Sakartvelo 6/6/10

The last few days have been a rush of sightseeing as our Georgian hosts try to make sure that I see as much of Georgia as I can in the minimal amount of free time that we have left. On Friday we were headed to The Cave City of Vardzia in the Meskhet-Javahet region of Georgia. The Cave City was begun as a cave monastery and is dug into the side of the Erusheli mountain in southern Georgia near Aspindza. It was founded by Queen Tamar in 1185. The monastery and complex was constructed as protection from the Mongols and at it's height consisted of over six thousand apartments in a thirteen story complex. The city included a church, a throne room, and a complex irrigation system watering terraced farmlands. The only access to the complex was through some well hidden tunnels near the Mtkvari river. An earthquake in Samtskhe destroyed approximately two thirds of the city in 1283, exposing the caves to outside view and collapsing the irrigation system. Today about three hundred apartments and halls may still be visited. The site is maintained by a small group of monks. Our route took us through Borjomi, a famous resort town with hot springs. We stopped to fill bottles with this precious water which we were exhorted to drink. I tried it - extremely salty with a touch of sulfur. A taste was about as far as we got. Then we were on the road to Svaneti. Borjomi was about a two hour drive west of Tbilisi with Svaneti about another hour and a half to the south. On the way we wound our way through beautiful mountain passes with hanging foot bridges over a fast moving river the only connection for the inhabitants of mountain towns to any form of modern transportation. About half way to Svaneti we came upon a stretch of fresh asphalt and pebbles. It was so hot that the asphalt had melted. Pebbles and asphalt became lodged inside the wheels of Misha's car forcing us to turn back. Because we now had extra time we stopped at a traditional Georgian restaurant. We had a wonderful spicy black bean soup with a local variety of corn bread followed by yet another variety of cachapuri (bread with a tasty cheese filling - each region has it's own variety)and kingali (a dough, filled with a delicious meat filling and boiled - looks like an inverted mushroom).  I remarked that the bottled water tastes very different from the water at Borjomi! From there we headed back to the flat for a nights rest. Misha picked us up the next day (Saturday)at 11:45 and we were joined by Vova (the current clerk of Tbilisi Friends Worship Group)for a day of exploring old Tbilisi. We viewed the hot springs that caused King Vakhtang Gorgasali to move his capital here from Mtskheta in the middle of the fifth century and roamed the streets of the old city stopping briefly to listen to the chant at a Georgian Orthodox church service and to marvel at the beautiful handwoven locally made rugs in a shop. The weather here is unseasonably warm. The normal temperature this time of the year is normally in the upper sixties and lower seventies. For the past week the temperature in Sakartvelo has been consistently in the upper eighties to upper nineties. Today we begin team building for our Training for Facilitators workshop. The predominantly young people who are anxious to become facilitators are so full of hope for their country; so anxious to be part of moving to a knew way of thinking and being and away from the violence that is so prevalent in this culture. It fills me with hope and reinforces my belief that world peace is possible.