There
is a light somewhere..
Sveiki (Hello), My name is
Tamar and I’m from Georgia, the country of legends. I was doing my EVS in the
kindergarten of Ligatne Municipality, Latvia. My work was based on supporting
teachers with kids and teaching the English language as well. So, I have had to
organize different kinds of activities. Though, it was not easy to take
dissimilar lessons every day, but children were very favourable about me, I was
feeling lots of love from them, support from other teachers and this was
increasing my motivation to do everything for them.
When I applied for the project,
I had only little information about Ligatne, but now I know that it is a place
with an amazing nature and incredibly kind or warm-hearted people. Finding out
that Georgia is like another home-country for lots of Latvians, was astonishing
for me. Moreover, some of them even know little Georgian and sing our folk
songs.
The main reasons why I have
decided to join this project and arrive in Latvia, were: to share my
experience; getting new knowledge from new people, new working environment;
exploring new cultures, not only Latvian, but travelling in another countries
as well, comparing every culture/people to each other and finding similarities
or differences between them. Besides, I think that everybody should come out
from their “shell” even once in their life-time. At first, in order to discover
yourself, your inner universe and then the outer world. You aware that it’s a
break-through of your “comfort zone”, and sometimes you are scared, but yes:
“We all want things to stay the same. Settle for living in
misery because we're afraid of change, of things crumbling to ruins… the real trap is getting attached to
anything. Ruin is a gift. Ruin is the road to transformation.” – Elizabeth
Gilbert; Eat, Pray, Love
And participating in such a
great project is the best chance to transform in a better way. I always wanted
to live alone for some time, because I think it has lots of advantages. And due
to this project I really experienced to live all alone, had “a room of my own” or a private space, and maybe I was not
writing fiction but in that loneliness I became more awared about myself, grew
personally and spiritually (“A woman must
have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction” – Virginia Woolf;
A Room of One’s Own). How is my life, I saw more about it there in Latvia,
than in Georgia. And step-by-step, I started to create a sketch in my brain; a
sketch about what I wanted / did not want and what I really need.. As for other
challenges, of course it was the climate and weather, but at last, I got used
to it and now I know that I can stand even such coldness as -25 degrees, and
the strongest wind which I have ever seen.
I’ve got lots of experiences.
Interrelation with local people became more and more interesting, even from the
first day of my arrival. As it seemed, most of Latvians are well-awared about
our problems connected with Russia, but I was also giving some information to others
who had no idea about that and then I was feeling their support to Georgia. Relationships
with other volunteers helped me to learn how to be more opened to others, more
awared of my own culture. “On-Arrival” and “Mid-Term” trainings were very
productive and helpful to understand what skills I should have improved by
myself, and inspired me new ideas, new initiatives. I learnt how to work with
people of different nationalities and this was an indispensable experience for
me. Also, it should be noted that I joined the local choir, was singing Latvian
songs and was very lucky I had chance to participate in the greatest Latvian
Song and Dance Festival, then was our tour to Poland, and I really got oodles
emotions and unforgettable memories due to them. 
As for travelling.. To go on
trip with others is a good idea, but then you become assured, that if you want
to see more, and gain more impressions, you should travel alone. So, I decided
to be more adventurous and yeah, I was travelling all alone as in Latvia as out
of it, as much as I could. My dreams were coming true like one after another and
I still can’t believe in that reality. Everything was like dreams within a
dream. Wandering alone was not easy, but I became more self-confident, my lots
of fears are already overcame, and I feel stronger than before. I had to
interrelate with people of different cultures, backgrounds and it helped me to
widen my world-view, break some stereotypes etc. The roads teach you a lot about yourself, and sometimes you can
see the whole world even in the pond made by rain..
I’m really lucky I had a chance
to be a part of such a great experience that is called EVS, and to have such an
amazing people around me. Yes, I’ve had bad days there as well, but Latvian sky
is incredibly amazing.. While it’s dark
or night, there is an amazing, strange, colourful light somewhere, in the brink
of the sky. It can cure all your sadness, even in the coldest winter or the
loneliest days. Thus, it means I really do love Latvia, it became my another home-country.
This everything was like an adventure, more in myself, then in the outer world.
Living in Latvia was a very light spot on my life and I’m very grateful for it.
Liels
paldies par visu, Latvija!
Since 2013 NGO “Sigulda Alternative education” invites volunteers for the EVS to enrich our daily life in the organisations and city. Tamar Tkhelidze was participating in Erasmus+ Youth mobility strategic project “EVS 4 sustainable life” (2017-2-LV02-KA135-0001675) in Ligatne municipality kindergarten. The project aim was to involve youngsters from the countries with a high level of unemployment or social exclusion in mean-full volunteering service for one year. In that way Tamar gained work and life experience, get introduction in Latvian pre-school educational system. Her daily EVS was assisting to teachers in the kindergarten – helping to organise daily activities and teach English for children and teachers. Tamar left us methodical material of teaching English for teachers and other volunteers. We can see now that children in age of 5-6 years can understand foreign language.
By the way.. the idea that foreigner should teach English in the
kindergarten comes from Georgia where Ligatne’s director Gunita Liepiņa saw a
person in Georgian kindergarten talking with children only in English. J
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