Tamar Kvaratskhelia                     The flag of the                    country Georgia   Tamar was a very special young woman. She arrived here ( in the USA)  on August 24, 1995 she  stayed with us until June 1996. Tamar was from the Republic of Georgia, one of the former Soviet States. She was fluent in four languages, English, French, Russian , and her native Georgian. Georgian is a very ancient language, having no English characters. The background of this page has Georgian characters on it.   During her stay she studied in Central High School in Baton Rogue, and graduated with honors ranked in the top  7 out of a class of 209. She was very much our daughter and was the first of our students to call us Mom and Dad. She received two awards in French, and an academic one. She was born on December 24, 1978. Tamar came from the town  in Georgia called Poti. Tamar  was a  terrific classical pianist and would often play music for us.   Monument to Vakhtang Gorgasali, founder of Tbilisi, with a view of Holey Mountain Mtatsminda.   A little bit about  the country Georgia This is a map of the country Georgia   Georgia is located at the very edge of Eastern Europe, practically connecting Asia to Europe. It lies across the Caucasian mountains,which is the tallest mountain range in Europe. They form the northern border with Russia, while on the south Georgia borders Turkey, Armenia and Azerbaijan. The western boundary is the Black Sea with several port cities. Georgia is about twenty seven thousand sq. miles. It is slightly larger than the state of West Virginia and has a population of more than five million.   The capital city, Tbilisi, was found in fifth century by Georgian King Vachtang Gorgasali. Theword "tbili" means warm in Georgian. According to a legend, the Georgian King was falcon-hunting in the area where he built a new capital. His falcon caught a bird but dropped it. Later the bird was found in a hot stream almost boiled and ready to be served for lunch. These hot streams turned out to be very healthy natural sources. The king liked the place a lot and began to build a city.   The official religion of the country is Christian Orthodox and the official language is Georgian. The country was one of the first which adopted Christianity it started to spread in Georgia from the first century and became the official religion in the beginning of the fourth century. Christianity played an extremely important role in Georgian history. Christian ideology spread through the scripture which contribued to the developent of literacy. The Georgian alphabet consists of thirty-three letters and is one of the eleven alphabets that exist in the world today (Greek, Latin, Cyrillic, Georgian, Armenian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Mongolian and Indian.) Surrounded by Muslim countries, Georgia was constantly under attack. These countries were trying to gain influence over Georgia, by capturing the lands, and changing the religion. Georgians managed to defend their freedom, religion, culture and language with bravery, faith and love of country. In the eleventh and twelfth centuries Georgia found itself to be one of the prosperous coutries and major powers in the region. While Crusaders fought for the holy land of Jerusalem Georgians defeated Turks significantly weakening their domination in the region and recaptured all the lands. It was the victory of whole Christian world of that time. Seeing the importance of it Pope sent four hundred Crusaders, before the final battle, to fight on Georgians side.   Many interesting events happened in Georgia of that time. You probably know that England is famous for the first parliament on the world, which was established in the thirteenth century in England. Before that, in the twelfth century there was an attempt to create a parliament in Georgia, which failed because of the dominant royal power in the country. Now I want to tell you how Georgia became one of the republics of the former Soviet Union. In 1923 the country was invaded by Russian Red Army. They entered the country and without any major fights camped near the capital city, Tbilisi. The war for the freedom began in January of 1923 and lasted only a couple of months. It ended in Georgians defeat. The president of Georgia fled to Paris and the Government was disbanded, while many people in power who didn't manage to leave the country were shot. Georgian communists helped Russians a lot in establishing comunism in the country. One of them was a person that is very well known, Joseph Stalin. So was Georgia in Soviet Union for seventy years and only in 1991 declared independence again. In Soviet Union Georgia was one of the wealthiest republics. Thanks to its great resorts and tourism, well developed industry, and the famous winery. Here is what Georgians tell about themselves. When God was giving the lands to different nations Georgians didn't show up. Instead they had a big feast, drank wine, and praised the Lord. When they finished there was no place for them left. So they went to God and and told that they had a big feast in his name and now they were left without a land to live. So God gave them a little piece of the most wonderful land that he was keeping for himself. That's how beautiful Georgia is. In spite of its small size, Georgia's georgeus beauty and a good location always attracted numerous invaders. It's a fabulous story how Georgian people retained Christianity, language and a big culture. Many other countries may be jealous for Georgia's cultural heritage, literature,architecture, music and arts. There are many positive movents towards building a real nice country today and even though there are many milestones to pass on this way, the freedom was worth it all.   Home