First impressions of French volunteers

by Marine Helfer

April, the 2^nd: arrival during the night, after a fifteen hours travel… We really didn’t know what will happen the first days, so we felt excited, a bit afraid and curious. But we were especially tired!

After a good night in our new beds, new rooms, new flat, we unpacked the 40 kilos of luggage we brought with us. 

Actually, the welcome and the help of other volunteers have been very helpful since the beginning of our adventure! All we needed we could ask them, they were available and so lovely. That’s why the transition between France and Georgia hasn’t been as hard as we imagined.

First shopping, first cooking, first walk around the city… Everything came quite naturally. The only thing not so natural was to speak English. As French people, our level of English is for the moment quite ridiculous but of course in 6 months we’ll be bilingual... Or maybe trilingual with the Georgian classes?! We’re looking forward to these classes to learn some words which can be helpful in the everyday life. “Pardon”, “Au revoir”, “Non merci”. There are so many words I would like to remember in order to integrate into the local culture and to be able to understand more or less all it’s written in the street. For the moment, “Gamarjoba” and “Madloba” are the only words I can say in Georgian. Better than nothing…    

For the moment, my activities in the association are only Sapovnela and a Spanish class so I think it’s not enough to give me a real picture of GYE. I can only say that I’m glad to have a lovely mentor and that the French evening was a good idea because it was a good way to integrate ourselves and to present quickly our country to others. Now, I’m looking forward to discovering our new country, Georgia.    

THE BOY AND THE WITCH

by Ioseba Amatriain Losa

Once upon a time there was a boy who wanted to keeptraveling around the world, meeting new
people and experiencing new cultures. Lets call him “Soso”. He had been in his little town for
almost a year, and even though he was doing many things there and was comfortable surrounded by
his family and friends, he decided that it was not what he really wanted, and he decided to change.
He had been looking for a job for a long time, but a very bad witch in his country didn't allow
young people to get a job easily. He said to himself that this powerful witch was not going to decide
his future, so he looked for a voluntary job far away from his small town where he could get rid of
the witch. He tried to go to some different countries, but it was in Georgia that he found a lovely
organization to spend time working for young people.
When he arrived where he was going to live for a while, a very quiet and peaceful city, he felt
straight away that Georgian people are very warm and hospitable. He received a very nice welcome
and he met a lot of people who were going to be hisfriends and colleagues for the next months. He
felt very lucky to be surrounded by people from Georgia and other countries around the world. He
knew that it was going to be a very good experience. He learnt a lot from all of them.
He felt very confident in this new experience. He had traveled around the world and lived in many
places already. He thought it was going to be easy to fit in that new environment. It was not. The
first month was not easy for him. Everything was different than other experiences he had, and very
different from his own culture. The main issue was  the language. He had to start from scratch. It
was a very strange language for him. New alphabet, new logic, and above everything, new sounds
which he could not even make. At the beginning, he was afraid to go out to do anything. He could
not communicate which put him on edge. But he started to learn, and after a while he was quite
independent and was able to do anything he wanted.
He was happy around there. He enjoyed all the activities he was doing. Everything gets easier if you
are surrounded by nice people who support you. Of course, life there was not as easy as he thought
it would be, but time flies and now he only remembers the positive things he learnt and all the
anecdotes and funny situations he experienced. Everything became good memories.
One day, he received a good offer to move to another country. It was a very interesting job where
he could keep learning and improving himself, both personally and professionally. Before he knew
the position was for him, he did not want to make the decision to leave. It was better to be rejected
than to have to decide to leave Georgia. The good/bad news came, and he decided that it was an
opportunity he could not let go.
For the next few days, he had very weird feelings. Was he happy? Was he sad? He did not know.
The only thing he knew for sure was that he did notwant to leave anybody in the lurch. Finally,
everybody understood he had to leave. He thanked his friends, colleagues, and everybody he had
met. It had been a very good experience and he would remember it forever.
The little boy packed his stuff and he started his new adventure. He was glad the bad witch was not
standing in his way again...
The End

How Georgia taught me to appreciate small things

by Anna Cwynar

I woke up with the feeling that I had overslept. I slowly opened my eyes and noticed that it’s seemed dark outside. Is it possible that it’s still early morning? No, according to my phone it was 10:20am. Time to get up. But why is it so dark? Maybe…

I opened the curtains as fast as I could and realized that I’m right. NO sun!! Clouds are everywhere. And I could even noticed a tiny puddle close to my window. So it must have been raining during the night. Oh! What a pity that I didn’t hear the rain. Maybe that’s why I slept so well: the sound of raindrops makes me feel relaxed.

