|
Childhood |
|
 |
Travelling I have travelled quite a lot during the Soviet time. After graduating from Sukhumi State University I started working at the International Tourist Association (Headquarters in Moscow), as a guide interpreter. And I travelled even beyond the Iron Curtain. Images of that period are lost forever along with my Homeland. However, there were very few photos that I could save during the first Georgian-Russian war. One of them is a photo taken with a team of American cotton manufacturers during travelling through the vast Valley of Fergana in Central Asia. That was really funny having a full plate of Central Asian pilaf for breakfast or a glass of Champagne with Russian Caviar in other places. I ate and drank all that so much during those two weeks that today I cannot tolerate neither pilaf nor caviar any more, even less Champagne. |
|
Marriage I met my Swiss husband during the first Georgian-Russian war. I was supposed to be his interpreter when he was posted in Abkhazia as Head of the ICRC in the region. Married him after five years of knowing each other and followed him in his missions in different countries, abandoning my own career. My life became even more colorful than before. You won't believe this, but I got a pair of hiking shoes from my husband as my first wedding gift! Yes, Swiss-made, real hiking shoes, and I hiked with him on the endless Swiss hiking paths. When we married the USSR didn't exist anymore. We had to marry in Georgia and then register our marriage in Switzerland through the Swiss Consulate in Istanbul. Only after that my husband was allowed to "import"me to his own country. That was a complicated procedure for him, but apparently, he wanted to marry me “so badly” that he organized it all very well and fast. We had our wedding party in Georgia and honey-moon in Istanbul. Georgian weddings are very lively, full of music and dance. I danced so much at my wedding that in the end my husband had to carry me out from the party, because my legs refused to do so.
In Istanbul we had decided we would have relaxing and quiet time only for ourselves. On the very first day of our arrival we went out to eat to a local restaurant at a rather simple place. We thought it was remote, but it was not. As soon as we entered the restaurant we were met by a big group of people celebrating a wedding and dancing their heads off. As we were about to exit the place we suddenly were engulfed by the dancers. My husband was snatched away from me, and I was facing a small group of the young handsome Turkish dancers, who were so charmingly smiling at me and inviting me to join them. It was absolutely impossible to say "no" to them, and I experienced the pleasure of one of the most enchanting and beautiful Turkish dances, which I couldn't even imagine I would be able to dance. The dance went forever it seemed to me. But I did enjoy myself you can see it easily from the photo.
|
|
|
Then there were those unforgettable and full of wild experiences years of travelling in India, Bangladesh, Thailand, Colombia, ex-Yugoslavia. India In India-Bangladesh I learned how to sit correctly in a rickshaw in order not to fall out of it and ride a Tuk-tuk. In those countries I also learned how to live like a real "Pasha"and bath in the Luxuries of the riches the country provided to us. The worst experience that I ever made and I shall never forget was the cultural shock I had in these countries. It made me really sick to realise that beyond my gilded windows in gold and silver, there was another world, the world of poverty, where hungry children lived in the streets, ate anything that could be found in garbage dumps and were molested by the monsters in human forms. But then came along Taj Mahal and Mughal Agra. An impressing testimony of Love and Power, and other extraordinary places we had visited during our stay in India.
|
|
Bangladesh   |
|
|
Thailand          thailand
|
|
|
Colombia There I learned how to spend several nights in a hammock, trying to sleep in a huge tropical park with lots of scary creatures around me. And ride a horse through that park during several hours without getting bitten by some crawling creatures. Colombia also has beautiful beaches and I was so happy in Cartagena, on the Caribbean Coast. Colombia
|
|
|
Montenegro Going home to Switzerland for me meant stepping into a new life once more, starting all over again for the third time. I had to build a totally new life in a completely new country with an absolutely different mentality from my own , which is a mixture of the Euro-Asian culture. This was a real challenge I faced bravely.
|
|
|
Switzerland |
|
This is the place where I started painting. Actually, I learned basic drawing and colour-mixing at the secondary school. However, one of my friends from the Diplomatic Circle of Podgorica was a painter. She was leading a course on painting, and she convinced me to attend it. Afterwards, she encouraged me to paint more, because she said I had skills for it. We stayed in Montenegro only one year. My husband suddenly decided it was time for his early retirement. He also said that after twenty years of his missions it was high time to go home, Switzerland.
