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.