Knock knock knocking on heavens door

Yesterday in the middle of the night I found out that our senseless satellite is capable of reading music and photos from a usb- unfortunately no films. But you can record scenes directly from the satellite tv to the usb. Really interesting. I even tried playing it back at my computer and it was ok. So I can now record important news or programs about the diaspora and ask to show them on local channels.
Today on the other hand I realised our satellite is also capable of playing Turkish radio channels. I catched a good one. Bob Dylan is playing. Knock knock knocking on heaven's door...
Yesterday, I remembered what I wanted to tell before. There was a hotel (for real it was a low quality guest house) called Jasmine (Yasemin) in Sukhum, built by a repatriant about 7-8 years back. The owner used to say it was always a tough job to do-being the first and for a while only hotel in town. That's why it took about 70$ per night, per person. Many repatriant families spend hundreds of dolars on their first arrival because here there was Turkish speaking personnel and Turkish breakfast. And that was the only place they were directed when they come with the touristic groups from Turkey. I even hosted 22 academicians for a conference a few years back- since it was the only place in town with enough single beds. Luckyly this year another one opened called Inter-Sukhum which was even a little more cheap than this one and of better quality- or maybe it is better to say "new and clean".
Still the Yasemin hotel was full in the season- esp. Victory day by old timer visitors from the diaspora. However, the words had already been going around that the hotel was rented to the Russian Consulate which has already started working about a month ago in another office. They are making some repairs and I guess by the end of this year the consulate will be fully working in its new place. Since this building is just next to where I rent a flat I dont really have a picture of it as it is not so beautiful building.
I also learned that the consulate provides transit Russian visas now. Which decreased the costs for repatriants who have valid passports but no Russian visas from 6000 rubles (2 months ago!) to about a 1000 rubles. I don't know if anyone can take that visa or only repatriants. But I guess things are getting in their place now.
By the way we finished the fieldwork of the first research project. Still a lot more things to do.
And the presidential elections are coming- 3rd of December. And my friend has a wedding on the 5th of December. And I have to do the second fieldwork but I can not start before the elections- people are afraid though my topic is not political. I can not do it after the second week of december- it will be drunk people all around because of Christmas and New Year. Oh so many things to consider. I think I should go back to writing my report...
I will try to write more since now I am in the city and infront of the computer till I finish the report...
And more photos are available from the field....

From Researchers in the Field

Accident

Yesterday was an interesting day. My field work was canceled in the last minute because our contact person "forgot". We decided to drop by to a friend's shop- Shelly, a shop for trendy designs.

They had brought winter collection and I -not very likely of me decided to try a few things. There were really nice coats and cardigans. I was trying the last one and than we would step up the stairs to the design section where there were seats. Than I heard a big sound of crashing and I turned to the door of the shop only to see a car with a woman driver coming towards the shop. I did not photographed the car crashed into the door of the shop but believe me it is as alive in my eyes. Lucky for us it did not break down the door, just the concrete step and side of the door.
Still we were in shock for the rest of the evening. And to this was added a long theater in Abkhaz-Russian. I will write about that later when I finish the short movie from pieces of the act.
Anyway, I don't remember if I wrote about Shelly before. But I help Abkhaz dubbing of the advertisement that was prepared in Russian. It was fun and it gave me a lot of ideas. For example, I really wish to make movies from off-the road historical places and unknown corners in Abkhazia. I plan to do it in Abkhaz with English subtitles or vice-a-versa. I will see into it.
I thought I had a lot more to write but nothing comes to my mind at the moment.
So I shall better get back to work.

Joy of doing research again

I realized how much I had missed being in the field. Seeing different lives and places. Sharing moments unlivable ever again... It is much more exciting for me to do this in Abkhazia. An ex-soviet, post-conflict, trans-traditional context where what you can live is very much variable and very little expectable.
It is not as simple as finding a sea shell at the top of a mountain. It is as complicated as finding a sea shell in your pocket. You have so many questions to ask- when did i put this shell here, where did i find it, with whom i was there, how did it ended up half broken there, what makes it unique compared to thousands of shells i have collected from around the world, why are these shells so important (turkish speakers can find it out here- in the short story i had written a few years back).
When I am in the field, i do not ask the questions any more. I have a great team to do that for me. Though they are still learning how to question, i think it is important they discover those shells that exist in their own pockets, in eachother's pockets, in the pockets of people they are meeting for the first time, in the unseen corners of the half broken down, half restored church at the end of bad roads, in the traditionally structured houses at the end of never ending roads that meets us with the unexpectably beautiful scenery we had scene till that time...
Well, some of you may think this kind of philisophical writing is not my type. And I will ask you if you know how many more shells do I have in my pockets. Everytime I loose my phone i myself find out another one....
See more photos from the field and Bedia Church

Art exhibitions in Abkhazia

I recently attended 2 nice art exhibitions at the hall of the Artists Union in Sukhum.
The first was the traditional painting exhibition by Huta Avidzba, an elderly artist who surprised experts. What was interesting about his work for the experts, was not the traditional rural Abkhaz village life concept he chose for his recent works but his recently changed technique after the age of 70. They say that it requires a great courage for an elderly artist to change his style at this age.
But what I liked most in his works was the traditional rural details with the youth of his nation...
Another original exhibition in the same hall that started this week and will last till the 9th of november is Batal Capua's exhibition of graphics based on abkhaz mithology.I think these graphic works would have been nice as amblems or as a background to a photo project like- "Abkhazia Memory". I hope that nice hall will be busy with such nice, original and Caucasus peculiar exhibitions...

