Getting away from Rustavi

After some weeks at home, we totally had to get away from Rustavi. That's why we decided to go for a camp in the forest near the cemetary in Tbilisi. At 11 o'clock, we met in front of the city hall and waited with Illo and Awto for the rented marshrutka.

In the early afternoon, we reached the place, tired of carrying the heavy tents and other camp stuff up the hill. The fact that is was raining quite a lot didn't make it more easy to build the tents. And as if somebody was making fun of us, it stopped raining as soon as we finished the work.

But nevertheless, our mood stayed good and we started to chill and have a small supra with Nikka's good home-made wine and some Georgian food. As a dessert, we smoked some tasty shisha.

Full and happy, we moved to the fire place and drank some of Awto's gorgeous self-made cognac.

For me, this was the time for a nap, and I was on stand-by for some hours. When I woke up again, we made shashlik followed by another nap. The next time I woke up, it was already quite late and we spent a nice evening together around the fire with many jokes and a great atmosphere.

The next morning, after a so-so night outside, I wake up next to Villi, and Nikka is joining us to prepare breakfast consisting of delicious Thai-noodles from the package. Ori, who couldn't succeed in gathering our interest in her feelings the other night, didn't know if she should be angry at us or not. She decided that there was no point and tried to re-gain Cristy as a friend, which ended up Ori chasing Cristy through the forest.

We spent the day chilling in the forest and eating the rest of our food. In the evening, the marshrutka came to pick us up.

All in all it was a short but sweet camp, and most of us would have liked to stay longer.

Joyku

European Youth Parlement - Rustavi 1st regional session

This first regional session was held on the 7-9th may week-end. 

I was glad to be a part of it as the only 'european union child' !

So what is this exactly? 

EYP sessions, whether they are regional or national, are runned in every european country (and not only european union as you can see).

The main goal is to have a 'get together' of young, interested, motivated and very active people, to think and produce a resolution (enounced problems with solutions) about one given topic (related to georgia and europe as we were in regional session) - so that we can increase our knowledge, understanding and activeness (if that is even a word?), and make new friends of course.

We had a lot of non formal games (even just games) to increase our team-building and sense of competition. And in the end, we didn't sleep much but we had the best time.

All of it, was of course going on in english. Lucky for me, we went to Rustaveli cinema for a one hour movie (georgian/russian) and also the closing ceremony (the most formal part of it all) was in georgian language.

I got myself included in the DEVE (for development) committee, thinking and discussing very actively about the following given topic : 

 

How can Georgian youth be encouraged to increase opportunities for civic activism among other youth in their respective communities and especially in regions? What kind of experience should we share from developed European Societies about youth involvement in civil society and regional development?

 

The DEVE committee was composed of girls only, aged 14-22 (errr, that's me again!). I am also glad to announce that we did a very good job, having our resolution passed with the most 'in favor' votes.

As for me, I got to learn a lot as well about georgian youth (which is kind of essential when you are a volunteer in an organisation called "georgian youth for europe" ;-) ). 

The most interesting part was to my opinion, that we would freely share our opinions, but always in a respectful environment. Some things I didn't understand how it works exactly, during the general assembly for example, and the thing I regret a little is that our resolution will just stay as it is now. Maybe I should have a look over, see if we can make some things happen for real!

They say that after one session you become more or less heavily addicted. I sure did!

Written by Mary. Pics by Sophie.

Announcement of the unique Cooking Club Cook Book (CCCB)

You've been looking for the right cooking book for your needs? You don't want to spend money for this? You think that most cooking books are written in a boring way? And anyway, most of them are too big and heavy?

Well, your quest has just finished, because the official CCCB has just been released and is free to download, just click here.

And feel free to write your comments underneath this post :)

Joyku Stroyku

The hike we don't talk about

What to do on this beautiful weekend? There are only 5 of us left, one is actually in Turkey and one is busy showing her mother around who came to visit her. So the rest of us, Villi, Irena and me, were wondering where we could go this Saturday. Irena comes up with the idea of hiking to the cross up the hill near Mtskheta, where should be a sect waiting for the end of the world. Sounds interesting enough, and besides, the view from that hill is supposed to be marvellous.

We go to Tbilisi Didube bus station to catch the Marshrutka going to Mtskheta, and at the junction where the minibus leaves the mainroad to head Georgia's former capital, we get off and continue the main road by foot. After the hill with the Jvari church, we turn right and follow a small path through some bushes. We are quite sure that this path leads to the hill with the cross. We even see the cross from far, but we estimate that we can reach it within two hours.

Half an hour later, we find ourselves surrounded by hedges and trees, no path in sight whatsoever, and we are fighting with the mean needles of the bushes. We are fighting our way through this needle monster, going smaller hills up and down, with no cross in sight.

As we reach the top of a bigger hill, we see that the cross hasn't come closer, but now at least we see it from another side. Damn.

Soon, we reach a path what you can almost call a road. Well, compared to the bushes before, it feels like a highway. We meet one local, but this guy is not very talkative and pretends not to know how to get to the cross. Although we really can't believe him, we have no choice. We try one way out, but after a while we see that this is not the good way.

