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MOVING TO GEORGIA: MY FIRST EXPERIENCES!

Moving to Georgia: my first experiences!

At the start of September I moved to Georgia to volunteer at the International Scout Center in Rustavi for 6 months. In this blog I will tell you more about why I decided to volunteer in Georgia, about how I prepared myself to move abroad, about my expectations and about my experiences of the first weeks.

Who am I and why did I decide to volunteer abroad? Why did I decide to move to Georgia?

I am Renée and I am 25 years old. I am from the Netherlands and there I lived in a small city called Leiden. The few past years I was studying Education and Child studies there. In my bachelors I did an exchange semester and lived for 6 months in the city Tartu in Estonia. This was a really nice experience and after I came back to the Netherlands I decided that at some point I wanted to live abroad again. So when I graduated university last year I knew what I did not want: a stressful job in the Netherlands. I explored different possibilities, for example backpacking, volunteering or working abroad. In the end I decided to go volunteering. For me, this seemed the best way to get to know the local culture and to have a positive impact on the local community. Moreover, I do think that ESC is such a good programme. You will live together with other volunteers, have language lessons and other trainings and most of your basic expenses will be covered (for example accommodation and you will get food and pocket money).

So now you are probably wondering why I ended up in Rustavi, Georgia. A lot of people asked me this as well before I started volunteering. Going to Georgia might also not be the most obvious choice and at first I was also not planning on going to Georgia. But then I had the opportunity to talk to a Dutch girl that volunteered in Rustavi. She told me she had such a good experience and really liked the country and the Georgian culture and people. After our talk I started to look up more about Georgia and soon decided that I also would like to go there.

Preparation

I applied to this project quite early, so I had a lot of time to prepare myself for moving abroad. The first thing I did was attend a pre-departure meeting in the Netherlands. In this meeting I met other Dutch ESC volunteers, who would go abroad soon. We were given some tools that would help us adjust to our new home country faster. Moreover, I tried to learn the Georgian alphabet (and did not succeed yet). When September came closer I started packing my suitcase. The last few weeks I tried to see as many friends and family members as possible and then it was already time to go to Georgia.

Expectations

To be honest, before coming to Georgia I didn’t know much about Georgia and the Georgian language and culture. So because of that, I also did not have many expectations. Even though I did not have many expectations, Georgia has surprised me. Georgian people are very friendly, they are very happy when you try to speak Georgian (even if it is only one or two words). Other things that I noticed are that Georgians are very passionate about all aspects of their culture (for example about their food, language, music and dances). This is something I do really like about Georgia, because in the Netherlands we don’t really do this. Moreover, the pace of living seems to be lower in Georgia compared to the Netherlands. This is something I do really like (because in the Netherlands everything has to be fast and productive), but it is also something I need to get used to. Lastly, I noticed that Georgian people drive like crazy, so really watch out when you cross the street here. 

Beforehand I doubted if I would like to live in Rustavi, because I expected that there would not be much to do. After living in Rustavi for one month I can say that indeed, there is not much to do for young people. However, I already discovered some nice places around the city. For example I do like to go to the park, the bazaar, the mall and there are a few nice cafes/restaurants. Because Rustavi is smaller, you will get to know the city quite well. After a few weeks, Rustavi already feels like home to me. Another pro about living in Rustavi is that it’s very close to Tbilisi. By marshrutka it takes one hour to get there. So it’s quite easy to go to a bigger city if you want to.

For the volunteering work I also did not have a lot of expectations. I knew we would organize activities for children in Rustavi, but I did not know how this exactly would look like. One thing I expected is that we would start volunteering with the children a bit sooner. The first month we mostly planned activities for the next month, but did not do activities yet. On the one hand this was nice, because I could first slowly get used to living in Rustavi. On the other hand, this was sometimes a bit monotonous. So I am glad that we started doing the activities now!

Experiences up until now

The first weeks we mostly explored Rustavi. For example, we went to the mall, the bazaar, the park, some cafés and we even went to the local pool. When I have free time I like to go for walks, to get to know the city better.  At the scout center we were mostly planning the activities for october. We brainstormed about activity ideas, created an activity calendar and on the basis of an activity form we planned the activities.

One of the best experiences so far was the on-arrival training in Kobuleti. In total there were 20 volunteers at the training from the Netherlands, Germany, France, Italy, Poland and Latvia. All the volunteers did volunteer work in Armenia, Azerbeidzjan or Georgia. Every day had a central theme, for example getting to know each other, our projects and ESC, the caucasus culture, conflict-management, non-formal learning. The best part was getting to know the other volunteers and get to know about their experiences! Moreover, I really liked our trip to Batumi and the Batumi botanical gardens.

Other activities we did that I really liked so far were: our day trip to Tbilisi, the Rustavi city festival and our weekend trip to Batumi. I feel like we already did so much in just one month, so I am very curious to see what we will explore in the next months!


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