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I am in Tbilisi, at an internet cafe near Rustaveli Avenue. I have been here for 10 days now.

I left Copenhagen on Sunday May 18th. At Kastrup Airport, I met up with Anna, who is a Polish student of journalism who is currently studying in Denmark (the Erasmus programme), who would also be an election observer in Georgia. We also spent the five hours together in Riga, waiting for the next flight to Tbilisi.

When we arrived Tbilisi at about 4 AM local time, we met with some of the other Danes (who had flown via Istanbul) and went to the hotel. On the way to the city centre I just stared out the window, seeking out as much as I could. I could see all the posters for the different political parties, and I noticed the numerous taxis and gas stations. We arrived the hotel and checked in. I was exhausted.

Monday 19th was a day mainly spent preparing for the Election Observer Mission (EOM) in Tbilisi. I helped Anna go to the Azeri embassy to get her visa for Azerbaijan where she would go after the election observation. She would attend a workshop on human rights there - I forget the details. I took some videos and pictures, however, and in the afternoon I went with Peter (the Danish photographer) and Anna on a trip to the mountains outside Tbilisi, seeing among other things the view from the television tower outside Tbilisi. We spent the night at a Georgian restaurant where I ate some Very nice food - I forget the name.

Early Tuesday 20th we went to Rustavi, which is a smaller city southeast in Georgia, close to the border to Azerbaijan. Rustavi is a typical city that used to have a lot of industrial activity that has died down later years. It is a pretty run-down city, and there are large holes in the road, but I liked the people I met there. Actually, I want to return to Rustavi if possible.

The tuesday was mostly spent on lecturing the observers about their role as election observers. What to look for, how to behave, etc. Also they were given some update on the Georgian political situation. Me, I spent a lot of the day running errands, getting Georgian SIM cards for the polling station mobile phones, etc.

Wednesday 21st was election day. I was up at 4.30 AM, preparing my things. At 6 we all met, and at 6.40 we went out to the different polling stations. The day was hectic, and I spent most of it in a taxi between polling stations, taking video footage as well as trying to understand the situation at the different stations. Especially in the Marneuli district, which is in the country-side, we experienced some conflicts. But overall it went well, and at 8 PM we watched as they closed the polling stations and the counting process began. I will write about my experiences during the counting of votes in another blog entry.

Thursday 22nd at 11 AM we had a press conference, where our main conclusion was that the elections overall were conducted in a fair way. Unfortunately, we had not processed all the information from the polling stations yet, so we could not give a full account of the situation in for instance my polling station. After the press conference, lunch, and working on our individual reports from the polling stations, we went to Tbilisi again, where some of us attended the OSCE press conference at 5 PM. I was there, listening to the words, thinking about this country, this whole region, and the different world powers that have interests here.

Thursday night we had a farewell dinner at a Georgian restaurant, saying goodbye to our Belarusian and Azeri friends - they would not join us for the following seminar in Tbilisi.

Friday 23rd we went to our new hotel outside Tbilisi and started our programme in the seminar on gender and sexual minorities issues as well as the usage of “web 2.0 tools” in organizations. The hotel is nice, there is less dust in the air there than in Rustavi or central Tbilisi (I had developed a cough while in Georgia which still haunts me every night), and the staff is friendly.

It is now Wednesday May 28th, and our seminar ends on Friday. Monday was national holiday here in Georgia, and there were some demonstrations by the opposition in the afternoon which I am glad did not lead to any violent confrontations with the police or army. Since Saturday I have done a series of workshops teaching the participants about different tools, be it blogging, videoblogging, twitter or del.icio.us, and I have always been very aware of the problem that — I must do all this in a way that can inspire them. Talking about the wonders of new media helps them nothing if they don’t see how They can benefit from it. The problem is that there is no quick fix. Establishing a blog does Not guarantee visibility to a national or global audience.

The internet access while being here has been quite bad, particularly before thursday last week when we came to the new hotel. I had also hoped that I could use twitter to give live updates from the field during the election, but the Georgian SIM cards seemed to not work for sending to the UK-based twitter number.

It is 5.30 PM now, and I will enjoy my two hours of free time before we go to some Georgian bath house. Tomorrow I will have another workshop session, but I also need to work with them on a one-on-one basis.

I have extended my stay here in Georgia till tuesday night next week - four days extra. I will spend those extra days taking as much videos as I can, interviewing locals and exploring diferent aspects of this culture. One of my goals is to get to understand the Georgian alphabet which now seems like total gibberish to me

I have made great friends while here, and I hope to be able to follow the development of this country and region at a closer range the coming years.

I will post more within a few days.