And now for something completely different from Ushguli, at last.

In December 1993 I was able to visit my parents in Indonesia, where my father was the site manager for a power station which was being built. Three weeks of tropics, sun, sand, exotic vegetation and friendly people - this was before Indonesia's later troubled times. Here are a few scans from slides of the trip, with more to follow.

Indonesia is:
- the largest Muslim nation in the world, with close to 200 million people (including Hindus, Christians, animists and others)
- an archipelago of some 13000 islands (most of them not inhabited)
- a land of hundreds of languages, with its official language, Bahasa Indonesia, thought to be one of the easiest languages in the world to learn.

the w()rd: Hi from Hanmer

As far as I know there are only 3 places in the world named Hanmer. There's one in Ontario, Canada, which I think is the youngest; Hanmer Springs in New Zealand; and then the original, a hamlet in North Wales, UK from which my family hails. I've just been up there for 2 days with my parents (visiting from Canada), staying with the Baronet Sir John, titled head of the family, and Lady Audrey Hanmer, first visit for me since 1990. I shot 4 rolls of film, frames from which will eventually make their way to this blog; but I must return to Georgia in late August and scan them first, so that won't be for a while. Before then, I must get round to posting some more photos from elsewhere to the blog, even if they're old ones. SOON.

the w()rd: UK break

I'm in the UK as of today, with a 6-hour stop in Vilnuis, Lithuania en route as that was the cheapest flight arrangement. Interesting fact: Lithuanian is regarded as the closest of the Indo-European languages to the original language from which they all grew. Vilnius has a beautiful medieval old city, but due to a cellphone accident a day before leaving Tbilisi I'm on this 2-month UK visit without a cellphone while it gets repaired. But I did take a large external hard drive with me, and intend to post some older scanned images from it to the blog. Meanwhile, Ushguli winter '07-08 themes are on hold. Stay tuned for more to follow.

Well, I found quite a few more cellphone images from my last weeks in Ushguli, so I'm not through with the village just yet. (Still scanning the 20 rolls of film from the winter - best work from them will come later. IF there's any space left on the blog...) Top to bottom:

- Some of my students outside the school, and the stone path which I helped build last October with my friends from Bulgaria. It's beaten up a bit from the ravages of winter, having nothing to stop the stones from moving around, but still there under the snow and ice.
- Melt in progress. This snow would all disappear a few weeks later.
- Our bebia (grandmother) attacking the veggie plot just outside my window; time to plant soon!
- Almost all of the school's 51 students and 10 or so staff in late April, closest thing to an official school photo for 2007-8. I'm on the extreme right; a few people left of me, in a purple winter coat and sunglasses, is the school's director and my boss, Nona.

the w()rd: 5000 visitors again...

I have two visitor counters on the blog, unfortunately separated by about 175 people as I added them at different times. So today's the day when the second one, which records countries, will reach 5k hits. When I noted the first counter's 5k here, there were visitors from 73 countries noted on the second one; now it lists 76. Welcome to those of you from Armenia, Colombia and Ghana who've dropped by! Plus the invisible guests from Papua New Guinea, who indicated to me that for some reason their country is included in Australia internet-wise... Anyway, as I noted before, I'm delighted with such a wide group of visitors to the blog! How many other countries can make their way here in the next 5k, I wonder?

This is also my 501st post since the blog began in the spring of 2007.

Time to post some more images from Ushguli's late winter/early spring, among the last before I left in late April.

Top to bottom:
Snow in our yard covering the fence, as the Rustavi 2 TV guys were arriving. MORE snow! Enough already!
Tyre fire as an attempt to melt some more of the massive ice canal from my last posted photos. Environment says, "Thanks a LOT."
Horseshoeing. Ross M, these people REALLY need your help. So do about 100 horses in the village.
Making a twig broom. Free, quick and multi-useful. Just keep it away from the cows, for whom it's a tasty hors d'oeuvre (did I spell that right?).

the w()rd: Ushguli on Squidoo!

HUH?!
Well, go to http://www.squidoo.com/ushguli to see. Trying another way to get the word out about Ushguli.

the w()rd: Ratianis' Ushguli Blog Update

Check out what's new over at http://lileo-ushguli.blogspot.com/
I've added a couple of slideshows from my photos of the guesthouse and the village; and also their new business card and bookmark for you to print for yourself, free, as many copies as you need.

the w()rd: 5k TODAY!

Yes, I was right - today was the big day. Thank you again, all of you. Because of you I keep this thing going. Gush gush.

Here's an idea: Go to http://www.wordcount.org/main.php and play a game. Give yourself a point every time you choose a word which moves further down the scale of use, i.e. score if your words get progressively rarer. Subtract a point every time this is not the case. See how well you know English in this context!

the w()rd: 5000 tomorrow?

Looks like I'll reach that nice round number of viewers, 5x10^3, within the next 24 hours or so. Not much for 13-odd months of this blog's existence, but better than, say, *1*k. Thank you all, from all 73 countries (+ Papua New Guinea coming under Australia!) who have stopped by. More photos and words to follow, from some familiar and some new locations. Stay tuned, faithful 5k.

