Monday's Moment: Man Candy

Monday's Moment: Mandatory Fun

Monday's Moment: Full Moon

Monday's Moment: Zip Line Fun

Monday's Moment: Where do we start?

Monday's Moment: Rainbow

Better Days at Tbilisi Zoo

Sunday morning, Richard and I both received the oddest of text messages at little after 7 in the morning.

Uh...okay, that will make you open your eyes fast. Unfortunately, we don't subscribe to cable here (since only Mason would be able to understand some of the Russian and nobody would understand the Georgian), so it was hard to really find out what was going on. I did find this YouTube video of the destruction. From my understanding, there was a bad thunderstorm that triggered a landslide. The debris from the landslide hindered the Vera creek's ability to handle all the rainwater....hence massive flooding. As of now, there are 12 deceased people, 20 missing, and half of the Zoo's 600 animals were lost.

This article has a number of photos of the loss as well.

I drove through this tunnel last week! (Photo from Tbilisi City Hall Facebook page...they have a ton of photos on their webpage....the out pouring of donations and manual labor to help with the destruction is remarkable).

Tbilisi City Hall Photo

The hippo became quite the sensation showing up on the news around the world (seen in Washington DC, Missouri, and Iowa to name a few). A number of news outlets have posted this photo of Tbilisi's now famous hippo. This short video shows the hippo happily at home again in the last minute or so.

AP Photo/Tinatin Kiguradze

At the end of April, Clarissa's class took a field trip to the zoo (I also took the kids one day last summer). While it was small, they had a good variety of animals. So I thought I would share some of the photos Clarissa's preschool teachers took of the kids at the zoo (you can also get an idea as to how easily the animals were able to get loose) and it is a better way to remember them than lying dead among the debris.

Clarissa's favorite animals were the penguins. I've read (don't know how accurate it is) that only 6 of the 17 penguins survived.

* Update: I read here that one of the penguins swam 60 km and made it to the Azerbaijan border! How funny!

 One of the bears.

Another bear. 

Lions.

Not sure if this is the same crocodile shown swimming in the streets. 

The hippo at home before the floods.

One of the wild dogs.

More lions.

I haven't heard anything about the elephants. That makes me sad.

I am at a loss for what else to say. The city is working hard to get Hero's square (huge traffic circle) opened back up. From what I've heard, a normal 20 minute drive to/from downtown is taking closer to 2 hours due to all the road closures forcing all the traffic onto a couple roads. With school getting out today, we will likely avoid downtown until after we return from R&R to just help alleviate some traffic congestion because we can get most of what we need in our area.

Monday's Moment: Beer Tour

End of an Era

This week, Clarissa's teachers made the cutest bulletin board at school.

The teachers waving goodbye as

the kids sail away......so cute!

Friday was the preschool spring program as well as 4-year olds graduation. So it began with singing and dancing. Clarissa demonstrating how she'll be coming around the mountain when she comes....

The song ends with her sleeping.....so sweet!

The girls love dancing and jumping....the boys not so much....

Chip off the ole block....making faces....

Getting her certificate...

I don't think they quite understood the tossing of their caps....they all just waved them in the air....

Afterwards it was free dance time....her and her buddy Theo are having a blast....

Great pics with daddy and mommy!

Mason headed back to class before we could get a picture of them together. Preschool-Era has ended....my babies are growing up!

Monday's Moment: Freedom Monument

Erisioni Georgian Dance Ensemble

Over the weekend, the Erisioni Georgian Dance Ensemble was performing at the Tbilisi Philharmonic Concert Hall. The CLO office reserved 2 rows of seats (I think 80 seats). I kept forgetting to go by and get tickets....when I finally made it in, I got the last ticket.....so me day no guilt :)

According to the website Georgia About, the folk dance troupe was established in 1885 and performs the national dances and songs. Erisioni performs all over the world (so if you ever see them in your area, go! It is so different than any thing I have seen). You can find some more info here on their Facebook page. They typically perform in Tbilisi twice a year, around the holidays and in late spring.  The show they performed on Sunday was called Georgian Treasure (ქართული საგანძური).

The show is very male centric, which should not come as a surprise given it is a patriarchal society. There was a group of male singers, all musicians were male, and large number of male dancers. The females were beautiful and for many of their dances they were gracefully floating. It is possible I noticed this more than most, since when Mason did dance at First Baptist he was the lone boy. Another thing I noticed, even though the men and women danced together, only in one dance did they ever actually touch.

The opening dance is called Davluri and it is a dance that portrays city aristocracy.

I did notice that the women wore the same shoes, but with different size heels, I guess to give them all a uniform height as they floated around. One of the guys in our group, Larry, set up a camera on stage and was able to get a good shot of their heels (check out his website for more images).

A Doli is a Georgian percussion instrument (a type of drum) and played with palms and fingers. They had a group of young boys play the drums.

This song had a great drum beat, for the dance the men that appeared to be in search of enemies. I think this type of dance is from the Imeretian region.

Check out the air the man leaping towards the left got!

Playing a drum 3 people high...impressive!

I think this dance was called Nana. It appears to be a type of wedding dance.

I think this is a Svan region dance, called Svanura perkhuli.

There was a number of songs that were sung by a group of men. Though I didn't understand any of the Georgian sung, it appears they were singing in two competing groups going back and forth. Sometimes they would seem very heated and argumentative; sometimes they would all come together at the end.

I think this is a Mtiuluri type dance, with the men performing tricks (prepare to see leaping and landing on their knees, dancing on their toes, and spinning so much you will feel dizzy). The title was Harira, Marula.

Following intermission, they began with an Abkhazian dance. The women's dresses were shorter than most of the other dances and a pretty lavender color.

This is Gandagana, to me it had a bit of a middle eastern flair (possibly from when Arabs occupied Georgia in the Early Middle Ages). The old man was just adorable, as were the kids that performed in this dance.

Playing the panduri, a Georgian 3 string guitar (Mason picked up a miniature one up on our trip).

I think this song is Mtielebi. The dancers are shepherds dressed in red or black chokhas (wool coats) and papakha (sheep's wool hat). The chokhas have been worn since the 9th century. In the dance, they compete with one other.

The next song was Simdi. I think it is an Ossetian wedding dance. In this dance, the men and women did touch, but just holding arms type touch. There was some very impressive line formations.

Near the end of the show, they did a dance called Khevsuruli. It is a mountain dance. It shows a conflict between two men and their supporters over a woman. Women enter during the dance and wave veils to stop fighting. As soon as the women leave, the men begin fighting again. I got some video of the sword fighting....and yes those are sparks flying off the swords....that is some pretty amazing choreography. 

At the end, all the dancers came out, with a variety of the different traditional dress on.

I really like the Georgian pride with the guy on top of the pyramid with the flag.

The music was very loud and I think Clarissa may have not enjoyed that (she doesn't like loud places). Given he took dance and most of the show was men dancing, I think Mason would have enjoyed it. Hopefully they will be back in town before we depart post and we will all go.

Note: Since the program was mostly in Georgian, I attempted to figure out the stories behind the dances by accessing the power of wikipedia....so I apologize for any misinterpretations I have made.