In this article I want to focus on the discovery of foreign cultures as a volunteer. I purposely said “foreign”, and not Georgian, because I am working with a team of international people and through them I am also discovering new cultures.
Before coming here, I never had a lot of opportunities to meet foreign people. Of course as a university student I met some people at parties who were in the Erasmus program and they were really nice, but it wasn’t my social circle and we never got further than meeting and partying one time together.
Saying that is not entirely true, I did have foreign friends from Morocco or Lebanon, for example, but they spoke fluent French and sometimes it was easy to forget that they were not from there. So let’s correct my statement. I never had a lot of opportunities to meet foreign people, who weren’t fluent in French and who weren’t accustomed to my country. So basically, I was not used to getting out of my comfort zone and living everyday of my life with people who couldn’t understand my native language or my references.
Furthermore, for the first time I experienced being a foreigner in someone else's country. I couldn’t understand the name of places, the labels on food products, what the cashier was saying to me or what the people stopping me on the streets were asking. Even after a few months here I can only make out some basic words when people are talking, and I am far from being able to answer.
I think the moments that strike me the most are when I am talking on the phone in French or when I am talking in English to other volunteers. Georgian people, and mostly children, look up in curiosity, as I have done multiple times back home when I heard someone talking in a language that I couldn’t understand, trying to guess what it was.
Let’s begin by talking about the team of international volunteers. We’re two French, two Germans, two Dutch and one Latvian. When I met them for the first time I struggled with my English because of lack of practice, and I was not the only one! We all found ourselves unable to find a word really often. The jokes around speaking skills and accents soon became regular between us. More than that, it is easy to joke around countries' stereotypes when we are all together, and we often get surprised by the differences in habits, traditions or food between our countries.
I am really grateful to be able to make friends from around Europe, it is so interesting to notice the differences and the similarities between our countries, I now want to travel to Latvia for the midsummer party, to the Netherlands to have a bicycle road trip and to Germany to watch a Herta Berlin game and to eat the best dünner in the world.
A really good thing that is happening in this project is the monthly cultural evenings when each of us will get the opportunity to present our countries. It’s a really fun and interesting moment when we focus on others' living experiences and get to learn more about them and their countries.
In addition to getting to know each volunteer, we are all here for the same reason: discover Georgia. It’s awesome to be able to share the experience of visiting the country with them and have the same struggles, with Georgian languages or missing home for example.
During those first few months, I also met really nice Georgian people, one of them is my roommate Lia, our coordinator. She is always taking the time to explain to us Georgian culture and history as well as helping us learn the language. With her stories I learn more about what it meant being Georgian. Thanks to her, I also met Mariam and Natia, two of her friends. Immediately they welcomed us and proposed to meet again.
I discovered the places that I could use daily in my free time, like the pool where Mariam took me, or the billiard which is always crowded and fun to go to.
One of Georgian traditions is the “Supra” (Feast). Mariam invited all of us to her parents' home to have it with her. It was a really nice evening with a lot of great food, wine and toast. We listened to Georgian music then watched and joined Mariam and her family to dance the traditional dances. I learnt there how friendly and welcoming Georgians are. Mariam’s parents and grandmother were happy to have us over, and even if we couldn’t understand each other directly they toasted with us.
I am always really happy to be there when I witness Georgians' pride and joy to share their cultures with foreigners. I always felt welcomed and even if our cultures are slightly different I really enjoy meeting them and I hope one day I can return the “supra” invitation in France.
During those first few months the team of volunteers and myself had other opportunities to meet and discover Georgian people and culture. But I’ll tell you about those adventures another time, in another article :)
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