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.

A day in the life of a Georgia Peace Corps IOD volunteer

Many of you have asked me what my normal day is like at the Koda Community Education Center,  so I am happy to comply. Everyday is different of course, but here is a summary of how we work and what my day is like.

Our office opens at 10am.  I know, what a luxury it is.  I remember it was just last year that I and those of us in Mountain Time Zone started work at 6am each day at IBM.  It is so nice not to set an alarm and rush off to work.  I cook, clean, wash, go get some water from the middle well, get caught up on personal and business email, try to do some yoga or Pilates, then at 10am walk 100 yards to the office.  I'm usually tired by the time I get to start my work day!  Today I was invited for coffee downstairs before work.  Our building has 3 entrance staircases, 5 stories, and 3 units on each landing, so I have 15 'close neighbors'  more than half have invited me in for coffee or dinner. I keep saying how great everyone, is, but it is worth repeating.

A little background on Koda CEC:

 CEC's mission is to provide ongoing educational opportunities, which include the development of competencies and skills, to aid in personal and career goals; encouraging a lifelong quest for knowledge.

The center facilitates the integration of internally displaced persons in local communities. Every year up to 2000 persons benefit from participation in a wide range of vocational and personal development programs which increase their employability and improve quality of life.

 Youth development programs, Adults non-formal education and Civic engagement are a priority of the KODA CEC team.  KODA CEC management team has experience in development, project planning and implementation on both a local and international level. The CEC was opened and continues to be supported in part by DVV International, the Institute for International Cooperation of the German Adult Education Association. As a leading professional organisation in youth and adult non-formal education, the Institute has supported lifelong learning in developing and transitioning countries for more than 45 years now.  

The CEC also facilitates an Elder Council, which is composed of 10 elected members, one from each of the 10 IDP buildings, who gather to discuss and take action on issues that affect the IDP settlement.  It has been successful in getting apartment water issues addressed with a more frequent availability of water to 4 times/day.  They are addressing a gas billing issue now.

Some days we just work on projects - computer work - and today was no exception.  We are submitting a grant proposal for 2 irrigation wells in the settlement from a federation of women Councils, called ACWW.  This is just one of thousands of big and small great organizations are out there that support what a wide range of issues and needs around the world. This organization, headquartered in UK supports many small organizations, like the "Organization to Support Women of the Village" here in Georgia.  And here are our office manager, Nunu, a great, hard worker and always has a smile on her face,  and one of our greatest volunteers and good friend, Ilia.

Here is our director, Madona, in a meeting with residents, discussing some gender issues in Georgia,  Madona was a business owner and also an elected official back in S. Ossetia, is well respected in the settlement and with the local governments.  South Ossetia is where the war happened in 2008 and they were expelled.  Our current projects include education for retraining for new livelihoods since they were mostly farmers in their old villages, and lifelong learning, business consulting / proposals that Madona supports,  the Elder Council, a Youth leadership Club, English clubs and classes and our social enterprise, Art-Koda. (art-koda.com)

Culinary class - sharing traditions 

Children's development class



Computer classes twice/week, with Jemo, another great volunteer, 

Art-Koda women

The women and men of Art-Koda  are making traditional Georgian handicrafts and also teaching these techniques with others in the settlement.  Our new web catalog is www.artkoda.com.  Due to shipping difficulties and lack of automation we only ship in Georgia now, and have to make other arrangements for other countries.  USA and Germany have also purchased our product!  Thanks for your support!



This woman taught teaching techniques to local teachers.  She was fabulous, funded by the US Embassy, and .... a former Peace Corps volunteer in China.... very cool  lady.  And the women loved her. They wouldn't even stop for a coffee break!

Our Youth Club had a cleanup in the settlement.  And I love this kid. He is in 10th grade, and wants to study science.  This is rare, from my experience.  Everyone here wants to be a lawyer or do international relations.  San Diego State University is opening a satellite here in Tbilisi and I want to make sure he is looking at it.  He rides about 40 minutes each weekend with his sister to come to Koda to be exposed to more opportunity.  Good for him... good for his parents!



Photography club

Our office has no lunch - the snack is to have coffee and cake/sweets almost every day about 2pm.  I try to be good. Sometimes I come home for lunch, and sometimes pack a cheese and tomato sandwich.   People not at work eat about 2pm,  and sometimes when I am not working, I get invited to nice dinners - lobio (black beans, sort of like mexican, with spices, like a soup) great bread, always tomatoes and cucumbers with spices, green beans with herbs,  lots of other good things. I do have to work on getting protein... daily...



Feldenkrais Method exercises

The office closes at 6, or later if we are working on something  Tonight some were printing on cups and t-shirts in Art-Koda so they worked very late.

In the evening, sometimes I go check on my tomato plants. A kind neighbor gave me a little piece of her garden for my 7 plants and basil. Much of their basil is purple here, so my green plants are somewhat unique and a fun present to take to people who invite me to coffee.

Many families have supper at around 8 or 9 pm - too late for me.  I come home, have a light dinner, salad, and some protein if I can find it. This day I got a knock on my door about 9pm.  A few girls about 12 years old had an invitation in English for me - all written up, about a little performance they are putting on in the field next door on Thursday at 4pm.  Of course I will attend.

Evenings are a luxury for me.  I have time to do research on the Internet, read, sometimes watch a show or movie through the internet, discover new music, and finally, I can FaceTime with family and friends.  This is so special and I just was able to get wifi set up.

I sleep early for Georgians - I DON'T LOOK AT THE CLOCK, I just turn off the light when I'm tired.  I know this sounds so simple, but in the States I NEVER did this. And I NEVER set an alarm for the morning. I just get up when I wake up - What a concept!  With the patent laws in the US so flexible now, maybe I can patent this :-).  ( sorry all my patent friends)

Zila Nebisa!  Good night.  Thank you all for your notes and comments.  I love to hear from you. I know I am learning a lot and hopefully helping a little.  But I still sure miss my life back home: friends and family.  God bless!


Here I am trying to learn the Georgian dances with the folk group!