Experiencing Italy and Italian Culture through SERVAS

SERVAS – Peace and understanding through travel and hosting

In the past 2 years as I lived in Georgia, I was given the privilege of being introduced to another international organization, Servas International,  which encompasses an international network of hosts and travelers. Quoting from their website,  "The purpose of the network is to help build world peace, goodwill and understanding by providing opportunities for personal contacts among people of different cultures, backgrounds and nationalities.

"Servas promotes trust, tolerance, open-mindedness and respect, so that people can live in peaceful coexistence. Our members value understanding of different cultures, gender equality and diversity in ethnicity, ideology, sexuality and nationality.

"In times of increased movement of people and globalization, there is a growing need to promote understanding across borders and cultures. Hospitality and cultural interaction are the essential tools for achieving conditions for people to live in peace and unity."

And in my words,  I have found a group of committed people -  members quietly validating the belief that each person is responsible for the world around them: environmentally, politically,  physically, spiritually and with compassion.  It reinforces our commitments to these active choices. For me it was a reaffirmation that normal people live their beliefs and commitments, quietly and consistently, which isn't always easy. 

  Galaxidi from downtown with Mt. Parnassus

My first trip with Servas was two years ago, to a small town near Delphi, Greece.  I spent two nights experiencing Greece from the local's viewpoint.  I was hooked.  If I never see another hotel or big resort again I felt it will be too soon. 

The next year I took a road trip from AIX en Provence to Paris, and stayed with a lovely couple that had been Servas' members for a long time.  They helped me understand the purpose of Servas and how to best share cultures and be great hosts.

Had a wonderful time with our Servas friends near Lyon.  And a REAL french meal.  The most relaxing and interesting time of our entire trip. Great food, new and different drinks, local cheese, interesting conversation,wonderful hosts.   

Next the Servas Georgia organization hosted a regional meeting of Servas in Tbilisi.  I was able to be a "day host," since my housing in the settlement wasn't really adequate for visitors. (Hosts don't have to have wonderful homes, but full-time running water  is a big plus).  We hosted people from about 8-10 countries including, Poland, Ukraine, Israel, Australia,... See my write-up on it here. 

Finally, I had a week to travel this July before heading home to the US, after my Peace Corps service.  As a member, I received the list of many hundred Italian members.  I settled on three wonderful hosts and had a fabulous experience in Northern Italy. 

Teresa and Eugenio outside Lake Como helped me plan the trip, figure out train options and schedules, and even picked me up at the train station. They explained Italian meals and great foods, and we shared recipes.  When it was rainy they suggested popping down to Milano for the day- which was sunny and beautiful as ever. I found a piano concert and questioned why I had deprived myself of this beautiful classical music while in Georgia.  It was my own fault, but hearing Bach made me realize how much I had missed it. 

And best, they introduced me to the Green Way del Lago di Como, a fabulous 15 km hike in and out of the small hillside villages on the lake.  It was a fabulous way to experience the rich history and culture of the area - one that you can't find in a travel brochure.  

I also experienced the diversity of the local towns and heard their thoughts on the refugees coming in to Como, religion, environmental issues, etc.  When I insisted on taking them to dinner my last night, they suggested a fabulous place on top of the mountain, arriving by funicular.  It was fabulous and I never would have discovered on my own. 

Of course I shared my experiences in Georgia, the people and attitudes and their kindness toward me.  But I was also asked a litany of questions about America.  Being gone for 27 months, it was hard to answer queries about mass shootings, pedophiles, Trump, and the European trade agreement. It still is!  The best part was I gained some new friends that have touched me so much, to hopefully make me a better person by their example.  

Next I was visiting Angela from Colle di Val d'Elsa, small medieval town near Siena.  It was good to see a real community that was also an ancient fortress. It was lovely to roam around, nice and quiet, and then visit Siena the next day with Duomo, floor mosiacs,  and fabulous tourist attractions. 

This was the view from my window in Colle di Val d'Elsa!
 It was crying to be painted.

