Ramblin Rose and Georgia

Me and Lisa hanging out in the IRC...



Katherine under my village sign on our way to Madina, Hector's village.



Katherine, me, and Khashayar on our way to eat lunch in Yerevan.



Khashayar waiting to have his first bite of Mexican food. We joke because he looks Mexican.



Niko, from Turkey; Katherine, PCV in Moldova; Lauren, PCV in Georgia; Me, PCV in Armenia; Eka and Avto, from Georgia, eating at an Italian restaurant. Excellent way to spend my 12 hours in Georgia...

I don’t know what happened really in the last week. It went by all too fast. Mike came to my village because he was on spring break. Actually there was a bit of miscommunication and he left his village when he was not, in fact, on spring break. The previous week he went to Georgia when he thought school was regularly in session and then thought he would come to my village during his real spring break. Turns out that is not the case and he came to my village when he was not on spring break thinking that he was. His school director called him and asked where he was... Mike was confused by that question.

Mike stayed in my house for probably a solid 48 hours. When I went to school he stayed at the house. Easy for me to entertain. I think he just wanted some away time to relax. Sometimes Yerevan doesn’t offer that and its better just to hide away in another volunteer’s place. Much more relaxing.

We did end up going to Martuni one night and we made “burritos” which was good. The following day, Mike and I woke up early and we headed to Yerevan. There we met with Khashi and had lunch with him. He is such an interesting guy. Like I have said before, we usually talk about politics and about media, people. This time he talked about Gaddafi and although he didn’t agree with all the things he has done, he still gave a differing opinion about the matters over there. Everything that is posted in the US media is not exactly right. He reads various news sources and compares them with those written in Iran but still does what he can to be critical about what is written. He believes and still gets frustrated in knowing that there is no truly neutral news source and that everyone has their own agenda. He goes back to the point about people being people.

He brought up a man in Iran who has been protesting things about the Iranian government. I feel in my lifetime, I have not really seen people riot or become truly upset about what their government has done or is not doing. I only hear second hand about those who opposed the Vietnam War, and gas prices, etc, but that was almost 50 years ago. I am reading “People’s history of the United States” right now and there was an interested exert in there from Thomas Jefferson. He said that riots and uprisings are necessary to keep a sound government, and these uprisings need not to happen every 20 years, but more frequently. Without frequency, people become stagnant and complacent. Anyway, my point in saying this is that I don’t know what its like to truly be that dissatisfied with something to start a riot about it.

I asked Khashi why this guy still does what he does even though he has spent so much time in prison. In the true Khashi way he said this: This man loves his people and this man wants to see a change. Imagine you were dating a girl and you loved her and you made love with her but her parents hated you. Would you stop loving her because it was not convenient for you? So, what Khashi was trying to say is that people are people and if people could concentrate on their similarities, the world would probably be a better place.

After that, we went to hang out with Jason at the park for a little while. We watched him eat lunch. Then Mike and I went to the bus stop where I waited for Katherine who was coming from Tbilisi. Katherine is the same girl who I traveled to the Balkans last summer. She had ten vacation days so she got a flight to Georgia and spent 4 days there and then wanted to come to Armenia for the remaining time she had. “Ramblin Rose” is a term coined by Michael. Not exactly sure why...

I picked her up and we went into town and got something to eat then came to my village. We got back around 8ish and we just hung out with Grandma. Katherine hadn’t taken a shower so she wanted to take one. I have not taken a shower at the house since we sold our shower so I didn’t know how to go about it. So, I said that I wanted to learn too. Grandma was in the bathroom with Katherine and told me to get out. It was similar to my PST story when my host Dad was teaching me how to bucket bath and I thought I was supposed to get undressed in front of me. As soon as I started taking off my shirt, he ran out. Same thing happened with Katherine and Grandma.

The next day we went to school and I showed her what was going on there and then we walked around the village. We just took it easy that day. The following day we went to Madina and hung out there. It was raining so we took the bus. That was fun because we got to hang out with Hector’s family. We walked around the whole town trying to find an open store before we finally found one. We wanted to bring something for his family.

The next day, we went to Jason’s to hang out. They made proper burritos which were really good. We hung out and went to a place to hang out. Then we came home and went to bed, getting ready for the long ride up to Tbilisi. Khashi came out to hang out with us, so that was really fun too. This time we talked about people interacting with other people. One of the things that he pointed out was “to be a stranger, you are only isolating yourself.” I wish I could remember what the context was. I think we were talking about not getting to know someone just because they are from another country, or religion, or idea.

