As 2018 comes to an end, I have been reflecting on some of my favorite moments of my Peace Corps service during this calendar year. These are no particular order.
During “Thanksgiving” break, my friends and I sat around talking after our dinner until 2 or 3 in the morning. I told them that I am a huge fan of Mary Poppins and then we all proceeded to quote lines and scenes of the movie. To have others bask in favorite movie lines of a 50-year-old movie is priceless. (You can read about our Thanksgiving holiday more here.)
During METS Camp, one of the campers, named Shota, jumped up-and-down and yelled, “I love this so much” as we were working on a DNA experiment. To see a teenager exclaim with such excitement in front of his peers like a five-year-old makes the year-long planning process totally worth it. (If you want to learn more about METS Camp in general, read about it here.)
One of the team during METS Camp preparing their materials for the DNA experiment.
There was a lot of work to get Justin and I approved for another year of service. When it was all said and done, Justin and I were really happy that we could stay in Georgia and continuing serving our community. (Read more about it here or here.)
During DREAM Camp, I taught the campers about the difference between inclusion and tolerance. There was a lot of confusion between the difference between the two acts and why inclusion was more kind and important for humanity. I used odd metaphors to help them explain and it worked! The campers, in turn, used these metaphors and helped explain it to the other campers who could not understand it. I stood there like the happiest teacher knowing that I helped turn on the metaphorical light bulb in their minds to make more acts of kindness into the world. (If you want to learn more about DREAM camp in general, read about it here and here.)
Me on the left and Tasha, a camper, on the right. Tasha explained the definition of inclusion so well during a presentation at DREAM Camp that sparked a conversation and a lot of learning.
Celebrating a big birthday in Tbilisi with my sitemate Erin and my husband Justin. The three of us are born in the same month and year and all three of us are born within 14 days of each other. So naturally, we had a combined birthday celebration and it was amazing.
We had 14 people for dinner to celebrate our birthdays and it was absolutely delicious and wonderful. Getting a reservation for a large party, on the other hand, was a story in of itself.
Taking Georgian Dance classes with two of my sitemates. For some reason, I thought I had a picture of me, Erin, and Nicole taking dance classes, but apparently, I do not. For two months, the three of us learned the Rachuli and Adjaruli, which are two dances from the regions of Racha and Adjara, respectively.
At least once a month, my friends Kate and Rose (who I have mentioned many times before) would come to my site to hang out. Our favorite activity was going to a local establishment and drinking tea. Erin, my sitemate, would also regularly join us. It is possible that we started this late 2017, but I think it took off in 2018 as a regular habit.
Rose, Me, and Kate drinking out for tea 🙂 We would joke and call this type of hangout, “tea club.”
Normally, I post a story or an experience on this blog. For this post, I thought I’d post some quick and dirty fun facts about my Peace Corps service. Some of these facts are mentioned in other posts.
We had a pet rooster for about two months. Justin tried training our rooster like a dog.
Cows are everywhere in Georgia and I’ve been obsessed with them lately. Each time I see a cow while walking, I attempt to take a selfie with it.
This is technically a calf, but this still counts as a cow selfie
In my office’s bathroom, there is a bathtub. This is because our office is actually a home converted into an office.
I am the only foreigner at work. All my colleagues are Georgian and we speak Georgian at work.
Georgians are obsessed with mayonnaise. They sell it in tubs and they also drizzle it on pizza.
Here is an entire section of mayo at the market.
I’ve had food poisoning about half a dozen times during service. I’m so well versed with the symptoms that I can predict the play-by-play by the hours.
I strive to combat racism during service. In Peace Corps, I co-lead a diversity awareness summer camp, called DREAM Camp, for Georgian youth. At the end of my first camp, a teenage girl hugged me and told me that she has realized her biases and will strive to change for the better because of my session.
Last year for Thanksgiving, the only way I was able to procure a turkey was to pick one out alive. My boss, Justin, and I went to a live poultry market and paid a grandmother a couple of dollars to kill it for me. I later cleaned the insides and baked it. Â
During Easter, Georgians only dye their eggs red. There are multiple shades of red. In America, we dye our eggs cute and various pastel colors. That is not a thing here.
