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Nyani Quarmyne
www.nqphotography.com
Tusheti, spread across the peaks and valleys of the Caucasus Mountains in northeastern Georgia, is all but cut off from the outside world for seven months of the year. The only road in or out, through the treacherous Abano Pass, is impassable until the winter snows clear. During this time, occasional visits from a Border Police helicopter are the only link with the outside world.
The region is the ancestral home of the Tush, traditionally nomadic shepherds who spent summers in high, defensible alpine villages, and winters on sheltered lower slopes. Today, due largely to Soviet era resettlement policies, most spend their winters in the lowland towns of Kvemo and Zemo-Alvani. Only a few hardy souls brave the winter cold and isolation.
But when the Abano Pass opens in spring the Tush flood up to the highlands, the shepherds among them making a ten-day trek to bring their flocks up to alpine pastures. Young people who have electricity, indoor plumbing and gaming consoles in town, spend summer mornings milking cows and days on horseback. Despite the comforts of town life, there is a palpable sense that for most Tush, the mountains are their real home.
Tusheti comprises 36 villages spread over an area of 969 square kilometres. It is famed for its cheeses and wool, but production and access to markets are limited, and tourism has become the mainstay of the local economy: simple seasonal guesthouses cater to summer hikers who come to experience the beauty of the Caucasus. But the tourism sector is constrained by the very remoteness that is its main attraction.
Hoping to open up markets for local wool and cheese and to boost the tourism sector by enabling businesses to advertise and transact online, an intrepid group of volunteers set out to bring high-speed Internet access to the mountains.
By increasing income-generating opportunities, they hope to counter the rural-urban drift that is seeing young people move away to cities, and to make it possible for the Tush to once again live in the mountains year-round. Funding for the project came from the Internet Society, Tusheti Development Fund, and Georgian ISP Freenet.
The core of team was made up of ten individuals. The team used four-wheel drive vehicles to carry the tools, masts, and equipment for the project as far as the vehicles could go. Beyond this, in some locations the terrain was so difficult that equipment had to be hauled up with packhorses. At times, a ranger acted as a guide in reaching some of the isolated locations, and there were also men who provided and managed the packhorses. The project was done over the time span of three years.
Once complete, signals were beamed point-to-point across the mountains, and soon residents of villages that had never had cell coverage or even radio were calling friends and relatives.
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