There are many different Georgias. A Macon, Ga., native offered testimony of this reality and his experiences as a Peace Corps volunteer in that other Georgia, the Republic of Georgia, at the Oakland Public Library’s Rockridge branch Monday night.

“That caused a lot of confusion,” quipped Kevin Sparrow, 34, referring to the name shared by his home state and the former Soviet republic, where he served between 2004 and 2006.

Despite this early levity, Sparrow’s talk quickly assumed a somber edge, given the political strife in the Caucasus region and the recent military action between Georgia and Russia.

After Russia rolled its tanks into Georgia in a dispute over the territory of South Ossetia last month, the Peace Corps evacuated its Georgia volunteers to Armenia, where they were either reassigned or elected to return to the United States.

“I think that most volunteers that I spoke with are really going to miss Georgia and the people in their communities,” Sparrow said. “I know that they all know the situation was dangerous and there really was no choice but to evacuate.”

Still, Sparrow advocated for the organization’s return to the region soon.

“I think they do a great job on the grassroots level,” he said.

Sparrow, a San Francisco resident who works at a local nonprofit assistance organization, is one of approximately 250 American citizens who has served in the Peace Corps in Georgia — more than 60 of whom were recently evacuated.

The governmental organization first began placing volunteers there in 2001, following years of unrest in the wake of the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

Seated at a table adorned with a Peace Corps insignia-emblazoned tapestry and many of the cultural accoutrements he collected during his stay, Sparrow conducted a PowerPoint presentation, followed by an informal question-and-answer session.

The photographs he showed — of classrooms, his Georgian friends and colleagues, even Stalin’s birthplace — underscored his description of a deeply heterogeneous culture he met in the mountainous country with traditions reaching back to ancient times.

Former and hopeful volunteers comprised a small but inquisitive audience. Their questions revolved around Sparrow’s experiences teaching English at a middle school in the town of Gurjaani; to the effects of globalization on folk culture in the Caucasus region; to his impressions of President Mikheil Saakashvili’s administration.

While a Peace Corps public affairs representative emphasized the organization is “apolitical” and does not endorse these opinions, Sparrow offered a critical take on Saakashvili, referring to him variously as “a reformer at heart” and “kind of a hothead.”

The Peace Corps’ Northern California recruiting office hosts informational sessions at the library on a monthly basis, but Sparrow’s talk was specially advertised through a mailer of 3,500, according to Nathan Hale Sargent, a former Armenia volunteer and public affairs specialist at the regional office.

Topical events inspired Sargent to reach out to former volunteers in the Bay Area to share their experiences with Peace Corps volunteer hopefuls.

The organization is currently “reaching out to people above the age of 50,” Sargent said. Applications from this demographic are up more than 60 percent from this time last year both nationwide and in Northern California, he said.

Claudia Waters, a 58-year-old University of California at Berkeley employee and Oakland resident, was one of a majority of attendees in this age range. Waters is considering an application to the program.

“I’ve got two kids who just finished at UCLA,” Waters said. “I’d like to volunteer but I’m also thinking I’m too old.”

The Peace Corps doesn’t think so. A regional recruiter reported he recently received an application from an 80-year-old woman.

When asked where she might like to be placed, Waters said she would be happy in Georgia, having traveled in the Caucasus region and studied Russian in her youth. Did recent events have any effect on this preference?

“Well, I suppose I don’t want to get hit by a bullet,” Waters qualified.