At the bazaar during April 2018. You can see the different shades of red for the Easter eggs.
I created a gender-equality committee in Peace Corps called Saqartvelo Smashes Stereotypes. I wrote about the committee on this blog and a prospective Peace Corps applicant read my blog and discussed the committee in her Peace Corps interview. Now, she is a volunteer here and is on the committee with me!
During my Peace Corps Pre-Service Training (PST), I only used an outhouse that was located next to the pig stye and chicken coup. No one in my village had an indoor or western-style toilet.
I currently live without a dishwasher, a dryer, a couch, a TV, a radio, or even an indoor toilet.
I do not have a wide variety of food where I live. Thus, I currently make up my own recipes and I now I consider myself an amateur chef.
I made up this marinara pasta sauce that is incredibly healthy and delicious. No recipe here.
In my first week of Peace Corps, I witnessed my host family’s pig give birth to her nine piglets. She immediately proceeded to murder most of the piglets by eating them and burying them in her feces. I helped my host family save the remaining piglets. Months later, my host family killed the mother pig and we ate her for dinner. I am still traumatized.
The average price for a haircut for females is less than $4 USD. This includes wash, cut, and style. I have cut my hair in Georgia three or four times thus far.
My most recent haircut in the summer (2018). I only paid 10 GEL at this fancy place in town, which is equivalent to about 4 USD.
My office is about a 15-minute walk from my home. I walk every day to and from work.
Georgia sells Oreos, M&Ms, and Pringles. We buy them frequently and consider them great snacks during my long transportation rides to the capital.
Which fact surprised you the most? What else would you like to know?
As Peace Corps Volunteers, we have to think on our feet all the time. We are improv actors on a stage that is our daily lives.
While I was reading this article about the first Mexican chef who earned a Michelin star, something in the article resonated with me about my Peace Corps service. Carlos Gaytán, the Mexican Chef, was quoted in the article saying, “You don’t always have all the ingredients to make a dish… You’ve got to use your imagination and be creative to fill in the gaps.” This could be said for probably any Peace Corps Volunteer in any post around the world. Sometimes, I might expect that a certain ingredient won’t be available (even though it is promised it would be).
Me teaching about the concepts of force by utilizing the Spaghetti Tower experiment. METS Camp in Telavi, June 2017.
For example, in one of our activities during METS Camp, we build something called a Spaghetti Tower. The kids are supposed to build a free-standing tower with 20 spaghetti noodles, a small piece of tape and yarn, and one marshmallow. The marshmallow is supposed to be on the top and completely supported by the tower made of the noodles. The team that builds the tallest free-standing tower wins the competition. The mini-competition teaches our campers about force and some basic concept of engineering.
Last year, I informed our partner organization that I will buy the marshmallows in the capital, Tbilisi. We needed more marshmallows because we used all of ours already in the camp two months prior (pictures above and below). Our August camp needed their own, fresh marshmallows. In my time here, I was even shocked that they even sell them in Georgia. Naturally, “odd, American” things are only sold in the capital. He insisted that he could find it in our town. I trusted him and reminded him that the experiment won’t work unless we have the marshmallows. Anything other than marshmallows will be absolutely too heavy to be supported by thin spaghetti noodles.
The campers building the spaghetti tower in the June 2017 METS Camp in Telavi.
About ten minutes before arriving at camp last year, our organization partner said, “You were right. They do not sell marshmallows in our town. So I did not get them.” At that point, we were at least 6 hours away from the Tbilisi Mall or a Carrefour. The camp’s sessions were going to start the next morning. In other words, there was no solution in which I could get marshmallows in sight. You could imagine how I felt in the moment, given on how avoidable this situation was. He left me to improvise my lesson unprepared and unexpectedly. It was frustrating because he knew it was needed given that we used marshmallows in the June camp, two months prior.
