The first thing that fits your mind when you think about Georgia is two things; one of the states that belongs to the U.S. or that distant country between Europe and Asia that one day was part of the dissolved USSR. Well, in this case, we will choose the second option.
After a long and unfriendly trip, we arrived in Tbilisi, the capital of the Georgian country. The first impression that appears in the head is the idea of a country that is in transition, just like Post Franco Spain. A society that begins to experience very strong social and political changes and that inequality, like hope, is breathed in every corner of the streets. A country that is surprised by this curious fusion between East and West, and that at times you can’t believe it is in the same European continent.
A tough, yet curious cultural shock, which teaches you that Europe is plural, diverse and unified. An unusual feeling, where you can see people apparently with little resources but carrying an iPhone, and in parallel, seemingly rich people, and driving an almost destroyed car. A curious country, unusual, but very interesting in equal parts to discover it, can be an odyssey.
If Tbilisi alone breaks with all the molds, the experience just begins, because, now, the adventure to Kobuleti is to remember.
At eight in the morning, at the central train station in the capital, we took the train on a five-hour trip to Kobuleti.
After a journey where the mountains, the trees, the tall hostesses, presumed, all dressed as blue princesses, with red neck scarfs, makeup like Arab queens and the green color of the trees that occasionally hit the glass train were the protagonists of the morning. After a few hours, we finally arrive at destiny.
Kobuleti is a very special, curious, singular and magical Georgia maritime population in front of the Black Sea, where, between stones, water and nature, a temperamental, emotional and peculiar society coexists. A town that offers few tourist attractions but, despite being few, invites you to experience that entertaining, different and very historical post-Soviet air.
‘Active Citizens for Reconciliation’ is the title that receives the fabulous, emotional, vibrant, intense and at the same time interesting ‘Training Course’ that for nine days taught us, marked us and filled us with joy. An experience that promises to reflect on all the people we were part of.
This project in some way had the main objective to explain to us in a pleasant way that the world is filled with conflicts, and perhaps not so much at the national or global level, but also on a personal level with other people, and that, despite many times we are not completely aware, they can explain so many things to ourselves and to others.
A study, a knowledge, a reflection and a lesson that leads the coldest and distant to think that always, in each story, simple or complex, in every tiny part there is a background that must not be ignored because each story takes inside some explanation that in the eyes of others is completely invisible.
A basket is a portable container made from canes, twigs, palm, or other fibrous, intertwined, oval or rectangular base with a transverse handle in the middle of its length, and this is also life. Weaving relationships between people, creating ties, discussing oneself, loving oneself and reconciling oneself.
During this whole week, weaving was the most used verb after reconciliation. When you are fully aware of the thousand situations you live, and that at some time or another you have to solve, you discover that, in your hands, reconciliation, whether positive or not so positive, is shared responsibility, and that, empathy is undoubtedly essential.
In February, we will return, now, to begin to polish the study that we have begun in the group, and in some way, we have the opportunity to see the juice that we have extracted from the lemon, and for to be able to feel, how intense our study will be when we finish, which will not rebel until the end, when the wicker has finished weaving, and give us, as a result, what we really want.
Marcel