The Dog Story

I wasn't originally going post this story for another two years because I didn't want anyone to worry while I was in Georgia but now that we're evacuated I think it's safe to tell. It wasn't a fun experience at the time but it's become one of the favorites around here so I hope you like it too.

I was walking home one day my first week in my village after spending an afternoon at the internet cafe in the next town. You have to go through an alley to get to my house which dog-legs a bit (no pun intended). Now, admittedly, I was probably not paying as much attention to my surroundings as I should have at the time. I did have my iPod on and was pretty euphoric at being able to access a computer for the first time in a couple weeks. I walked around the corner and froze when I realized I walked into a pair of angry looking dogs having it out in the gravel. A huge black dog was doing his best to take a chunk out of a smaller red mutt and I was doing my best not to get involved.

Now we are given training on how to deal with these situations. Dogs are a huge problem in Georgia, both as strays and as pets. You'll find this true of most developing countries unfortunately which is why we spend so much time learning strategies for avoiding and defusing danger. Rocks are a huge asset (I know, that sounded really bad to me too when I first heard it but read on) and we're encouraged to use them liberally. One of the reasons it works at all for the Americans is that the Georgians are even more profuse about using stones and most of the animals have learned by now to fear them.

I started to back away when I saw what I walked into but, as soon as I did, both dogs turned to look at me and growl. I grabbed some pebbles out of the gravel road and started to whip them down the alley. It worked for a bit. The black dog took off running in the other direction but, as soon as he was out of range, did an immediate u-turn and, in what seemed like an impossibly fast time, planted his jaws on my butt.

I don't recall the next 5 minutes or so. I think I set a record for most swears in that amount of time and my neighbors must have come out because I have no idea where the dogs went. The next thing I remember was limping my way back though the gate of my family's house with the Peace Corps Medical Officer on the phone.

PCMO was trying hard to calm me down and assess the situation at the same time, I eventually had to give up the phone to a family member to discuss the animal and the bite while I got my first aid kit. I hobbled my way upstairs and did one of the first things they tell you not to do in Peace Corps which is to show that you have access to expensive medical supplies by flashing them in front of other people in the village. In one of my first blog posts I talked about PCV's being pretty well equipped with everything we would need for such an emergency and its a good thing we are. I tore open the kit and strew supplies across my bed in front of my family and a couple of neighbors as I pulled out gauze, tape, anti-bacterial gel and pain killers. I also changed out of my jeans and into a pair of running shorts in front of my audience.

I grabbed a wash cloth and went down stairs to wash the wound with soap and water at the outdoor faucet. Your upper thigh area is kind of an awkward place to reach under the best of circumstances and I had a stinging pain from the bite so it was difficult for me to scrub like I should have. My neighbor, who owns the dog, eventually saw this and came over.

Now I should mention my neighbor was a 22 year old co-ed who was pretty attractive and who I had known for about 4 days at this point.

She took the cloth from me and, before I could protest, started to clean the wound. If you've never had a cute Georgian girl you've just met wash your butt for you...well, it's exactly the emotions you would imagine. I don't consider myself a religious person but, if God had killed me at that point, I would have considered it a sincere kindness. My host grandmother didn't make the experience any better by, throughout the ordeal, repeatedly pressuring me to apply some kind of home remedy she had with her that she swore up and down by but looked like infection in a bottle to me.

When she was done, and I was sure the situation couldn't get any worse, I grabbed for my gauze and tape to cover the wound and was horrified to find, when I turned around, there were 50 people in my backyard now that had come over to see the American that got bit by a dog. It seemed to me at the moment that the entire village had turned out to see my ass.

It may be the only time I've seen a neat, orderly line in Georgia but all my neighbors queued up to see the bite. I was still in a mix of shock, adrenaline and horror and this point. Each one came up to me, bent over to lift up my shorts, look at the wound, make some comment or suggestion about the treatment, and then make way for the next person. You can't imagine...

Later that night I found that there were two unexpected consequences of the attack. The first was that my stock rose way up in my host grandfather's eyes. He took the incident as some sort of right of passage for me and gave me a hearty thumbs up and a couple shots of whiskey to show his approval. I didn't know a lot of Georgian at this point but some one translated the phrase "real man" for me.

The second outcome was that my host father came to me and promised to go kill the dog that night. I want to say, unabashed, that, then and now, I am 100% for this idea. Unfortunately our medical officer stepped in and squelched the revenge plot because the dog needed to be observed for signs of Rabies. The neighbors swore that he had been vaccinated (there is a program in Georgia that sends veterinarians to villages to give free inoculations) but they couldn't find the paperwork. Since this was my first week in my village I didn't even have MY vaccinations done at this point (Rabies is a series of 3 shots over a number of weeks, I had had only 1 so far) so I was a little put out with the owners' poor record keeping.

