Latest Update

Georgia update: The Russians continue to be two-faced liars. If you think 'pullout' means 'take more territory and put in more troops,' then Ё* **** м**** [looks like those Russian lessons are coming in handy! Those of you who don't speak Russian, don't try to look it up.]. Russia moved short-range ground-to-ground missiles into Tskhinvali, mainly to menace Tbilisi with a direct reprisal weapon. They also put in more SAM sites, and there are verified reports of Russians mining georgian military installations. Awesome. Ossetians took more territory, by occupying the village of Akhalgori, which is about 25 miles from Tbilisi, and apparently have no intention of giving it back. There simply isn't a pullout now, and it doesn't look likely in the near future. The situation is getting even worse for the refugeee crisis, as there are at least 80,000 IDPs (internally displaced persons) who are in refugee sites across Georgia, often with food insecurity, bad sanitation, and a general lack of hope as to when they can return to what remains of their homes. Transportation continues to be impeded by the Russian checkpoints, and international aid workers have been carjacke at gunpoint by Ossetian irregulars - in front of Russian troops, who apparently found the whole thing hilarious. Indeed. There are also reports that the Russians have had to dig mass graves, as there is no one to process the corpses. The Georgian Orthodox Church attempted to send a team in to South Ossetia to help with the processing, but was overwhelmed with the sheer number of fatalities. Russia continues to be Russia, with all that it implies. Additionally, there's been unconfirmed reports that the Russians are moving towards Borjomi.

Enough of the overall situation - time for me to be selfish.

Well, Carissa and I are learning to wait. That's it, be positive. Yes! Life lessons! Good feelings! Ha!

Basically, we're in a holding pattern until the Peace Corps decides to COS (close of service) us. We're going over resume/interview skills, our Description of Service (which I actually should be working on now, instead of writing this!), and our closing physical. And then, on top of that big pile of fun, is a ton of paperwork. As of now, we're thinking that the COS will take place at or before September 1 - so we'll probably have a date when our service officially ends. There's still uncertainty as to where we'll end up. I may be able to get a job in Georgia helping to manage the relief efforts, or we may go back to SD. I'm going to have to reschedule my GMAT, probably for when/if we get back to America, but we still intend to apply this fall to grad schools, for the next school year term.

I'll let everyone know when we have an idea of what we're going to do, with concrete dates. We're still anticipating our COS date around Sept. 1, but don't know for sure. We're thinking that at the very least, we're going to take cash in lieu, and potentially go back to Akh to pack up some f our things that we really still need (a single bag doesn't get you that far in re-establishing normal life!) and then heading back to the States through Turkey.

As to the question of how we got the one bag we have... Mark and Lisa, our friends from Zugdidi, had their kids in Georgia right before all of this went down. 2 of them went home the day before, and 1, Drew, stayed with the intention of meeting his girlfriend and traveling around Georgia. Well, then the Russians invaded, and everything went to crap. Drew ended up consolidated with us in Bakuriani (before the Tbilisi people came) and was trying to figure out what to do. He eventually decided to go to Turkey, which meant that he had to go south through our town. Carissa and I had begged the PC to let us go back to our site and pack up, but never got the clearance. Then, Drew, our hero, offered to swing by our house and pack a bag for us on his way to Turkey. Despite knowing no Georgian, he got to our house, communicated with our host father Merab, and packed up a single bag. Which is why I now have 3 pairs of boxers, 4 shirts, a pair of dress pants, and a pair of shorts. He also got us our credit cards and my passport, which turned out to be important. Ha!

He gave the bag to Merab, and the Peace Corps was gracious enough to stop the buses we were on for 4 minutes on the bridge in Akh to let us grab the bag from him. Our neighbor Gio showed up in his white Lada (which for me, forever now, will be called the Lada of Justice), Merab hopped out, handed us the bag, gave us back our house key, and said that he'd see us in a few days.

I guess that part of what's making this experience so hard is that we never got a chance to say goodbye to the people who have been so very important to us over this last year. My coworkers, the univerity students, and most importantly, our host family. Merab and Inga have been absolutely the warmest and most generous people possible to us, and we will never forget their graciousnes in opening their home to strangers, and making a real effort to include us in their lives. Our real desire in going back is to get real 'closure' (ha!) with them - it's not about the stuff, it's about the relationships that have been so suddenly severed. If I was at home when all of this went down, it'd would be different. But I wasn't, and neither was Carissa. So we're stuck in this wierd state, which neither of us enjoy, where planning is waiting, and waiting is the plan.