Visiting the Police

Visiting the Police

A few days ago we had a visit to our regional police chief. This entailed gathering all the volunteers together from our region and trekking to the regional police headquarters, conveniently located in Akhaltsikhe (sorry Ryder – hope the 2.5 hour marsh ride wasn’t too bad). The local police chiefs also attended – Borjomi, Akhaltiskhe, Ninotsminda – so it was quite the gathering.

Our PC Country Director introduced herself, the Peace Corps, and the various volunteers, then got down to business about crime in our region. Two observations quickly emerged:
1) We are in an incredibly low crime area of Georgia. And when crimes do occur, they are solved very quickly. It’s a testament to the effectiveness of the local police, and it is very, very reassuring.
2) We were informed of the greatest threats to volunteer safety, according to the police, in our region. The biggest worry for us/the police?


Bears and wolves.


I kid you not. Bears. And. Wolves. At this point in the meeting, everyone sort of smiles, and then the regional director repeats it, in a serious voice. No, to answer your question, it is not a joke. Our region is extremely rural, and houses one of the largest nature preserves in Europe. Hence, large predators. We laughed when we read in the Lonely Planet guide about the author fleeing from wolves on horseback. Suddenly, the laughing stops…

Normally, you can throw your wallet to a mugger and just sort of walk away, confident that they just wanted the money. However, it is difficult to throw a hunk of your thigh to a hungry 700 pound predator and casually walk away. The motivations are just different. Both want a piece of you. One just wants a literal piece of you. In the immortal words of Stephen Colbert, “Bears: Godless killing machines.”

This sort of curtails the desire to wander aimlessly about in the woods by oneself.