In the month of March, our volunteers went to their on arrival training and mid-term meeting, which were spent in the snowy mountains of Bakuriani.
The mid-term meeting, also called MTM, is the second and last of the mandatory meetings that ESC volunteers have to attend. While the first meeting, called On-Arrival Training, prepares participants for their time spent in the country, the mid-term meeting helps them reflect on their life during their last months and their future afterward.
The on-arrival training took place from the 15th to the 19th of March, with others volunteers from all the Caucasus we met there.
We took a mashrutka at the Tbilisi train station, with 6 French, 1 German, 1 Italian, 2 polish, and 3 Turkish people.
At the hotel we met our trainers, who were really kind and really careful with all of us.
During this training we talked about a lot of topics as: our ESC and our missions in the Caucasus as volunteers, the cultural differences between the Western Europe and the Caucasus, we learned to express ourselves about our feelings and our objectives in life, we learned some management skills to create a project, etc.
Most of the time we had those trainings all the day but the trainers made this training really comfortable with some energizers and some games to know each other better.
We started everyday at 10am, had a break at 11:30am and lunch at 12:30aäm/1pm. After we started again in the afternoon at 3 pm, had a break at 4:30pm and go to dinner at 7pm. In the evening we had some free time. Except one evening, we went to a supra, a typical Georgian dinner in a restaurant near our hotel. It was really cool and we had the chance to attend to Georgian traditional dance from our trainer Shota with Georgian people who were also in the restaurant. It was a great evening and we had a lot of fun.
The Mid-Term-Meeting was split into two groups, each group having assigned different meeting time slots, the first being from the 20th of march until the 23rd and the second from the 23rd until the 26th. The mashrutka (minibus), which departed from Tbilisi, arrived around 2/3 o’clock in the afternoon, where we were welcomed with a lunch break and had the opportunity to talk and exchange with some of the participants from the previous mid-term meeting. (Due to the sheer number of volunteers, both the mid-term meeting and the on-arrival training were split into two groups, resulting in different participants each time.) After finishing lunch, the previous participants had one last session and left, heading back to Tbilisi from where each of them departed to their own volunteering project. With them gone, our first session started, which consisted of getting-to-know activities and games, such as introducing yourself, learning each other’s names, and drawing another person, which resulted in some quite interesting pictures. Afterwards, our trainers talked to us about the MTM objectives and had us discuss and exchange our expectations for this 4-day long meeting.
On the second day of our stay, breakfast started at 9 in the morning, just like it would every day, and our first session of the day started at 10.
This session was about “Me and My ESC,” which actually had two sessions dedicated to it that day.
As an activity, we had to make some sort of poster or presentation about our project activities, our accommodation and flatmates, our relationship with our colleagues (mentor, coordinator, director, etc.), our free time (after work, vacations, weekends), our relationship with the local community, and about anything else we wanted to share about our ESC.
After a short coffee break, we reassembled for the second session on the same topic. After a quick energizer to get everyone motivated, we presented our posters in small groups.
Lunch followed, and the sessions afterwards continued with the same topic, focusing on our learnings during our volunteering time.
The activities in these sessions were divided into stations with questions and small tasks that we had to complete in a group, giving us time to think and reflect on what we had actually learned and acquired in roughly half a year, but also what we had offered and given to our hosting organization essentially, what we brought to the table.
Having completed all sessions for the day, we were free to go to dinner and spend the evening however we liked.
Some of us went to their rooms to unpack their suitcases and get settled in, while others spent their time in the common room and got acquainted with the other participants or, rather, caught up with old friends they met during the On-Arrival Training.
The first half of the third day was dedicated to Youthpass competences and our life until the end of our ESC.
In the first session, our trainers started by talking about the competences of Youthpass, which is a document that not only proves that you were part of your project but also lists what you learned, did, and accomplished during your time there.
The competences you can achieve are divided into 8 categories: Multilingual competences, Personal, social, and learning-to-learn competences, Citizenship competences, Entrepreneurship competences, Cultural awareness and expression competences,bDigital competences, Mathematical, science, and technology competences, Literacy competences.
The second session on the matter of our life until the end of our ESC focused on goals and plans we want to complete before finishing the project and going back home.
It made us visualize what we were looking forward to and, in a way, helped us realize that it isn’t long until everything ends and that we have to seize the moment instead of postponing everything because we still have “so much” time left.
The second part of the day was spent with a visit to Didveli, a ski resort in Bakuriani, not too far from the hotel, where we had some free time to either go skiing or spend our afternoon otherwise.
The afternoon, unfortunately, was cut short due to the gondolas closing because of heavy wind, making it dangerous to keep them running.
Afterwards, we went back to the hotel, where we were able to rest and freshen up a bit for the evening, where we went to a restaurant to have a supra (typical Georgian dinner).
After having amazing food, lots of toasting, and dancing for hours, we went back to the hotel on foot, accompanied by some stray dogs.
On the last day, we were luckily allowed to sleep in until 11 in the morning, which was greatly needed after the long night before.
The first session of this day started with the topic about our life after our ESC, helping each participant to envision exactly that and assisting them in not feeling lost, scared, or overwhelmed once that time comes. This made it easier to transition back to our everyday lives back home, helping us not cling to the past but rather hold the memories close and be content with ourselves.
The last session resulted in us evaluating our whole time spent on the project, giving us time to talk and converse about our participation and the experiences we had so far.
All in all, one can say that the On-Arrival-Training training was really entertaining and interesting giving the participants an opportunity to meet all those others volunteers .
The Mid-Term-Meeting was not only great in making us appreciate our time spent here and helping us visualize our future until the end and after our ESC, but it also was a great opportunity to exchange with old friends again and make new ones.
The trainers were amazing and did their best for us, which we are really grateful for.
Thank you !
