A day in the life of a Georgia Peace Corps IOD volunteer

Many of you have asked me what my normal day is like at the Koda Community Education Center,  so I am happy to comply. Everyday is different of course, but here is a summary of how we work and what my day is like.

Our office opens at 10am.  I know, what a luxury it is.  I remember it was just last year that I and those of us in Mountain Time Zone started work at 6am each day at IBM.  It is so nice not to set an alarm and rush off to work.  I cook, clean, wash, go get some water from the middle well, get caught up on personal and business email, try to do some yoga or Pilates, then at 10am walk 100 yards to the office.  I'm usually tired by the time I get to start my work day!  Today I was invited for coffee downstairs before work.  Our building has 3 entrance staircases, 5 stories, and 3 units on each landing, so I have 15 'close neighbors'  more than half have invited me in for coffee or dinner. I keep saying how great everyone, is, but it is worth repeating.

A little background on Koda CEC:

 CEC's mission is to provide ongoing educational opportunities, which include the development of competencies and skills, to aid in personal and career goals; encouraging a lifelong quest for knowledge.

The center facilitates the integration of internally displaced persons in local communities. Every year up to 2000 persons benefit from participation in a wide range of vocational and personal development programs which increase their employability and improve quality of life.

 Youth development programs, Adults non-formal education and Civic engagement are a priority of the KODA CEC team.  KODA CEC management team has experience in development, project planning and implementation on both a local and international level. The CEC was opened and continues to be supported in part by DVV International, the Institute for International Cooperation of the German Adult Education Association. As a leading professional organisation in youth and adult non-formal education, the Institute has supported lifelong learning in developing and transitioning countries for more than 45 years now.  

The CEC also facilitates an Elder Council, which is composed of 10 elected members, one from each of the 10 IDP buildings, who gather to discuss and take action on issues that affect the IDP settlement.  It has been successful in getting apartment water issues addressed with a more frequent availability of water to 4 times/day.  They are addressing a gas billing issue now.

Some days we just work on projects - computer work - and today was no exception.  We are submitting a grant proposal for 2 irrigation wells in the settlement from a federation of women Councils, called ACWW.  This is just one of thousands of big and small great organizations are out there that support what a wide range of issues and needs around the world. This organization, headquartered in UK supports many small organizations, like the "Organization to Support Women of the Village" here in Georgia.  And here are our office manager, Nunu, a great, hard worker and always has a smile on her face,  and one of our greatest volunteers and good friend, Ilia.

Here is our director, Madona, in a meeting with residents, discussing some gender issues in Georgia,  Madona was a business owner and also an elected official back in S. Ossetia, is well respected in the settlement and with the local governments.  South Ossetia is where the war happened in 2008 and they were expelled.  Our current projects include education for retraining for new livelihoods since they were mostly farmers in their old villages, and lifelong learning, business consulting / proposals that Madona supports,  the Elder Council, a Youth leadership Club, English clubs and classes and our social enterprise, Art-Koda. (art-koda.com)

Culinary class - sharing traditions 

Children's development class



Computer classes twice/week, with Jemo, another great volunteer, 

Art-Koda women

The women and men of Art-Koda  are making traditional Georgian handicrafts and also teaching these techniques with others in the settlement.  Our new web catalog is www.artkoda.com.  Due to shipping difficulties and lack of automation we only ship in Georgia now, and have to make other arrangements for other countries.  USA and Germany have also purchased our product!  Thanks for your support!



This woman taught teaching techniques to local teachers.  She was fabulous, funded by the US Embassy, and .... a former Peace Corps volunteer in China.... very cool  lady.  And the women loved her. They wouldn't even stop for a coffee break!

Our Youth Club had a cleanup in the settlement.  And I love this kid. He is in 10th grade, and wants to study science.  This is rare, from my experience.  Everyone here wants to be a lawyer or do international relations.  San Diego State University is opening a satellite here in Tbilisi and I want to make sure he is looking at it.  He rides about 40 minutes each weekend with his sister to come to Koda to be exposed to more opportunity.  Good for him... good for his parents!



