Fall...AT LAST!

After a brutal, hot summer here in Georgia we have finally been getting some cooler weather. To take advantage of this change in seasons, Peace Corps had allowed all of the volunteers to come into Tbilisi for an "Emotional Wellness" weekend. The event included grilled hot dogs whilst jamming out to classic American rock, playing kickball, dominating in an undefeated 15 game beer pong winning streak, and fist pumping at our favorite Georgian bar scene, Beatles Club. Suffice to say, I'm doing emotionally well at the moment.

Now that September is creeping through, harvest season will about to be in full swing which is not only a huge deal to almost every Georgian but especially the winery I work for in particular. More and more tourists have been coming to visit the area: mainly guests from Israel, Germany, UK, Australia, and Japan. In addition to doing tours on a daily basis we'll soon be going out to the vineyards to help with the რთველი, grape harvest. This is a strange time of the year because there is so much effort and time put into picking and crushing the grapes and after every major food harvest families celebrate with Thanksgiving style supras several times during the week...which leaves the businesses and streets empty of people. But I'm looking forward to this years harvest, now fully understanding the traditions and having a stronger hold on the language...also it's my last one, so I want to make this one count!

In addition to all the grape-ness here in Kvareli, Alex and I are planning a weekend trip to visit his business associates in Kiev, Ukraine. Both our tourism company (Georgian Journeys) and our wine company (Armunji) are official registered and now we will be spending a good deal of time traveling around the country and surrounding areas looking for contacts and being acquainted with some of Alex's business partners. I'm really looking forward to this because I finally get to be able to see parts of the country that I just haven't had the time (who am I kidding) money to go see. Also, Alex and I are about to implement our business trainings. We have purchased all of our equipment, and most of the students spots have been filled, so we're looking to get this thing running in late September or October. It will be exciting to see my SPA grant finally paying off.

I know, I know...not a very exciting post. But, well...nothing has been very exciting yet. I promise you once harvest starts I'll be sharing plenty of stories. Well, I'll see you (friends and family at least) in less than 11 months! Just one more winter to trudge through. But hey, since I know you want to send me a care package to help me get through it but don't really know what to put in it...you can just send me this. AKA - THE BEST MIX INVENTION...EVER.

Now, for some random Georgian links:

Georgia's Mental Revolution

Russia: In color a century ago. (Some great pictures of old Georgia too)

Everything you'd want to know about Georgia forum

And thanks to Jeff for finding this, you can now build your very own Soviet style cement block apartment! Whoo hoo!

Kvareli in the Limelight

My town of Kvareli has been in the Georgian spotlight recently, after discovering that the government's Department of Tourism and Resorts has chosen it as their next tourist location. They are planning a budget of 30 million dollars towards this project, that will go towards road reconstruction, new restaurants, hotels, shops, etc. The project has started now, with the construction of the new tourism office which is about a 1 minute walk from my house and all the brand spanking new signs all over town pointing tourists to different places of interest; and will be in the works till late 2013 (or so they believe...I'm not holding my breath.) Regardless, this an exciting time for my community and for my counterpart, Alex and I as the Department head has asked us to become directly involved. We are charged with the design and creation of Kvareli's branding, flag, and tagline...and hopefully plenty other things later as well. Very fun stuff.

In addition to this, one of the well known news stations, Rustavi 2, here in Georgia has chosen to showcase the winery I work for and interview Alex to ask about our new tourism company he and I started, Georgian Journeys. Unless you speak Georgian, which I'm sure plenty of you do ;) you won't understand what's going on, but there are some cool shots of the winery where I work everyday and some interviews with Alex (guy with silver hair) and also with Kindzmarauli's General Director, Nugzar, who they talk with at length at the end of the program. Skip ahead to minute 13:12 to see the news clip.

Kindzmarauli winery and Georgian Journeys interview

Teo, the marketing director of Kindzmarauli, and myself

Also, to add to the tourismy awesomeness of Kvareli, the president of the winery Tamaz Konchoshvili and the president of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili have invested their money and efforts into opening a brand new resort here in Kvareli, which just had it's Grand opening a couple of days ago. All the ministry heads, Saakashvili himself, posh-rich Georgian influentials, employees of the winery, and little ole Peace Corps volunteers such as Katelyn and I were invited. Let me tell you....holy...crap. This place is incredible, and seriously belongs in the upper echelons of society even in LA, New York, or Miami. There was non stop all you can eat food and drink (caviar, roasted quail, shrimp, prosciutto, wine, hennesy, whiskey etc etc etc), fireworks, live music from stars of Eurostar and Geostar...Um...wait, am I actually a Peace Corps volunteer? Haha, I'm definitely not gonna try and jinx it. Below is a link to Saakashvili giving a speech, on the roof of the hotel, about the opening of the resort and promotion of tourism on the behalf of Georgia and Kvareli.

