Went to office and were met by no attention to our side at all, although on the previous day we had agreed (according to our understanding) to finalize our discussion on the Visitor Management Plan draft. After some hours of us still waiting Natia and Levani left for internet café- as the office internet is more off than on. Said that will be back in 30 minutes, the Georgian factor enlarged it to 2 hours. After their return hungry and tired of waiting I finally asked- when can we finish the discussion, and they were kind of surprised- Oh, you want a meeting now! OK, let’s agree on a meeting in 1 hour. Getting to know the working style specifics….
In meeting discussed our field-tour in the park- a 6-day trekking round along al the main trails of the park. Agreed that we will spend one day in a scout camp and join some of their environmental and educational activities, then trek on our own for few days and then meeting up with a trail marking team- Jaba with guides and finish the trek together with them. Agreed as well, that we will submit the final draft of our work on August 21, which also corresponds to the date, we should submit our interim report to GLEN and also happens to be my Name’s Day. That gives us 5 weeks of work- 1 week trekking, on-site observations, 4 weeks writing.
A possibility to use Tourist Information Center’s internet connection was arranged with its manager- Artur, whom we had already got to know on our first day here. In the TIC met Artur and 3 of his friends having a lot of fun with an intoxicated American, whom we had already seen this morning in our office registering for trekking in the park in a much more sober state. ended up in a situation where Marta was trying to decipher the html code of our future blog, the American and Arthur sharing their love of jazz music, Artur showing off his amazing skills of being able to draw with both hands simultaneously, and the American trying to teach me some complicated, but rather drunk swing dance steps in the middle of this glass house of TIC. The Georgians seemed to enjoy this spectacle. Dancing two days in a row- not bad for a town without a disco. Long after expiry of the working hours of the TIC, me and Marta decided that it would be polite to leave and let Artur go home, so we moved out to the porch in front of TIC, but none of the party, including Artur, showed any interest in going home, so we had a new situation- me sitting there outside reading a letter in Marta’s computer, the American falling asleep in sitting position next to me and the Georgians feeling lost- what to do with this foreigner, who insists of camping in the town.
I escaped to internet café for another round of Skype talks, but when I returned, everybody was still there and the American had one-sidedly decided to spend the night at our place. So he followed us as we walked home until by the bridge I openly told him, that this is not such a good idea (I would be happy to host him if he had not drunk that much, but arriving at night to our boss’ place with intoxicated stranger was not at all appropriate).
In meeting discussed our field-tour in the park- a 6-day trekking round along al the main trails of the park. Agreed that we will spend one day in a scout camp and join some of their environmental and educational activities, then trek on our own for few days and then meeting up with a trail marking team- Jaba with guides and finish the trek together with them. Agreed as well, that we will submit the final draft of our work on August 21, which also corresponds to the date, we should submit our interim report to GLEN and also happens to be my Name’s Day. That gives us 5 weeks of work- 1 week trekking, on-site observations, 4 weeks writing.
A possibility to use Tourist Information Center’s internet connection was arranged with its manager- Artur, whom we had already got to know on our first day here. In the TIC met Artur and 3 of his friends having a lot of fun with an intoxicated American, whom we had already seen this morning in our office registering for trekking in the park in a much more sober state. ended up in a situation where Marta was trying to decipher the html code of our future blog, the American and Arthur sharing their love of jazz music, Artur showing off his amazing skills of being able to draw with both hands simultaneously, and the American trying to teach me some complicated, but rather drunk swing dance steps in the middle of this glass house of TIC. The Georgians seemed to enjoy this spectacle. Dancing two days in a row- not bad for a town without a disco. Long after expiry of the working hours of the TIC, me and Marta decided that it would be polite to leave and let Artur go home, so we moved out to the porch in front of TIC, but none of the party, including Artur, showed any interest in going home, so we had a new situation- me sitting there outside reading a letter in Marta’s computer, the American falling asleep in sitting position next to me and the Georgians feeling lost- what to do with this foreigner, who insists of camping in the town.
I escaped to internet café for another round of Skype talks, but when I returned, everybody was still there and the American had one-sidedly decided to spend the night at our place. So he followed us as we walked home until by the bridge I openly told him, that this is not such a good idea (I would be happy to host him if he had not drunk that much, but arriving at night to our boss’ place with intoxicated stranger was not at all appropriate).
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