I apologize for the lateness of this post. A lot has happened since folks last heard from me. Let's try to take this in order.

First of all, we left Bazaleti...

We have essentially had a week of orientation and it is coming to a close. Later today we take the next big step as trainees when we head to Gori and meet our first host family. Up to now we have been living together in a single compound, but now we will be separated into smaller groups called clusters. Where those in the same cluster will be near each other, we'll be living with separate families for the next eleven weeks. Assuming all goes well, we will then transition to our permanent sites and host families.

Peace Corps starts you learning the language and culture of your host country fast. Right now I'm still in orientation, so the lessons have been relatively light, just a couple hours a day in class, but it will ramp up soon enough. Despite the limited exposure, I wanted to share some things I picked up. 

Shortly after landing we were greeted by Peace Corp personnel, who directed us through the check point for passports and visas. Just down the stairs from that were we met by more Peace Corps personnel, including Tengiz (Tengo) Gogotishvili, who we would soon learn is our training manager and quite the character.

Fifty-eight volunteers gathered in Washington, D.C.. Most of us were fresh out of college or nearly so. Some were much older. It was a bit strange to be in the older half, but I am certainly not the oldest.