Summer Madness

What's been going on for the past three and a half months? So glad you asked! School ended, my mom visited Georgia, I explored Croatia and Armenia, and I ran a boys' leadership camp. This post will be picture-heavy - rejoice!

Graduation in Georgia is known as bolo zari, or last bell, and it occurs almost a month before the rest of school finishes. Each senior rings the school bell, signaling the end of his or her high school career. The seniors wear white shirts that students, teachers, parents, and anyone else who happens to be around sign. Last bell is also a smaller ceremony for the first graders, who end school at the same time as the seniors. Our last bell consisted of song and dance for about two hours followed by a supra for the teachers. Our town priest also joined in on the supra and threw back shots of cognac like it was the 11th Commandment. 

Some of my 1st graders

Shirt signing

The class of 2015

My host brother giving a fervent toast

Dance party for everyone at the end

A couple weeks after last bell was the senior banquet, which is similar to the American prom. Only the school director and 3-4 teachers are invited each year, but being the awesome teacher that I am, I was of course one of the lucky invitees. The teachers and I left around midnight, but the kids stayed until around 4am. 

Saturday, June 6 was "America Day" in Tbilisi. Many American and international organizations had booths and tents set up; naturally, I was at the Peace Corps tent all day. We had balloon animals, face painting, frisbee, and football. It was a great day hanging out with staff and volunteers. Ambassador Norland even stopped by for a bit with the Georgian ambassador to America. 

Peace Corps tent

My awesome Abe Lincoln tattoo

My program director's daughter in some high balloon fashion

The last day of school was officially June 15, and my mom arrived in Georgia right after that. We did a lot of exploring all over Georgia and had an awesome time. It was really great to see her after being in Georgia for a little over a year.

Ananuri fortress

At Stalin's childhood home

Uplistsikhe, ancient cave city inhabited from ~500 B.C. to the 14th century

Romanov summer palace

Rabati Castle complex and Ottoman mosque

Vardzia, 12th century cave monastery inhabited until the 16th century

Meeting Peace Corps friends

Hanging with the host family back in Pasanauri

Road up to Tusheti, a remote region in northeast Georgia bordering Chechnya and Dagestan

On top of the world

In Tusheti with my friend Angela and her dad

Learning how to make khinkali

Village of Dartlo

Wine tour in Kakheti region

16th century Gremi church and fortress

David Gareja, 6th century cave monastery on the border with Azerbaijan

Georgian side

Looking out over Azerbaijan

Shortly after my mom left, I went with some friends to attend Ultra Music Festival in Split, Croatia. The three day concert was amazing, as was the rest of the country.

The Ultra crew

Team America in Croatia

Filling up the stadium

Sunsets on the Dalmatian coast

Supetar, Brač Island

Plitvice Lakes National Park

The beginning of our ~20 kilometer hike around the national park

Croatian National Theater in Zagreb

Jelačić Square

Zagreb Cathedral

Interesting displays and descriptions of objects left by former lovers 

You can walk around the museum with a beer

One of the sadder items. "May 24, 2006 - May 23, 2011. Sao Paulo, Brazil. I'm a writer and I married my favorite editor. This bouquet was made from strips of paper by one of the two witnesses (and best man) at our wedding, who is also an editor. Our marriage was over on the eve of our 5th anniversary when I found out he was cheating on me and writing details about it to a group of our friends, who supported him. One of them was my best friend Emilio who had once written a novel with me. Guess this is what it means to be hurt by a paper cut." 

One of the funnier displays. "2006 - 2010. Denver, Colorado. When I moved out, and across the country, I took the toaster. That'll show you. How are you going to toast anything now?"

St. Mark's Church

Three days after I got back to Georgia, I hopped on a van with Angela and arrived in Yerevan, Armenia a quick four and a half hours later. We stayed in Yerevan for four nights, doing day trips from the city each day. Similar to Georgia, the overarching theme of our trip was "Churches and Monasteries."

Our first day we explored Yerevan and then took a 20 minute taxi out to Echmiadzin, the ancient capital of Armenia and home to Armenia's holiest cathedral.

The Opera House

Park and the Cascade

The Cascade with various art and sculptures on each level

15 mouths for the 15 Soviet Socialist Republics

View from the top of the Cascade with Mt. Ararat in the background

Church of the Holy Archangels in Echmiadzin

St. Vartan Baptistery

Echmiadzin Cathedral, unfortunately under major renovation

9th century Sevanavank Monastery on Lake Sevan. A strict monastery for monks who had sinned

The two churches of the monastery

9th century Hayravank Monastery, also on Lake Sevan

Noratus Cemetary. The oldest khachkars (cross-stones) date back to the 10th century

Geghard Monastery, built into the adjacent mountain

Rock-cut chamber

1st century Garni Temple, reconstructed from original materials in 1975

Khor Virap Monastery

Mt. Ararat in present-day Turkey. You can kind of see a Turkish guard tower in the bottom right

Khor Virap means "deep well/pit" - this is the site where St. Gregory the Illuminator was imprisoned before converting Armenia to Christianity in 301

Heading down into St. Gregory's prison

13th century Noravank Monastery

10th century Sanahin Monastery

Getting some good learning in the "academy"

10th century Haghpat Monastery

The belltower

10th century Akhtala Monastery

Looking out from the church

King of the fortress

From July 30 to August 2, a project I had been working on for a long time came to fruition. This project was BUILD Camp (Boys United in Leadership Development). Some volunteers and I got together back in January with an idea to start a boys' leadership camp, and we put a lot of time into planning camp. We received a $2,000 USAID grant to fund the project, recruited four Georgian counselors and 20 campers from all over Georgia, and worked out the logistics, finances, camp curriculum, and a million little details. In the end, it was a huge success. Each day our counselors engaged our campers in discussions on topics such as leadership, goal setting, project design and management, gender roles, and peer pressure, and we also had a lot of fun activities in between sessions and in the evenings. Check out the BUILD Camp website and please Like our Facebook page! You can also see a lot more pictures on the website/Facebook page.

All of BUILD Camp

My team - the "Wolves with Dentures"

Morning exercises

Teambuilding activities

Campfire on the last night

And that's that. Summer is all too quickly coming to an end with school starting back up in September. I'll have a lot of work coming up with the National English Spelling Competition, as well as looking for new ways to finance and grow next year's BUILD Camp. Also, law school apps...

All of my blog posts have so far been "this is what I've done/this is what has happened" as opposed to "here's my take on these various cultural things in Georgia." If any of you have any questions about the Peace Corps, life in Georgia, English education in Georgia, or whatever, e-mail me (ZachFeldman@me.com) and I'd be happy to include my answers and more of that kind of stuff in my next post, which you will hopefully not have to wait three and a half months to read!