I had to start Rabies post-exposure treatment later in the week which is a series of 5 shots over 20 something days or so. I still needed to get my pre-exposure vaccinations at the same time (in addition to all the other things we're inoculated against) so it was a lot of shots. The certification was eventually found that the dog was Rabies free (after 4 of 5 post-exposure shots...) and Peace Corps stepped in to manage the situation with the neighbors to make sure it didn't happen again. Unfortunately they did not recommend killing the dog. They did however issue me a high frequency sound dog zapper which I do not go to the bathroom without.

And once it was discovered that there was no danger to my life the story became a fast favorite of my fellow volunteers. I will forever be that trainee that got bit in the ass his first week at site. It's mostly healed up now but if my laptop is ever recovered from my village in Georgia I have photos of the immediate aftermath which are pretty gruesome. If you promise not to laugh too hard maybe some of you can see the scar too.

It wasn't a pleasant experience but I came out of it with a hell of a story which I'm sure I will retell in bars for years to come in this country and the next. Peace Corps is the few jobs where you take away experiences like this and I'm sure the dog bite won't be the last great story I come out of service with.

PCV!

Last Sunday Peace Corps swore us in as full volunteers and we couldn't be more excited. The 2008 group got pulled out of Georgia about 10 days before we were set to become volunteers and it looked for a while like we'd start, serve and end our PC commitment just as trainees. This was pretty depressing to think about naturally. We owe a huge debt of gratitude to our staff here who arranged this, who believed that we had earned the right to be called volunteers and who made sure the event went through with typical Peace Corps style.

Someone is checking on this but we may be the only class to swear in in-exile. We held the ceremony in a soccer field behind the hotel, we're officially calling the post Peace Corps Georgia "South" for right now. There were some speeches by the staff, a couple by the trainees and (the event without which no Georgian gathering would be complete without) a toast to the future of the country.

It was probably the most bittersweet time of my life though. Everyone got pretty emotional when the"graduating" trainees sang the Georgian national anthem. I remember watching the scene in Casablanca when the expatriates sing the French national anthem, it was pretty much like that. We knew most of us would not be going back to Georgia anytime soon and its hard to describe the mix of emotions that brings up. You get invested in a country quickly in Peace Corps and it's not an easy thing to leave...

I think, with that thought in mind, a lot of effort was put into making this event about Peace Corps and the volunteers. We are all immensely proud of having made it this far and of the people that helped us get here. I thank the Georgia staff in every post now it seems so I'll put in a quick nod this time: you guys are the best.

Being a PCV also opens up a lot of options for us. They're allowing us to close our service (COS) successfully (see last post) and providing a lot of benefits that we might not have gotten otherwise. Peace Corps has been very understanding about our situation, evacuations don't happen often but there's been a few and the people in our ranks that have been through them have been extremely sympathetic. For many of us the experience was like completing 3 1/2 years of college and being in danger of not getting a diploma. Fortunately for us everyone in the organization understands the importance to us of being able to call yourself a Peace Corps Volunteer and we're very grateful we have that opportunity.

Armenia

We've been evacuated to Armenia for about 3 weeks now. It's a beautiful country with a fascinating culture but hopefully our hosts will understand when I say I wish it was under different circumstances and that I was hoping for my stay to be a little shorter. We've known for about a week now that we're not going back to Georgia, Russia has been slow to withdraw and the conflict spread way beyond what anyone thought was going to happen. Boredom is probably the word to describe our time here. We've spent our time hanging out, getting bad news about Georgia, and speculating about our future. We have pretty nice accommodations here (especially for Peace Corps) but everything loses its novelty at some point, particularly when you have nothing to do.

There’s been several options discussed for us here: we can go home to America, we can try to transfer to another Peace Corps country, or we can sit and wait for Georgia.

The last option isn't really an option any longer; we were hopeful at the beginning but it becomes less and less likely with each passing day. The Russians haven't exactly been cooperative and Peace Corps answers to Congress (and our families) if something bad happens to us. The PC office will not be closing in Tbilisi, our staff will continue to work in the country assessing its safety for volunteers, its needs and ways in which Peace Corps can assist. There will be no PCV's in the country for some time though while the assessment goes on.