Loosing phone in the middle of no where

Maybe you thought I lost my phone in the middle of no where and had some problem. But no- it was the most beautiful part of Abkhazia, high in the mountains where cars could hardly go because there is no way but where people live without much thinking of the things like mobile phones. And I was too busy to remember every time where I have put my mobile phone, in my bag's front pocket, or side pocket, or another side pocket, or inside pocket, or just in it, or maybe not in it at all. Consider that I received tens of phone calls in this day when I should have been consentrating on the field work of my firms first research. I had to search for my phone for minutes while trying to answer a question of my interviewers, or see the beatiful country flowing from the window of the minibus we were in.
I wanted - really wanted to have no mobile phone at all. Back in the old days when there were only landlines, researchers would make a call to the local administrator, or the single market of the village to send the word that they will be arriving on a specific day and related people should be waiting. Since there was no way to call on a mobile and cancel in the last minute they would be there. However, what we had to do was call the exact same persons over and over again. Many times they were not reachable, there was no network where we are, they did not have money on the phone, or when we talked we were asking the same questions of where, when, how, which, what to eachother and when we could finally make it we would have talked over the phone so many times that there will be repeated conversations, things that we talked mobile-to-mobile minutes, hours and days ago many times...
But, those places we had been, needed silence. Silence divided only by smiles and dreams of "congenial" people... The silent blue skies got colored only by flying birds... The green grass lost only by being eaten by goats. The trees singing out of silence only by a warm wind that reminds you of how simple life was once.
We have been to rural Abkhazia today. In the middle of nowhere for many of you. For me where life exists. With all its people regardless of their ethnic origin or education or even their level of awareness of the fast flowing life outside of their beautiful surrounding... With all those questions to ask, all those details to see, all those realities to understand, all those forgotten stories to remember... We were in places many of you have never been. Many of you will never be... Where I wish I didn't have no phone... Where I wish...


I lost my phone in my bag (or out of my bag) so many times today. Maybe, it is I did not want to share those moments over the phone with someone who would not understand because they have never been there. They have never seen the things I saw as I saw at that moment.

Take Away Italian Pizza

I was going to the small shop on the next street to my apartment flat in Sukhum, to buy bread for dinner when I realized the small restaurant behind the trees. It is at an unfortunate corner since the remaining of the pavement is not so good and not used by many people and the shop is hidden behind trees when you look from the other side of the road. Some young people opened this Italian Take Away (and Service) PER TUTTI PIZZA and they are slowly improving their work since every time they have at least a single pizza in the oven, or customers waiting whenever I pass.

Two days ago I was too tired to cook and had a chance to try this take away pizza.
I was not sure of the contents of the pizza since they did not have many choices and the choices included interesting contents like turkey, eggs, sea food, etc. Maybe they are not interesting for many but not my type. I had choose between the cheapest Margharita (180RR) or Three Cheese (200) RR or the most expensive Pepperoni (220RR) and though I had doubts about the quality of pepperoni I choose that one to try. (Margharita can survive the day anytime but I had to know if I would like the meaty stuff.

I was surprised to see they had real pizza boxes because in restaurants the take away is usually a disaster.
The Pizza was really thin. Something mom would probably love and it was delicious. However, on its own it was not a full course for two hungry people. I know, for two ordinary it would be enough but I come from a family where two people finish one packet of pasta (macaroni) with salad and sauce.
And the inside of the restaurant you can see here

Dranda Abkhaz Church

For my birthday last weekend, we decided to do something special. We decided to go somewhere we have not been and suddenly I remembered the Dranda Abkhaz Church from a documentary I watched. We just made ourselves some sandwiches, took the photo camera and got on the way.
It was really unique and beautiful church, made of bricks. The outside have been plastered for protection but some parts have been left to show the beautiful brick structure.
However, when you are inside you can see complete brick structure and you are amazed by this wonderful architectural beauty.
I am not much familiar with Christianity but I found this piece by Khrushkova on Spread of Christian Church in Black Sea Litoral. She says that "The plan of Dranda church contains its own combination of rotunda and cross, while the sanctuary includes a prothesis and a diaconicon. The interior is dominated by the broad dome, which rests on the vaults over the arms of the cross, and on parts of the walls. The bricwork is noted for the marked care with which it was constructed, particularly interior, in the brickwork of the vaults and the dome. During restoration, amphorae of various types were discovered in the vault over the narthex; in my view, they date to the end of the 6th or the first half of the 7th century. ... It is possible that the church at Dranda was the see of archbishopric of Abazgia: its dimensions and its architectural excellence closely connect it to the Byzantine architectural tradition, and all the sources affirm that this building was not an ordinary one.... At the end of the 6th century or the beginning of the 7th, the church at the village of Dranda chracterises the passage from Antiquity to the Middle Ages." Pages 35-36.
See more pictures from the Church and region here: http://picasaweb.google.com/abkhaziadiary/DrandaChurch#