Students take a break to discuss words and spellings during the National English Spelling Competition finals held at the National Youth and Children’s Palace on March 30 in Tbilisi.
The competition was the final round of a year-long project to help motivate Georgian children to learn English. Initiated last year by Peace Corps volunteer Adam Malinowski, the spelling bee started with local competitions in more than 126 schools and more than 2,400 students throughout the country. During the final, 34 top spellers from nine regions around Georgia came to Tbilisi to compete for iPads, iPods, free English classes, and other prizes from the US embassy and other sponsors.
Father Tigran Mkhitaryan, who hails from the Georgian city of Akhalkalaki, holds a mass baptism for about 40 people on Feb. 12 in the village of Kartsakhi, located a few kilometers away from the Georgian-Turkish border and populated mostly by ethnic Armenians.
Roughly 200 families live in Kartsakhi, where the 18th-Century church lacks its own priest. Therefore residents use any opportunity to attend religious ceremonies during the rare visits by a city priest.
Temo Bardzimashvili is a freelance photojournalist based in Tbilisi.
The Armenians of Akhalkalaki, Georgia, celebrate Trndez, the traditional festival of newlyweds, on February 13. A local priest conducts a religious service to bless the newlyweds and presents each couple with a copy of the Bible. Following sunset, a bonfire is lit and the couples jump over it holding hands.
In Akhalkalaki, where unemployment runs higher than the Georgian national average, winter has been a traditional wedding time following the breakup of the Soviet Union. In spring most of male population leaves Georgia to look for work abroad, mostly in Russia and Armenia, and then returns home in late fall.
Temo Bardzimashvili is a freelance photojournalist based in Tbilisi.
Women dance in downtown Tbilisi as part of the global One Billion Rising event on February 14. Women and men across the world, including Kyrgyzstan, danced to raise awareness of rape and violence against women.
Molly Corso is a freelance journalist who also works as editor of Investor.ge, a monthly publication by the American Chamber of Commerce in Georgia.
Women in Bishkek mark Valentine's Day with a family photograph. Photographers in Kyrgyzstan often erect colorful displays to mark holidays, sometimes with rabbits, doves, or peacocks. For 50 soms (about $1) a photographer will take anyone's photo, then run across the street to a digital studio to make a quick print.
David Trilling is EurasiaNet's Central Asia editor.
A goat dragging a snapped rope around its neck calmly hoofs it over a crosswalk in a Tbilisi suburb on January 10. Once common during the economic breakdown of the 1990s, some Tbilisi residents still keep domestic animals in the city.
Temo Bardzimashvili is a freelance photojournalist based in Tbilisi.
After more than 28 years of fighting and an estimated 40,000 dead, the Turkish government has been reportedly holding new talks with Abdullah Ocalan, the jailed leader of the PKK, with an aim to end the long-standing conflict.
Justin Vela is a freelance reporter based in Istanbul.
Hunters paddle out for an evening pursuit of prey as smoke rises over Paliastomi Lake near Poti, Georgia, in late December. The Paliastomi lake marshes, which are part of the Kolkheti National Park, are often set on fire by hunters and cattle herders, who clear the area for easier fowling and cow grazing. Violation of national park regulations – quite common in Georgia’s protected areas – are often due to poor management.
Temo Bardzimashvili is a freelance photojournalist based in Tbilisi.