Siena

My lovely hostess is an avid reader

Finally, another member invited me not to her Milano home, but her 'summer home' on the coast.  I couldn't find it on the map, but it was just north of Cinque Terre.  What a treat I discovered, with beautiful coast, swimming, lovely postcard towns, but no tourists!  Eugenia was ready to have some summer fun.  We had a dinner party with such interesting people, of all professions. They even commented what a group of famous people they had assembled- an author, chef, geologist and professional comic creator! Of course it was over my head since my Italian lessons stopped after my Roman study abroad many years ago (lungo tempo fa!) But I did learn to appreciate and even like anchovies, which appear to be the specialty of this region.  We had them prepared 4 separate ways.  The good wine added to the festivities.  

Swimming was exciting, especially the 'private beach' we rappelled into. :-) And the hikes were magnificent.  AND NO TOURISTS.

        

This is where I got lost trying to find the
right cove to swim back to.

Our secret beach

 

I also visited an American who was renovating an old olive press building, into her home. 

On a different level, my Italian Servas hosts led me on a spiritual journey.  As fellow Catholics we discussed and I appreciated their insights.  We discussed Pope Francis,  the Francis Way pilgrimage  and religious meditations. One woman was an avid reader of Pope Benedict and made me promise to read one of his books.  

It was an incredible week, with wonderful, kind, strong people, and beautiful nature and history thrown in as an added benefit.  I will continue with Servas in the US, hosting and travelling more I hope once I get settled.  I am sold! 

Find out more about Servas at www.servas.org.

DVV supporting Life Long Learning in Georgia

I will soon wrap up my second and final year in the Georgia Peace Corps, and feel very fortunate to have been assigned to the Koda Community Education Center (CEC).  The Koda settlement is a former Soviet military base, renovated to house just 1500 of  the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from the war with Russia in South Ossetia in 2008.

This Center, which was founded and is supported by DVV, the Institute for International Cooperation of the German Adult Education Association, aims to help the IDPs as well as the local residents. DVV operates nationally and internationally, cooperating for over 45 years with 200 state, civil society and university partner organizations engaged in adult education in 30 countries throughout the world.  I would like to share more about DVV, its new Network of Centers (GAEN) and my evolving thoughts on their goals and successes.

DVV International

DVV's work focuses on literacy and basic education, vocational training, global and intercultural learning, environmental education and sustainable development, migration and integration, refugee work, health education, conflict prevention and democracy education. In all this it advocates for the human right to education and for lifelong learning.

It has been an honor to work with this institution which began in the 1960s with training seminars for African adult educators in the German Adult Education Centers. In 1963 it began its work in Latin America,  then Costa Rica, and Columbia. In 1977 it opened support for Asia. And in 1990 it began work in Central and Eastern Europe.  The Guiding Principles:

- Guidance and skills training are an integral part of lifelong learning;

- Adult education has emancipatory importance for social and individual development;

- History and culture play an important part in determining aims, content, forms and methods;

- There is a moral basis for solidarity with people's struggle for development in partner countries;

- Our aim is to set objective goals in cooperation with our partners.

DVV in Georgia and Koda

"The educational content of our work focuses on basic education, environmental education and democratization. We pay particular attention to the aims of combating poverty, promoting the advancement of women, and strengthening self-help."

I personally have witnessed the ability of DVV to network and connect our KODA CEC with donors and potential partners from around the world:  groups that support women, vocational education,  civil society and youth programs. One of my personal favorites was working with partners to support  consumer credit consulting and training initiatives,  supported by Sparkassenstiftung, the German Savings Bank.

GAEN (Georgian Adult Education Network) 

DVV works toward sustainability. Each year it opens new centers across Georgia, and challenges the existing ones to continue their good work,  through more of their own funding sources.  DVV sets up and initially funds an advisory network association that mentors, trains, leads, and fund raises for all the country's Centers, capitalizing on their economy of scale and strength in numbers.  GAEN is currently a network of 8 DVV Centers across Georgia which supports the Centers from a strategic planning level, all the way down to tactical management support.  Its value can not be underestimated as the Centers continue to develop into high functioning assets for their communities.  

Adult culinary course in North Carolina

Khatia Tsiramua, former Koda CEC 
Director and founder and current GAEN Director

   

"It’s Never too Late to Learn!”was one project GAEN successfully completed last year.  Many of the embassies located in Georgia  displayed photos both of their home countries and of Georgia highlighting their activities supporting adult non-formal education. Even North Carolina State,  a  US  leader in adult education through its 58 Community Colleges, was represented. 

