Education Festival at the Koda Education Center

The most important, and funded mandate of our Center is to train or retrain adults, with non formal education classes.  We try to have a full listing of classes to help the unemployed find new skills, especially for the IDPs (Internally Displaced Persons,  1/5 of the country since Russia annexed their land in the 2 wars) since  they lost their land and livelihoods. Here we celebrate the Adult Education Festival, for fun and awareness of classes and successful students.  We gave awards to the most successful, the oldest, best artist, and a variety of other ones

Classes offered include computer, accounting, English, bee keeping, driver's ed, all types of crafts (you can see samples in the pictures below), shoe making, and hopefully in the new year, furniture making will be revived. We needed funding to renovate a room to use.

I plan on teaching skills assessment and employ-ability skills in the spring with a local partner here, a sharp and very hardworking young man. We hope to have paid internships set up as part of the class, as well as informational interviews.  That is even tough in the states, but hey, you have to introduce new ideas, right? I might even have them do a myers-briggs test, what the heck!
The festival offered chess tournament, ping pong, face painting.  We sold crafts from ART KODA, our social enterprise, where the profits go back to the Center to pay for more classes. At least that is the concept.  But it also offers income to many of the local men and women here.

See also a band we brought from Tbilisi for the day, and a local woman playing her phanduri, and singing about their beloved former home of Tskhinvali, which was burned and destroyed during the war in 2008.  Most of the locals here are from South Ossetia region, and many from this town.

A funny part was when the 4 year olds all jumped up and started dancing gangnam style: talk about universal!  So a great day for the Center, and for me, still trying to find my way in my new home.

Helping students in Koda schools

This month it finally slowed down a bit and I was able to go visit the local school a few times.  The students I worked with were delightful and quite sharp.  The Peace Corps sponsors an English spelling bee nationally which is an amazing undertaking.  And the kids love it.   Here I went to help them with pronunciation before these school winners go on to regional competition. And here is the old time black (brown) board.

By the way, Ani, in the foreground here, is considered a BLOND here, in a country where 99% of the women have black hair.

Koda Community Education Center - my home!

Koda Community Education Center

So I have been remiss in not writing about my work and my new life in my permanent site. That is because I didn't want to generalize about the country or its people, and wanted to be sure I didn't have inaccurate assumptions. Plus, it has just been hard to put into words what I have been experiencing. Finally, as this is an Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) settlement, I wanted to reconcile in my own mind what I was feeling and adapting to before I published it all over.  You should have seen some of my drafts before I reconciled all this stuff myself.  

I really appreciate everyone’s emails with kind thoughts and inquiries.  You are the best!  And I love not having “likes” and comments on my blog.  Personal notes are so much more meaningful to me here. And I know that blogs are supposed to be short, and cute,  but I want to get this out, finally, so get a glass of wine or coffee, sit down and hope you find it interesting.

My Community
I work at the Koda Community Education Center. This is an adult non-formal education center that was established to assist in re-education of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) that became refugees as a result of the 2008 war with Russia.  Koda has 2000 IDPs that live in 10 deserted soviet military buildings. Most are 5 stories high and have one to 3 rooms in them.  The government assigned the IDPs, many of whom were living in kindergardens and schools, to various locations in the country after the 2008 war. Unfortunately they did not address locations when making the assignments, so extended families, neighbors, and villages were separated and are found spread out in IDP settlements around the country: some in these old buildings, and some in these small new houses that were put up.  Over 260,000 IDPs are found in Georgia,  are another statistic puts it at 20% of the population.  I have previously mentioned the two wars that split about 20% of the landmass of Georgia that is now under Russian control: both from war in the 1990s and in 2008.
(If you want to learn more, please Google it, or watch a film found on YouTube called 5 Days of War)  We aren’t to be political in our blogs, but please take a look at this and juxtapose with what is happening today in the former Soviet Union states (FSU).  Where are Eisenhower's Domino Theory advocates when we need them?

 Here is how I get to work, The blue building has been renovated. The left side has small gardens and farms from the families that were used to having large homes in agricultural settings.

 As you can see, the kids have a nice soccer area now.  When it was 112 degrees this summer it wasn't used much!

 Here is my office at the end of the road, and the ever present marshutkas that take you anywhere you need to go.  USA could really benefit from these 18-20 passenger vans instead of our bus system that seems almost empty all the time.

And here is the water tower that gives water 1-2 hours/day for the settlement.  They promise to dig new wells.

The Village of Koda also has 3000 established residents that have been here for generations.  They share the Center, in the spirit of integration, which is a work in progress.

