The food here is very delicious and weird at the same time. Especially the cheese, it’s so salty. I guess we should get used to it. My favorite dish (I think I would manage to feed on this every day) is khinkali with mushrooms. This traditional dish (many countries have very similar looking dumplings, but who cares) is so so so good! Khachapuri isn’t my favorite, but if you know a good place to get it, it’s pretty good. In general, I love how Georgians buy most vegetables in bazari. It sounds like a healthy diet, but when supra time comes, you can’t not overeat.
Talking about supra… I love how Georgia has deep traditions for it and how accurate are they until now. I guess every supra is different, I have only participated in 3. So many more coming! What I noticed (and what is completely different from Lithuania) is that Georgians have this very warm way of greeting people. A simple handshake apparently doesn’t
do the job. :D It’s really heartwarming to come to a country and actually feel welcomed. We had this fun (and of course educational) experience of grape picking. The owner of the place took pictures of us for memories and after all the work gave us some wine to taste. It was made from the grapes that previous volunteers picked. So you get the idea –Georgians know how to show hospitality.
But I think the most important part is the people that I get to hang out with. I don’t know if it’s just me, but I feel like everyone more or less understands that every volunteer is different and accepts those differences. Most of the time I feel positivity coming from people and that just gives me inspiration. No pressure, only your own initiative, no strict deadlines (Georgia in general is pretty chill country when it comes to tome management). And a lot of free time for your own improvement. Travelling, learning Georgian language, simply exploring Rustavi, whatever comes to your mind, whatever you desire.
I usually spend my free time hanging out with flatmates and other volunteers. A movie night is not a rare event in our flat. We even made a movie list that many people who come over fill out. We pretty often keep in touch with our fellow volunteers from on-arrival training (which was great by the way, both educational and partying parts). I didn’t have a lot of chances to travel yet, but we have big plans ahead! I had a chance to explore Tbilisi a bit with some of our fellow volunteers. What left the biggest impression so far was the monument called “The chronicles of Georgia”. It’s huge and very detailed! Basically, you can see the entire history of Christianity in Georgia.
In GYE office I lead a self-expression and English conversation club. I also take care of monthly newsletter called “GYE bulldozer”. I’m still wondering who thought of that name. :D I spend my days researching ideas for this beautiful initiative that me and Goda (another Lithuanian volunteer) are responsible for. It’s called “Humans on Rustavi”, go like the page on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/humansofrustavi. To me, a pretty closed of person from a small town, this responsibility was challenging at first. You know, coming up to strangers and starting a conversation in a foreign language isn’t easy. But since I’m very into learning about human communication, that’s a perfect practice ground for me.
So, after spending 2 months in Rustavi, I started to seriously like it. Some say that it’s a boring city, but with the right people you can make it fun. Now all the confusion that you get when you first arrive is fading away, so I basically feel like home more and more. I’m sure so many more experiences are awaiting and so many more people to meet. I’m exited to learn and share my own experiences with Georgia!
Peace, love and best wishes,
Erika
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