Volunteering at the European Youth Olympic Festival in Tbilisi, Georgia - WOW

My English conversation club at the Koda Community Education Center decided to apply to be volunteers at the European Youth Olympic Festival.  The EYOF is geared towards teenagers between the ages of 14 and 18 selected by the 49 countries in the European National Olympic Committees. 3000 athletes participated. It was a multi-disciplinary event placed under the patronage of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). The summer edition includes athletics, cycling, judo, swimming,  tennis, basket ball, hand ball and volley ball. Since 1991, the EYOF has been held every two years. Tbilisi had the honor of hosting this summer's event, and did a great job.

The festival I think has two goals -  to allow youth to experience an Olympic opportunity of course, and also to allow developing countries the privilege of  hosting an Olympic event.  700 people carried the Olympic torch throughout Georgia, 2000 volunteers participated, of course Georgia was allowed the largest contingent of athletes, and it was wonderful PR for the country.

Here's the highlights of the Opening Ceremonies. I thought it was excellent - not too much. Remember it is for the Youth..and we do have a new zoo to build and populate!  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ooXqRIySbM

A Chinese company, Hualing, built the entire village, with The Olympic Athletes' Village includes 9 apartment buildings, a 5 star hotel, fitness centre, restaurant and a recreational zone.

Dinner hall seats 2000+

Olympic Village consists of housing, plus a 5 star hotel.  

The Olympic Village is near the Tbilisi Sea, which is on the north side of Tbilisi.  A large and nice lake, it unfortunately has just one beach.  The kids wanted to go swim but were afraid of the lion, they were told was still on the loose.  :-) 3400 athletes and staff were housed here.  Transportation handling was excellent.  All buses and marshes were in the Center space. One funny thing... most of the drivers and all the buses came from Baku, where the adult European Olympic Festival had wrapped up last month.  But because of the Georgia driving idiosyncrasies (heavy euphemism here) each bus had a police escort, long after they knew each route.

There are 9 buildings built, number 1-8, and 10.  

We assumed the Chinese builder thought the number 9 was unlucky, but after research, it appears to just be a mistake.

My fellow Koda volunteer, Gio

This was hung in every housing unit. 

 The official language for the Festival seemed to be English and Georgian.  Most volunteers spoke some English.  But as with most European Youth,  signs in French did not seem out of place since most of the youth speak several languages...well!

Kim's goal medal for uniforms.  They had little blazers too. 

Our Liechtenstein delegation

 I was assigned as an attache for the Liechtenstein delegation - a great group of kids and adults. We learned a little about the small, and prosperous country. Without fact checking, this is what we heard. They have a close alliance with Switzerland, even to the extent that their close colleges and big grocery stores are located in Switzerland.  They speak a dialect of German that sounds like Dutch. They don't even learn high German until they go to school, or from TV.  Their immigration is about 60 families/year! They are not a part of the EU. Their chief industry is making false teeth, but their money seems to come from banking.  They loved to hear about Georgia, ... and why I was there.

It was a great opportunity to tell the Peace Story... and I did... about 300 times over the week; to fellow Georgian volunteers, and to the foreigners who couldn't figure out why I was a Georgian volunteer at the games.  I shared with them that at my interview, the volunteer coordinator stated I knew more and could represent Georgia better than many Georgians. I was proud to share the beauty and stories of Georgia, and of the United States Peace Corps.  (By the way, I need to talk to someone about this - it appears that MANY countries think the Peace Corps is an United Nations initiative!)

One of the new venues, built for the Games.  

Some of the Tbilisi venues were renovated, like Judo and Tennis.  Any many existing venues were used throughout the city. A new swimming venue was near here, in New Tbilisi, on the west side of the city, near the American Embassy.

Judo

 Georgia ended up with 10 medals; many came from Judo, a national obsession here. 

Peaky, the mascot, is a two-word combination - “Peak” and “youth”. The mascot resembles Kolkheti pheasant connected with the legend on founding Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia. This bird is associated with speed and rapidity. I loved them.

