Whoa Whoa... WO?

To keep you visually stimulated, here's a picture Evan took while he visited over Novruz.

Don't be too deceived; I know it's pretty, but you can't see all the trash littered throughout.

Donate here to help with the Environment issues here.

There's this project I've been a part of since I became a volunteer in this lovely country. It's called the Writing Olympics, or WO for short (because we in PC like acronyms).

Essentially, at the very root of the project, it's a writing competition for school and university kids all around the country. Now, as this has been something I've worked more in depth with, I've found that it's a lot more than that. It's planning Creative Writing lessons, organizing Volunteers throughout the country and encouraging participation with them and their students, more emails, planning, and budget concerns than I could've imagined. But, seriously, it's not that bad, though it is pretty capable of causing some frustration and headaches.

Last year when I joined up, I was a Point Person for the volunteer group previous to the new ones coming in. Unfortunately before I came in to Peace Corps, Russia invaded Georgia and those volunteers were forced to leave because of the threat of it all. Azerbaijan and Armenia can't hold a competition together because of, well, let's put it mildly and say 'issues'. So, last year's competition was a National one, just within Azerbaijan. And Armenia, too, held their own National event.

This year, that's no longer the case. With fresh faces involved and Aaron taking over the Point Person/Event position, I've been able to label myself with the role of 'mentor,' though this is a whole new experience for me as well. The Writing Olympics this year is back to International scales. We have Armenia, Georgia, and even Moldova involved. We're growing... and I like it. 2 weeks from now, I'll be in the land of milk and honey that is Georgia to participate in the International Judging with Aaron and some volunteers from Armenia and Georgia that I've been in correspondence with since November.

This 2nd year mentality is no joke. It's incredible being able to see projects I work closely with expand. Most of the time, Peace Corps likes to tell us we'll never know how we effect things, so it's nice to be able to witness.