Life on the Georgia Front

Well there is a lot to talk about since the last update. We have been to a couple of pretty amazing places and learned were we are going to be placed for the next two years and I have received my first stomach parasite. First things first, we went on our cultural exchange trip to Kazbegi which is a small town in the high Caucus Mountains 10 km from the Russian/ Chechen boarder. The whole point of this trip was to prove that we have learned enough Georgian by this point to get around Georgia, but we instead proved that we in fact do not know enough Georgian to get around Georgia, but Colleen our Russian Language expert we knew enough Russian to get around Georgia ( some of you my be thinking, “I thought Martha graduated from college with a degree in Russian?” I will remind you that I graduated with a degree in Russian literature, and only two years of actual language class does not go that far). We took several modes of transport all of them scary, but fast. The Russians will not be attacking the Georgians anytime soon along the highway that we took unless it is going to be a slow moving assault or in an old rickety marshutka. The road is awful a mixture of totally unpaved, matched with giant rocks, and roaming cows that seem to hang out around blind corners and on bridges.
Kazbegi is an absolutely gorgeous town surrounded by high mountains on all sides. One of the hills is punctuated by a 12th century church called Stepansminda which is atop a steep hill. I made the mistake of going with Brian and Colleen who are super athletes and basically sprinted up the mountain. It was so beautiful at the top. See attached panorama. As a reread my journal entry from the trip I am reminded of my initial impression of Kazbegi: I half expected a unicorn to come prancing across the wildflower covered field or an elf come across the moor. The mountains were a beautiful mix of craggy rocks and rolling green hills which were covered with clover, grasses and thousands of wildflowers. All of this was highlighted by Mount Kazbeg; a 16,000 foot beast which we may or may not have seen. I have failed to mention that it was a little overcast on the day that we were up there and even this was unable to mar the beauty, it did, however, mar the view of Mount Kazbeg. All and all it was a an amazing trip and a great escape from the day to day trainings and language classes.
The picture at left is Alexander Kazbeg looking at the mountains in the city center of Kazbegi. The town interestingly enough is not named after this famous author, but his grandfather who was the toll booth operator in the area. Go figure.
Now the news that you all have been waiting for: we’re going to Terjola. I know that doesn’t mean anything to most people, as it meant nothing to us when we first found out, but now we have been there and it has made a special dent in our hearts. Terjola is quite possible the most ideally located city in which we could have been placed it is about 2 hours from the black sea and 2.5 hours from Tbilisi and 1.5 hours from the mountains and 20 minutes from Kutaisi, Georgia’s second largest city and it’s many internet cafes. It is a nice looking town, but doesn’t have the same aesthetic appeal as our current village. The schools are both very nice and the directors, counterparts and parents all seem to be on board with the peace corps program and teaching ideas. There is a really nice youth center and the schools should both have internet by the end of the year. Julien and I have been informed that one of the things that the schools need is for someone to teach them how to use the computers that they have, which sounds like a good idea except that to me a computer is nothing more than a glorified typewriter/ email machine with picture and music storage capabilities. Hopefully they are not expecting a computer wiz or maybe someone should send over some Oregon Trail or Where in the world is Carmen San Diego?, so that I can teach them how to use the computer the way I learned back in elementary school. We visited Gelati, which was the church of Kind David the Builder. This was a beautiful church filled with amazing frescoes and mosaics. The interesting thing about the Georgian Orthodox Church is that because Georgia has been an Orthodox country for so long there national history is very closely tied to the history of the Church. This was very evident at the church of Kind David the Builder. The frescoes inside the church illustrated a combination of bible stories and historical events. The famous kings of Georgia were depicted along with the saints, halos and all. Every inch of every wall is painted in exquisite detail with beautiful colors which were imported from all over the region and as far away as Afghanistan. The church was partially destroyed by the Turks at one point. Apparently, the Turks came at some point and stole the stone roof and fashioned the stone into bullets which, to ad insult to injury, the Turks then used to shoot at the Georgians. On this same site was also a place that was translated to us as an Academia so David the Builder was a busy guy. Well that is it for the time being if anyone has any questions or would like some clarifications please drop me a line.