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?
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
