Etseri, Svaneti, Georgia...

Top: Sergo the Reaper

Next: Watching paint crack, a favourite pastime

Bottom 2: You've heard of James & the Giant Peach perhaps, but Sergo & the Giant Tomato?! It weighed in at 1.2 kg...

Luara Aprasidze, 1963-2008

This was one funeral I had to miss, being away in the UK now.

Luara Aprasidze was the youngest of 4 children, never married, and a good friend of mine. She grew up in this house, in Ladreri, Svaneti, and often hosted me there - it's become a home to me in the village. She hated having her photograph taken, and rarely consented. But here she is: in the top photo, far right, with other immediate family members, in 2001. Her surviving brothers and sister are the 3 at left. Her father and brother-in-law, also both deceased, are to the right of them, and the rest are nieces and nephews. In the bottom photo, seated front left, in 2002. I don't think I have any other photographs of her.

Luara got cancer some time ago, spent a while in Tbilisi, and died there a few days ago. Her funeral was yesterday, in Etseri. I last saw her about a month ago, soon before I left Tbilisi - she was still on her feet, and I had hoped to see her again in August. Not to be.

A beautiful woman, brave soul, far too critical of herself, hiding many gifts. Rest in peace, dear sister, and see you in heaven, I believe.

Indonesia picures will be back soon.

Svaneti, er, hobble, June 2007 (top to bottom)

Meanwhile, back on the ranch. Jeff having his foot blisters dealt with at last, by the best: Valya, Nodar's cousin and the medicine woman of Etseri. Grin and bear it, buddy. I had my own owwies to contend with, on my thighs (I wasn't about to display 'em), from riding the wretched horse home 2 1/2 hours. We rested a full day here, then took the marshroutka (public minivan) home to Tbilisi. The walk was over after 2 1/2 weeks. A great time was had by all. Many lessons were learned to apply to the next attempt, likely to be summer 2008.

Walking in Svaneti, June 2007 (top to bottom)

The walk begins. Packing the horse at Nodar's house in Ladreri and setting off. 27 km to Mestia on our first - and longest, distance-wise - day of the 5 on foot. There was some 2 hours' worth of rain during the 7 hours we took, but we and our luggage were ready for it, and we just carried on in rain jackets.

Giorgoba, Ladreri, Svaneti, May 2007

One of my first videos from the new cellphone. I had bought it the day before going up to Ladreri for Giorgoba (St George's Day) to celebrate it with my Svan friends. This shows the tiny, ancient St Barbara's Church (possibly 6th century), open to the sky, and in the distance the villagers at their feast in the forest.

Getting closer to the end of my March 2007 trip to Svaneti.

First (bottom), a view near Etseri.
Next up, shoes drying in the sun, also near Etseri.
Then three more of the family sheep, Ladreri, the lowest of which also has Ushba in the background (bonus!).
Finally, left, the Moon setting over Ladreri.

Winter, Ladreri, March 2007

Several more which didn't qualify as haiku but are favourites nonetheless.

Bottom, fences.
Middle, the barn roof's edge.
Next up, entrance to ANOTHER ruined house.
Above, leaves slowly melting their way down by virtue of their darkness attracting slightly more of the sun's heat than the snow around them.

Ladreri, March 2007

Three more frames from the ruined house across from Nodar's.

Sheep, Ladreri, March 2007

Going back a month to my 16th visit to Svaneti, the rolls of film from which I'm still scanning. Family portraits of this somewhat rough bunch.

Frames, Ladreri, May 2007

A couple more views of the mountains south of Etseri from Valya's windows. The last shots for now from my cellphone camera. These are typical examples of my desire to show several realities, or layers, in the same photograph.

Farm implements, Ladreri, May 2007

A sled - used all year round for transporting heavy loads - and a "thing for working the ground", pulled by a beast of burden, as described by this non-specialist.

More from my new phone camera.

Abandoned, Ladreri, May 2007

This (below) is the roof of the house right next to Nodar's. Soon the place will look like the one across the road, the windows of which I love to shoot through for natural frames - roofless and completely ruined, a tragedy. The built-in cupboard is another shot from that house.

Above: First ever picture using my new cellphone, bathroom mirror, Tbilisi, May 2, 2007

Giorgoba, Ladreri, Svaneti, May 2007

Well, I actually did manage to acquire a new cellphone just before heading out to the mountains. This journey is also notable for my not taking a single roll of film with me, though I did have all of my 35mm camera equipment. A last-minute request to buy and take some medical supplies, made the evening before my departure, after I had been to the bank and it had closed, meant that I didn't have enough money for my return journey to Tbilisi - let alone for such frivolities as film! Just as well, it turned out, that I had splashed out on the new cellphone, a necessity anyway as my old one has been expiring. The 4-day trip was to be an experience of getting to know my new phone's multimedia capabilities, both photo- and videographic. While its 2 MegaPixel limit is quite small, its ability to handle contrast quite limited, it does offer the advantage of great speed in getting one's material from shoot to blog - soon I will be able to post straight from the phone itself.

This time I was travelling by local transport, on the ubiquitous marshroutka (a word which the French "marcheroute" lent to Russian for the name of its set-route taxi-vans, and from that language travelled into all of the languages of the former USSR, and thence by this tortuous way slipped into local English). Nodar was detained by another funeral, this one not in Svaneti, and found himself unable at all to go home for the event to which which he had invited me in the first place. I count this trip, my 17th into Svaneti since 1999, as a milestone in independence from my big Svan brother and in freedom to come and go more as I please.

The 6th of May, Giorgoba, the festival of St George, is a major day all over Georgia. In Svaneti there is an outdoor feast, weather permitting. Ours was in a beautiful clearing in a small forested knoll which contains one of the oldest churches in all of Georgia, the ruined, purportedly 6th-century Church of St Barbara. It is tiny, able to hold no more than 15 or so non-claustrophobic people shoulder to shoulder; but at least the crowding isn't vertical, as there is no roof at all but the sky.

The village's women had baked bread in small round loaves. Three men chosen for their ability to say the required prayers each took the loaves in threes and, holding them up to the east-facing front of the church, prayed all together to God for each male in each family in the village in turn. The women lit thin candles and stuck them against the stone block walls of the church as this was happening. Their turn to be prayed for, along with that of the cows, I am told, is on another special day...

A chicken was brought into the ceremony as well. Presented to God, it was then released into the woods to be chased and caught before being sacrificed and added to the huge cauldron of calf meat which was already boiling away.

As I was taking all of this in, one thing which stood out to me was the beautiful setting of the church, open to the sky and to nature which is crowding its walls and reentering via its floor. All right, it's a ruin needing restoration; but it is also a very natural-seeming place to worship the Artist of the creation mingling with it.

Sacrifices and prayers done, the 30 or so people present were ready for the feast. This consisted of the boiled meat, along with the bread and some tqemali, sour plum jam; toasting was with either araqi (local moonshine) or wine, presided over by Nodar's brother, Sergo. It was over in about 5 hours, and all were able to walk away from it under their own power, making their way home to the village below to end the evening peacefully. I had participated in this major religious festival in Svaneti for the first time. I am still processing what I witnessed.

Giorgoba 2007, Ladreri

Views and details of St Barbara's Church (c. 6th century)

Giorgoba 2007, Ladreri

Above - me carrying a young ewe to its end the day before;
Middle - chopping the meat of the calf for the cauldron on the day;
Bottom - soup for 30 boiling, and liver/kidneys roasting

Giorgoba 2007, Ladreri

The feast itself.