“Hi, this is Rustavi 2 TV channel. We’re wanting to do a Christmas/New Year’s special in Svaneti. Might we include you in this, given your recent rise to popularity on Facebook?” – came the call to my wife. After some discussion with them and me: “Sure! If we can fit it in between Sundays, and wait for some snow to beautify things, how’s that?”
So they picked us up at about 9am on a Monday morning after snow, with more on the way, and drove us straight home, continuing on to Mestia for more shooting. The road up from Zugdidi was in better repair than we had left it in late October, making me think again about returning solo here in February for the Lamproba festival of burning torches, as I have been doing these last few years.
The next day at midday they reappeared, director, cameraman and driver, and we started our part. Santa suits… children playing Monopoly in Georgian… visiting housebound or alone people in our outfits with carols and sweets… Lali cooking local food and we eating together… interviews with both of us, the last interrupted only by the day’s second power failure, when it was already dark. I called our local electricity guy after 30 minutes, but before he could answer, it had come back. This meant that we could finish all the filming that day and release the crew.
We decided to stay on another 6 days, to see everyone in our village that we could, as we miss people during the winters in Tbilisi. I was also delighted with the nights of -10 degrees C or so bringing plenty of puddle and stream ice to photograph, so much more than Tbilisi’s paucity of winter freezes can. It IS good to be back.
We couldn’t reconnect the house water properly, as this would mean a long, slow process to rejoin and then to empty all the sink fixtures in the house. So, getting water at least TO the house in a plastic hose which I could turn down to a trickle overnight, we used buckets for washing dishes and ourselves, flushing the toilet and so on. For a few days, it would suffice.
Three electric heaters were enough for the part of the downstairs that we were using, augmented with cut up old fence slats which have been drying for some years, burning in the huge traditional Svan wood stove. Once that part of the house warmed up enough, we even had to go from two duvets each to one, which is quite comfortable. A selection of “feel good films” for the evenings, unlimited acceptable-speed Wi-Fi as needed, and good to go.
Back to Tbilisi: our choices are a flight (luggage limit a miserly 15 kg, and takeoff uncertain until flying day), minivan all the way, or minivan to Zugdidi at midday, followed by an evening train to the capital. This was the one we opted for, as all-day minivan does get old, as we do. It gets us in to Tbilisi later, near midnight, but then we’ll just get a taxi from the railway station home. This seems to be the most comfortable option, allowing us to do final house re-winterizing the morning before we leave. If we took the morning minivan all the way to Tbilisi, we’d have to do almost all of this work the day before, plus have the cramped-up conditions for 8 or 9 hours. So, an easy choice.
Thanks much Rustavi 2 TV, who filmed us so well and whose screen shots are in this article.
Blog by Tony Hanmer
Tony Hanmer has lived in Georgia since 1999, in Svaneti since 2007, and been a weekly writer and photographer for GT since early 2011. He runs the “Svaneti Renaissance” Facebook group, now with over 2000 members, at www.facebook.com/groups/SvanetiRenaissance/
He and his wife also run their own guest house in Etseri: www.facebook.com/hanmer.house.svaneti
