some will stay 🙂

So gamarjos (cheers) to our third year!

8 years ago

Google vs. Facebook: Teaching Georgians that Google is ...

by Rawan / Her

A couple of weeks ago, I sat in on a staff meeting. It was all in Georgian of course. Instead of sitting there like a complete fool, I busted out my smart phone (yes, you can have those in the Peace Corps). I opened up Google Translate and translated words on the printed agenda that I could not understand. I puzzled things together and figured out what they were discussing. Somewhere on the agenda, I saw that “Google Calendar” was a discussion point. I assumed that this was in relevance to me. About a month or two ago, I taught my organization how to use Google Calendar. And it was a hit! We use it all the time and transparency and productivity has increased seamlessly. It was a good sign that my activities started permeating the organization’s agenda and objectives. Teaching my organization how Google can benefit business was beginning to take off.

To that note, they wanted me to me to conduct a training on how to use Facebook for the newly hired Community Workers. We hired 7 of them to essentially check-in on the World Vision Sponsored Children in the communities. Like any other organization and company, a team needs to collaborate and access the same documents. Want to take a guess on which platform was first suggested they would like to do the business collaboration on? Hint: I just mentioned it. Facebook.

Even though I’m not a fan of using Facebook for business purposes, we conducted a Facebook skills pre-test. I wanted to see how well the Community Workers know Facebook in the first place. When I got the answers back, I wasn’t not sure whether or not to be surprised. Most said that they know how to create lists, shared photo albums, events and the like. Yet, most also said that they do not have an e-mail address. Normally, I take people’s word when they answers questions about themselves on a simple test. However, you need an e-mail address to access Facebook. You cannot open an account if you don’t have an e-mail address. Therefore, how does someone not have an e-mail address and yet know how to conduct all these savvy things on Facebook? My conclusion is that they don’t. They probably misunderstood the question or misinterpreted it for something else.

My colleague also gave me some cultural insight when I was trying to make sense of the data. Apparently, many adults have their children create and open accounts for their parents. Therefore, the parents are probably completely unaware that their children created an e-mail account for their parents in order to access Facebook. Thus, the parent is not in the know that there is an e-mail address attached to their name in cyber-space.

So I dug a bit deeper into the activities that World Vision wants them to do on Facebook. I asked the following: how many pictures are they posting? Who is the intended audience of the photographs? Do they need to edit and send files? Sure enough, the answers told me that Facebook is not the right platform. Thus, I turned to show one of my colleagues the wonders of Google Drive and how compatible it is with e-mail. At first he was not aware that Google had more capabilities than the Calendar and Gmail. Giving a quick tour, he agreed that the G Drive was a much better internet platform for our business needs.

As I started researching topics to include in my training, I reached a fork in the road. The problem was that the G Suite is not translated into Georgian. Facebook is ahead of the game and has its content available in Georgian. How am I supposed to teach people to use a platform in which they cannot read its content? G suite does have Russian, which was a glimmer of hope. (Historical context: most older Georgians know Russian because it was required for them to learn the language when they were occupied by the former Soviet Union. Read more about that here). However, they do not use their Russian skills frequently and they are somewhat rusty. Thus, do I give them the right tools in a language they are not fluent in? Or do I train them on the less effective platform in a language they are fluent in?

This thing kept me up at night thinking. These questions would have NEVER happened to me in the United States. The content on the Internet is overwhelming written in English! Over 50% of the content on the web is in English and all the other languages don’t even come close to that percentage (if you want to see stats, read here). If you don’t speak, write, or read English, you are suddenly might find yourself excluded from consuming or sharing information. You speak a common language, there are things out there for you. But Georgian is not a common language. Heck, most my friends and family back home ask me if Georgia even has their own language.

Thus, I mentioned these concerns and thoughts to my colleague this morning. We both agreed that G Suite was the best option. The buttons on Gmail and G Drive are not complex. They will understand the basic words and format of the platform. I’m also assuming that Google will eventually translate things to Georgian. The community workers will be ahead of the game and know some Google skills before other people. May then they can train their friends and family on Google since they would have used it before.

Coming to this realization, I thought I’d share my conclusion: English speakers are privileged when it comes to the internet. This is privilege plain and simple. If you are reading this blog post right now, then you have a privilege that most of the world does not have. I don’t mean that in the sense that my blog is so fancy that you are lucky to read this. No, you are privileged because you can access and understand most of content on the World Wide Web. You have privilege because you can access internet in the first place.

It is moments like these that remind me why I love the Peace Corps. It opens your eyes to truly how privileged we are back home. We become more grateful and more kind human beings when we finish our service. But we also have a great opportunity (and responsibility I might add) to share the knowledge we have gained from said privilege and teach others. I am equipped with tools to transfer my “basic” internet skills to empower others to access a platform on knowledge.