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Svaneti: Getting There
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Author: By Tony Hanmer
Last week’s letter was all about the road. This one considers the journey. Specifically, one type of journey to Svaneti, the set-route minivan, or marshroutka as it’s locally known, a word borrowed from the Russian.
One can drive one’s own or a hired car; walk; motorbike or bicycle; hitch-hike; take a train to Zugdidi; ride a horse; even fly. But one of the commonest ways of getting into and out of the place is by marshroutka. It has been my mode of transport for most of the trips I have made.
Our journey starts in Tbilisi, at the bavshta samqaro (“Children’s World”) shopping centre next to Tbilisi’s main railway station. The minivans leave daily from here at around 6 a.m., but I advise you to be there at 5. There can be some competition for seats and available luggage space. The latter is usually quite tiny for such an epic voyage. Few of the marshroutkas have a luggage rack on the roof, and generally they’re filled to capacity with rows of seats, to maximize profit. There may be a small space for luggage behind the last seats. Under every seat will also be filled. next, we look between the rows, to the aisle; and there may also be spaces above passengers’ heads, from which luggage can fall and do serious damage to said heads. At your feet... on your lap... not a good trip for a claustrophobe, indeed perhaps it fits nicely the definition of a BAD trip.
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World Refugee Day in Zugdidi
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Author: By Nino Gelashvili
Messages from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) regarding a six-month “1” Campaign, which aimed to put individual refugees in focus reads: “1 refugee without hope, is too many”; “1 family forced to flee is too many”; “1 child without a nationality is too many.”
Participating in a tour in the west Georgian town of Zugdidi to mark June 20th - World Refugee Day, UNHCR Representative, Simone Wolken encouraged the public to “Do 1 Thing” as an expression of solidarity for refugees and internally displaced persons to show that “I am 1 who cares”.
The trip to Zugdidi was organized by the UNHCR’s Tbilisi office on June 18 as part of its series of events before and after World Refugee Day.
In Zugdidi park, an exhibition was arranged by UNHCR with refugees representing their products and wares including food, furniture, clothes, shoes and hand-made accessories.
Soffi Anderson from Qaqortoq, Greenland who is on a holiday in Georgia purchased honey from a local refugee.
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Bank Republic donates blood and equipment to children suffering from Leukemia
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Author: By Tamar Khurtsia
Bank Republic/Societe Generale Group organized a one day blood donation drive to support children with Leukemia, a type of cancer of the blood at the M. Iashvili Pediatric Central Clinic in Tbilisi, as part of the company’s Corporate Social Responsibility initiative.
More than 40 employees of Bank Republic queued up at LTD Blood Bank to give blood for up to thirty children who undergo the long process of treatment.
“We believe that blood donation is a very important personal commitment of each healthy citizen of the country. Thousands of sick children and adults need huge volumes of blood donations daily,” said Irakli Aslanishvili, the Commercial Director of Bank Republic who himself donated blood and has expressed hope that his colleagues who donated blood would provide enough blood for the children for 15 days.
“Our action is a little relief for children suffering from leukemia and undergoing very painful, long- term blood treatment processes,” he added.
One of the representatives of the bank that donated blood was Teiko Kandelaki. It was her second time as a blood donor. “I feel happy when I find out how my blood donation could help save the life of a child,” she told Georgia Today. “The same goes without forgetting that this is our responsibility as members of the community.”
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Foreign foods in Tbilisi: round the world in 11 cuisines
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Author: by MJ Riquelme del Valle
Tbilisi might not be a huge city, but its options when it comes to foreign restaurants are diverse and very often of good quality. From Irish to Mexican, from Thai to German there is an option for every taste. Some gastronomies enjoy more reputation than others but the lesson after reviewing a few restaurants is to never underestimate a cuisine. That’s how Irish-American Rebecca O’Brien expressed it: “But what does a bunch of potatoes make? - That’s what people think about Irish cuisine... they miss out that Irish people can make a delicious meal with just a potato”.
Of course, beyond a particular tradition there is always the personal touch of the chef. Chef Tekuna Gachechiladze, who is about to step into the unknow with her gastronomic Georgia fusion, told Georgia Today: “Two different people with the exact same amount of ingredients may taste totally different.” This also relates to how much a chef delegates, Alberto Mossudu for example, closes his restaurant whenever he is not in the city. To him, the importance of the dough’s preparation is such that at his Il Garage restaurant only he makes it.
Each and every chef has his or her special trick. How much a chef changes the original recipe depends on his or her culinary intrepidness. In some cases, the change actually gives way to a completely new dish, like Valeri Kereselidze’s chicken with cornflakes at the cafe of the Goethe Institute. For some, the fascination about creating new dishes goes beyond the real world and dictates new recipes from dreams. That was the case of Indian chef Krishan Singh: “Pieces of diced oven-grilled chicken cooked in a tomato, onion, green bulgarian pepper, ginger and garlic sauce. A few minutes in the frying pan, then you sprinkle chillies and garam masala spice, let it rest for a bit and wrap the mix in a Lavash bread”.
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Government launches investigation into low-performing public schools
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Author: By Nino Edilashvili
End of school exams are over and the government has evaluated the results positively. However, they are requesting a probe into those schools where schoolchildren showed the lowest levels of knowledge and aptitude.
The mandatory exams in eight subjects - organized in the format of Computer Adaptive Testing (CAT) - were conducted for the first time this year throughout Georgia.
Approximately 1,520 public and private schools and 50, 000 schoolchildren took the exams. However, 6, 000 students failed to pass the exams.
According to the Ministry of Education and Science of Georgia, 30 % of schoolchildren demonstrated a high level of knowledge on the exams, while only 5 % were successful enough to receive the highest grades.
According to the Ministry, the level of learning and teaching at Georgian educational institutions has improved. However, Georgia’s Minister of Education and Science, Dimitri Shashkini, expressed his concern over the outcome of the exams at certain schools.
Under the decree issued by Shashkini on June 21, the Ministry’s General Inspection will launch inspections at approximately ten schools. These include schools: 190, 7, 37 and 108.
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