Categories
Journalistic Survey
Articles
Reportage
Analitic
Photo Reportage
Exclusive
Interview
Foreign Media about Georgia
Editorial
Position
Reader's opinion
Blog
Themes
Children's Rights
Women's Rights
Justice
Refugees/IDPs
Minorities
Media
Army
Health
Corruption
Elections
Education
Penitentiary
Religion
Others

Abkhazia, Lost in Borjomi (part II)

January 25, 2007

ltolvilebi.gif-Granny, they are from the government and want to aid you-the boys joke.
-Enter, please, where are you from?-having heard where we are from, she shakes her finger at the boys, looks in the mirror and brushes her hair. She offers us to sit next to her on the bed and starts speaking:

-I am sixty years old and I am from Sokhumi. I left Abkhazia on September 27, 1993. I had little grandchildren and I traveled by ship. It was the Ukrainian ship. My people left Sokhumi by foot. On September 28 I was in Photi and on the next day on September 29 we arrived in Borjomi. Since that time I have been living alone. I have two children and five grandchildren. I cannot say that I live well here… My daughter lives with her two children in this building alone. The second child of mine lives in Tskneti (village near Tbilisi). Here in the Borjomi hotel we had two rooms for IDPs but then they made us live together; however I do not know why. After that I was deprived of my 11 lari IDP allowance and they pay me only 16 lari because I was involved in the poverty reduction program. Besides that I receive 38 lari- a pension for a disabled person. That is all my income. If I could work, I would not need somebody’s help. If we have electricity I warm the room with the electric oven, but if there is not electricity I get frozen. I do not have firewood and boys fetch me water everyday.”

There are two hand-made electric ovens in a small room. One of them is too small and the second is a little bigger. The respondent is rubbing her hands together and is waiting for electricity.

-Are you cold? Here is my shawl and put it on your shoulders. You should not get cold, you are so young. But the thing is different with me… I urge the government to pay more attention to us. Did the government behave honestly when they deprived me of my IDP allowance of 11 lari? Do you know how many families have no income and lived only on that 11 lari? What will they do now?

-Are you recording everything? Do not take a photo of me, please. I do not look nice now-she repeats this phrase very often and continuously checks the microphone on her dress and is asking- Is my voice heard well?
-What do you think about Abkhazia?
-I spent 45 years in Abkhazia. I left many friends there and the politics made us abandon each other. Otherwise we did not have any argument at all. I very much miss my Abkhazian friends, but I do not contact them at all. How can I get in touch with them? I am looking forward to speaking with them.

I think the Abkhazian government will not part with their territory through negotiations.

-Whom are you most missing from your Abkhazian friends?
-I had a very close friend Larisa Gogia, an Abkhazian woman. I very much miss her. I never had bad relationships with Abkhaz people. I want to recall the last Abkhazian wedding party I attended. I had such a good time there and I will never forget it. Georgian and Abkhazian wedding parties are so alike that you can hardly differentiate them. The difference is that the bride and groom are not standing together like in a Georgian wedding; they are standing in different corners. They meet each other after the party. We have similar toasts.
-Will you now find the place in the burnt and destroyed Abkhazia where you lived?
-Look at her, she will cry now….Come on, granny, you need not cry, please.-the boys are calming her down. The woman goes on speaking in a trembling voice and there are tears in her eyes.

qali_1.gif-Of course I remember, my girl. I will go there with great pleasure and settle on a vast, empty field. My house is destroyed and nothing is left from it. I wish the people from my region were gathered and settled in one place until we manage to return in Abkhazia. It is my dream; I do not want anything else. If they do it, I will consider that I live in my Abkhazia. Nowadays we are so dispersed and cannot meet each other at all. My many relatives died and I could not go to their funerals. Abkhazia was the region where there were no poor families and everybody was rich. Such people lived there…

The boys who showed us into the building are also witnessing our conversation.  They are whispering to each other “you speak up first.” Finally, one of them, Irakli Khutsishvili agrees to be interviewed. Though he has never seen his house in Abkhazia, he knows the description. He knows what trees are in his garden and other details too.

Irakli Khutsishvili: “I am from Gudauta. In my imagination Abkhazia is very beautiful. I m nineteen now and when my family left Abkhazia I was too little. I dream of my town every day and I would go immediately if I could. I have seen photos of my house there. An Abkhaz person lives in it and looks after it. He is keeping the house for us. He sends us photos and says that when we return there we will live in our house. Only my house survived in the district. As for Abkhaz people I do not know them and their traditions. I hope we will put up with each other and will not consider each other enemies.”

We part with our hostess. The boys are leading us down in the yard.  A lot of people have gathered there. Everybody has learnt about our visit.

The people are encouraging us when leaving.
-Let us know when you publish the article- they are calling and following us. On the path I see the woman who was carrying a laundry in the morning.
-Excuse me, where do you wash up?
-Over there, warm sulfur water is coming there.-she puts the basket of the laundry down and is having a rest.

-How can you carry such a heavy basket up the stairs?
-I have gotten used to it. We have no way out.

I left Borjomi the next day. I spent that night in a warm and comfortable hotel. I could see the high, smoky and gloomy building from my window. The Abkhaz people have been living in that shelter for fourteen years already…

….If not for this huge building, the view could have been so beautiful…and how beautiful could have been the lives of its residents, if not for that cruel war…

Eka Gulua, Borjomi

News