At this moment, we decide that we won't make it to the cross today, and we are going back to the main road to hitch hike to Tbilisi and have lunch at the Racha restaurant in the city center.

Joyku

Experiencing Georgia

Hey! If you open today's (11.03.2011.) newspaper "Georgia Today", you will find there article about us - EVS volunteers in Rustavi! You can check "Georgia Today" electronic version or just read it here:

Maybe you’ve seen them – on the street handing out flyers, conducting environmental campaigns in the market using gestures and a Georgian dictionary to explain themselves, or maybe you’ve seen them in schools, kindergartens and even prisons holding English, French and German lessons. There are currently eleven active young people – European Voluntary Service (EVS) volunteers – who, with support from their host organization Georgian Youth for Europe, are making life in Rustavi more colorful.

Georgian Youth for Europe (GYE) has been working in the city of Rustavi for the last five years and is a voluntary education service for children, young people and adults working with children and youth. The organization works largely on youth information; and non-formal, after-school and environmental education; but it is also active in the field of international cooperation – holding youth exchanges, participating in a range of trainings, seminars and conferences, as well as sending and hosting EVS volunteers.

The European Commission’s (EC) Youth in Action program gives young people from Europe and neighboring countries the opportunity to travel the region and engage in a range of activities, including youth exchanges, voluntary service, joint projects and trainings. The EC covers volunteers’ travel expenses, accommodation, food and even some pocket money for personal expenses. Anyone aged 18 – 30 with the willingness and readiness to experience other countries and their cultures can take part in the program. They must however be motivated, eager to learn and willing to share their experiences with other volunteers and their hosts. Most importantly – the volunteers are not taking part in the program to earn money, but to improve themselves and to bring a valuable contribution to their host countries.

Here in Rustavi, you can find young people from six different European countries – Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, France and Luxembourg – working with GYE. Some of them have been here a couple of months, some already for half a year, but no matter how long a time they have spent in Georgia, they have one aim – to enlarge the horizons of Rustavi’s inhabitants by sharing their knowledge, culture and vision, and at the same time learning about the local people, their way of life and their traditions.

The volunteers have launched some great activities – during the Rustavi City celebrations they invited residents to leave positive messages to their city on a poster or marked in chalk on the pavement, and organized a rope pulling competition. On December 3 – The International day of People with Disabilities – the volunteers sold homemade bijouterie and sweets to collect money for Rustavi Disability Centre. The volunteers are actively involved in GYE’s work – including project planning and writing. Some hold art classes in the local kindergarten, some lead sports activities in Rustavi social centre, some are assisting language teachers in local schools, sharing modern teaching techniques and providing everyday support.

“In school, we try to encourage the kids to speak English. We talk about things they are interested in - sometimes more serious things, sometimes not. They love to play so we we’ve devised a load of games and quizzes that encourage them to practice their English. Together we are having lots of fun!” says Ewa Mras, a volunteer from Poland.

Orinta Kelpрaitл from Lithuania spends most of her week in the Youth Initiative Studio youth centre, teaching children how to make jewelry and giving English classes. “The children are my main motivation to work,” she says, “they want to learn things that they can’t study in school. I really enjoyed the week when we took photographs with them – I helped them to capture moments and was a model when needed, at the end of it all we held a great exhibition for the kids, their families and other local residents. When we were preparing for the International day of People with Disabilities, all the children donated their handmade jewelry to the jumble-sale.”

French volunteer, Marie-Anais Vauttier has established an environmental protection team in Rustavi which works to raise local people’s awareness of environmental issues like recycling and waste reduction.

The volunteers enjoy learning about Georgian culture, traditions, food and language. While on one hand they are engaged in a lot of teaching, they are all also studying Georgian too. Food is another great opportunity for the volunteers and their hosts to share – every week the volunteers and their Georgian friends come together to cook common dinner. The recipes are as diverse as the company – starting from Polish onion soup and French pudding, and ending with Spanish tortillas and Georgian khinkali.

Some of the volunteers are taking dance classes to be able dance with their Georgian friends at parties and in restaurants. “We were expecting something easy and relaxing, but we soon realized that Georgian dances are far from easy. Luckily, our teachers have a great sense of humor so we never get bored. They even forgive us when our moves are too ‘Egyptian-like’.　We will never be able to dance like Georgians, but we love it anyway!” says Cristina Kroon from Estonia.

Joe Hermann, a volunteer from Luxembourg, told Georgia Today that he decided to come to Georgia because he wanted to see something “completely” different. “Neighboring countries have different nature and traditions, but still it is very similar to my country. When you have a chance to stay for several months in a country you don’t know a thing about? I think it is a real adventure and great challenge.”

If you want to find out more about what the volunteers in Rustavi are up to you can follow their blog at www.evsrustavi.blogspot.com or log on to GYA’s website at www.gye.ge. And remember, the opportunity to travel, gain experience and learn another language is not only open to European citizens but also to youngsters from neighboring countries like Georgia as well!

Editor’ Note: Zane Abelite-Medne is a volunteer from Latvia. She has been in Georgia for nine months and will stay for one more. She finished her bachelor’s degree in Public Relations and Communication two years ago.