Some of the 2007 and a few of the 2008 (my group) volunteers are organizing non-PC trips back to the country in the coming weeks to work with NGO's they had relationships with while they were volunteers or assist in the relief effort in general. Plenty of people are job hunting on Georgian websites now but it'll be some time before the formal aid programs shape up and a lot of the work will be unpaid until then. I love Georgia dearly and it would be great to go back but I don't really have the money or the language skills to participate in the rebuilding right now.

Transfers are another option but a tricky one. A lot of you know what a hassle (and paperwork) I went through to get into Peace Corps, it's exactly as much hassle (and paperwork) to get out. Now imagine trying to get out of one PC program and into another at the same time. Now add in a war and I think you'll have an idea of the current situation. A transfer would be my preferred option but a lot of stars have to align to make that happen so we'll see. Some other PC posts have come to us and said they'd be willing to take transfer PCV's so we're looking into it. More on this later if it happens.

Going home is pretty attractive for a lot of people. Peace Corps has offered us the chance to have Close of Service (COS) which is like an honorable discharge is for the military. It means, in the eyes of Peace Corps, you've successfully completed your service and all the duties it required. It also means fellowships, access to Returned Peace Corps Volunteer (RPCV) networks and career services. For the 2008 volunteers we'll be separated with 6 months of our readjustment allowance (we've accrued about 3 right now) to help transition from the evacuation in addition from our free ticket home (or cash-in-lieu).

The COS option is a really good deal for us and we owe a special thanks to our staff who went to D.C. and demanded this for us. Peace Corps didn't have to offer us this and it means a lot that someone was fighting for us.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do yet. I'm looking at transfer options but it's pretty nerve racking. While I really want to continue my service There's plenty of outstanding questions about whether that would work and the COS offer is pretty attractive. If I took the cash I could travel around Europe for a bit, see some family (I've already contacted a lot of relatives who seemed excited for me to come visit them) and I could always re-up later. We've also been promised priority for placement as part of the COS package. This means if any of us reapply for Peace Corps we'd move to the top of this list and have a good chance at getting preferences honored if we wanted.

It's not an easy choice and we're getting information at an excruciatingly slow pace so it's back to "wait and see" for now. As definition forms around each option I'll do my best to keep everyone in touch, weigh all the pros and cons, and do my best not to go crazy from cabin fever.

War

I want to record my perception of the last few days before it gets too cloudy. I’m not sure even now I’ve got it all straight and it sure as hell hasn’t all sunk in yet but it’s important I get this down. The one thing to take away from the story is the incredible staff we’re blessed with here in Peace Corps Georgia and how amazing they have been to all of us.

We were in Gori giving a training session at one of the universities on Thursday the 7^th when we got our first indication that something was seriously wrong. There are incidents all the time here in Georgia, skirmishes are frequent between Georgia and the territories and Russia is often considered involved in some way so, perhaps, we could be forgiven for not being overly concerned at first glance. We’re not proud of it. My cluster was yanked out of our training early for a security briefing in Khasuri, about an hour away. It happened during our dinner time so we were all a little surly when we arrived. Everyone in the Shida Kartli region (that’s us, right below the South Ossetia region) was pulled in to get an appraisal of the situation. We had a group meeting anyway at 9 the next morning and most of us mumbled something about this being able to wait until morning. I can’t remember exactly the news we got but it was something to the effect of increased fighting between S. Ossetian militia and Georgian forces; more of the same. Trainees, volunteers and staff accepted the news and understood but no one panicked. Our class (Georgia ’08) heard over and over again how these things flair up and then cool down a couple days later. We left that night with some idle talk about the situation of the caucuses and what a jerk Russia was as a neighbor. No one was very concerned from what I could tell and I had friends over that night to have some beers and watch The Karate Kid.

I want to note that our detachment has everything to do with the tense situation that survives in the caucuses and nothing to do with any failing in our staff. It’s not that we thought the staff was being alarmist or exaggerating the situation. Looking back it speaks to their impeccable competence that they called a special meeting instead of alerting us by SMS text messages as is the usual procedure. The conflict spiraled out of control very fast and it may be hard to remember that no one, NO ONE thought it was going to escalate to the point it did. We had been receiving reports from everyone from Peace Corps, to USAID, to the Embassy itself telling us from the day we got here how no one wanted a war and it would not get that far. And people were damned cocky about it too.

There was shelling later that night into Georgia proper and a couple of planes pushed over the border to drop some bombs. Unfortunately the village next to mine, Kareli, where we had trainees staying was attacked and a Police station destroyed. None of our Peace Corps volunteers were involved thankfully but I did hear one case of a host family member being injured. I will admit that I slept through all of this. I woke up the next morning oblivious until my friends and I were walking to the bus stop and they filled me in. When we passed the lake in our little village we heard one more explosion go off which is a very surreal sound.

