Dmanisi in the spring

As a part of my birthday weekend I was invited by friends to join them on a road trip to Dmanisi.  We brought along my good local friend Luso, who is trying to start a tour business in Kvemo Kartli and a friend visiting from Greece.  Dmanisi was fascinating but even more so was the ride down.  This is southern Georgia. All the bigger mountains are north. We have a desert to the south east and across the peaks are Armenia. Who would have thought how beautiful the mountains would be just south of me.

The Dmanisi Museum
We found the museum quite a ways from the archeological site.  But fortunately we went there first, so we knew what we could expect from the site.  The museum was closed even though we checked and it was scheduled to be open on Sunday.  Fortunately someone at the building knew someone that had a key, and if we would give him a ride to that person's house,  we could get into the museum.  Gotta love this country!  The museum director was in Canada, so we were toured by an enthusiastic volunteer who gave a wonderful description of the site and history.

The Dmanisi archeological site

This was fascinating. The reason it was such a big find in Dmanisi was that there were 5 skulls all buried together, but previously seen as separate species.   "Traditionally, researchers have used variation among Homo fossils to define different species. But in light of these new findings, Dr Lordkipanidze and his colleagues suggest that early, diverse Homo fossils, with their origins in Africa, actually represent variation among members of a single, evolving lineage – most appropriately, Homo erectus.

“Had the braincase and the face of Skull 5 been found as separate fossils at different sites in Africa, they might have been attributed to different species,” said Dr Christoph Zollikofer from the Anthropological Institute and Museum in Zurich, Switzerland, a co-author of the Science paper.

To read more.  about Dmainis archeological site

Also, I blogged previously about the18 million year old demonstration of love  which I found so interesting.

Here are some great Americans enjoying Georgia!  

Mike and Marcia's favorite picnic spot

After lunch we stumbled onto a beautiful poppy field. Then, on to Bolnisi.

Bolnisi. Sioni Cathedral is a Georgian Orthodox basilica in the Bolnisi village, Georgia. The cathedral was built in 478–493. It is the oldest church building in existence  in Georgia. Bolnisi Sioni Cathedral is known for its Georgian inscriptions. These are one of the oldest historical documents of the Georgian alphabet.

I don't know why these scenes still surprises me: a beautiful country - north, south, east and west.

Orthodox Easter in Georgia

I have two things I wish I could bring back to the US. 
 The first are these darn marshutkas. Instead of those big 43 passenger buses driving all over, many times less than half full, why not just use these little 15 passenger vans - people can easily pop on and off with the way they are designed.  It is more economical and easier on the road.

The second thing I would bring home with me (and I probably will personally) is the special attitude toward Easter.  Although we know that Easter is supposed to be the most important holy day for Christians,  we still put so much emphasis on Christmas.  Here it is Easter and New Years.  So let me tell you what we did in Georgia.

Orthodox Easter combines all our holidays
Easter is a combination of Thanksgiving with family, All Souls Day where we honor our dead with trips to the graveyards, a little Christmas with presents for the kids,... and oh yes...  can't forget to throw in Halloween!

Wednesday night was the last work/school day of the week.  So the tradition is... they have these huge bonfires where the kids all jump through them.  Oh my!  Yep.  Supposedly the Church has tried to discourage them, but to no avail.  My settlement had several HUGE bonfires. Since I was in for the night, I didn't venture out to check them any closer than my balcony,  but they were sure all having fun.


Thursday the Patriarch  washed the feet of some parishioners,  just as we do for Holy Thursday service in the evening.  They do it in the morning.  The evening also has a service that many attend.

Friday, of course is the most solemn day, with 2pm service, and a big one in Tbilisi that the Patriarch presides over.

Saturday is a quiet day, traditionally. I travelled over to visit a friend who wanted me to meet her family.  What a lovely visit. Then I had a nice tour of Gori, which is Joseph Stalin’s hometown (of dubious distinction) . 

