Being in a new location, and having hatched new plans I'm finding myself at that stage of tilling the ground and sowing the seeds to hopefully grow into burgeoning new projects.
I'm organising my design resources and getting my website workflow sorted. I made a time plan to organise my day. I've met people to exchange ideas, make friends and networks. I'm contributing a little everyday to long term projects like writing a book and travelling around the world. I'm organising my photos and doing tutorials to learn about photography.
I'm keeping my surroundings in order, growing some vegetables, reading, writing my journal. I questioning my thought and actions everyday but I'm also letting things happen by themselves and taking time out to let the process lead me.
I'm singing Georgian songs on a monday evening. I've met local mountain bikers and I want to make a website to attract tourists, and set up a guiding service with them, although it will be hard because of the downturn in tourism due to the war. At first it will be testing the water, but in the process, I will get to go riding, and see the countryside in the unique way that is offered by mountain biking.
I've even started playing football again. I met a couple of Brits here who invited me to play on a Thursday night. I went last week and really enjoyed it. I scored a hatrick... although it took a while to hit the target. There is a good contingent of players mostly from a European background- Spanish, English, French, Brits, Dutch and a few Georgians.
I helped yesterday for an environmental NGO who are setting up a project to build a vegetable garden at the newly built village for displaced persons from South Ossetia. Although at first it was a bit of a media frenzy and somewhat chaotic with people planting trees randomly all over the plot just to get the shot for the camera, I think it will be productive over consecutive days once there is a bit more organisation in place.The environment minister for Georgia turned up with a crew of media, trees and tree-planters and muscled in to get the publicity.
I was somewhat disappointed that there was not more a plan for the garden, people were even giving away the tools and plants. The initial trees which were planted had to be dug up after the officials and press had left and replanted. The organisers were talking with the local people and asking them what they needed which does count for a lot because it doesn't matter how much you organise something if you turn up and it's not wanted, required or well-directed.
It was my first involvement in an NGO project. Although the process could have been improved a lot, the potential for action intrigues me. I met some interesting people and it was a good exercise in keeping a calm head and getting some order out of the 'group' behaviour. It was fun to organise people. Given no orders people either did nothing or just planted a tree in an arbituary position about equidistance between other trees.
I was told to make a vegetable patch and as soon as I started digging, other people started helping cautiously. Some people appeared to be questioning what we were doing and cynically stand challenging why we appeared to be doing something different to everyone else's tree-planting. But as our actions became more accepted they started helping too. It was interesting to see how the process panned out from the point of of arriving, getting tools, complete chaos, developing into pockets of order and eventually fizzling out.
It was by no means an ideal situation. A lack of leadership and organisation was clear. This kind of situation of 'too much passion, not enough reason', 'the map is not the territory', and 'what works in theory, doesn't necessarily work in practice' is fairly common with this kind of aid situation I think as I was talking to a seasoned aid worker there. Hence the title of this blog post fits rather nicely with my conclusion.
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