Outfitting

I wanted to do a quick note about how we're equipped for our stay here for those of you who might be worrying.

We're doing a 10 week intensive course right now of language, technical, professional, medical and cultural training. We're issued a cell phone, a substancial medical kit and a fair amount of local currency to keep us humming along. We've got a good staff of both locals and Americans and 4 Peace Corps doctors.

Peace Corps headquarters in the capital is our little slice of America in Georgia. We've been using it to meet with the current volunteers and resupply anything we need (books, medical supplies, etc.).

We have a prepaid card plan for our cell phones, text messages are big among the volunteers. One message is about 4 tetri (100 tetri in a lari). Mostly they function as watchs, alarm clocks and flashlights though.

We have Peace Corps filters for our water here. Even though there are days when it seems like we're being vaccinated against every possible disease on the planet we still purify everything we drink or buy bottled. A pretty considerable water allowence is built into our pay here. When we had to go to a hotel for training or a conference center or the like where there's no water to buy Peace Corps staff go there first and install Peace Corps water coolers for us to use.

We're pretty well taken care of here. PC does a lot but its important to remember that we're also in maybe the last country on Earth where America is still popular on the streets. Throw in a grateful Georgian government and an extremely protective host family and we're pretty well set.

I'm sleeping great at night.