“Lived Happily Ever After: A Journey With Strangers” was an outdoor training course, which took place in Georgia, Bakuriani in July 2015.
Nele:
Just as the title of the project says – it was a great journey with great people from 8 different countries. After planning the whole hiking trip and all the little details by ourselves, we set off for a 4-day adventure in the nature. Hiking in the Georgian mountains was an amazing experience – physical challenges, assisting each other, breathtaking views, communal cooking, late nights around a campfire and a lot of new friends and shared experiences. These 4 days without electricity, running water, signal or internet changed all of us in a way – we developed a great group spirit but at the same time had a lot of time for ourselves and our thoughts.
One of the most memorable moments might have been a sunrise hike. Waking up at 4.50 with just a few hours of sleep after a campfire night seemed impossibly hard and unreasonable at first. After finally getting ourselves out of the tents and moving towards a Lion Mountain, it made us realize how great of an opportunity it actually was. How many times in your life will you be camping in the middle of Georgian mountains with the chance to experience the sunrise on the peak of the Lion Mountain? Actually we had to face strong winds, rain and very low temperatures, but this made it even more memorable. Even though we didn’t see the sun actually rise because of the clouds and fog, the journey itself was unforgettable!
Triin:
For me this project was truly a challenge. I was nervous for weeks about whether I will survive the hike, but apparently I did and I’m happy that I had the chance to prove myself what I’m capable of. For me the most memorable part of the project was coming down from the mountains. Walking on small trails in the forest, breathtaking views from the outer side of the mountain and having lunch in the clouds cannot really be put into words. After which we had to use our freshly learned hiking skills to tackle a relatively steep part of the hill and ended up in a beautiful valley with grass, strawberries and even a river. In addition to the experiences gained from hiking.
I would also like to point out the method of experiential learning where trainers don’t tell participants exactly how to fulfill a task and instead let the group find a solution of their own. It is very empowering and teaches youngsters to be creative in solving the problems they meet. This is very practical as the challenges current youngsters will have to face in the future often don’t have prescribed solutions.
Masha:
What?
There was a magic project in magic mountains of magic country of Georgia! It consisted of three parts: preparation (it was very useful for those, who even didn´t know why backpack has additional ribbons and clasps, like meJ ), hiking in mountains (omg, still remember all the smells, views and emotions) and reflection (we tried our best to analyze what happened and what is this special experience and learning we had).
Why?
That´s easy – ADVENTURE! This project gave me opportunity to hike. First hike in my life! I was afraid enough (of nature, spiders, darkness and, of course, myself), but as more the fear was growing, as more challenged I became.
How?
There were very difficult road sections through going up and down. Sometimes we just stayed to have a moment for deep breathing, sometimes we caught each other (going down felt so dangerous that I cannot imagine how could I do this without someone catching me). So this hiking was full of help, new feelings and understandings.
Special moments
Solitude Time. It was the last day of hike, last evening in the camping. It was already dark and silent. Trainers let us sit alone in forest to reflect to ourselves, to think about what happened. We had only flashlight (oh yes, spiders´ favorite!). It lasted half an hour and during this time so many things happened in my mind and heart, that I really need to do it once againJ
Ok, enough about me, now about you. If you have lots of questions about yourself, about people around you, about reasons and decisions, about „to be or not o be“, just go to the nature, hike in mountains, get tired, sit in darkness, drink from mountain rivers, eat the lamb, sing near the fireplace, feel united with strangers!!! No, not strangers, but Strangers!!!
