When I first got to Tbilisi, I had the good fortune of staying at the Old Town Hostel, run by a very kind, generous Georgian named Giorgi. He was super helpful with all of my questions about Tbilisi and helped me through a few situations where I wasn’t able to surmount the language barrier. While
One of my top to-see places in the Republic of Georgia (RoGA) were the David-Gareja cave monasteries. Founded in the 6th century by Saint David Garejeli and consisting of hundreds of cave cells on a mountain in Eastern Georgia, along the border of Azerbaijan, these monasteries sounded completely other-worldly and I knew I couldn’t miss
As they say, there’s always a silver lining. When my computer recently started slowing down a bit (thanks to a bursting iPhoto) I started cleaning out some files and found what I’d like to call… the Lost RoGA Blogs! Apparently I had drafted some blog entries while I was traveling and then never ended up
Thanks to a last-minute cold, I didn’t have any fancy New Year’s plans here in Tbilisi. I knew it was a family-focused holiday, so I was just glad that I was feeling well enough by the 31st to participate in whatever my host family had up their sleeves. However, when I say I didn’t have
I’ve already told you all about my love of Christmas, particularly Christmas lights. Since I wrote about that, I’m pleased to tell you that lights have continued to pop up around town to my delight. These in particular are my favorite. Yes, these are gigantic Christmas ornaments with lights over them. The best part? During the
Read Armenia: Part 1 here. Many apologies for the long delay in posting Part 2, I know you’ve all been waiting breathlessly… On Saturday we headed out to Etchmiadzin, which is a small town not too far from Yerevan and boasts the distinction of being the spiritual center of Armenia since it is home to
Now that the great apartment move is over, I’ve been spending my days preparing not only to move to the Republic of Georgia for three months, but also for the week-long training at Kiva HQ here in San Francisco. There’s been a lot of pre-training reading and learning happening in my apartment! The biggest part
In 4 short weeks I’ll be boarding the plane to the Republic of Georgia – so exciting! The to-do list that spans those four short weeks, however, is not as exciting. It’s fairly daunting, but the reward is so sweet that I’m soldiering through! First things first, I finished up my 2-month temporary gig as
As you may already know, I was recently accepted as a Kiva Fellow with Kiva Microfunds! This is a really exciting opportunity for me to gain first-hand experience in microfinance with an organization that is so exciting it was named as one of the top ideas in 2006 by the New York Times Magazine! You
Please explain the reasons why you wish to become a Kiva Fellow and articulate how these reasons are related to your past experiences and life goals. In the summer of 2005, a group of Tanzanian Maasai women presented their latest venture to bolster their participation in a local tree-planting network by selling beaded necklaces and