Part of the closing ceremonies

 Final results showed the Russians leading with 37 medals, followed by Italy, France, Hungary, Great Britain, Spain.  Smaller countries of course didn't do as well.  Come to find out, they have their own European "small nation" competitions which are very popular for countries like Liechtenstein. Georgia ended up with 10 medals, almost exclusively from Judo.

Gino Paradise - a welcome relief from the 109 degree day!

Two or three indoor pools. I lost count.

This is a climbing wall and wave pool. 

Lazy river. 

 Finally, the thank you event for volunteers occurred the day after the festival ended!  They hosted a fun day at this water park - very nice since it had been such a scorcher of a week..  In true Georgian fashion, they started the event at 3pm.  The food and speeches came  somewhere after 9 or 10 pm.  I was long gone, but still appreciated a day to recuperate.  I might mention that most locals never frequent this place.  They find the local village rivers just fine.  I'm still looking for one.  But the kids and my cousin come very soon... I think my friends might take us to a village river.

Georgia: Summertime and the living is easy.

Just a snapshot of a few days in Koda this summer and how life calms down.  The kids are off from school. The high school seniors took their final exams. Here, the final grades constitute the decision for which college they attend, and if they receive any financial support. So it's a big thing.  The parents even go to the exams with the kids and stand outside the building to support them.  How's that for a little extra stress!  

My young neighbors decided to have a little concert outside our building, and sent me a  hand written English invitation. They designed the program all themselves. No Adult Supervision.  (what a concept!)  They hung a blanket over the stairway to my building for a backstage and sang, danced, and played drums on chairs. Then they did a shortened version of Cinderella.  It was a great effort.

she sings an Italian song for us

Cinderella, abridged

Here some of my neighbors are making nazuki, a sweet bread.  It is famous in each region for the subtle differences in the recipes.  And here they were very proud of their South Ossetian variety.  It was delicious. They stick the dough to the sides of this oven, built outside in these little open sheds in the settlement.  Unlike regular tonis puri (the village bread which is fabulous) this bread has to cook a while and they cover the oven.

 Here they are uncover it and are pleased with the result. 

 I went to get drinking water from our well in the middle of the settlement, and it was warm.  That didn't feel right to me so I asked some neighbors to show me the other place many of them go for drinking water.  Here is an old natural spring, that supposedly comes from the mountains.  Many come to fill up their containers here.  It seems that this was built out a while ago to be some type of fountain, probably during Soviet times.  Now it works just fine to get good, cool drinking water.  Then I filter it through a Peace Corps supplied filter. There are many thyroid problems here, due to some minerals in the water from what I understand, and lack of iodine.  So we are sure to take our vitamins daily.  Here's my favorite landlady, Lali, in the picture. 

A neighbor invited me in and shared her intricate knitting.  I looked like crochet but was knitted.  Really nice. 

One of our Healthy Life informational fairs engaged these students. They distributed pamphlets on the bad effects of smoking, excess drinking and drugs.

G15 Swearing in Ceremony

Maura Fulton, our Georgia Peace Corps Director doing an excellent job.

Two new volunteers 'job shadowing' me - of course with a party at my place.

Peace Corps Volunteers took a Friday afternoon off to help celebrate the swearing in of 50 new Georgian Peace Corps volunteers.  It was a lovely ceremony, and some great, sharp new folks.  Another 30+ are in the process of leaving; their 27 months are over.

I am trying to accompany a panduri player and flutist, at a craft and music festival in Tbilisi.  My office came to try to sell our traditional georgian crafts, and to have some fun.

Some of our DVV International donor staff - a psychologist who volunteers in the settlement once/week, our driver and Goga, working on a new project for active seniors. 

 And finally, after work one day I accompanied my friend to another friend's garden to pick tremoli.  It is a kind of fruit that they make a sauce out of.  But look at this tree, just full of fruit.  It took me about 10 minutes to pick 15 kilos.  I hope this gives you a little better idea of summertime in Georgia. I didn't mention the heat... but it's coming.