Wow!

Well, I'm here in Gori. It's been quite a ride... first of all, a quick note: this blog in no way represents US gov't policy, or peace corps policies or positions in any way. It is solely the personal views of Brenden and Carissa, and is in no way connected or officially sponsored by the peace corps or any agency of the us government.

Important disclaimer - pc (peace corps) policy is very strict regarding blog content, so please publish comments with care.

we've been in country a little over a week now. Like I told all of you before we left, it is very different... :-)

We live in a 1 bedroom apartment with a host father, mother, and 2 kids (ages 2 and 6). It's a little tight, but good in general. They've very nice people, and the mother speaks some english (she teaches english at the local school, so her grammar is excellent but the pronounciation sometimes is a little off). our host father owns 4 trucks, so he's around quite a bit as his drivers are all off hauling cargo.

****notice; the following information is probably pretty gross, so read with care****

We actually have a real toilet. it's beyond awesome to have a clean bathroom... we're on the every other other day shower schedule, which is going to take some getting used to. I haven't showered since Thursday, and I'm looking forward to my shower tonight more than I was looking forward to the new harry potter book. Plus, the water is heated, which is a huge bonus. I don't know where the tap water comes from, but it is COLD - 45 or 50 degrees out of the tap. Washing your face with water that cold is brutal.

We got to school at svengali state university, which is nice. With the huge, huge, exception of the bathroom situation. I'm not sure how many of you have seen "robin hood: prince of thieves" with kevin costner (no one needs to admit it, I know there's a lot of shame there), but there's one scene where robin hood (kevin costner) is in a turkish prision. Take that prison, and make it dirty. If you've seen the movie, you know what I mean. You haven't lived till you've been dry heaving while taking a piss.

I've lived.

The good news is that new ones are being built, which should be beyond awesome.

Also, on the mechanics of the squatter: pant legs roll up, pant tops roll down, everything stays at the knee level. Aim and hope for the best. Attempt to not vomit from the smell. I have a pretty strong ability to power through smell, but this is bad enough to the point that you're physically tasting it. Beyond vile...


*** end gross section *****

We've got 10 weeks to get to the intermediate low level in georgian, or we get put on probation and potentially sent home. To put that into perspective, intermediate low usually takes a year and a half in college. There's a lot of pressure, and the schedule is very tight. Everyone is praying to not get sick, because missing a single class would put you 4 hours behind of official class time and another 3 of study. You CANNOT miss class - it's a huge deal. We're hoping to stay well and keep powering through it.

Georgian is a tough language. 33 letters, and 5 vowels; the last 10 or so letters are very similar in sound, so it's difficult, plus there's some sounds that are not in english which are very dificult for an english speaker to say. It's going to be a lot of work.

Gori is a pretty city, but not terribly large - we're looking forward to exploring it a bit more.

We miss you all! Post to the comments if you have any questions... we'll probably be able to post again in about a week.

Fun Georgia fact of the day: No tape worms, but a ton of Hep A and Hep B in the water!