We arrived back at Kashuri more confused than anything. As recent immigrants to Georgia the G8’s didn’t have much idea what constituted the status quo and had a lot of questions. There was mostly the same talk as yesterday; tensions always flair up in the summertime… every 2 years or so…no one wants a war. We went on as business as usual mostly; we had some seminars on PC procedures, a cultural class, coffee breaks. We got security updates throughout the day but we weren’t always sure of the implications. When one of the parties (Georgia, Russia, South Ossetia) released a statement was it just blustering or did it mean escalation?

This is the start of the most critical part of my story. We as PCT’s and PCV’s did not get all the implications but I’m sure our staff understood more than we did. I don’t have the words to stress this next part enough so please try to add your own emphasis. Most of our staff is from the area near South Ossetia, a lot of them from Gori itself where the attack would later come. These people not only reassured us but tried to carry on as business as usual. If there is anyone questioning whether that was the right thing to do, whether they should have parked us in front of the news and tried to read into the implications of the information we got I want to say, for what it’s worth, I think our people did the perfect thing. It’s complicated even for us to understand even now but these people knew there was a danger to their country. They have families in the areas talked about on the news. They kept our organization together and moving forward flawlessly. They did their jobs to the letter and they did it with good humor, we never would have known.

Around early afternoon some critical tripwire had been hit in Peace Corps procedure and the decision was made to remove ourselves from the regions surrounding the conflict zone. Fighting picked up and we were packed on mini-buses. They stopped into our villages quickly so we could get the things we’d need for a couple of days (no one thought it would last past Sunday). All PCV’s and PCT’s are supposed to have a “ready bag” prepared at all times for such an event with clothes, medical supplies, food, passport, etc. My cluster was supposed to be packing it the night before but we watched the movie instead. We had about 10 minutes to stuff things into a backpack and grab our medical kits before the bus looped around and picked us back up. When I arrived at my house my host father and brother had gone to the brother’s other grandparents to get father away from the fighting. My host grandmother and grandfather were still there. I ran up to my room while explaining the situation in broken Georgian the situation. They knew so it didn’t take long. While I was gathering up some essentials I told my grandmother where I was going and assured her I would be back on Sunday. Read this next part seriously because this woman cares for me: when the fighting broke out and we evacuated Shida Kartli my grandmother stood in my window and, as I packed, asked if I had had lunch, if I was hungry, if I needed food for my trip. I wanted to cry and hug her and scream at her at the same time.

I said my goodbyes to both of them and promised to be back before the weekend was over. The bus picked us up and most everyone headed to the mountains. Peace Corps Volunteers at sites remote enough were given the stand fast instruction and the rest of us holed up in a ski resort in Bakuriani. The transportation was provided and the accommodations were nice which is impressive considering Peace Corps in general; it’s indescribable considering the logistics were arranged within a few hours after a conflict broke out. There are no words to describe the people serving us.

We spent 3 days in the mountains getting a trickle of news. We had no internet and, of course, all the news was in Georgian so there were a lot of frustrating periods where we didn’t hear anything new. Among volunteers no one’s language was strong enough to catch everything being said on TV and we only had a few conversational speakers to start with anyway. PC Staff had plenty of other things to do than translate for us.

We tried to continue with business as usual. Saturday morning brought language class as it always did. We tried to stay in good spirits; we still didn’t have a lot of news about what exactly was happening. There were plenty of rumors but we treated those with the attention they deserved. It’s hard to describe what happened that morning. I don’t feel like anything I can say will convey the gravity of it. I want to tell this part of the story without any disrespect so I hope my version will be accepted as such.

We did language for 3 hours in a pretty cheerful class but got antsy and our language teacher finally agreed to let us turn on the TV for the last hour. The news showed Gori , our teacher’s city, after the attack by the Russians and she recognized her apartment building which had taken a bomb hit.

She eventually did reach her family and her mother, who lived with her, turned out to be ok but it was a while before anyone could be reached. I won’t try to describe the time right after she saw the first news report though. Don’t try to imagine it.

