28 Dec 2011

EVS and young people from Rustavi


The 11 of December, volunteers received some young people from Rustavi to have activities. It was  a very nice day for all.

The entire group (without me because I took the photo)

Twister's game


We share a meal together : lentil soup !

Preparation of a flag cookie

cookies club

Artistic creations



Yoann, your apprentice journalist.

6 Dec 2011

Agnieszka and Adam in Signagi

What is OAT?
Info pack says: “The main objective of the on-arrival training is to introduce the volunteers to the host country, preparing them for the service period and the EVS experience. On-arrival training helps the volunteers adapt to cultural and personal challenges. It allows volunteers to get to know each other and to build a network. Volunteers should also receive guidance on conflict prevention and crisis management.”
That’s the theory:)
 
It’s very funny, that training which should prepare us for volunteering in Georgia, happens almost 2 months after our arrival :)  Some of the volunteers arrived to Georgia earlier, some later, organizers from Salto has to find out the date which suite for everybody, so I think  the golden mean was achieved.

23rd-27th of November – during those days we’ve met in Sighnaghi, in a cozy Old Signagi Hotel. 25 volunteers from Poland, Romania, France, Lithuania, Germany and Italy had a chance to exchange experiences, meet each other and tell stories about their adventures in hosting countries- Georgia and Azerbaijan. Our trainers- Giorgi, big Giorgi, Anna and Tomek put a lot of energy to make it more attractive and fun and the same time. They make a great job!

Signagi is really charming at night




As you can guess, during every-day program, most of the time (except coffee and lunch brakers) we spent on the workshops, learning more about EVS, about ourselves and Georgia. Then, the nights should be used for relax and having a rest, but of course we use this time for integration process :)
Everything what’s good, terminates fast… faster then we could expect :)

with locals:)
With all the people we exchange contacts so hopefully there’s gonna be a chance to visit and meet each other again. Some of them are coming to Rustavi in forthcoming weekend, we can’t wait to meet them!!! :) 
              Adam

Promotion of EVS at University Ilia States

On the 2 of December, Agnieszka, Emelie, Adam, Albin, Misha, Lekso and me, we were in Tbilisi at the Ilia States University for promoting EVS.

Lekso talked in Georgian for introduce the European program : Youth in Action.
The 2nd point is for EVS and he talked more longer of it.

After this presentation, the students spoke with us for more precisions or just meet some concrete real European Volunteers.






Yoann, your apprentice journalist.

3 Dec 2011

Khinkali Party

You can watch a little video about the Khinkali Party of 30.11.2011

It was just amazing and cool !



Yoann your apprentice journalist

15 Nov 2011

Agnieszka and Adam


The 2nd of October, we met in our flat two new polish EVS, Agnieszka and Adam.


Agnieszka come from Warsow. She was born the 16 of December 1987. She  graduated  with history of art. Now she studie polish cultura and journalism. With this, she hope to become a journalist, reporter journalist. She likes to travel. Her motto is : “Treat people in the way you want to be treated by people”. She wanted to come in a Caucasus country. She chose Georgia because there are a lot of books about Georgia in Poland and she rode it’s an interesting  country. It’s her first time in Georgia and she doesn’t speak georgian yet. Her message for you is “Facebook destroy the world”.

Adam is from Poland too. He was born in June 1985. He studied  Ukrainian Philology. He likes a lot East part of Europe, people in general. He has a good feeling with Georgia and georgian, that’s why he chose this country for his EVS. He doesn’t speak georgian yet and it’s his first time in Georgia. He likes travel (hitchhiking), music (guitar and “drumla”). He become sick if he doesn’t travel for a long time. He hates watch TV. His motto is : “ Live and let other people live”. And finally his special message for you : “Spread the love”.

They are in Rustavi, in Georgian Youth for Europe for six months.

Yoann, your apprentice journalist.

29 Sept 2011

Good bye Marie

Marie was the last volonteer from the "previous generation" to leave Georgia and Rustavi. It's quite empty in the flat now, but in a few days there will be 2 new volonteer's here from Poland. Before Marie left I asked her a few questions for the blog.

What was the best part of your EVS?

Marie: Meeting other volonteers from other countries and live with them.

What was the worse part of your EVS?

Marie: Getting bored sometimes.

In what way do you think you have grown?

Marie: I’m less stressed about things. I have also mastered the skills of breaking and entering through windows when doors are locked.

When do you think your gonna use your new skills and knowledge?

Marie: I don’t when, but I hope it’s gonna be soon.

What are you gonna do when you get back to France?