GAEN is also leading a very powerful Gender awareness project. This 18 month project has engaged 14 communities in the country. The focus is awareness of domestic violence, financial discrimination in the family, selective abortions and youth marriages. 

         

My Evolving Attitude

As a basic student of American idealism and pragmatism, I came to the Center focused on vocational education, and was delighted to learn that its founder was determined to support non-formal adult education. I can appreciate and support this basic education, helping to get people back on their feet with vocational training, and of course sustainable development, as well as the other lofty goals. However, I was struggling with the objective of enabling lifelong learning, and a specific project that was kicked off in many Georgian locations including Koda, focusing on lifelong learning for older residents. 

"Active for Life," funded by the EU, addresses learning by 60+ year old beneficiaries for personal development.  It included sharing music, literature, cooking, and photography.  Two popular elements of the program were the weekly visits by a psychologist and doctor.

Final group meeting with Psychologist Etuna

The Koda IDP settlement has many issues. Being in existence for eight years now, it still struggles with decent drinking water, limited, scheduled non-potable water supply for the apartments, poor soil and very limited irrigation for the small farm plots of these former agrarian neighbors, There is also high unemployment.   I could see a lot of needs in the settlement and the town as well where outside funding would help fix more pressing problems than learning just for learning sake -or so I thought.  So at first I was suspicious of this project.

Remembering and sharing 
old folk songs

One of the advantages of being a Peace Corps volunteer is that life slows down, if you let it.  Life can be simple. It is tiring attempting to understand local TV or movies. It is hard to continue with US hobbies, difficult to exercise. Time allows one the luxury to experience changes in attitudes, and Peace Corps allows us, no encourages us, to have the flexibility to change, even for us mature folks. Time allows us to challenge some basic, long held attitudes.  So I was mentally available to watch the outcome of the project and the gradual transition of the participants.   As the project continued, I could see a more positive attitude among the participants.  Those who were not as engaged in the community came forward with a heightened interest, seemed to become more friendly, relaxed and happy, less worried.  This feeling was contagious, and could be  replicated in their children, and grandchildren. 

As I pondered these changes, occurring during this program I was reminded of Maslow’s Hierarchy. His 1943 Theory of Human Motivation, studied in everyone’s college Psychology 101 class, suggests that the most basic level of needs must be met before the individual will strongly desire (or focus motivation upon) the secondary or higher level needs.

I would also like to mention  that in his later works he stated that the self only finds its actualization in giving itself to some higher goal outside oneself, in altruism and spirituality.

 Applying Maslow's Hierarchy to the Koda experience and the world of refugees, whether internally displaced or otherwise, we must remember that basic safety comes first.   When the Center first opened it helped to bring people out of their apartments and helped them overcome some of the initial fear since their abrupt and life changing ejection from S. Ossetia.  As time went on they were able to address higher level needs and wants. 

I assumed the most important thing I could do here was to teach people how  "to fish“ - how to get on with their lives through financial stability - jobs and new livelihoods.  But how can they have motivation to be creative and change careers as well as everything else they had known, to realize their full potential ( level 5) when they were still worrying about the stability of their housing, safety, healthcare,etc. (level 1 & 2)?

 

Life Long Learning 

The "Active for Life" program helped the participants regain some of their motivation. They felt more in control of their future and in regaining their self confidence. Near the end of the project, they had a performance in Tbilisi, at a local theater.  In the production, the participants played roles as if they were trying out for an international festival about to occur in Europe. They auditioned by song, dance and poetry.  It was delightful!

I see the change in my people here in Koda.  I see the renewed optimism. I see the motivation to get on with their lives.  After 8 years here, they are building garages, farming huts for livestock, gardens, stores and other businesses.  But without their basic level of needs satisfied, they would not be moving forward.  And I believe that DVV's focus on this personal development is as important as all their other goals.  Lali Santeladze, the Country Director for DVV, believes that the success of DVV here in Georgia is best demonstrated by that attribute most difficult to quantify, the changed attitude and spirit of its beneficiaries. And I have seen the success of this spirited motivation on a daily basis in Koda.   It has been a pleasure to serve with these good people at DVV and Koda Community Education Center, and I know they will continue to serve their community well. 

What's a project without a supra!

Madona, our Koda director, enjoying
her successful project!

Poems and Speeches

me... and my ladies