Traveling to Georgia and Turkey was not my first experience abroad, but I will say, it was my most pleasurable and memorable. The first international trip I took was to Russia in January of 2007. It was cold, unfamiliar, and nerve racking. My husband and I went to Russia to adopt our son. This is how I became a part of World Link and the FLEX program. FLEX/WL students helped us upon our return through translating as our new 8 year old son knew no English. A relationship began and an appreciation for cultures immerged. Two years later, we hosted Irisha Domatyrko, then Valeria Zygun, and so it begun… I became a coordinator with World Link and now have family from over 20 countries living all over the world.
You can imagine how excited I was to learn I was going with my organization to the countries of Georgia and Turkey for an amazing Diversity Immersion Tour. Family, I will get to see family, meet extended family, learn about their culture, understand the experiences they had with traveling abroad, experience their culture, and so much more. I immediately contacted the alumni I knew would be in Tbilisi and was beyond surprised by how many joined us. It was truly a family reunion.
“I want to say that I’m more than lucky that first of all, I got selected for the program FLEX, and secondly, I had an opportunity to be a part of World Link family. And I mean it when I say family because it really is.” This is a quote from Manana (Mancho) Beridze from Georgia. She was just one of the many alumni (family members) that joined us in Tbilisi, Georgia.
Mancho arranged to take a few days off from the university in Tbilisi, where she studies journalism, so she could be available to the World Link family as a tour guide, translator, etc. It was a blessing to have her with us. Not only did she make sure we were not paying too much for a taxi, but she showed us the culture, shared history, took us to places we would have not experienced without her guidance, etc.
While exploring Tbilisi and The Old Capitol, Mancho shared many things with us about her year in the USA and also what it has been like for her as alumni. She admitted she is not as active of alumni as she would like to be due to her studies, but said she joins in when she can. She has enjoyed spending American holidays with alumni and having movie nights with American sweets. She said some of the alumni projects she has participated in are clean up projects, visiting the elderly in the shelter, and marathons but looks forward to a time when she can be devoted to organizing big projects. Mancho would like to see volunteerism be a common thing in her country.
Mancho learned about volunteerism in the USA. She also learned what diversity was in both religion and in culture. Mancho lived in Fresno, California during the 2012-2013 school year. She had an unusual experience as she had two host families and went to two different high schools.
“I had very interesting experience about school in the U.S. As I had to change my host family, I went to two different High Schools. First, I thought that every American high school was the same, but when I changed the schools I was shocked, it was like being in the whole different world. They were in different communities and with different amount of students. This made me to realize what diversity meant.”
Mancho said that this experience was one that molded her and helped her to understand and appreciate diversity.
Another experience that really had an impact on Mancho was the Melting pot Essay. She said, “this was one of the life-changing moments World Link gave me, as it changed my perspective of view in religion and diversity as I tried to interact with people who had different religious beliefs. I had been in different churches and also, my Psychology teacher helped me with this as she gave me different videos to watch, about experiment for Christians to live among Muslims. This was very important for me and I’m very happy that I chose this topic. Coming to America, religion was one of the main things I had hard times with, as in Georgia most of our population has the same religion, so to live in a country with so many religious beliefs was new for me. I talked about this in my essay, I shared my experience.”
Experiencing Georgia and Turkey with the alumni was a gift that I can never repay. Not only did I get to hear from the alumni about how their experience in the USA was life changing and learn about the projects/careers they are pursuing because of their FLEX/YES experience, but I walked in the shoes of an exchange student. This trip has helped me be a better coordinator. I experienced a touch of every aspect a student goes through prior to, during and after their year in the USA. I experienced the excitement of being selected to go abroad and study, packing for an unknown climate/culture, exhaustion from travel, adrenaline from meeting new people and being in a new land, culture shock, unfamiliar food choices, loss in translation, learning to love a new culture (two in this case), home sickness, appreciating the differences and similarities, packing to go home (#thereisaweightlimit), saying goodbye, traveling home with others that had similar experiences, getting home and trying to share without being annoying, jet lag, jet lag, jet lag… it was a roller coaster of emotions and the BEST EXPERIENCE EVER!