Marie: I’m gonna eat some fish with butter. I’m also gonna work with my blog exchange project.
And I’m gonna volonteer in a place for concerts.


I want to thank both Marie and Irena for all advices and laughs during our time together here in Georgia. Good luck with everything.

Emelie

20 Sept 2011

Trip to Armenia with Emelie and Albin

If we were to explain our trip to Armenia with one word, it would be: Perfect!
We have made the best powerfull perfect organization before our trip. For exemple, the day before we went to Armenia, we hadnt the number and the address of our contacts in Yerevan, we got the three sleeping bags at 23h00 the same day.
But, this technical question didn't stop us ! The 10 of September at 11h, we left for Armenia in martchoutka from Tbilisi.
Our driver was very rude towards the passengers but we arrived safe at Yerevan. After purchasing a sim card, we had called Anahit (the Armenian trainer from our On Arrival Training). In her office we found the phone number of Adela, our EVS contact in Armenia (Thank you Anahit).
We met Adela and she showed us where we could sleep. 
Adela cooked for us a delicious slovad dish

Emelie, Albin and I, we did some shopping and visited some beautiful places in Yerevan for the first four days. We met some other volunteers in Armenia (Michaela, Pauline,Tania an Irish drunk man and one girl from Germany), and some Armenian inhabitants ( Taron, Lilith, David and some more).
  
Albin and Emelie and Iron cow

Garden at Cascade in Yerevan

The fifth day we went in Garni and Geghard with Pauline, our taxi had a flat tire, so another taxi had to pick us up. In Garni we made the Perfect picture ! So now, you can stop taking pictures, we have THE perfect picture! 


THE perfect picture
In the evening we sought for the restaurant caucavsus restaurant to eat Armenian food. After a long time we finally found it with the help of three Armenian guys because Taron drew for us a nice, but very wrong map and we walked around in many streets in Yerevan. Tolma and Armenian spaghetti were very good. For us, It was the perfect day (I broke a pot of sugar in the morning, Emelie was eaten by mosquitoes, our taxi had a flat tire, a bad map, a violent storm with lighting and big rain felled on us during our walk in Yerevan etc).

We came back the 16 of September by martchoutka again but with a better driver. Seven hours later, we arrived at our flat in Rustavi, tired but happy !
Perfect trip with perfect people !
Three monkeys on the road (Pauline, Albin and Emelie)

If you want the perfect reciepe to make a perfect trip, contact us ! (perfect.gye@gmail.com)

Yoann, your (perfect) apprentice journalist.

12 Sept 2011

Hello Everybody!

As my EVS project here in Rustavi is almost over, I made a "sum-up" video with pictures and our favorite musics from parties time!





Hope you like it! 
See you soon, Marie.

8 Sept 2011

Teo and Dato's Wedding

Last Saturday, the 3rd of September, we were invited to celebrate Love (with a BIG L!!) ! 

Our dear georgian teacher Teo, and her sweatheart (now husband!) Dato got married in Msreta and Tbilisi. It was a great sunny day, filled with a lot of joy!


The church ceremony was due at 3 in Msreta, the most religious town of the country. We met a dozen other couples who also came to get married, and some (stupid) tourists who prevented us from taking good pictures. 


It was Emelie and Albin's first experience of such a ceremony, the second time already for Marie, who could luckily explain most of things with help from mentor Giga, Liene and Lekso! Still, we don't really know why girls can't cross their legs when sitting in the church... Any ideas? 


Then we all moved to Tbilisi, "Muza" hotel for the signing ceremony at 5. They had hired a violonist and piano player, and the setting was really amazing (almost like in Madagoni, but far more beautiful).
This part was really short, but also sweet with Teo's Niece leading the way to the autel, and champagne to celebrate!

We took cars one more time for the most interesting part : the dinner! There we met even more guests, among them peace corps volunteers Gus and David. The restaurant was "Babylon" in Tbilisi. We had katchapuri, chicken salads, fish, coko, shashlik, white wine, fruits, and of course THE cake! It was really a good one, with cream and fruits inside and meringue on top... 


We were of course dancing to traditionnal dances, and disco dances in the middle of the restaurant, and uncle Gia was making toasts in between. It showed that Teo and Dato were quite anxious about the wedding dance but they did a very good job anyway! They came after to each table to thank the guests for coming, with glasses of cognac in their hands!


As for the present, we (volunteers) gave them a "romantic package' for their honeymoon in Spain... some wine, chocolate and red candles! I think they liked it! ;-)

16 Aug 2011

Youth Exchange!!

