Staying busy to stay happy

The sun is back in Rustavi! We all needed that. We spend a lot of time in the park now, enjoying this sudden warm weather. Last week it still snowed in Rustavi, but for next week the prediction is 28 degrees…The weather in Georgia is always surprising.

Anyway, I am happy we can sit outside again. The weather is in general not bad in Rustavi, the winter was cold but mild, without the rain I am usually used to in the Netherlands. However, I think all the volunteers were experiencing some downs in our mood and enthusiasm for the project, missing home and not finding enough satisfaction in the work anymore, and grey skies are never helping with getting out of this mood.

A good way to keep yourself from staying in this mood is going outside a lot and keeping yourself busy. Last month we kept ourselves busy with some trips: first Charlotte, Oubayda and I went to the Paravani lake, while the rest was going to Kazbegi. Lake Paravani is a big lake in the south of Georgia, which in winter gets fully frozen and covered with a thick pack of snow. Around the lake, there are some snowy mountains, looking like big piles of powdered sugar. As far as you can see, there is only white, giving the whole place a magic feeling. Driving there was beautiful, the snow was whirling on the road and we had to drive on a path where the snow was so high on both sides we felt like driving in a tunnel, giving us a fairytale feeling.

Walking on the lake was nice, but there was a bit more snow than we had anticipated… We had to walk a bit towards the lake, but every step you made was up until your knees in the snow. Pretty fast, our pants were fully frozen and our ankles hurt from the cold. Also, the whole landscape was so blinding white, at one point you couldn’t look at it anymore without seeing green and yellow stripes before your eyes. When we got back in the car, there was only one thing we wanted: driving to the nearest restaurant with khinkali and a fireplace.

Unfortunately, we were still on that road with snow on both sides. Oubayda thought he could make the turn, but our car was bigger and heavier than he thought: with a loud ‘thump’, we got stuck in the snow… Finally, with someone helping us push, we got the car back on the road again, and Oubayda has driven the whole path (uphill) backwards. We all held our breath, but we got there! We could finally drive to our warm restaurant. Khinkali never tasted so good as that afternoon.

The next day, we all went to visit the Rainbow Mountains on the border with Kakheti (except for Renée). We had asked for a car for six people, but our renter had apparently not understood. Luckily, our trunk was quite big, and with some blankets and cushions this became a very comfortable sixth seat.

We also wanted to visit the David Gareji monastery that day, so we first started driving there, but we chose the route directly from Rustavi (withouth going to Tbilisi first). Soon we had to leave the asphalt road and drive into the hills. We drove a long and uncomfortable time through the hills on a bumpy path in the middle on nowhere, an one point passing a military base where they were watching us the whole time we drove by. When we were already driving for an hour, we cam across a sign telling us this whole route was not accessible anymore, since it was too close to the Azerbaijanian border, and they were patrolling the area… we had no choice but to drive the whole way back. Luckily, we did visit the Rainbow Mountains on the way back, that was really beautiful.

The weekend after we spent by going to the opera in Tbilisi and going ice skating. It was nice to be doing something together again. This weekend we spent mostly in the park, laying in the sun, enjoying Rustavi’s ‘flower festival’ and going dancing.

This way, we keep ourselves busy. Now don’t get me wrong, I still enjoy being here, but long-term volunteering always has its ups and downs. I have been here for over six months now, so I need to make more effort sometimes to keep enjoying the project the way I did in the beginning. I have to watch out for falling into routines, what makes me unmotivated to try anything new. By breaking these routines and being busy, I keep myself happy here.

In short, it takes some effort, but I am still happy here!

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