I would have never imagined how much I could love the rain.No, in Poland it was the opposite – waking up with the sun was like a promise of a good day. But here, in Rustavi, on a semi-desert, when the rain comes only once in 2 months (at least during the winter time) it made me so happy! Less dust in my room! No cleaning on Saturday! Taking a walk with truly fresh air!

I went to the kitchen and asked my flat mate whether she has noticed that it was raining.

-Yes, she replied. It made me so happy. “I want to know, have you ever seen the rain” she hummed quietly.

I started thinking about the role of water in our Georgian life in general:

·         No water more or less once in a week.

·         Boiling hot/freezing cold shower every day.

·         Bathroom and kitchen full of water bottles (in case there is no water)

·         Washing machine crying and begging for water – Hee haw, hee haw, hee haw!

Information from someone: “No water again” often totally changes our day.  Not only our plans (“How can I clean when there is no water”), but even moods are dependent on it (“I woke up and there was no water, so I went to bed again”).

One can say that living in Rustavi isn’t very comfortable. Yes, that’s true. Sometimes it’s not. But it makes us appreciate the things that we wouldn’t notice in our normal European life.

How could I experience the pleasure of a warm shower without my stay in Georgia? Would I notice that having a water is a luxurious thing and not something obvious? How about the rain: could I even imagine that it would make me simply happy?

Number’s Changing

by Edita Štulcaitė

Der Blogeintrag wird dieses Mal eher persönlich ausfallen. Während der Adventszeit fiel mir zunehmend auf, dass ich mich hier fast genauso viel mit dem Kennenlernen Europas beschäftige wie mit dem Kennenlernen Georgiens bzw. des Kaukasus. Selbstverständlich hat es einerseits mit meiner von Georgien erst einmal unabhängigen Situation zu tun: dem Mischmasch aus Litauen und Deutschland. So versuche ich während des Aufenthalts hier womöglich verstärkt, Kontakt mit beiden Seiten aufrechtzuerhalten, sei es durch direkte Kommunikation, sei es durch das, was die weite Welt des Internets so hergibt (es lebe die kritisch-satirische Art deutscher Fernsehsendungen und Alinos Orlovos, Ryčiai Zemkauskai…), durch Bücher und Filme (danke an das Internationale Filmfestival Tbilisi für meine erste filmische Begegnung mit David Sieveking). Nicht zuletzt ist es auch der Tatsache zu verdanken, dass ich die Uni immer noch nicht hinter mir gelassen habe.

Andererseits hat die schwerwiegende europäische Dimension in meiner kleinen Welt in Rustawi mit meinen hiesigen Aktivitäten und insbesondere mit anderen Freiwilligen zu tun, die mich mit einigen neuen Blickwinkeln vertraut machen. Bereitet man sich auf die Sitzungen des Human Rights Clubs vor, bemüht man sich, das nicht immer so einfache und heile Europa mit ihren Konzepten von Dingen wie Freiheit etc. zu verstehen, um diese dann in einer gemischten Runde diskutierbar zu machen. Wie ich letztens bereits erwähnt habe, möchte man außerdem nicht immer so rüberkommen, als würde man ständig auf irgendwelche Schwachstellen Georgiens hindeuten, also bemüht man sich durch zusätzliche Beispiele aus Europa aufzuzeigen, dass es nirgendwo nur Schwarz und Weiß gibt. Und auch um den Deutschunterricht etwas knuspriger zu machen (ja, es wäre schade, wenn das tatsächlich nur ein Unterricht ohne Unterhaltungswert wird), bemüht man sich, zumindest manchmal, die Sprache nicht gänzlich aus dem kulturellen Kontext zu nehmen… Manchmal tauchen dabei gar sentimentale Gefühle über Dinge auf, von denen man das nicht erwartet hätte, zum Beispiel, wenn man für die Teilnehmer Weihnachtsplätzchen bäckt oder wenn man in ihren Gesichtern die Faszination über den (geräuschvollen) Christkindlesmarkt entdeckt. Oder wenn man im English Conversation Club die Architektur Litauens präsentiert und sich anschließend fragt: Wann?