Thank you World Link and the US Department of State for this amazing, once in a life time opportunity, that has certainly made me a better diplomat and lover of culture.
Written by Crissy Libby; Local Coordinator; Visalia, CA
You can imagine how excited I was to learn I was going with my organization to the countries of Georgia and Turkey for an amazing Diversity Immersion Tour. Family, I will get to see family, meet extended family, learn about their culture, understand the experiences they had with traveling abroad, experience their culture, and so much more. I immediately contacted the alumni I knew would be in Tbilisi and was beyond surprised by how many joined us. It was truly a family reunion.
“I want to say that I’m more than lucky that first of all, I got selected for the program FLEX, and secondly, I had an opportunity to be a part of World Link family. And I mean it when I say family because it really is.” This is a quote from Manana (Mancho) Beridze from Georgia. She was just one of the many alumni (family members) that joined us in Tbilisi, Georgia.
Mancho arranged to take a few days off from the university in Tbilisi, where she studies journalism, so she could be available to the World Link family as a tour guide, translator, etc. It was a blessing to have her with us. Not only did she make sure we were not paying too much for a taxi, but she showed us the culture, shared history, took us to places we would have not experienced without her guidance, etc.
While exploring Tbilisi and The Old Capitol, Mancho shared many things with us about her year in the USA and also what it has been like for her as alumni. She admitted she is not as active of alumni as she would like to be due to her studies, but said she joins in when she can. She has enjoyed spending American holidays with alumni and having movie nights with American sweets. She said some of the alumni projects she has participated in are clean up projects, visiting the elderly in the shelter, and marathons but looks forward to a time when she can be devoted to organizing big projects. Mancho would like to see volunteerism be a common thing in her country.
Mancho learned about volunteerism in the USA. She also learned what diversity was in both religion and in culture. Mancho lived in Fresno, California during the 2012-2013 school year. She had an unusual experience as she had two host families and went to two different high schools.
“I had very interesting experience about school in the U.S. As I had to change my host family, I went to two different High Schools. First, I thought that every American high school was the same, but when I changed the schools I was shocked, it was like being in the whole different world. They were in different communities and with different amount of students. This made me to realize what diversity meant.”
Mancho said that this experience was one that molded her and helped her to understand and appreciate diversity.
Another experience that really had an impact on Mancho was the Melting pot Essay. She said, “this was one of the life-changing moments World Link gave me, as it changed my perspective of view in religion and diversity as I tried to interact with people who had different religious beliefs. I had been in different churches and also, my Psychology teacher helped me with this as she gave me different videos to watch, about experiment for Christians to live among Muslims. This was very important for me and I’m very happy that I chose this topic. Coming to America, religion was one of the main things I had hard times with, as in Georgia most of our population has the same religion, so to live in a country with so many religious beliefs was new for me. I talked about this in my essay, I shared my experience.”
Experiencing Georgia and Turkey with the alumni was a gift that I can never repay. Not only did I get to hear from the alumni about how their experience in the USA was life changing and learn about the projects/careers they are pursuing because of their FLEX/YES experience, but I walked in the shoes of an exchange student. This trip has helped me be a better coordinator. I experienced a touch of every aspect a student goes through prior to, during and after their year in the USA. I experienced the excitement of being selected to go abroad and study, packing for an unknown climate/culture, exhaustion from travel, adrenaline from meeting new people and being in a new land, culture shock, unfamiliar food choices, loss in translation, learning to love a new culture (two in this case), home sickness, appreciating the differences and similarities, packing to go home (#thereisaweightlimit), saying goodbye, traveling home with others that had similar experiences, getting home and trying to share without being annoying, jet lag, jet lag, jet lag… it was a roller coaster of emotions and the BEST EXPERIENCE EVER!
Thank you World Link and the US Department of State for this amazing, once in a life time opportunity, that has certainly made me a better diplomat and lover of culture.
Written by Crissy Libby; Local Coordinator; Visalia, CA