31 May 2013

Kazbeg 5033m – unconquered
It was my georgian dream since I´m here. Reach the top of Kazbeg, biggest mountain in Kazbegi. It means not go just to this beautiful monastery. But still continue up and up and up somewhere in the hell. It was very difficult and because isn´t season yet, snow was everywhere, and more and more. And weather colder and colder. But perfect challenge for me. So bad weather doesnt exist, just bad clothes J. And I was ready for it. Unfortunately not my lungs. On the way to meteo station I needed one more for good breathing. I made five steps and then just stop and tried to breath. Sometimes I could make just two steps and stop. Plus I had heavy bagpack and sank into the snow all the time. Great walk. At one moment I was thinking if I can lie down to the snow and wait for I dont know what. But can you imagine stand up with this damned heavy backpack which was more and more heavier? I had to walk and silently curse which stupid idea I had. This meteo station is in 3700m with amazing view on Kazbeg. We cooked dinner and we were thinking about next day. It was hard for me to say but I had to admit that on the top I cannot go because of my breathing, I felt good just probably I have lungs full of georgian wine or I dont knowJ. I needed one more day for acclimatize but we didn´t have. So, next day I stayed in meteo station and my czech colleague went alone early morning. Anyway I had nice day. In meteo station in the morning stayed just one guide and me. Guide came wake me up if I want tea. So, he prepared for me very nice breakfast. He didn´t know english than we had to talk in georgian or russian. I guess, I have better georgian than russian. We were sunbathing in front of building because was very nice weather. And he had idea if I can teach them (4 guides who work on this basic camp) english, that they will pay me. Actually it was good idea, I liked it. But idea as I have to climb to meteo station again and again, I changed very quickly my opinion. And because I waited all day for my colleague, I had idea to teach this guide while I was there. So at the end I joined pleasure and useful. And it was fun. Then others georgians came and I had the strongest chacha ever. My colleague successfully returned from the top after 11 hours totally exhausted but happy. And I could just jealous. The same day we went back to village. It was more terrible than climb up. Never ending trip when we had to go down. Oh my god! In one day I fell down because of stones three times.

Still it was amazing trip but! I have to go back and this mountain conquer.
                                              Libuše


23 May 2013


Rustavi – 22nd of May

Finally after almost 6 weeks of practice and training at the scout centre we went for the first bike trip with the 'Wednesday' group on the public road: 12 'bichebi' (boys) and 1 'gogo' (girl). The participants from the Wednesday group are aged between 12 and 16 years old. Before we went for our big trip we practiced how to ride in a straight line (erti khazi) without overtaking each other. (Which some of the participants forgot about as soon as we left the scout centre :)



After the usual registration - where we allocate bikes to the children - we left the scout centre and turned right over the railway bridge towards the  other railway bridge.





We made a pitstop at the new park in front of the Metalurgical Factory, this park is named after the Geyder Aliyev and has been recently renovated with help from Azerbydjan. After a refreshing dip in the fountain, we continued our trip to the main square in old Rustavi, 'Meria'.



We ended our trip by cycling through the park along the river. This is the park where the bikes that we're using for the bike project were meant to be used. But the the park is still under construction, so lucky us :)

It was 12 (challenging) kilometres through Rustavi with 13 young and energetic Georgians and I have to say that I'm really proud of them. It wasn't easy to keep them in one single line but everybody survived. They all passed the test and are ready for the next trip.

Special thanks to Wahid for smiling all the time and Dato and Luca for helping me translating form English into Georgian.

Tijs – EVS volunteer at GYE

Rustavi on Bikes – Scoutcentre Rustavi, Balanchivadze 9
Wednesdays 16.00 – 18.00 (12 to 16 years old)
Saturdays start between 11.00 and 13.00 (17 and older)

8 May 2013

EVS Film Festival: 'CITIZEN, YES YOU KANE'

Monday, 22 April. It seemed to be like an another normal day. Another calm day in our Rustavi. In one moment everything changed. With the arrival of the French volunteer, cameraman Clément, who came up with the idea to shoot a video for The European Voluntary Service Film Festival organized by the French National Agency. As 2013 is the ‘European Year of Citizens’ young people got opportunity to share their vision of citizenship  and exchange view points on civic engagement.
So, what is your idea about citizenship? What exactly citizenship means for you? From the small play with words volunteers from GYE created  the name of their video: CitizenSHEEP. Bee-e (or me-e)? Now just to find a costume of the sheep, get the main actors, take a couple of shots and create a final video … and our own big georgian contest can start!!!


The competition deadline was set for Monday, 22nd of April, midnight of the Central European Time. On Saturday, when the video was recorded on the internet, nobody believed that we can find more than 700 votes in two days. We tried to make the best, but still it seemed that there is no possibility to overtake Hungarian video which was on the first positon. In about six o'clock this video disappeared   from web pages with unclear reasons. It was the real beginning of the competition!!! Almost all GYE members began bombing their FB contacts with the link of that glorious video:

Dako (22 duben v 22:31)
400 vote yet :) more VOTE PLSSSSS
Liene (22 duben v 22:32)
yeah, already 400 . We need at least 170 votes more. Use all web browswers in your pc for voting. You can give more then one vote by using the same pc. :)

The votes were sent from around the world:
Alberto (22 duben v 23:35)
Voted. Good Luck!! and Regards from Spain.
Di-Yana (23 duben v 0:04)
Good luck from Croatia.... !!!
Tamuna Tsertsvadze (22 duben v 23:41)
This is the most international EVENT I have ever seen ! :))
You deserve to win it guys ! ! !

The georgian dream seemed to be so close, tension started to be in the air:
Liene (23 duben v 0:56)
Is there any limitation how old video can be?
Ekaterine (23 duben v 1:33)
How many votes we need? :)

People didn't stop to send their votes, despite the late hours of the morning:
Madis (23 duben v 1:29)
Past 700 votes, its amazing :D

And in the end we were so close that … :
Tamuna (23 duben v 1:52)
We are leading !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Laura (23 duben v 2:04)
We won
Thank you soooo much....
Who can sleep after this??? heheheheheh
WE WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

813 votes!!!! Only 14 votes ahead of the video, which appeared to be the favorite until the last moment! All this votes helped us to won the price of the Internet Aware Award - camera in the value of 250 € - and our movie will be screened in the European meeting “Video and Youth project : the Big Picture” in Montreuil (Paris), France.

Many thanks to all who shared, voted ... or just silently prayed. Our CitizenSHEEP drank for you on our afterparty!!!!!!

Here is the link for the video with english subtitles! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqsB00WR1OU&feature=youtu.be