I even told him that if he said anything last night I could have another Peace Corps Volunteer remedy the situation. After that, I changed the subject because there was no point in discussing further- what was done was done. So the next morning, the day of the experiment, I asked the hotel for an old loaf of Georgian bread. I tore the loaf of bread and made the made it into small balls for the experiment. It was a bit heavy for the spaghetti, but the noodles were able to carry the weight for a few moments. It changed the experiment and it was not as successful; however, the campers still learned the lessons of structural force. Thinking on our feet is simply our job as Peace Corps Volunteers. More importantly, thinking calmly is even more critical.
I’m in the center with the DREAM Camp t-shirt. I’m with a bunch of the campers on the last day of camp. Kobuleti, Georgia, August 2018.
Last week, I concluded my last DREAM Camp, in which we teach the kids about diversity. At this camp, I wanted me and the team to be overly prepared. In Georgia, the internet could go out for hours without notice. The electricity could even just stop when it is raining. Running water is also not a constant thing either. So, there are always extra things to prepare for in advance. I told the new Peace Corps Volunteers that it is important to download and print all the sessions in advance. These same problems could persist next year when they are running the camp.
Sure enough, when the camp came around, the Internet barely worked. We had internet for a few minutes sporadically throughout the week. If we have to depend utilizing the Google Drive during camp, we would have been toast and unorganized. We also had a movie night at the camp. Because we downloaded the movie in advance- with Georgian dub- we were also prepared. In Georgia, when conducting a large project, it is important to think 10 steps ahead. We might not have accessibility to a printer, Internet, or any other conveniences.
We also do not make our PowerPoints text heavy. Most of them are pictures. This way, if we can’t use the PowerPoint (due to an electricity outage), it won’t make that much of a difference. A lot of our sessions were discussion heavy. Therefore, as long we have a place to sit, we are all good to go. Sure enough, during camp, the internet was only available for a few hours a day- and not consistently.
At the end of the day, there is a silver lining to all this. When I return to America, the small things won’t throw me off. I will be able to think on my feet should “technical difficulties” arise. I won’t have a panicked facial expression in the middle of the conference room. I will be collected and be able to come up with solutions “on-the-fly.” Thus, I tip my hat to these experiences for teaching me to become more flexible than I signed up for.
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.
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.
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.
Cheers to our the third year of service! Some of these lovely faces will be leaving next month and some will stay 🙂
In high school, I didn’t give a dime about being popular. I had a tight group of friends and we did our own thing. Hands down, I was one of those “nerds” in high school. I spent a lot of my time studying and excelling academically. Â I did, however, care about others feeling safe and included on campus. I was a part of an organization in high school, called Bridges, that advocated for acceptance and inclusion on campus. We did a lot of projects to combat some of the negative thoughts and stereotypes experienced on campus.
So fast forward more than a decade later and I still haven’t graduated from this mentality. I still don’t care about being popular, and I still care about fostering an environment of inclusion and acceptance. Thus, for the second year in a row, I was involved in DREAM Camp, which stands for Diversity: Respecting Ethnicity and Multiculturalism. I’m sitting with my other Peace Corps Volunteers at camp and some of the teenage campers excitedly wave and blow kisses at me. I look at my friend Neil, “So, I can’t tell if they legit like me or they are making fun of me.” Neil, who is an English teacher in Peace Corps, casually states, “Georgian teenagers do not plot or go out of their way to show fake affection like that.” He believed that the kids liked me.
Some of these kids went out of their way to actually spend time with me. I was also going out of my way to hang out with them. I convinced a few of them to teach me how to perform a Georgian dance skit. I taught one of the girls how to float in the sea. We had deep discussions with other campers about race and prejudice in America. During camp, we had something called “the Positive Box.” You can write positive notes anonymously to campers, counselors, or PCVs about your experience at camp. I received a few notes from campers and they were literally the sweetest!
Elene learned Georgian dance for nine years and was happy to spend a few hours with me to teach me.
The kids at these camps genuinely want to learn and interact with American Peace Corps Volunteers. They are excited to spend a week with us and ask thoughtful questions. I told the new Peace Corps Volunteers to show vulnerability and to be honest and open. I described how last year I shared stories about my childhood and how raw I was. It paid off loads. I wanted to create the same atmosphere this year with the campers. I wanted people to be real about the negative effects of discrimination and intolerance. I wanted the message of inclusion, hope, and love for all to ring loud and clear.
