Chris in საქართველო: 2012

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Back from Easter Break

Sunday April 8th was Palm Sunday in Georgia. I made my way through streets lined with old women selling greenery to the Christian Community in the Majanishvili district of Tbilisi to sing for the Easter service. It was a beautiful sunny morning, and a lovely celebration. After a day enjoying the warm weather, I got on a bus headed for Trabzon, Turkey. I realized I had made a rookie mistake when I got to the border and found that the only hard currency I had was a couple Georgian lari in coins. Of course the only ATM at the crossing was broken. Luckily the Georgians on the bus proved generous and lent me the equivalent 20 USD for my visa and I didn't have to hitchhike back to a functioning bank machine at 4am!

I met my friends Kiyoshi, Lauren and Leslie at the Trabzon airport, where we rented a car for the week and we set off. It was an awesome week of exploring the steep, winding roads up from the coast into the mountains, across the steppe and back; to little villages, old churches, cold waterfalls, Mt. Ararat and countless cups of tea in Northeastern Turkey.

Perhaps one of the best parts of the adventure was the opportunity to get to know a couple really great people really well. I've found in my time in Georgia it's been easy to meet a lot of people, but not so easy to get to know people really well and make deep connections. I didn't know them real well setting out, but to travel with these three people was a gift. We share a lot, not just in our experiences in Georgia, but also where we are in our in lives, as we begin to look forward to what's next, because all of a sudden, it's just two short months before we're moving on to something new...

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Making Music!

I got together with my friends Rob and Caitlin the other weekend and we made some noise.... My friend Cass (who happens to be from Phoenixville!) posted a clip on youtube. Click the highlighted text and have a listen!
Cajun Born

Saturday, March 17, 2012

I guess it’s been a good while since I last posted, but I haven’t felt too inspired to put down thoughts or catalogue events recently. I’ve found a nice routine both in my days and within the weeks, sewing or drawing to podcasts & movies during the week, Tbilisi on the weekends, and somehow time keeps flowing by. The snow is mostly melted and we’ve had some warm days- but most of the time it’s still cold enough to merit many layers in the school.

A couple weeks back my friend Tim and I rode the marshutka into the capital early in the morning. The other day he gave me a poem that he wrote for me. A poem is a really nice gift, special. While my reflections aren’t many, life is good and I thought I’d share that poem and some pictures from the last month or so (gza means road or path in Georgian).

Gza

Riding east at sunrise

Eyes crack, open to day.

Will rises. Cold air smites and stirs

Incharging vigour, present-joy-future-lust

Life’s thread glows starlike.

Journey. A friend stops to climb in

Purple-dark asked what it cannot refuse

By yellow-red rays. Snowgimmer.

Wheels not soft now slow brush earth

Those forgetting. Voices open time

Life what how it was noticed thinkings

Yes, babble in restless spreading tongue.

Visions dreams, laughter, spirits share.

Polychromatical hues very fantastical ooze light, light of light

Hills cracks, heaven-windows opens

Grandeur from ours. Daybreak’s cows

Luminous brown steppes rolling; gorge-fortress, the universe

Riding: which diverges momented together.

Whereto you ride

Whence you glance again skyward and glory

May it the way ahead be for you

Fair-coloured always, full of wakening light.

-T.C.M.

At Temo’s birthday supra. At every supra there is a large number of small plates, and then still more are brought out. It soon becomes a balancing act as space on the table runs out.