Natia at Gori castle

Kim in Gori

 Then we had an extra special keipe - that means dinner party. Multi course with wonderful food and real wine glasses.  This is the first time I could enjoy wine in the proper glass. Riedel, the Austrian wine glass maker that has the perfect glass form for each wine,  would be proud.  It was a special time meeting new friends.  And speaking of Germans,  the IDP settlement I visited was built by Germans after the 2008 war with Russia.  And it was built well!  Everyone here says "the Germans built it, that's why."  

Dinner with Natia's family and Russelli

Verbvebis cottages

They warned us of one more event to expect on Saturday.  The children go around with baskets and sing a song outside your door after dinner.  Then you have to give them each a red egg. I was visiting a Peace Corps friend at his Bina, so we weren't expecting kids to come to the apartments but they did... No eggs though, chocolate had to do. And the questions they ask us...

Why are the eggs red - Christ's passion.  
Why eggs -  to show the new birth,  
Why no Easter bunny -  why should there be?  
Why our multi-colored eggs - good question!

Easter Sunday

 Sunday church starts at 11:30pm Saturday evening and goes to the early morning.  After we started out with a visit to the local cemetery to honor my host father's dad and celebrate Easter with him.  It was a beautiful grave site, well cared for of course.  And of course other relatives had plots there as well. We made a cross in the ground with our glass of wine, and then finished drinking our toast and left red eggs on the grave site.  Then we went to the next one.  Yes it can be a long day, but we always have a designated driver in my host family here.  They are very responsible, which I hope would be the rule in Georgia, but , like America, there are always problematic exceptions.

Chemi Bugadze ojaki

It was so cold and rainy, I drank and ate the khachapuri, fish, these great  meat blintzes, tomatoes, boiled chicken served cold,  red hard boiled eggs (of course), bean and fennel salad, cheese from the grandmother's cow, (they prepare it especially for me, with just a little salt in it) cucumbers, padrojani (eggplant specialty) that I helped make, and puri (local bread that is so good) and cake.  Each grave site has a solid metal table and benches for the supra. I ate a lot to keep warm,  what a mistake!  Next we came home and ate some more in the warm house.  You see my mistake now, right?, just wait.

Next we went to the sopeli (village) to a grave of a dear young girl that died of a heart attack, in her early 20s. It hit everyone so hard.  It has been two years now, but the emotions were still running high.  We drove to the village, maybe about five km on this small dirt road - we would call it a 4-wheel drive in the US - and arrived at the grandfathers old home. It is closed now, and they open it for occasions and enjoy the cooler weather and river in the hot summer.  The place has three rooms, six beds, a pesche for heat, no water and an outhouse.  What more do you need?

We hiked up about 150 yards to the graveyard on the side of the mountain.  A tiny place with about maybe 30-40 graves at the most.  I have been there before and blogged about it.  Imagine my surprise when I saw ( I counted) over 250 people there, each with their own table full of food and wine.  People would visit and share stories, just like they do at a wake or wedding.   It is a joyous day, where we celebrate Easter with our departed. I would add that we should celebrate their being with our risen Christ, yes? ...And three hours later,.. everyone re-gathered at the house for more food, to speak, practice their English, visiting.

 On the way home we stopped at another family member who had out of town visitors.  Finally I learned, you can sit and just eat a tiny bit and still be friendly. Then we headed for home and welcomed sleep.

Monday we visited the graves on the other side of the family, at another sopeli. I now know most of the family now. Here is a picture of one side of the family.  This grandmother lives in a nice village house with a nice flower garden, a big vegetable garden, cow, and huge Georgian dog.

 Such a cold day we drank and ate little at the grave site and then back to the house for another supra.  So you can see the problem here - this was akin to three thanksgiving dinners in two days! Plus Saturday which was just Georgian hospitality. 

Early Tuesday I hopped an early am marsh back to Koda for another week of work. Exciting new projects and classes.  But I will not forget this wonderful family experience and nor lose my appreciation for the kindness and love of my 'cartveli family.'

Georgian Christmas Holidays

How fun to be somewhere new and different for the Christmas holidays, especially since I was already able to spend MY Christmas with the kids and Mom, Beth and Steve, Meg & John, and great friends.

