Back to November
November was a collection of fleeting
moments. Four weeks only felt like a couple of days, and I can’t believe I’ve been
here for almost two months… Although, if I take a look at the calendar for this
past month, it seems a little more realistic. A lot has happened!
First things first: This is a very
new concept of “November” for me. I’m normally stuck in my November-Blues,
because Germany is completely grey and cold and just really sad at this time of
the year, but apparently Rustavi never loses its Sunshine. This might be the
first year of my life, in which I’m not in a Vitamin D deficit. What can I tell
you? It’s great!!!
How I met my flatmates
One of the main events of November was the complete change of team members and flatmates. At the end of October two new volunteers came, two others arrived shortly after, then two left, then another one came and then the last person I started my project with left. Which leaves us with a completely different setting than when I wrote my last blogpost.
This is both exciting and challenging at times. Challenging in a way, that five people sharing one kitchen can be a little complicated… but also exciting! You never know what will happen next. When you come home, somebody might have fixed the sink or broke the washing machine, bought a new lightbulb while another one broke, made homemade Lasagna (even the pasta!), rearranged the whole living room, destroyed a table but fixed another one in the same process.
This lifestyle was a lot for me at first, but when I returned from a training at the end of November, I felt at home hearing the laughter, screams, crying (who really knows which one) from inside the apartment and I realized it would be incredibly lonely without them now.
One of the main events of November was the complete change of team members and flatmates. At the end of October two new volunteers came, two others arrived shortly after, then two left, then another one came and then the last person I started my project with left. Which leaves us with a completely different setting than when I wrote my last blogpost.
This is both exciting and challenging at times. Challenging in a way, that five people sharing one kitchen can be a little complicated… but also exciting! You never know what will happen next. When you come home, somebody might have fixed the sink or broke the washing machine, bought a new lightbulb while another one broke, made homemade Lasagna (even the pasta!), rearranged the whole living room, destroyed a table but fixed another one in the same process.
This lifestyle was a lot for me at first, but when I returned from a training at the end of November, I felt at home hearing the laughter, screams, crying (who really knows which one) from inside the apartment and I realized it would be incredibly lonely without them now.
The Office
Of course, there were also productive times apart from the fixer upper projects in our home.
Something important this month was planning and organising the upcoming activities. If you’ve read my past blog entry, you might remember I rely heavily on structure and organisation. Well, I can report that this month (once again) functioned as a small shock-therapy. With all of us being relatively new, and me personally supporting a camp at the Scout Centre for a few days and afterwards leaving for a Training- my head was a huge cluster of confusion concerning our schedule.
Luckily, this is when another skill I gained this month comes in: Just trust the others! I think I must let go sometimes and accept that when I’m not in the office, it is complicated to do office work. It seems logical now, but it took me some time to get that. Trusting that the others will manage everything and I’m not letting them down was something I didn’t even know I had a problem with until now. So, cheers to reflecting on our mistakes and doing better next month!
Of course, there were also productive times apart from the fixer upper projects in our home.
Something important this month was planning and organising the upcoming activities. If you’ve read my past blog entry, you might remember I rely heavily on structure and organisation. Well, I can report that this month (once again) functioned as a small shock-therapy. With all of us being relatively new, and me personally supporting a camp at the Scout Centre for a few days and afterwards leaving for a Training- my head was a huge cluster of confusion concerning our schedule.
Luckily, this is when another skill I gained this month comes in: Just trust the others! I think I must let go sometimes and accept that when I’m not in the office, it is complicated to do office work. It seems logical now, but it took me some time to get that. Trusting that the others will manage everything and I’m not letting them down was something I didn’t even know I had a problem with until now. So, cheers to reflecting on our mistakes and doing better next month!
Caucasus Volunteers Society
My last bigger event for November was the On-Arrival Training in Bakuriani.
It was a really great and a really cold experience. I learned a lot about what being a volunteer with the ESC means and who exactly oversees what. We had an interesting discussion about the border between solidarity and charity, found no agreement but nevertheless, I feel like it helped me realize how many different perspectives on one single word you can find within only a small group.
On our fourth day of the Training, we went to a park in Borjomi, where amusement park elements sat sadly by themselves and an abandoned swimming pool was the main attraction. For us this was a hidden treasure. When do you ever get the chance to walk around a dried-out swimming pool with 13 other people you don’t even know? I would almost call this a “Once in a lifetime chance!”
I don’t know what my initial expectations for the OAT were. I guess I just hoped to make some connections to volunteers all over Georgia. I did- and I also kind of didn’t. I met a lot of super nice people, with whom I would love to spend more time with than the limited days given to us. However, most of them are from Armenia and that complicates things. It is just a tiny bit too far to visit on a random afternoon. Still, I really want to see them again. I guess my next goal is to somehow make it to Armenia!
My last bigger event for November was the On-Arrival Training in Bakuriani.
It was a really great and a really cold experience. I learned a lot about what being a volunteer with the ESC means and who exactly oversees what. We had an interesting discussion about the border between solidarity and charity, found no agreement but nevertheless, I feel like it helped me realize how many different perspectives on one single word you can find within only a small group.
On our fourth day of the Training, we went to a park in Borjomi, where amusement park elements sat sadly by themselves and an abandoned swimming pool was the main attraction. For us this was a hidden treasure. When do you ever get the chance to walk around a dried-out swimming pool with 13 other people you don’t even know? I would almost call this a “Once in a lifetime chance!”
I don’t know what my initial expectations for the OAT were. I guess I just hoped to make some connections to volunteers all over Georgia. I did- and I also kind of didn’t. I met a lot of super nice people, with whom I would love to spend more time with than the limited days given to us. However, most of them are from Armenia and that complicates things. It is just a tiny bit too far to visit on a random afternoon. Still, I really want to see them again. I guess my next goal is to somehow make it to Armenia!
And even Stranger Things to come…
This whole journey somehow brings us here to the end of November. I really don’t know what to expect for the next month, but I’m sure it’ll be something that later forms a great story to share!
This whole journey somehow brings us here to the end of November. I really don’t know what to expect for the next month, but I’m sure it’ll be something that later forms a great story to share!
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