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!

Roadblock Redux

My photos from the blocked road made it onto Rustavi 2 national TV's morning news last week the day after I took them and posted them to my blog - pretty good use of technology! I was also interviewed by cellphone in Georgian, and a snippet of that accompanied the photos.

Having heard rumours that the caterpillar was finally on its way from Mestia or Ipari (c. 44 or 20 km away), I made the trek down to the road blockages again today to have a look. Between the lower, main blocked section - now cleared - and a smaller but still car-impassable area sat the machine, "upatrono" (without a keeper). I took some pictures using the timer (see below), with me (5'6" in my boots) in them for scale this time, shot a video clip, and returned home to Ushguli. This is not a place to linger - slate rock was falling gently the whole time I was there, a few pieces big enough to take my head with them.

Home, the story emerged that the caterpillar had broken down, and its driver had gone back to Mestia for parts via the accompanying car. So, we're close to having our road back - tomorrow or the day after, all things being equal. THANKS!

The Downside of an Ushguli Winter

March 12, 2008

We interrupt our regular programming to bring you this special report.

Having heard that last week, within hours of the caterpillar coming at last to clear our road of snow and restore Ushguli to Planet Earth, avalanches had followed it and closed the road again, I determined to walk down and see the damage for myself. We have now been roadless since February 15 - we won't count the caterpillar's work because it arrived in the evening and that same night the road was re-closed by snow and rock falling.

Here, from today, are my cellphone shots of the successive avalanches, each 3-4 m in height.

Last week, a friend on the phone from Tbilisi asked me what we're eating, in this isolated condition. "Each other," I replied, to great amusement. Not true yet - we have plenty of stored food and livestock, and then there are always shoes to boil, and bark off the trees. Plenty of snow for water.

Seriously, Ushguli does feel the strain of being cut off from the world every winter for weeks or months. A university student here during a 6-week break had to cross that nightmare on horseback to return to Mestia for his transport back to Tbilisi. An elderly lady here, one of my colleagues in the school, lost her sister and brother-in-law in another part of Georgia last week. She must get to the funeral. The school badly needs firewood; the classrooms are much too cold, and children are more susceptible to flu and other common diseases of winter. These are all minor worries, however, compared to what will happen if there's a medical emergency now - someone could easily die.

So GIVE US OUR ROAD! FOR KEEPS!

Etseri, late Jan-early Feb. 2008

It's about time!

Yes indeed, it's taken me a long time to get back online for long enough to post some more images to the old blog. Here are some from Etseri, as promised. Bottom to top:

Sergo's little helper on the hay-round

A local friend after an hour's walk through a showfall

Shorts of wood

Etseri winter scenery

Valya the Valiant, Etseri and region's unsung heroine, medicine woman, on her rounds. The intravenous drip, hanging from a clothes-horse (is that what you call it?) saved the man's life: he was severely dehydrated after the runs, and we rode on horseback 2 hours to reach him.

The shortest watchtower in Svaneti, near Pari, and only a few km from the tallest, which is in Etseri and on this blog already.

... So I went down to the village of Etseri at the end of January for the funeral of a lady I'd known there. She was 85 and had been bedridden for more than 10 years, with 3 unmarried children looking after her. I expected to be away a week, but my free ride back up to Ushguli took over 2 weeks. Thus the delay in new posts to the blog...

Here are some pictures from just before I left for Etseri, to be followed soon by some from Etseri itself.

Bottom - General shot of Ushguli with cool clouds over Mt Shkhara.

Snow has TEXTURE! (Well, especially if it's old.)

Snow has FORM! (Well, if the things under it do.)

Top - Tony on Skis! I went down one slope in deep powder, once, and fell over halfway down. But it's a start.

More from New Year's Day (Old), Jan. 14, as well as the next few days afterwards, from the bottom up:

Lile with part of the feast in the morning light, including (left of centre) the remains of my massive birthday cake

Me in traditional Svan costume

Football in a spectacular setting, with cows for an audience

Beauty and the beast: young lady with roast piglet's head

A visiting heliskiing team of 14 from Germany... paying $2700 per hour total for the machine, 3 pilots, a guard, a fuel truck, etc. They had a great morning on our virgin slopes.

Happy Old New Year from Ushguli! More on this important holiday soon.
Back online after a long delay. I lost internet capability after Jan. 1, and it's taken me this long to get through to the Magti mobile offices during the very busy and often closed Orthodox holiday season...

Here are a few shots from Ushguli of late:

Mt. Shkhara at sunset (above) and dawn (bottom), both from Lamaria Church. It was nearly -20 C with a light wind blowing when I trudged up to the church for these photos, but the view makes it worth it every time.

View of Ushguli from Lamaria Church's watchtower window (top) - it's been clear and cold for weeks now, down to as much as -22 C at night, really beautiful each day. School is off until Jan. 22, so I have time off from English teaching for photographs, video, writing, etc. More posting soon...