A Story of a Village with One Family

“Next door neighbor, you are a glimmer of my hope,” Marine Beridze knows the proverb very well; however she has never experienced similar relationships in her life for one simple reason, she does not have a neighbor.

The village of Farekha in the Akhaltsikhe District is situated on the central road between the towns of Adigeni and Akhaltsikhe. The only family that resides in the village is Iasha Beridze’s family with four members- father, his daughter and his two grandsonsons.

“Father was working for road department and he was resettled form the village of Chunchukhi in the Akhalkalaki district here. There was a house that belonged to the road department here. Now we have changed that house into a living house,” said Marine Beridze.

People say that nearly fifty families lived during the Soviet Regime. However, the state resettled them away from the area because there was fertile land and granted plots to the agricultural farms…”We remained without neighbors,” Marina is sorry for the situation.

 Nobody works in the Beridzes’ family. They are looking after the cattle.

“We are working hard from early in the morning till late in the evening. It is not easy to look after cows. You need to milk cows, then to feed them, cleaning the barn, etc. In the evening I am exhausted,” said the head of the family.

The family cannot afford living in the city and they are coping with the poverty and life without neighbors. The family has been coping without electricity for fifteen years.

“The biggest tragedy for us is living in darkness. We have not seen light for ages. There used to be an inn on the road to Adigeni. After the inn was closed the area remained without attentions. Electricity distributing cabin and wires were stolen,” said the woman.

The family bought an electro generator after five years’ hard work. “Although we have the generator, we cannot buy fuel for it,” said Iasha Beridze.

Marine Beridze applied to the Power Distributing Company several times.

Representatives of the Akhaltsikhe District of the Power Distributing Company said that great amount of money is necessary to repair the road to the village of Farekhi and the company cannot afford that yet.

The family tries to resolve the problem without others’ help and do not hope to receive any kind of assistance from the government.

Merab and Datuna Beridzes are school children. They help their mother and grandfather and look after cattle, fetch water, work in the plot and do housework.

The family copes with the cold in winter, darkness, inattentiveness from the government and life without neighbors alone.

Gulo Kokhodze, Akhaltsikhe