First two days in GA (the other one)

Day #2 starts in a couple of hours.  I couldn't sleep so I awoke at 1:30 am and started working on my new Georgian language skills (skills is a bit a stretch at this point).  I started working in my room and moved down stairs to the lobby where the helpful front desk guy gave me an alphabet tutorial.  His name is Bacho.  Great guy.  He spent 4 years working in London and recently returned home.  His English is very good and he is a patient teacher.  I was joined at 3:30 am by two other Peace Corps trainees who couldn't sleep either.  We're sitting in the lobby, going over the Georgian alphabet, which is written in Cyrillic, not "English" letters.  Learning this language is a bit challenging but is really interesting and will ultimately be very rewarding.

I got a little ahead of myself at the top, so let me back up a little. 

After arrival at the Tbilisi airport (after an 11 1/2 hour flight from JFK to Istanbul and then a 2 hour flight to Tbilisi), we were met at the airport by the Peace Corps country director, deputy minister of the U.S. Embassy and the Georgian deputy minister of Education and Science (pictured below).  The media was there to greet us as well.  It was a big photo opp day for the Press and TV stations.  After the media left, we boarded a bus and headed to dinner at a typical Georgian restaurant in Tbilisi.  The best advice we got before we got off the bus and crossed the street to the restaurant was to watch for cars because they don't stop for pedestrians.

After a great, Georgian dinner called a Supra, we were bussed to the hotel which is located at the top of the hill, overlooking the city.  Tbilisi is nestled in a valley between two low-mountain ranges.  We have a spectacular view!

Day #1: a cohort of 44 of us were greeted by the country director and staff.  After the introduction and administrative overview, we had interviews with staff about our "jobs", a meeting with the medical staff and then  one hour of language intro.  I am pretty skeptical about workshops and meetings like this but I want you to know that your tax dollars are well-spent.  I've been through more than a couple of these in my days in the corporate sector with IBM, Wilson Sporting Goods and others.  This program is incredibly professional, sophisticated and well-run.  The competency level of everyone I've met has been utmost.  The first day was every bit as good or better than anything I've been through with the corporate boys.  The PC director said that we are non-professional diplomats.  I hadn't heard that term before.  I like it alot!

Day #2 will be more language and working through some more adminstrative details.  Saturday afternoon, we move down the road to a lovely resort town - Bojormi (look that one up, too.) where we will stay for 10 weeks while we have intensive (6 days/week) language and job training.

We just had our last Pre-Service Training meeting in Tbilisi.  I will be in the village of Kvibisi with my PST family of four.  More later.

I might be without internet access for a month so I'll post when I can.

I'll send more pictures as they occur, which is just about everytime you turn around!

(Pictured immediately below, from left to right, is the PC Country Director, the Georgian Deputy Minister of Education and Science and the U.S. embassy Deputy Minister.)

Nakhvamdis! 

Please remember: "the contents of this web site are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the U.S. Government or the Peace Corps".


P.S.  Georgian time is 9 hours ahead of Chicago.