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Remote Village of Dertseli, Adigeni District, Georgia

November 20, 2008

Gulo Kokhodze, Adigeni

It is the last village in the district, and there no more settlements; it is the very last one.  Village of Dertseli has 46 families and is located in North-Western section of the Adigeni District. You have to get there through by making it up difficult and steep incline. In the distance you first see smoke coming out from chimneys and then you will hear barking dogs. The faithful guards of the village can smell an approaching stranger from the distance and at the time when you are tired of climbing up the rise to the village, you can at last see the settlement on the top of the hill.

The village of Dertseli is surrounded with forest. Wooden houses are surrounded with wooden fences and there are wooden logs almost in every yard. Here, villagers do not have problems of wood, either as construction materials or as firewood. “Children are born with axes in Dertseli”, people joke in Adigeni.

Winter lasts seven months in the village located 1,520 meters high from sea-level which is mostly inhabited with the people from Adjara region of Georgia.

At night, November 14 of 1944 based on Joseph Stalin’s resolution, more than 92 000 Georgian Muslim Meskhs were resettled to the countries of Central Asia. Consequently, 30 villages in Adigeni district were immediately emptied and Dertseli was among them. On the same year government settled people from Imereti region of Georgia.

“People from Imereti, who were adapted to the warm climate of western Georgia, could not stand the cold of Dertseli and gradually moved back to lower villages,” said Avtandil Vanadze, 81-year-old resident of the village of Mokhe in the Adigeni district.

He settled in Dertseli from Adjara back in 1956 along with his family. “16 families from the mountains of Adjara came here and settled at their own free will. The collective farm assisted us and we constructed houses. Today we are strong and viable village.”

Currently, 45 families live in Dertseli: Beridzes, Vanadzes, Mikeladzes and Gorgadzes. Their main occupation is animal husbandry.

“We are eight members in the family and they have 12 cows. It is our main source of income. We milk on average 80 liters a day. We make cheese, sour-cream or we sell lamb and beef,” said 37-year-old Tamila Iremadze.

Dertseli residents sell their products at Akhaltsikhe or Batumi open markets.

“We live a hard life. We do not have a road. Last year, on November 3 we had snow up to our waste; we are waiting for the neighbor who has a car; otherwise we have to carry the luggage on our back,” complained Tamila Iremadze.

Every year the road to the village is closed from November to May. It is possible to get to Akhaltsikhe via Adigeni only. However, it is not so easy. Residents of Dertseli have to go by foot-path and walk11-kilometers long until the village Mokhe where they can take a bus to Adigeni. The bus runs on a daily basis and “If we manage to catch the bus, we are lucky. Otherwise, we have to walk all the way back home,” said locals.

81-year –old Avtandil Vanadze seldom travels to the town; however lack of road bothers him too. “How can we peasants live a normal life under such circumstances?  People from government came here before the elections and promised us everything if we would vote for them. Thus, our government gained 100 % of votes during both the parliamentary and presidential elections in our village. In spite of all the promises made, nobody has remembered since that we need a road and a bus.”

Not even in the summer does the bus run to Dertseli. The road from Adigeni to Dertseli finishes in Mokhe.

“If somebody is well-off in the village, he has a vehicle. Otherwise no other car can travel our so damaged roads in reaching Dertseli,” said Nugzar Gorgadze.

Lack of transport creates problems in education for children as well. After students finish primary school in Dertseli they have to attend secondary school in Mokhe, but only those children can manage are the ones who have relatives in Mokhe.

“I am in 11th grade but we girls cannot go to school in Mokhe because of the great distance. I cannot go there together with boys. Besides that it is difficult to walk 11 kilometers particularly in the winter months,” said Tamuna Mikeladze.

Natia Mikeladze, a pupil of 8th grade, dreams of becoming a teacher. However, she can achieve her goal only after finishing secondary and high schools. “I hope a bus will begin running here by the time I am in 9th grade.”

The only institution to be found in Dertseli is the school. Consequently, events organized at school are only form of entertainment for the locals.

“We do not have a library or cultural center. As for House of Rituals, they opened them in almost every village but not in ours. Even then nobody remembered us, it was like the number of votes our government gained in our village,” said residents of Dertseli.

If you work or study at school you can enjoy yourself; otherwise you have to entertain yourself with household work.

“Initially I help my mother with housework. Then maybe I will marry,” said Tamuna Mikeladze, “I do not have a sweet-heart yet but here we have different tradition-if families agree for their children to marry they will come and you will soon be engaged. I want to get married with love but even if my family allows me to do so, the village will not forgive me for breaking traditions.”

In Dertseli at the very first impression you will understand who is married and who is not-married.  Woman should wear shawl according to their religious traditions.

The residents of Dertseli are against Muslim Meskhs being able to return to the village in spite of the fact that they share the very same religion. “They came here once or twice looking to see what was left of their former homes. However, if they would settled back here, then we should have move away as so many people living here would not be able to earn a living here,” said Avtandil Vanadze.

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