Here (top 2 photos) are Dato (l) and Zakro (r) working on the ice canal outside their houses in late March, to channel the water so that it wouldn't flow all over their yards. The ice, accumulated over the winter from a small stream, was unusually thick this season - up to 1 metre. The last remnants of it were just disappearing as I left Ushguli on April 23.

The bottom picture is what happens when Ushguli has been without electricity for 10 days but our TV programme - the one which Lasha and Levan had come and made - is airing. ONE house in the village (as far as I know) has a generator. So 29 of us crowded in there to watch our 6 minutes of fame. And here are 10 of our cellphones getting recharged at the same time, watched by Laerti.

the w()rd: New Self-Publishing Paradigm!

Check out:
http://www.youpublish.com/referredby/a_hanmer
for the details. Fascinating to see where this will go.

My most important photograph so far

A blast from my past.

When I was 11 years old, newly returned from Rhodesia to Canada, my family took a camping vacation from Thunder Bay, ON all the way to Vancouver Island, BC on the West coast, a long journey and a spectaular holiday.
There, I was given the opportunity to shoot a roll of film on a Kodak Instamatic camera of my parents'. The rest is certainly history. I'm not sure if that particular 126 roll of film still exists somewhere in Canada, but this is the only surviving frame from it that I'm aware of. 2 prints were made: a 4x4" and a framed 16x20" in my parents' house. I recently scanned the small print here in Georgia at 2400 dpi and cleaned it up; here is a copy of it full-frame, my earliest photograph, thus priceless to me.

The 4th week of March saw intrepid Lasha and Levan from Rustavi 2 TV arrive in Ushguli, driven by their man Dato. But their car, despite being a Niva, didn't make it all the way to the village at all, prevented by a metre of snow which fell over 2 days. Instead it died about 7 km below, along with the car of the village's gamgebeli, or governor, who had met them en route. Both parties slept in their cars, then the next day a number of villagers went out to meet and help them. I joined the last such group, feeling very much like someone needed to quip, "Dr Livingstone, I presume?"

Back in Ushguli after the arrival, TV Week, top to bottom:

Dato (my host) shovelling snow off a barn roof to prevent its collapse. I did some of this too - hard work but one can see one's progress in a most satisfying way

Lasha and Levan, reporter and camerman, left & right; between them, Simba the champion Caucasus Shepherd dog of my host family

My boot for scale showing the thickness of the ice canal (up to 1 m thick elsewhere) which had accumulated from a small stream outside our house

Head of a horse which died

Lasha and Levan examining recent footage

They thought they'd stay for a couple of days, but in the end it was a week, with a 10-day power outage. Eventually I'll post a link here to the great little 6-minute national TV feature which resulted from their visit, but first I must add English subtitles to it. Lasha and Levan became my new friends, and I seem to have become a somewhat more recognisable face across the country, judging by people's reactions to me now.

A few more from the last couple of months. Top to bottom:

The festival of "making a big tower out of snow" - but it also has major religious and drinking elements

Wonderful folk art on a door, made of sheet metal

Doors made from threshing boards with stones embedded in them, on an abandoned house

My Group 3 (oldest) English students compiling the lists of words they'd found from one of the longest words in the language

Yes, we DID have this much snow fall - a metre in 2 days - while 2 journalists from Rustavi 2 TV were making the long trip from Tbilisi to Ushguli to interview me. More from their trip in the nest posting.

another w()rd: edge

http://www.edge.org/ Go there, too. Fascinating.

the w()rd: Kevin Kelly

Check out his website, www.kk.org Amazing, enthralling, loads to take in. Just GO there.

More recent photos from Ushguli, top to bottom:

Barbaroba (St Barbara's Day) in one of the village's 7 tiny churches

Where I took my bath roughly once a week

Having the bath (self-timer shot)

Tiny icicles in a strange place obeying their own rules of gravity, etc

Goats in a strange place obeying their own rules of gravity, etc

Back from Internet Glacier-Land

I returned from Mestia, Svaneti to Tbilisi yesterday, a ride in a public minivan from 06:30 to 19:00 or so. 5 months to the day after I left, I'm back in a warm city from the cold, to higher-speed, one-price-monthly internet... but feeling that I LEFT home rather than returning to it! I have many friends here in Tbilisi, but also many back in Ushguli and other parts of Svaneti. Hoping to get back up there in September, however, to continue English teaching.

Having had few opportunities to blog regularly up there, I now have a wealth of material to choose from for posting - cellphone photos and video, and later, material from 21 rolls of 35mm film. (Film, remember that? Still using it myself.)

Some Ushguli highlights, top to bottom:

Jumping through the remains of the bonfire, Limpari celebration, February 2008

Some of my English students

My new Svan felt hat, followed by the lady who makes them in the village, demonstrating

An altered roadsign

The WORD: Ratianis Online!!!

Today, after much struggle, I got the blog of my host family in Ushguli up and running, a dream for a long time. Their guesthouse can be found at:
http://lileo-ushguli.blogspot.com/
I will be developing this site further from Tbilisi soon, but for now it's enough.
Welcome to Ushguli! The Ratianis at Lileo Guesthouse are at your service!