The President and the Kvareli Lake Resort


This is gonna be a fun and interesting next year...can't wait.

Nugzar and his wife Teo

The rooftop lounge of the Kvareli Lake Resort

Yes...I actually do work here in Georgia!

"ძალიან დაკავებული ვარ" aka "Sorry it's taken me like 2 months to give you the latest from the land of Stalin."

So, the purpose of this post is my hope to dispel any rumors of me that all I do is sit at a winery everyday, drinking and gettin mtvrali with the locals, playing backgammon, and stumbling back home to just do it over again. Not to say that this isn't a recurring theme in my life here...*ahem*...but yes, I do-do work. Surprise! And lately, a lot of it.

To bring everybody else back up to speed on what I'm exactly doing, I'll give you a quick run-down: I volunteer with the NGO "Association Caucasus Meridian" (ACM) which is headed up by one of the coolest Georgians I've had the pleasure to work with, Alex Tsukilashvili. ACM was established in 1988. Since that time, ACM has implemented about 150 projects of various sizes in the spheres of: local development, environmental protection, education, fighting against corruption, human rights protection, development of children and adolescents, and support of small business development.

Suffice to say, Alex is the man.

                                                                  Alex and his daughter Nata

Anyhow, he wanted to work on something totally different but do it in a way that would be a lot of fun and still promote/help Georgia. So, he became really interested in tourism development. Through this new found passion he has been able to make connections all over Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, etc. to form relationships through each country to be able to promote tourism in this part of the world.

This is where little ole' me finally comes in.

I'm Alex's 3rd Peace Corps volunteer, so he has some experience in dealing with an American and working with the obvious language barriers and such. But, Alex and I have really hit it off and find ourselves passionate about the same types of things. Together we're collaborating to create 2 other companies that will spawn off of his parent company, ACM. Our first project is the creation of our tourism company, "Georgian Journeys". We have been busy creating dozens and dozens of different niche tourism packages: Tours that include but not limited to wine, art, churches and monasteries, white water rafting, hiking, skiing, camping, historical, fishing, etc...this list literally goes on and on...

Also, we've been creating different merchandise (shirts, mugs, towels, practically everything under the sun) to sell on our website that we are also in the midst of also creating right now. So, yeah...busy.

Our second project is the creation of our own wine company. As of now, ACM (Alex and I) are helping with the local winery, JSC Corporation Kindzmarauli, in promoting their products, establishing a working tourist center, and looking for other distributors to sell their wine. Though the people whom we work with here at the winery are a fantastic bunch, there is unfortunately, a lot of restrictions in the freedoms of how Alex and I would like to accomplish these goals. So, eventually we are starting our own wine company, where we can experiment and be independent in the way we market ourselves. Creation of our own branding, bottle styles, logos, the whole bit. So eventually, as time goes on I'll post the links to the individual websites that are being worked on as of now, including Kindzmarauli's. (It's seriously some of the best wine I've had, not trying to be bias here. Apparently, when Stalin was in charge, he would order his favorite semi sweet wine directly from this winery because he claimed it was the best there is. I guess that would be one thing me and him had in common.) 

                                                              My Kindzmarauli winery family

One problem Alex has had within the last year, was he didn't have his own office anymore. Since the president of the winery and Alex are super tight, they have given he and I an office at the winery where we can work during the day. But, within the past few months he was able to find a space suitable for his NGO's needs. Through Peace Corps and USAID's grant program SPA, I succeeded in obtaining a grant for $5000 to reconstruct a brand new conference hall near the office where our organization will do business and entrepreneurship trainings for youth and adults. Also this space will be open for public use since there isn't any similar place business professionals, teachers, and students can use within our region. 

Then, through Peace Corps, I signed up to be on the first ever ICT (Information and Communication Technology) committee here in Georgia. Me and 3 other volunteers have been putting together the guidelines for the committee, and project ideas such as language podcasts for up and coming volunteers, a site for volunteer's parents, a space where current volunteers can share stories and secondary project ideas, etc.

Lastly...whenever there is spare time, I've also been working with both a local sculptor who needs help obtaining finances for an art school here in Kvareli and also the director for a local folk band who needs assistance in marketing his group. And also, since it's getting to be summer time, Kvareli is having tourists visit again! So, from time to time I do English speaking tours throughout the winery and have led guests from Japan, Sweden, Brazil, Israel, and Switzerland. 

Well, that's my long spiel about what I'm actually doing here in Georgia. Hopefully soon I'll post the links to our websites so you can see for yourselves. Till then, droibit!