5 August 2026
I arrived in Georgia nearly six months ago with absolutely no expectations. I had never even known this country existed, hardly spent any time researching the culture or heritage, never dreamed of specific places to see. I knew only what I had seen in a 45-minute documentary and on Google Maps. After my three magical but very tough months in Goa, and another challenging month in Turkey, all I knew was that I needed a soft landing…
As I slowly found my feet in the middle of winter and rainy days, and as nature very slowly began waking up in spring, I found myself in the middle of a fairytale… and yet, not a fairytale at all. Time passed slowly as the world moved sleepily around me. I started feeling like I was sitting in a waiting room… though I had no idea what I was waiting for. Life in Kutaisi moves slowly, almost all the time. For a moment, I felt that I was growing long-term roots here, that this might become a home for more than just a few months. Even though I hated all the rain (and I still hate the never-ending rain!), the slow living, the incredibly beautiful nature, the stillness, and the quiet freedom all gently wooed a weary soul into simply being.
Along the way, I made friends… expats only, sadly. The stoic Georgians remain a mystery. We’ve all heard stories of Georgian hospitality, and yet very few foreign travelers ever truly experience it. Here at the hostel, we settled into a familiar rhythm. I initially signed up for a month of volunteering, teaching English to Valia and Vika. Financial circumstances, along with a bruised soul and the peaceful sanctuary I found here, held me in a kind of gentle captivity, and one month slowly turned into half a year…
As it always happens, the initial culture shock softened into charm. Then the honeymoon phase faded, and certain frustrations quietly settled into my heart. No place on earth will ever be perfect, and all humans have their flaws. But gradually, I started understanding something deeper. The frequency here, in this almost-forgotten land, simply does not resonate with me.
I started looking at other options. Where could I go next?
Visas are a constant headache, unfortunately, for South Africans. Applications to live or work abroad are expensive and often long, drawn-out processes that test far more than just patience. By this point, I had started feeling travel-weary. I couldn’t see myself continuing to spend that amount of energy moving between countries, packing a backpack every one to three months, or returning home only to leave again after hopefully being granted the next temporary tourist visa.
At the same time, longing quietly began weaving itself into my daily life.
Longing for stability.
Longing for sunshine.
Longing for a familiar rhythm… instead of this strange life of going to bed past midnight and sleeping half the day.
I wasn’t feeling healthy. Or truly happy, even though, technically, nothing was wrong.
I am still loving my life here.
But the phone calls home…
The absence of community…
Of like-minded friends…
Of real heart-to-heart conversations…
Of long-term relationships…
The constant coming and going of people you briefly connect with…
And the quiet loneliness of realising that I do not truly belong here…
All of it slowly brought me to an unexpected truth.
Maybe one of my biggest dreams…
was coming to an end.
It’s a strange feeling when we begin to grieve the ending of a dream.
That doesn’t mean I will never travel again, or that this hasn’t been one of the best things I could have done over the last eighteen months. It simply means I have evolved, and that I now perceive a life I truly love… through slightly different lenses.
It took a few weeks. But then, in a single moment, the answer became clear. I need to go home. And this time, it won’t be to simply pack up and leave again after a short visit. This is the beginning of a new dream. A new way of living. A reconnection with a heritage I have felt distant from for most of my life. An appreciation for where I come from.
Before I will finally be home at the end of September though, there is one more big adventure in the cards…. And who knows…where the next chapter may lead.