Koda CEC is funded by DVV, as well as other donors and the local governments. DVV is a German foundation that supports adult non-formal education all around Germany, and internationally, especially the FSU with the mission to support vocational education and develop job skills for adults and youth 18-25 year olds. I like them a lot and have met incredibly sharp and committed people. And I like the fact that many, many countries support Georgia and other countries, not just the US, as we sometimes feel, especially income tax time.

My Jobs
Coming from a strong business background and believing (in the philosophy of , if not it’s imperfect implementation) in capitalism, I appreciated being placed at this location.  It is not a charity, giving away things in a non-sustainable way.  It strives to grow skills for jobs and income to reinvest in the Center, at least that is the goal.

Peace Corps’ goals are to co-facilitate and grow local skills in organizational development and individual development in the country, as was requested by the Georgian government.  I try not to do anything myself, but always work with a local counterpart to teach them management skills, analytic skills, Project design and management, mentoring and co-facilitation.  (Darn, and I thought I was done with that PDM for a while! Denise or Rebecca, want to take a working vacation? ) And Peace Corps has the best support materials already created, just fabulous!  So with that said,  I have three main assignments here. 

1. The first is Leadership development in 3 towns in the Tetritskaro region (the surrounding state, if you will. There are about 10 of them in the country, each very distinct in culture, personality, food and attractions). I worked closely with Jemo (my young counterpart who is the Director of this project).  I was responsible for the content of two weeklong workshops for 20 young adults, which included T3s for healthy living, project design and management (yep the whole PDM from vision, goals, SMART objectives, action plan, timelines…. They worked hard). I was heads down from the day I was sworn in on July 18th. Finally the workshops are over and we just have ongoing support for the projects these folks designed in their own towns and they will have continue with monthly support meetings, etc.

You have seen some pictures on Facebook about the workshops?  The kids sure love to post.  Here is the hotel 'conference room' where they worked on the projects. 

2. CEC has also have done some work in ethnic minority conflict resolution, in the past.  Some visitors have come to hear about it , as well as our education program’s success. I have met visitors from Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Russia (the other side of the Caucasus mountains) Azerbaijan, Armenia and Turkey.  I love these meetings, but it isn’t a surprise at all that we are all the same, with the same problems, wishes, and desires for better more peaceful countries.

3. My other assignment is to make the social entrepreneurship initiative sustainable.  More about that at another time. But with the post Soviet refusal to have co-ops of any kind, and the novice attitudes toward PROFIT in some ways, it will be a long 2 years of slow, adaptive growth.  

More to Come
So I promise to post more often about some fun side projects I am doing - a study group touring the country that we are hosting,  The father of Georgia's Palace !,  my working with the local school and their English spelling bee...  Life has been busy, fun most of the time, challenging much of the time,  but I'm never bored, and hope to be growing in a good way.  Thanks for reading!  Kimi 

DidGori Festival

DidGori - Famous Georgian battle of 1121

Celebrated on the original battle grounds of Kvemo Kartli region of Georgia, my home now! As the story goes, King David the Builder was fighting the Turks. He chose this place, way up in the mountain, since he knew his soldiers could fight in the mountains, and perhaps the Turks could not.  He was outnumbered 5 to 1, but still won.  (Remember, this is Kim you are reading, who tends ignore most details, but I think I got it right)

A beautiful day, dancing, folk music, jousting, wrestling, the regional Patriarch, the Georgian Prime Minister and others spoke. The famous Nato Metonidze sang the national anthem. It was a lovely day, and cooler than in Koda, my new home settlement and village.

Georgian Hospitality

The Georgian's have lived on the Silk Road for centuries. They have been invaded and taken over too many times to count.  So I think they have it in their genes now to be nice to everyone, just in case...

They even have a saying that a guest is a gift from God.   Their reputation for generosity is well known.

So here is my latest example of Georgian hospitality..  I had to review a educational camp that was going on in the eastern region of the country.  So a young Georgian woman and I took a taxi out to the town. (It was $6 each for us to go 2 1/2 hours, btw!)  The taxi driver was so nice, that I took his number and called him when we needed a ride back to Tbilisi, the capitol.

He arrived at the camp and ran a few errands that the camp needed, which was very kind.  As we finally headed for home the taxi driver insisted on stopping for coffee at his cousin's house.  Honest.  Fortunately I was with a local or I would have thought I was being kidnapped.  The cousin was as nice as could be, with this unexpected company.  She brought out coffee, beer, tomatoes, cucumbers, a bean salad, and several other dishes. Then, when I asked, she showed me around her garden for the next hour (!).  It was impressive - every kind of fruit tree, fresh figs, apples, peaches, plums, and hazelnuts.  Here is what hazelnuts look like just off the tree, in case you were wondering.  They are really good too.