Der Höhepunkt des Europäischen war womöglich, wie angedeutet, die Weihnachtszeit. Da wir, die Freiwilligen, überaus motivierte Menschen sind, haben wir unsere georgischen Mitarbeiter am 24. Dezember zu einem weihnachtlichen Festmahl1eingeladen. Dafür sollten Vertreter jedes Nationalstaates etwas „Typisches“ vorbereiten. Am Ende hatten wir balandėliai (man kann sich streiten, aus welchem Land diese letztendlich kommen: gekocht von einer Tschechin, aber üblich im ganzen (ost- und ostmittel-)europäischen Raum), Kohl- und Paprikasuppe (aus der Slowakei), einen Karpfen (Slowakei), Kartoffelsalat (wiederum ganzer ost- und ostmitteleuropäischer Raum), rote Beete Salat, spanischen Käse und Schinken, Spinatrollen, unzählbare Sorten von Kuchen und Weihnachtsplätzchen und noch einiges aus der georgischen Küche.

Während der Weihnachtstage kam dann Zeit für mal bessere, mal schlechtere (Weihnachts-)Filme aus Tschechien und der Slowakei und für unsere nächste Exkursion – dieses Mal war unser Marshrutka-Reiseziel David Gareja (Dawit Garedscha), ein Ort in der hügeligen Wüste im tiefsten Osten des Landes, direkt an der aserbaidschanischen Staatsgrenze, die wir von der Spitze eines der Hügel betrachteten. Nichts Außerordentliches, diese Grenze, nur weiße Säulchen, die die Wüste in the middle of nowhere aufteilen. Jenseits und diesseits der weißen Pünktchen die gleiche Weite und Adler im Himmel. Zu David Gareja selbst: Dass der Ort als eine der wichtigsten Sehenswürdigkeiten Georgiens gilt, liegt daran, dass es eigentlich eine Höhlenklosterstadt ist und dass dieses Kloster bereits im 6. Jahrhundert gegründet wurde. Außerdem hat es als ein (ehemaliger) Grund für Grenzenkonflikt zwischen Georgien und Aserbaidschan eine große Bedeutung.

Und zum Schluss: ein frohes, erfolgreiches (in Aspekten, die euch persönlich am wichtigsten sind) neues Jahr an alle, bis bald!

1Georgische Weihnachtszeit beginnt am Silvestertag, dieser gilt hier außerdem als das wichtigste Fest, und dauert bis Mitte Januar an. Die Reihenfolge der festlichen Zeit: Silvester, georgisch-orthodoxe Weihnachten und schließlich das georgisch-orthodoxe Neue Jahr. Während dieser Zeit erwartet jeder Gäste, so wurden meine tschechische Kollegin und ich mal zu Besuch unmittelbar nach Silvester eingeladen. Solltet ihr mal von jemandem in Georgien zur weihnachtlichen Supra eingeladen werden, zögert nicht!

Mochalisebi Rustavshi

by Eva Čajková

Seven new volunteers rolled up to organization Georgian Youth for Europe in Rustavi on October 1st so they sumed up the number of volunteers there to the number of nine (including one girl with nine month's experience of EVS service and one Peace Corps Volunteer). We are living in two flats next door, everybody has his own room, as promised. Moreover the apartments are in the same building as our office. Thus all seven of us EVS volunteers are fully occupied by each other. Together. All the time. Briefly check your secondary school math knowledge, combinatory, to get quantity of relationships which we have here. 28. It is not possible that something piquant won't appear or as the case may be something even sharper...

Before we left our countries, our sending organization equiped us with various adaptive techniques and reminded us of: culture shock, non-formal education, bla bla, ble ble. One of such an adaptive techniques coul.d be applied on relations as well. First days we are sucking energy of that buddies, we are pumping passively their experience, picking up information about their past life (no doubt: it's necessary to get to know everybody, get under one's skin if we are supposed to spend one year together), everything is so fresh, so amazing, so many new interesting people which you simply want to include to your life! Everybody is so spontaneously creative, so many deep ideas, they have lived in every possible place all aroud the world. Wow!

