Unlock the wold in Romania

My name is Giorgi Papashvili and i spent 5 month EVS in Romania. When I started my EVS, it was hard..  I was learning to be independent - how to survive by obtaining basic life skills, cooking, do some basic housework etc. 

At the beginning breaking the day routine was hard. After some time the situation was changing, for example my roommates moved to another flat and new people came. 

Active task implementation, and how without weekly parties, then the On Arrival Training which was so interesting, specially for me because I was alone from my country there. I met many people. I talked to many people and I learned many things.

This EVS was good for me, interesting and full of adventures. Camping in Romania was perfect. Thank you Valentine for the tent by the way. :)

Now I am back in Georgia. From here it is the same, but I realized that there I had more freedom..

I will remember my EVS in Romania. Thank you my hosting organisation - Asociatia EXPLORATOR.

EVS story from Latvia

Diana Uchumbegashvili: "As many of us know and have experienced, living in another country changes you forever. You will never be the same and will never see things the same way again. The joy of having spent time in another country is that you slowly become a part of it and bit-by-bit one of its people. Our attention to detail is heightened and we make a concerted effort to understand and fit in until we become one with our new location. This is just a little bit about my experience in my second home, Latvia. Honestly, I believe it's impossible to describe all the amazing things I got to do, learn, feel and experience here.. Long story short - This country has taken half of my heart and will always stay there".

Lets meet Gumbati

"Hide! Hide!
I heard. What? I don't know this word! I was looking at the young guy with very surprise face.

Hide — Let's go — he said again.

Ok, let's go.

We were walking up the hill. From the top you can see village and mountains all green. Gumbati, the village near to Tsalka when we were is small place where live around 100 families. Most of them moved here 20 years ago from Adjara region. During the summer when in Rustawi is incredible hot, in Gumbati temperature is more chill and you can be outside all day.

One of person which was moves here is Ira. I met her 3 months ago. She was participant in project: "Silence is not a gold” where I was helping. Few weeks ago she invited us to her village. To meet her pupils and motivate them to speak in English.

Ira is Georgian and English teacher at school. She and her parents open learning center, and they are helping kids with learning and prepare to the exams. This is also place where they are coming to meet each other and spending time. Actually besides playing field in the village is no place to go.

I was visiting this village with two volunteers from France. Lola and Mikio, which kids called Miki, because it was for them easier to use.

During this week we prepare activities, we told about our countries (Poland and France), we show few tips :” how to look for a job”, team buildings games and outdoor game in Gumbati. Kids from the village are amazing they were with us most of the time showing the neighborhood, taking us up to the hill, to the river, playing with us in volleyball and football. Even director of the school invite us for small supra when he was welcoming us in the village and took a toast for our friendship.

In previous week kids finish the school. One of the day, they decided to make goodbye party. Ira prepared for them small present. All of them get soap bubbles, and whole yard was full of them. Every young person get one big bottle full of magic liquid. And they start to playing, running, making bubbles in a thousand different ways. This is one of my favorite moment during this week. I will be miss this place and I hope see all of them again." Marta Polish volunteer.

Levani about his project in Romania!

Hi, I am Levani Shubitidze from Georgia. I did my EVS in Craiova, Romania. I participated in a blood donation campaign with a "Red Bracelet" group. 
https://www.facebook.com/redbracelet2club/
This experience has been amazing and unforgettable, I met so many talented, smart and open-minded people from different countries, we did together a very good job and also managed to enjoy our stay and have fun. We really lived like a small family. We traveled together around the country, also in Hungary.  Romanian people are very welcoming and I felt very comfortable there. This volunteering period is a great contribution to my future professional and personal life, I am returning to my country not only with stunning memories but also with better skills for life, new knowledge and most importantly, with big motivation to start a new better career. I am very thankful to the people who supported me before and during my volunteering time in this beautiful city.

“Share the opportunities” - My EVS experience in Latvia

Hello! My name is Beka Beriashvili, I’m from Georgia and from 05.08.2018 until 01.04.2019 (8 months) I lived and worked as a volunteer in Latvia, town of Balvi. My main workplace was Balvi Children and Youth Center, besides that depending on the needs of the project I also worked in Vilaka municipality, primarily at Vilaka School and several other places in the municipality.

My EVS project was about non-formal education, so as a volunteer my main tasks were to organize and execute different kinds of activities for the youth, the activities that would’ve been funny, interesting and informative for them, all connected to the main idea of non-formal education. Of course my responsibilities also included helping my co-workers to execute their own ideas and planned activities.

I started with outdoor activities, weather in August was fantastic and more or less it remained like that until mid-October. I organized football tournaments for the local youth, that helped me to get to know them better and to kinda “introduce” myself to the local community as a whole. Meanwhile our center also organized and carried out many fascinating events, activities and parties for locals. In October weather got worse, so my activities moved indoors. I’ve created several Kahoot questionnaires about sports and modern-day events and administered them at BBJC to local teens. With my co-workers help I’ve hosted several “Georgian days” during my EVS, mostly at BBJC but also outside the main workplace, Vilaka school and various local Youth Centers. On these national days I cooked some traditional dishes from our cusine, made presentations about Georgia, gave the local youth all kinds of information about my country, mostly touristic but also some history and alphabet (Yeah, people like our alphabet and they always asked me to write something, it was great :D ). On national days we always had a lot of fun. In parallel regime I started to go to Vilaka school on Mondays and with 1st graders and 7th graders assemble and program metal and plastic constructors of various type, size and shape. I think these activities were educational and productive for both - myself and the kids, you don’t get to see and assemble 500 EUR constructors everyday :). I remember only 1 day when we couldn’t assemble the vehicle in time, on any other day our work was a success.

Latvian kids are smart, talented and well-behaved (take note Georgia!) so I’m sure all of them have a bright future ahead. During my EVS occasionally I also had to do some digital stuff, creating diploma templates, banners and etc. To be honest it was nothing good, I don’t like what I’ve created but purely as a new experience doing them and learning something new with every try was really good, I wouldn’t have done it at home so thanks to my project for this opportunity.

Co-workers, the other volunteer and project coordinator now, I won’t get tired of writing how good they are, all of them. From my first day there it’s been “what can we do to make your life better” attitude towards me, they were very attentive and every time I asked something they always reacted immediately. On a personal level they are also great people, I’m very happy that I met them and know them personally now. I’m sure everyone who will go to Balvi as a volunteer under this project will have a great time, with the people who are part of it it’s guaranteed.

Lastly I would like to thank to everyone who made possible for me to be part of my project, to both organizations. A special thanks to my Latvian project coordinator and the people who work at BBJC. I’m also grateful to other people in Balvi and Vilaka municipalities with whom I had a professional relationship in my time there. It was a very special chapter of my life and will remain like that forever.