Photography club

Our office has no lunch - the snack is to have coffee and cake/sweets almost every day about 2pm.  I try to be good. Sometimes I come home for lunch, and sometimes pack a cheese and tomato sandwich.   People not at work eat about 2pm,  and sometimes when I am not working, I get invited to nice dinners - lobio (black beans, sort of like mexican, with spices, like a soup) great bread, always tomatoes and cucumbers with spices, green beans with herbs,  lots of other good things. I do have to work on getting protein... daily...



Feldenkrais Method exercises

The office closes at 6, or later if we are working on something  Tonight some were printing on cups and t-shirts in Art-Koda so they worked very late.

In the evening, sometimes I go check on my tomato plants. A kind neighbor gave me a little piece of her garden for my 7 plants and basil. Much of their basil is purple here, so my green plants are somewhat unique and a fun present to take to people who invite me to coffee.

Many families have supper at around 8 or 9 pm - too late for me.  I come home, have a light dinner, salad, and some protein if I can find it. This day I got a knock on my door about 9pm.  A few girls about 12 years old had an invitation in English for me - all written up, about a little performance they are putting on in the field next door on Thursday at 4pm.  Of course I will attend.

Evenings are a luxury for me.  I have time to do research on the Internet, read, sometimes watch a show or movie through the internet, discover new music, and finally, I can FaceTime with family and friends.  This is so special and I just was able to get wifi set up.

I sleep early for Georgians - I DON'T LOOK AT THE CLOCK, I just turn off the light when I'm tired.  I know this sounds so simple, but in the States I NEVER did this. And I NEVER set an alarm for the morning. I just get up when I wake up - What a concept!  With the patent laws in the US so flexible now, maybe I can patent this :-).  ( sorry all my patent friends)

Zila Nebisa!  Good night.  Thank you all for your notes and comments.  I love to hear from you. I know I am learning a lot and hopefully helping a little.  But I still sure miss my life back home: friends and family.  God bless!


Here I am trying to learn the Georgian dances with the folk group!

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.

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 

My assignment... but if you teach a man to fish...

So after six weeks of  language, culture and security training, we were given our two year Peace Corps assignment. I will be going to an IDP camp (internally displaced persons) called KODA, about forty minutes south of the capitol, Tblisi.  This is a group of 2000 Georgians that were displaced in the 2008 conflict when Russia invaded Georgia (for a second time since their independence in 1991) and took over a big chunk of land in the center of the country. In all, 20% of Georgian land is being occupied by Russia, and about 20% of its people have been displaced. It is so difficult because, as I have learned, that their land which was handed down through generations is the basis for their livelihoods in many cases from this area.

The camp has a reputation for being forward thinking and optimistic in character. I will work for a nonprofit that is funded by a German educational foundation (DVV) that has proven successful in the former Soviet states in training for new careers.  I hear these people are courageous and positive.  I hope to help with business development and finding sustainable employment and trainings for this group. I hope I can help, but I am sure I will learn more than I can offer them.

I asked to be with IDPs and, being a capitalist, I can easily relate to the old saying, " give a man a fish and he eats for a day. But teach a man to fish and he eats for his life." Many of these people believe the same, and that is why they are anxious to take training classes, etc.

By the way, if someone invaded the US and took 20% of our land, do you know what that would include?  Well I did the research. 20% of the US would cover:

Maine, Vermont, New Hamphire, New York (yep... All gone), Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, New Jersey, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia,  North Carolina,  and we even have to throw in Florida for good measure!  

Isn't it amazing. That is exactly what Georgians are feeling now.  One in every 5 people has lost their homes, many their livelihood, but they are still the giving, generous people that I have come to know and love.

And as far as the job market goes, it  also makes me think of western NC with all the lost industry the state has experienced over the last twenty years.  Maybe I will learn something I can take home with me?

... but first I have to pass the language exam in 2 weeks so I can be sworn in.  The jury is still out. :-) Happy Birthday America. It was special to celebrate it in Georgia, but great to be with a great group of special Americans too.  

Mandatory Disclaimer:  These views and opinions are mine and mine alone, not Peace Corps, or US Government or others, just me.