We have a joke in Georgia about Georgia Time ( GT),  like being in Mexico.  Everyone is always late.  Now I'm beginning to see why; maybe their priorities are just a little different.  :-)

Here is a picture of the cousin and niece, doing her daily chore, grinding the corn for feed I assume.  And look behind the table at what still remains to be done.  And they weren't complaining either.

Ah, life in Georgia...

Georgian cars:a few fun facts

I have been wanting to finish up this interesting page about autos in Georgia.  Since most of us LIVE in our cars in the US, this was really interesting to me.

First, for awhile 30% of the total export revenue in Georgia was from refurbished cars. So even in our small city of Khashuri where I spent our training,  most of the cars here are VERY NICE.  I mean nice mid sized Mercedes, Nissans, Fiats, and my neighbor has an AlphaRomeo. It isn't that way in Koda or Tbilisi, but Khashuri must have special auto skills.

Secondly, they have gas tanks of course but some don't use them.  Many cars run on propane gas! Yep, so when we go to the gas station, everyone has to get out of their car, and the attendant opens the trunk and puts the propane in a big cylindrical tank in the trunk.  And FYI, here is the difference in gas mileage.

(So you geeks will want to check my calculations (and you know who you are) but here is what I figured:
103 km = 7 GEL.  15 km = 1 GEL 1 GEL = $.57 . 1km = .6 miles  So they get 16 miles/dollar. So I don't know what gas is in the US, but this it pretty good, eh?


My host "brother" bought a little Golf.  It looked in good shape.  But oh my, what they did to it when they brought it home. They said they were going to clean it and fix it up.  Well first came the blackened window. Then they 'cleaned it.  Here it is before they stripped it completely, (is that what they do in the Bronx) cleaned the entire floor, and put everything back in.  They even re-sewed the fabric on the seats after they cleaned it. It was amazing to watch.

And here is the final product, with proud Dad, Gocha, with son,  Tornike with his 'new' car.

Khevsureti, Georgia

I hope to catch you up on my recent activities.  It has been a fun and busy time, which is great.  One highlight was a 2 day camping trip to Khevsureti.  This is a four wheel drive trip up to some old ruins and beautiful views. I should mention the 4 wheel drive was a 16 passenger marshutka Mercedes van. We passed over Datvisjvar Pass at 2677 meters ( 8800 ft) and started toward the northern Khevsureti region.  Shatili is a mountain town  built of cliff hanging towers from the 7-13th century. We had some great meandering among the ruins. It was restored in 2000 and is a UNESCO site.

Mutso was another meandering destination,  with over 40 medieval fortified towers.  Beautiful. And finally, we stopped at the Anatori Crypts. During the Black Death the entire village died.  People would take themselves to the crypts and lie down to await their fate so they wouldn't infect their families.  The crypts are on the side of the mountain, overlooking the river.

To me though, as many of you know, the real beauty came from the mountains.  Since they were lower than our Colorado mountains, they reminded me more of the Swiss Alps - green blankets with higher snow capped peaks behind them.  They also looked more like northern Italian Alps. We didn't have time really hike the mountains... but then I do have 2 years...

The David Letterman top 10 differences between Georgia and the US

Hi folks,  all is well here, just busy but I promise to blog more soon.  But these are just a collection of odd facts or funny differences between Georgia and the US that I have been collecting. Enjoy!

Number 10:  PEDS are in!
Number 9:  Hair conditioner made with garlic
Number 8: Balsamic vinegar advertised to put on ice cream
Number 7:  (and I love this) Tarragon flavored toothpaste
Number 6:  Someone on the bus with a ringtone of  "Have yourself a merry little Christmas" when it's 112 degrees out
Number 5:  the English on t-shirts worn by older women... if they only knew what they said! Holy Cow!

Number 4:  Great dress styles! But expensive and not many discount stores

Number 3. These yellow pipes are gas pipes and they go throughout each neighborhood by the front gates. Can't you just see your 16 year old with driver's permit trying not to hit them backing out of the driveway?

Number 2. The cemeteries are beautiful. They capture a photo of the deceased on the headstone. I think it is a loving testament. and like NC, they have cemeteries anywhere and everywhere. 

and the #1 difference... at least this month is...

The Georgian lawn mower. Isn't this smart! Compact, easy to use!  Might even get some males into vacuum cleaning!

That's it for today.  I promise to send more updates soon.  

Made it! I'm officially a Peace Corps volunteer

I passed the Georgian language test of intermediate level, was sworn in by the US ambassador Norland,  helped sing the Georgian national anthem at the ceremony ( based on two Georgian operas, is beautiful, google it!) and had a kick off meeting for a great new project - in four days.  I am working for an incredible organization and manager,  supporting 2000 internally displaced people from the 2008 Russian invasion of Georgia.  Great people and what great cooks too!  (Just saying)