Hello everyone, My name is Annemarijn and I am a Dutch ESC volunteer in GYE in Rustavi, Georgia for four months. Right now I have been here two months and I am going to tell you about my amazing experience so far!
In these last months I have had so much fun working at GYE. My colleagues are really nice and we always have a good time at the office. At times we play games with each other or just talk in our work breaks.
I also have drawing club for kids. The club is before school at 11 o’clock. We usually search for a drawing video on YouTube and go through the process step by step. The kids don’t really speak English so we communicate throughout hand gestures or someone translates between us. This can sometimes be difficult because there can be easily some miscommunication, but it is also a fun challenge and I learned that you can come a long way with just hand gestures.
Four times a week I go
to a kindergarten in Rustavi with one other volunteer and we teach the kids
some English by playing games or watching short movies and reflect on them. The
kids can be very energetic and a bit too much at times, but they are also very
sweet and really enjoy our lessons. So all together it is a good experience!
Two times a week I
have Georgian lesson with an amazing teacher. We practiced what we learned the
last time, learn something new and laugh a lot while doing it. Georgian is a
difficult language, but I do really like learning it. Because you need the
language much, you see your own progress very good and gives me motivation to
continue.
On occasion we have
some Erasmus+ Youth Exchanges or other types of projects, for example a
Christmas market or setting up summer camps, and we all help to prepare and run
them. These projects can be in collaboration with the Scout Center in Rustavi.
Then it is even more fun because we get to work and hang out with all the
volunteers.
My apartment is a
1-minute walk from the GYE office. I live with two other volunteers, one also
from GYE and the other from the Scout Center. In the beginning some of us had
to get used to living together, but right now it is really nice. The other
volunteers are in the apartment across the hall from ours, so we hang out a lot
and have so much fun! I really like everyone here and have made some really
good friends. Not always everyone gets along, but we try to talk about it and
fix it. So it doesn’t become a problem and up to now it worked.
I am truly enjoying the variety of nationalities I have met, because you learn
more about the way things go in other countries, the culture and some national
traditions. Even games or food can be so different, but so much fun to try!
Georgia is such a
beautiful country, the nature, people and of course the food! I never thought I
would feel so much at home here, as I do. Georgia really got a place in my
heart and I will definitely visit it more often after my stay here. I am so
very grateful for this amazing opportunity and know that I will remember this
for the rest of my life!