THERE'S LIFE AFTER EVS
...
Joe, Daga and Kalina came back to Georgia to be part of the youth exchange (end of july/ beginning august) they created while being evs. Here are some pictures!








More fun pics HERE and HERE and HERE.



EXTRA : (Tom during Advance planned visit)

2 Aug 2011

News of our office !


The 18 / 07 /2011, our upstairs neighbor had forgotten to close his or her tap water. You can see the results in our office. I had cleaned the office just the day before......




With Emelie, Albin, Gus and Lekso we moved our office into the living room of our flat.


 Finally finished the work, we started to clean the office the first of August 2011 with Emelie and Albin.




We hope that this cleaning doesn't cause another disaster !

Yoann, your apprentice journalist.



25 Jul 2011

Anaklia gallery


My favorite T-shirts ;)
small help: HEALTHY ;)


LIFE ;)

Apple ;)

running competition ;)

choose one: flower, windmill,snowflake ;)

kind of meditation

22 Jul 2011

Anaklia 2011 - first international camp

Ireka Spirka and Mary Shperi came back yesterday from the international camp "Patrioti" organised by the georgian governement, located on the shore of Black Sea near the city of Anaklia.

Other than being very tired, we are coming back with mixed feelings, but we for sure going to miss our (new) friends from Latvia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Tchetchenia, Ukraine, Georgia, ...

The way to Anaklia was quite long and hot, in those old yellow city buses, and when we arrived it was raining. We discovered that the camp is the middle of a big sand area, but we didn't have the right to go out anyway. We were all put in different rooms to encourage intercultural learning! After a few understanding problems, we finally enjoyed sleeping together! ;-) 
Then we saw that there are 4 toilets per house, with only one door (that you can't lock). Same for shower. After some 'shame' we ended up not caring. There's no point is judging when everybody's equal!
We ended up having big stomach-aches, but also because of too salty food with too much bread and not enough vegetables. Which for a camp named "healthy lifestyle" was quite surprising but after all everything was free!

We soon enjoyed swimming in the black sea (quite dirty color though you go out being yellow!) and taking sunbathes. Now we have a perfect tan! Some games activities were organised everyday. Mary's group (mesame) won the Brain Game, and Irka ended up in table tennis semi-finals (group meotre).

We also took a bicycle trip to the Abhazian border (but only Irka, not enough bikes for the rest of people!), to Zugdidi (Dadiani Palace Museum) and to Batumi (very tiring city game!).

When came back with an even longer ride - 10 hours because of many stops and also because of THE camp song, which is quite awful in itself, but even more after hearing it everyday for 10 days!!! Remember sharing is caring, so please join the Pinguin's dance!!



For now, Irka is attending a polish wedding in polish embassy (Tbilisi), Yoann Albin and Emelie are attending their on-arrival training in Tbilisi as well. And on 25th of July we will welcome ex-EVS Daga, Joe and Kalina for the youth exchange they prepared. They should meet Mary at the airport who is going to France and Germany for different volunteering activities.
Quite a busy summer for EVSs so stay tuned!!! (also for some pictures of the camp)

5 Jul 2011

Come to visit

Beautiful day, but for European people too hot. Still volunteers cannot use to Georgian climate;) but how our Georgian friends said „will be worse in August;)” . So stop complaining and go somewhere!!!!

One of my favorite places in Tbilisi, Dry Bridge and bazar!

Because Cristinas birthday was approaching so fast, I hit on an idea: buying our favorite homemade wine, some small gift and go to Cristy!!!! Now she lives in hostel in Tbilisi, and there is great place for meetings and parties...big balcony with hammock;)! And amazing view for old part of Tbilisi, president palace and Sameba church!!!!
Firstly, we visited one of our favorite places in Tbilisi, Dry Bridge with cool bazar, where you can buy everything, really everything!!!! yess, it's perfect place to spend all your pocket money;)
We bought small bracelet, quite a lot of wine and we were walking to Cristinas place. And then we were enjoying the evening!


 
                               Avtushka Pietrushka                                                                   Ilo Shpilo
              

It was nice to see also our Georgian friends: Ilo Shpilo and Avtushka Pietrushka, a bit tired after summer camps;) But like alweys in good mood;)!!!! I hope that new members of our EVS family (Emelie and Albin) also enjoyed this time!!!


                                   Cristy and Me                                                                  Albin and Emelie




And one more time the best wishes for Cristy!!!!

"Cristy is your birthday, Happy birthday Cristy";D  



Irka Shmirka