So holidays in Georgia really begin on New Year's Eve, the one on December 31st. Church is at 11:00pm, and  fireworks go off at midnight, everywhere!  Every home,  360 degrees. So that was fun. My Koda host family had a small dinner at midnight. But I hear others that have big ones. Here is my 'host brother' with his fireworks.

New Year's Day is a day for family to visit and make the rounds.  It is also a fun tradition to share chocolates with everyone.  When guests walk into a house, everyone distributes them, those coming and the hosts  No one told us, so a friend and I were surprised when we caught a marshutka to go hike to a famous 10th century monastery and the fellow passengers were passing around chocolates to the driver and others.  Then we caught a ride up to the monastery and they gave us chocolates ( ok, so we didn't hike that long ).  I hate when we don't learn about local customs.  But it could be kharma payback for the times when perhaps Gary and I weren't as sharing as we could have been with our au pairs, when the kids were small. There are so many little things that make a cultural exchange so much more pleasant, be it the Peace Corps, or an employment situation like a au pair.  Here is the Shavnabada Monastery, with PCV Karen and one of its monks, on New Years Day.

Still on the 1st we were invited to a friend's home for a supra dinner. It was the best supra my friend ever attended, she said. Why?  Because it was young people that aren't tied to the somewhat arbitrary traditions of drinking, toasting, eating and drinking too much.  We had a great time, sang, danced, sang American songs, heard some lovely Gerogian songs.  We were complimented when we could sing the Georgian national anthem. The anthem, whose title means "Freedom", was adopted in 2004, along with the new national flag and coat of arms. The symbols' change was brought about upon the successful overthrow of the previous government in the bloodless Rose Revolution. The music, taken from the Georgian operas Abesalom da Eteri ("Abesalom and Eteri") and Daisi ("The Nightfall"), by the Georgian composer Zachary (Zakaria) Paliashvili. I Think it is beautiful. Check it out. www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxvkzbArNf4

Half way through the evening a fellow guest, an local voice instructor, said our American names were too difficult, so we became Kete and Eka instead of Karen and Kim for the rest of the evening.  Again it reminded of our au pair from 20 years ago. Her name was "Mi".  After Matt came home from kindergarten being chastised for calling someone "me", we asked her and Americanized her name to Myra for the rest of her stay with us.  So it was a fun night. No one got drunk, the parents enjoyed their time with the kids. I enjoyed everyone.

Next comes Christmas, January 7th. I have already written about this, with my special training host family in Khashuri, some won't bore you again, but suffice to say, it was a wonderful time. And although I skipped midnight mass, which lasted until after 4 am, standing the whole time! I will never complain again about our Catholic Masses running over an hour.  It is traditional in Georgia to go on Alilo (a modified pronunciation of Alleluia), a mass walk in the streets, where they collect food and clothing for the poor. And to see the maumaus (priests) walking through the entire town after standing most of the night, it humbled everyone, and I think made more people add to the collection.

 Here is Gocha, making my favorite - pork BBQ Georgian style ( no sauce and no vinegar, but special spices)

I  should mention that homes have very small artificial trees, and few decorations. Just enough to be festive, and colored lights, etc.

Next comes old calendar New Years, January 14th.  We had off from work this day, and there was more partying and visiting, but not enough to ask for the following day off, which was Friday. Finally, Epiphany wraps up the holiday season, with more church.

Visiting tbilisi I found some beautiful lights and arrangements on govt buildings and in the parks, as well as strung over the roadways, shaped like chandeliers.  Very nice and it not overdone. No Grizwalds here.

The upside, not a lot of commercialism, lots of extended family time, and it doesn't run From Halloween to New Years.  On the down side, most of January is a waste, with partying and a string of reasons to have supras.  Oh well, maybe that's not a bad thing?  But then we could say the same thing about December in the US, but with end of year sales forecasts and EOY closing, I never felt we could goof off too much.

I hope to have more steady Internet this year, so can blog more consistently.  Please email me with your thoughts and comments. kydixon@earthlink.net I love to hear from you too! Happy new year!