Audrey Reed
Assistant News Editor
Six Public Policy graduate students traveled to the country of Georgia in December and experienced the rebuilding country.
In December 2003, Georgia had a political revolution, and one year later graduate students spent three weeks in the capital city, Tbilisi, researching and interviewing government officials and business executives. The students were hosted by the Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies (GFSIS), which is a policy think-tank supported by the U.S. Department of State.
“It sounded like a good experience to network,” graduate student Travis Bunch said. “The network that we were given is invaluable. I wanted to experience what may be the opposite of Malibu — something of a hardship.”
Students chose or were assigned individual topics by Public Policy professor Angela Hawken, who accompanied the students on the trip. Education reform, illicit drug trafficking, the banking industry and financial service delivery, internally displaced people, national security implications of infectious disease and developing self-rule comprised the students’ area of focus.
Hawken has worked with Georgia for the past four years, and because of the contacts she and the GFSIS have, the students were able to interview experts in each of their research areas.
“To have that support — the people that Angela knows over there — she made the trip, she made the experience happen,” graduate student Steven Genson said.
Bunch studied education reform, particularly how the school systems get textbooks. In the past, textbook companies were accused of bribing public officials to buy certain books.
“They were using textbooks from the Soviet era,” Bunch said. “They’ve taken (textbook selection) out of the hand of the (Education) Ministry. Now it goes to a school board committee. They will select the textbooks for their schools they represent.”
Students worked on research six days a week for 10 to 12 hours each day, Genson said.
Genson concentrated on banking and financial services, speaking with spoke with vice presidents of banks, members of a think tank and a broker.
The research will be published tentatively in February on the School of Public Policy’s Web site, Hawken said.
While research was the group’s principle reason for the trip, they also spent time in an orphanage giving the children not only toys and clothing, but also much-needed attention, Hawken said.
“Everybody had an extra suitcase that they brought with them full of gifts, toys and medical supplies,” Bunch said. “We gave them 50 hacky sacks. They were very good at it.”
Also at the orphanage was an infirmary where the group donated medical supplies. The hospital conditions were dirty and smelly, but one student, Edyta Grzybowska, brightened the children’s day by drawing animals for the sick children, Hawken said.
“It was amazing to see their faces,” Hawken said of the children in the infirmary after they saw the drawings. “They have nothing.”
Because of their close interaction with the children at the infirmary, some students got sick with a cold.
All of the students faced some illness, especially at the beginning of the trip when they were still getting adjusted to the country, Hawken said.
In addition to the orphanage trip, the group traveled to the small town of Gori to see Josef Stalin’s birthplace. There the group went to a “lavish” museum that was built before the dictator died, Genson said.
“It’s unreal to go to a museum of someone who killed 20 million people,” Genson said.“The whole country refers to him as Uncle Joe. It’s a little unnerving. They respect the man who can wield that much power.”
The students’ research exposed them to Georgia’s political and business climate, but living in home stays gave them an opportunity to take part in the culture as well. Because the students knew only a few words in Georgian, most of the home stay families had at least one English-speaker.
Genson and Bunch stayed with the same family. The father, a former KGB colonel, could not work because of laws prohibiting military personnel to work after age 45.
“They are so hospitable and giving people even though they are not well-off,” Genson said. “It was interesting speaking to him. It was painful to hear his story. He was one of the free non-corrupt people before the revolution. His wife has to work several jobs because her husband can’t work.”
The students said they never felt uneasy about being foreigners in a nation coming out of political turmoil, but preventative measures like pairing up in home stays and having a car available instead of having to use taxis were taken precaution.
“There wasn’t any incidents that put us in danger,” Genson said. “The people were very approachable, although not many people know English. When they found out we were American, they wanted to chat.”
Because the trip was rescheduled, students were able to experience a different aspect of the country.
Originally, the trip was planned for summer 2004 and would have lasted three months. However, the trip was moved back to December because of scheduling conflicts, Hawken said.
This meant the warm weather for which students initially planned, changed to freezing temperatures.
“We didn’t see the pleasant side of Georgia,” said Bunch, who also said the group experienced electrical outages. Bunch said he would like to return to Georgia, but not in the wintertime.
Another down side to the change in schedule was the shortness of the trip. By the time students became adjusted to the culture, finished their final exams after leaving their classes mid-semester and started their research, the trip was almost over, Hawken said.
Next summer Hawken hopes to take another group of students for three months. The first month the students will participate in Georgian language classes before beginning research.
Also, Hawken wants to create other “international experiences” for the School of Public Policy students. One idea is to send students doing case studies on a particular country to that nation, she said.
02-03-2005