The next day, we got some food at the store and made our way to the bus stop. We didn’t wait long there before we left. The bus wasn’t packed which was nice and we made our way to Georgia. We got to the border and just like every time, I held up the line. Three year visas are a rarity, so anytime they see that I have a three year visa, they think its a fake and they have to leave the booth and ask one of their supervisors about it and then I get drilled a million questions. Once I start speaking Armenian and explain to them that I live in their country, usually things are fine. Aggravating nonetheless because the American is holding up the only line they have for passport control. Sweet.

It was a short hour from the border to Tbilisi. We got to the hostel and then went to McDonald’s to eat lunch. We were joking that I should send a letter to McDonald’s saying that I traveled 7 hours just to go to a McDonald’s. The best part was when Katherine tried to order her food. She said that the last time she went to a fast food restaurant was several years ago and hadn’t been to a McDonald’s since she was 6 or 7. She had no idea what to order. Best thing about that place is that you say “Big Mac Menu” wherever you are in the world and they know what you’re talking about. You see the amount you need to pay on the screen and give them the correct amount. Done. Not with Katherine. She said “Big Mac Menu” and then wanted to substitute the drink for a chocolate milkshake. She had to make things complicating, which totally confused the guy. That was funny to watch. I got tired of watching and left to sit down. Katherine eventually showed up.

We went back to the hostel and rested a bit and waited for Lauren to show up. We composed ourselves and then left to eat dinner. We called Avto, one of my Georgian friends, and he met us at this Italian restaurant. A Turkish guy named Niko came with us. Interesting guy. Since I ate a McDonald’s burger I got a salad and wine. Georgian wine is pretty good. We ate that and then the people at the restaurant kept bringing us homemade vodka. Ah geez. I was feeling that by the time we left. So we went to a coffee house to talk. It was really interesting talking to Avto and his girlfriend Eka about politics. Avto knows what is going on in this region pretty well as he is a journalist writing for a major magazine in Georgia which covers foreign affairs. He is 20. Yes, amazing. He signed a magazine and gave it to me.

We started talking about the differences between Armenia and Georgia. I asked how things could be so different between Armenia and Georgia, and it clearly is. It boiled down to one man. Mikheil Saakashvili. The president of Georgia. This man got rid of corruption from the police by firing every policeman and rehiring those who were fair. He got rid of the oligarchs. He is making a change for the school system. He separated Georgia from Russia making English the primary, second language to learn. He led a movement to make it cool to study and be educated rather than being rebellious. I know he did not do all these things on his own, but he sure had a huge hand in it. He let his people know that times would be rough for a short while when he started this movement, but that it would become better. And it has. It was great seeing Lauren, Katherine, Avto, Eka, and our new Turkish friend, Niko. After we finished at the coffee house, we said our goodbyes to Avto and Eka and headed back to the hostel. There we talked for a little bit and then fell asleep.

Katherine’s flight was at 7:50am so she got up at 5am, got ready and left. Lauren and I got up a little later and went to a place to have breakfast and then went to the bus station. We went to get coffee while waiting an hour for the bus leave. The ride back was pretty fast. The bus was full but was only carrying 8 people so we got back to the Yerevan in about 5 and a half hours which was great. Again at the border, the border guards assumed I was a tourist and said that I needed to go and stand in the visa line when I finally got them to look inside my visa and see that I already had one. Then again with the questioning of why I had a three year visa. When I told them I was a volunteer teaching in the village, they basically rolled out a red carpet for me to step into the Republic of Armenia. The border guards were super nice.

It was weird driving back because after I said goodbye to Lauren and Katherine, I realized the next time I would see them would be in the States. I have managed to see them about every six months since I met them last March in Ukraine. It isn’t just that, but it is the ending of my service. The snow is melting and people are starting to leave. I learned yesterday that my roommate from Staging in Philadelphia is leaving next week. One of my site mates is leaving in a month. People are starting to get ready to go home. Its hard to say that I am ready to leave, because Im not. I finally figured things out here and I am forward enough to say that I really am living the dream. It is wonderful. This medical school thing better be worth it, because I am giving up this to do that... At the same time, all good things come to an end. I will go ahead and warm readers that probably from this post onward, there will be some kind of nostalgic phrasing I will use.

Getting back to work has been tough. Tomorrow, my school director said that we are going to Martuni together to bring back everything. The hand driers and the receipt for the windows which I need to close my grant. Really excited about that. On Friday, I am going into Yerevan to see Aida with Mike and Khashi. Should be interesting.

Overall, its been a really nice week. One of those worth writing about. The spring is coming. I didn’t say it was here, but its coming.

Until next time...