I should be going to bed after two consecutive birthday supras, but I’ve got Al Green filling the space in between my headphones, so I’ll put down what I can before falling into bed. Plus I feel obliged since it’s been awhile since my last post.

The last weeks of PST culminated into an amalgamation of craziness, sad goodbyes, and bright, but uncertain futures. A big rainstorm/flood hit the Telavi area last Wednesday night, leaving houses without roofs, families without crops, and a loss of hope. It doesn’t help that Telavi has been under construction for awhile, making the situation a little bit harder to cope with. But the Georgian people are strong, and I have faith in their ability to get back on the figurative horse and ride on.

My family’s crops in Atskuri weren’t badly damaged, lucky for them, but many of my fellow volunteers’ families lost everything: it looked as if someone stripped the grapevines of their fruits and the wind pushed these houses down the hill, unconcerned with the effects. But many people have volunteered to help with the damages and have been working night and day to get electricity, gas, and water running back through the city.

The Farewell Dinner took place at Chateau Mere. I was happy to spend the last night with my new volunteers, though it didn’t seem like the next day we’d be leaving for Tbilisi for the Swearing-In Ceremony and to our new homes. Low and behold, we all boarded the marshutkas as early as 6:30AM and headed to the capital on Friday morning for the big day. So much traveling happened on Friday, I have spent 15 of the last 48 hours sleeping. Maybe more, but it’s been nice to not have my alarm going off at 7 in the morning. Or going off at all for that matter.

There should be more pictures to accompany this post, but I’ve been slacking immensely, and will be posting more here soon from my new site in Ambrolauri. It’s been nice to have some time to myself, to reacquaint myself with freedom (or boredom). It’s also been great to meet new people, integrate myself into the new community, and be surrounded by Racha’s mountainous landscape. I can’t wait for school to start and to begin work.

But for now, it’s time to catch up on my reading, to reply to the emails that have fallen to the bottom of my inbox, and to do something for myself. Also, I need to figure out the logistics for the upcoming summer camp, hoping that some of the kids would be interested in camping for a night or two up in the woods. I need to work on my nature vocabulary, too, I suppose.

It feels good to be an official Peace Corps Volunteer. The hard work as paid off (from PST), and now the marathon has begun. I’m ready, I’ll take my mark, and get set to go.