„Guten Tag“ to „გამარჯობა“ in one month:

Hello there!

My name is Anniika and I joined the team of ISCR volunteers on October 8^th. I come from a rather large city in the east of Germany called Dresden. While I have only been in Georgia for one month, I am still in shock of how much I’ve already experienced and learned:

Who are you again?

First things first:

I am not a brave person. I am not adventurous, and I am not spontaneous. All these are great obstacles for volunteering abroad, especially in a Scout Center. However, these also happen to be some of my personality traits, and I want to find a way to live with them.

So, this my real introduction:

I like safety, plans, structure and comfort, but I also like a good adrenalin rush, beautiful landscapes, different cultures, discovering the world and making a difference. With this in mind I invite you to follow me on my journey of being scared to experience something new while also having the urge to take a leap into the unknown.

Somewhere completely different

My current approach to tackle my fear of change is confrontation. This confrontation peaked when I arrived. A room, a city, a country and a social environment completely new to me. While every single one of these aspects was really scary in the beginning, I have finally started to grow more comfortable around here.

My room has become my safe space in which I can gather my thoughts but also listen to conversations of pedestrians walking down the street and although I do not understand a word they are saying- it is strangely comforting to fall asleep to people talking Georgian and laughing together.

The city of Rustavi is more logical to me now. I know some streets, can navigate without having to rely on Google Maps, I know which Grocery Store to go to, and I have a favorite bakery!

While I have not seen much of the country yet, I have miserably fallen in love with its language and some of the traditional food. I don’t think I can ever live without Lobiani again and every letter that I remember correctly when trying to read street signs is a silent success.

I am slowly adapting to the new social environment as well. I started off being as quiet as I knew my past self to be but I can already feel my sarcastic side starring again, getting ready to be unleashed. I am hopeful that with more time I can open up a little more.

To sum up my current journey: We’re making progress! It might be slow, but it is moving and for me that counts.

But wait- there’s more?

Oh yeah! There is so much more!

I am so happy, I had the opportunity to take part in the French-Georgian Youth Exchange from October 21^st to October 28^th. This has truly been the most crazy, stressful but also wholesome and inspiring experience I had so far.

It started with my nerves being a total wrack because the structure I had in my head turned out to be completely different- and as you may remember I really love my structure. However, as I began to accept my defeat, I also started realising that we could still manage everything and improvising wasn’t that bad. So that definitely was a big learning opportunity for me.

Furthermore, I got to know the Georgian participants really well. I am blown away by how open-minded and welcoming these young people were. Although I was just supporting they still included me, translated for me and taught me about Georgian culture as much as they could.

I was also able to accompany them on their excursion days. I tried rafting for the first time, was completely soaked afterwards, but even more happy. I visited two centers for people with disabilities in Georgia and learned about their history and current state concerning the lack of governmental support and acceptance within the society. These were learning opportunities I would never want to miss and although we could not offer immediate support, it was amazing seeing how empathetic the participants of the Youth Exchange reacted. It gave me a lot of hope for the future of inclusion and also the motivation to educate myself further on such organisations in Germany.

Will there be an end to this blog post?...

There will be and we are nearing it. However, I am glad I am not even close to nearing the end of my volunteering experience here at the Scout Center. I just realised how much there is to learn and to see. Every experience I have made in this still very short time, whether it was good or bad, has taught me something about myself and I look forward to even more.

Of course there are also bad sides, like feeling alone or homesick. I have never before experienced homesickness, but I found comfort in knowing that when I return home in June, I will have (already) so many stories to tell about volunteering in Georgia.

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