Our language teachers (mostly from Gori) left that afternoon. It was a tearful goodbye but they must have been given some instruction from Peace Corps because they put on a brave face. I gave my teacher my email and I sincerely hope I’ll hear from her again soon. The volunteers and trainees occupied ourselves for the next couple days and tried to filter some news out of the rumor mill. I called home at one point just to find out what was on CNN. We talked about the conflict, watched movies, there were some yoga sessions, some cultural lectures, we drank; it was a strange kind of limbo. We heard talk about evacuating the country but, even at this point, no one believed that. We heard optimistic statements about the flair ups never lasting very long, about foreign powers getting involved and pressuring Russia. I won’t speak for others’ emotions at this point but it was a wide spectrum. I would bet most of us can’t describe how we feel even now.

The evacuation order came Sunday night and we were packed on coach buses at 11am the next day. All of Peace Corps had been collected at that point and we moved down a back road towards Armenia. The conflict had spilled out of the disputed territory at this point, Russian troops and armor were pouring into the country and there was talk of a second front opening in Abkhazia. Peace Corps arranged transportation, food and water for us. None of these things were small tasks. By this time there had been a run on all the markets in the country as everyone stocked up on supplies for what could be an extended conflict. Even our hotel, our very nice and expensive hotel, ran short at meal times – we had a lot of rice and some vegetables mostly. Transportation was even worse. All the drivers have families; we have stories of people refusing to take us anywhere no matter the price because they had to be ready to evacuate their own families if the situation called for it. I don’t know the details of how everything was arranged and I won’t speculate here but this was one of the monumental tasks that spoke to us about the people our organization employed.

Armenia granted us gratis entry into the country and our counter parts in that country’s Peace Corps branch agreed to host us. We arrived at our new hotel after about 13 hours to find dinner waiting for us. PC:Armenia has also done a fabulous job of taking care of us. They found the hotel to accommodate 90 of us, got us translators and language instructors and have been genuinely welcome. Through the efforts of all our people everything was arranged for us from new SIM cards for our cell phones (for the Armenian networks) to cultural activities to do to walk around cash.

We’re told we’re not going back to Georgia and right now Peace Corps is deciding what to do with us. Most people want to continue in the organization, we’re looking for new posts but there are a host of challenges associated with that. We’re not sure if countries that want us can get funding from D.C., if they can when, how long we have to wait, whether we have to compete with a new group of applicants: a million ambiguous problems.

This is my short version of the story: I left stuff out, there are mistakes. I don’t remember the exact sequence of events for us or for the conflict. I don’t describe how I feel in a lot of places because I don’t remember now and I probably didn’t even know then. There’s a whole swirl of thoughts in my head but I had to get some of them typed out. I’ll make revisions as necessary. Please keep Georgia in your thoughts; please join me in thanking the people that kept us going. Please keep in mind that most of the world thought this conflict would never escalate into something serious and one of Georgia’s major cities was bombed a few hours later. Things changed very quickly here and it took some incredible people to keep us from being affected. We owe our undying gratitude to the staff of Peace Corps Georgia, please keep them in your prayers.

Summary

I haven’t posted any updates in a while. I have several written but, unfortunately, I abandoned my laptop in the village when we evacuated. I’ve come to terms with the fact that I might not get it back so, for now, I’ll give you all the summary. Anyone’s welcome to ask me for the full details on any of these stories but some of them are more pleasant than others. I’ve avoided telling anyone in the states about most anything bad that happens in Georgia but we’ve gotten some updates about the situation and it looks like no one is going back so I might as well tell all the stories. Here’s the short of what you’ve been missing:

We broke a bar in a ski resort, a couple from South Africa showed up at my house in the village, I got a chunk taken out of my left leg by a dog thought to have rabies, I thought up a hilarious joke about parasites, Condi Rice came to visit us, I scored in the top percentile of our language assessment, I’ve been drinking shots of gasoline with dinner, and Georgia went to war with Russia. The last one I’ll tell the whole story on in the blog.

Summary

I haven’t posted any updates in a while. I have several written but, unfortunately, I abandoned my laptop in the village when we evacuated. I’ve come to terms with the fact that I might not get it back so, for now, I’ll give you all the summary. Anyone’s welcome to ask me for the full details on any of these stories but some of them are more pleasant than others. I’ve avoided telling anyone in the states about most anything bad that happens in Georgia but we’ve gotten some updates about the situation and it looks like no one is going back so I might as well tell all the stories. Here’s the short of what you’ve been missing:

We broke a bar in a ski resort, a couple from South Africa showed up at my house in the village, I got a chunk taken out of my left leg by a dog thought to have rabies, I thought up a hilarious joke about parasites, Condi Rice came to visit us, I scored in the top percentile of our language assessment, I’ve been drinking shots of gasoline with dinner, and Georgia went to war with Russia. The last one I’ll tell the whole story on in the blog.