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)