A note from one of my campers: “Dear [Rawan], you are the only person in the camp, who fell in Love with the heart and soul. I like to dance with you and your tattoos <3 I love very much <3”
During my sessions, I asked thought-provoking questions. For example, I asked if immigrants to America were “real Americans”? I know that sounds simple, but in all honesty, it is not. A lot of Georgians struggle with the idea that non-native born Peace Corps volunteers are real Americans. I think it stems from the fact that they believe that the Armenian-Georgians and Azeri-Georgians are Georgian second. They are Armenian and Azeri first. Ironically enough, they said that immigrant Americans are true Americans. So then I said, “okay, so the Armenians with Georgian passports are real Georgians?” They yelled, “NO!”
So then I was, “okay, so then with that logic, immigrant Americans are not real Americans.” I looked at their faces and I asked, “Why are they not real Georgians if they want to be Georgian? If they speak Georgian? And have been living here for generations?” Of course, the only answer they could give was that it was traditionally thought as such. I wanted them to question the system. I wanted them to internally debate some of the negative stereotypes in their community. Because through those debates, they can learn and grow. Of course, I inserted a lot of jokes and humor in these tough discussions. That is probably why at the end of the day they were still willing to hang out with me.
My organization partner handing me a note written for me from the Positive Box.
By the end of camp, I noticed that some of the youth were including the minority campers in their circles. We had one camper who did not speak much Georgian. She is ethnically Armenian and living in an Armenian community. In the beginning, it looked like she felt isolated. By the end of camp, I saw the ethnically Georgian teenagers include her in their activities. They translated for her when she presented and were kind. The Armenian-Georgian youth admitted to Kaigler, another Peace Corps Volunteer, that her negative opinions of Georgians softened. She felt that the Georgians were kind and were receptive to her. These kids were growing in front of our eyes and it was wonderful!
Kids wrote so many positive notes that we had two positive boxes by the last two days of camp!
At the end of camp, we felt all the positive vibes. I had so much fun with kids and I bragged about them endlessly to Justin when I got home. I truly appreciated the kindness all the campers showed me. I felt that, maybe, my corner of the world is getting better to include minorities and appreciate the differences.
But the fuzzy feelings only lasted so long.
Three days after the camp was over, I watched some news of what was going on back in America. I saw Neo-Nazis and the KKK take to the streets in Charlottesville. I read that a heroic woman, Heather Heyer, was murdered while she was protesting hate. I saw a picture of a black police officer defend and protect the very people who wanted to turn him down. It is chilling. It is terrifying. The juxtaposition of my experience at DREAM Camp and what is going in America is perplexing to me. It is hard to believe that both events were occurring almost concurrently! I couldn’t sleep last night knowing how much hatred is filling out streets back home.
Thus, I find it hard in my mind to preach love and inclusion to Georgians when we clearly aren’t doing such a good job ourselves in America. I cannot tell the Georgian youth to advocate for the minorities in their communities if I cannot do the same. Of course, my small actions every day speak volumes in the community. However, no matter how hard I try, I cannot overshadow what is shown on the media. I cannot fight the xenophobia that some of the politicians publicly state.
My job to advocate for peace and friendship, the very goal of Peace Corps, is sometimes hard these days. I am a representative of America and I am supposed to represent peace and friendship. Yet, my own president cannot even publicly denounce these hate groups.
I told my youth at camp that when something doesn’t sound right, the least you can do is just say something. You can ask questions to make the person think twice on why they said something so hurtful? Staying silent only helps the oppressor. This is me saying something. This is me trying to reconcile the facts that my country has a lot of hate in it (and always has); however, many of us are trying to do the right thing.
Therefore, no matter how small this acknowledgment is, I still want to acknowledge it. I want to publicly say that I do not agree with the actions of the KKK and the Neo-Nazis back home. In building a positive relationship between Georgia and America, I have to acknowledge the hate in the country while trying to advocate for inclusion. Most importantly, we have to continue to fight the war against hate. I feel such sadness that Heather Heyer was murdered. I don’t think she has died in vain because there are so many of us that believe in her message and supported her last heroic act.
