Living for the Plot

I am the type of person who love to end up doing random activities in random part of the world on a random Wednesday on January and that's exactly how I ended up in Rustavi! My name is Jacopo, I'm 27 and I come from a small city in Italy next to Milan, and after I graduated in my master in Asian and African Studies, as often happens nowadays to people of my generation I had absolutely no idea what to do with my life. My idea was to get a job, but surprise surprise nobodies wants you if you have no previous work experience, and apparently IA lately is taking all the entry level jobs so how am I supposed to get experience? The question has still no answer - will it ever?- but once of the few path I can take with my amazing useless humanistic degree is working in a NGO. Also, I love living abroad and I like travelling, so why don't do all of this together? And as a passionate of hiking in the mountains and history Georgia was an easy choice to make.

Me climbing on the Como Lake wondering why I am not drinking my Aperol Spritz with all the tourists

Since I have arrived here on the 14th I feel like life has been going fast and slow at the same time. On the weekend with the other volunteers we managed to visit to Tbilisi, Gori, Mtskheta, to ski in Gudauri and to cook Georgian food with local mentors.

Gudauri!

On the week, you know, the reason I am here, work. Many Google sheets, many "Lia sorry, I don't remember how to do this". Apparently there is an endless bureaucracy behind every action you take, so far, but things should change from this weekend: finally all the planning in the office are gonna see a result with the opening of the Scout Center, the real and final reason I'm here. I'm sure it's gonna be such a big skip from sitting in a office to be surrounded by many happy screaming children. So far about all the activities we have planned for them I know how to do maybe about...2? Learning by doing is the scouts' motto. But learning doesn't end at the office door, there's a whole world outside which is different in everyday life. Grocery at the supermarket, driving a car, buses that follows their own rules. A life which is slower. A language which I don't speak. I'm gonna stay in Rustavi for 8 months, months in which I'll have to learn how to feel at home is someone's else home as a momentary host in this lands full of history.

P.s. I do love cats and here is full. Happy Jaco

Comments

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 exam...

In the head of a volunteer - Arrival and first week

I can’t believe that it’s been two months since I set foot in Georgia for the first time. And yet it seems like a lifetime of experiences. Here is an assortment of my very first moments, hope you enjoy :) The arrival and discovery of Rustavi landscape When I arrived at Tbilisi Airport I was surprised to see it was not as big as I expected a capital airport to be. I waited alone for a few moments for Aleks to pick me up. During my wait I went to exchange money (by the way, if you come to Georgia, don’t do it at the airport, the exchange rates are far better in the city) and I realised that I really was far from home, I couldn’t understand any of the words people were saying to each other. When Aleks arrived I went in the car. I had a cold at the time, and I travelled at night, so I arrived in Georgia without any sleep. I felt really tired and I didn’t know where I was going. I didn’t talk m...

In the head of a volunteer: 7th month update

Since the beginning of the project we have been asked to fill reports every month. One of the questions is about personal development and milestones and this question is a good way to reflect about the experience. Today I wanted to use the blog to reflect on the last 7 months and figure out what I still want to experience before leaving. A big reason for coming here was to experience living fully abroad, to discover an unknown country, to meet new and interesting people, to get out of my comfort zone. Did I manage that ? I think I mostly did. First let’s talk about discovering Georgia and its people. We can’t say that I improved my Georgian that much. I know how to read the strange letters but I mostly don’t have any idea what the words mean. However, I find it way easier to understand basic sentences and context. This helps a lot with working with the kids at school or even exchanging a few words with locals at the shops. I noticed the amoun...

CHAPTER 1

Once upon a time there lived five gnomes. They each lived a different life in a different place for a different amount of time. However, the thing they had in common was an unexplainable urge to add a new plot to their autobiographies, to put their for-centuries-collected skills and knowledge to a good use and go to a land far far away. They packed their biggest tiny backpacks, said farewell to their gnome families and forest fairy friends, each jumped on the back of a seagull and flew into an unfamiliar direction. This is where their stories intertwine. Turns out all the seagulls were going the same way; they dropped all the gnomes at the same place – a magical castle surrounded by forests and hills. The castle was home for many, no matter big or small, young or old, beginner or advanced, from this planet or another. All the residents of the castle warmly welcomed the gnomes with open arms and open hearts. The castle was a place where a helpful hand was given first and questions ask...

In the head of a volunteer : What volunteering means to me

This article is more a train of thoughts about my volunteering experience and what it means to me than a story about reel experiences. I wanted to share it in the hope that other volunteers can relate. Those reflections started when I took over the instagram page. I am now in charge of posting about our workshops, keeping you updated about our activities and making weekly and monthly recaps. To give myself ideas, I went to see the archived posts and I got lost in what the previous teams of volunteers posted. I felt so strange. I realised that this place, where I work, eat and sleep everyday, was used by people in the same situation as me before. They walked in the same streets, shopped in the same grocery stores and discovered the same Rustavi as foreigners. Maybe the children I am meeting during my workshops knew those other volunteers, and it’s more than probable that they will me...

Search This Blog