Together we are exploring the mystery of this curious coutry. "Hey, are you also scared of children who call adult males 'mama'? And do you think, that toilet paper is as exotic as bananas that it should cost as much as gold − why, the hell, is it so expensive? And for that matter the milk of cows which are grazing everywhere (hard to say what they can find on that parched ground) is expensive too. Does some magnate monopolize the pumping of milk through some huge pipes running to Russia? The situation is exactly like from a scene of a utopic novel. All of us are Alices in a Wonderland. Together we are writing a story.

Sharing the first impression with people who came from similar conditions is irreplaceable. One can feel like it's not possible to adapt here, and may even feel like he/she does not want to do it. The language sounds... let's say very unusual; ordinary european appearence makes more attention than one would like to. When the water comes to visit our neighbourhood, the gas packs its luggage and takes also the electricity on a honeymoon. The basic stereotypes of behavior are disappearing, one can't understand georgian time measurement, not even why he/she is paying half a lari for a kilo of tomatos once and second time it's for two and half lari; working mechanism of the world get deteriorate completely when one realize, that the internet no longer servs humans, but humans serve to the internet. In these times, it's really mamazing that everybody is in tune and swearing on the same high frequency. As all of them shared an elation in the biginning, they could share disappointment of trifles later. But still, it's fun because these are just a trivialities.
Later the relaxing phase comes, when you don't think that it's impossible to identify with some cultural issues: moreover you realize that it's somehow necessary if you want to have a great exciting year in Georgia! After a few weeks you are already inside ordinariness, no more feeling like an alien and it's high time to start your "georgian" life. This phase, I'm defining subsequently: when the taxi's or marschutka's speed is under 100 km/h you begin to be nervous why the driver is dawdling like this, we aren't on a school trip, yeah? You don't care than that the same journey would take one hour in Europe, of this phase we are in Georgia now and here it should last only twenty minutes. The second signal is when you start to negotiate prices on markets using russian-georgian-english and you are insanely happy when you agree price from thirty to twenty eight.

Nevertheless in this phase of becoming independent we are starting to be more self-critical and critical to others as well: still we are together all the time, we know − seemingly − everything about families, studies, travels, we have created an image of one another. We dare say we know others, for now we are exhausted of each other, after overcoming some of the prejudices, images, obstacles negative or possitive we still need more time, also to get to know whether or not our characters suitable. So far there is nothing to offer reciprocally. It's becoming boring; prayer wheel, mirror, urge of private space, no new inputs, no more flow of new information, not even our time spent together is so cool, so rare: here we are with space for creating conflicts!

Suddenly you perceive impulses somehow more itensively as if the flu strikes you, more annoying then before, that one speaks too loudly, this one is histerical, that one is too assertive, this one too little on the other hand, that one used to eat my bread, this one wants to quit parties soon, that one is too wild, this one is hopelessly nice, ...

To have On Arrival Training after two months of volunteering sounds quite awkward and ridiculous to me and most people agree. But Georgia is penetrated with surprises, so that it is not so big surprise when something surprises you un/pleasantly. It's not completely nonsensical to participate in such a training after you have gathered some experience, you are able to name the problems you are facing daily but still have no idea how to handle it. You already know what to ask for and what is more you find out that there is kind of "normative" set of problems which European volunteers are sufering from in Georgia (and Armenia and Azerbaijan). Trainers know exactly, which solution they can offer to us and how to present this deals in "european way" to us. Everything is clarifying, the atmosphere so familiar, the shower with constant water temperature refreshes the spirit of individual but also the spirit of old good volunteers from Rustavi.

The resurrection of the old atmosphere is returning: they are kind of family to me already, they've really got under my skin, simply I count on them in good and bad as well. Do you know that feeling if somebody is so close to you so that anything he does, fleeting glance, one word, small gesture can make you extremely happy or on the contrary extremely sad? So that's how I feel about my co-volunteers − my family.