Alersi - A Georgian Fusion Project

In the summer of 2006, during my first visit to Georgia, I sat at a village supra high in the mountains of Tusheti. An elderly woman with silver hair was singing and playing her garmoni, a traditional accordion. I took her photograph that day. I still have it twenty years later.

I remember the music, the mountains, and, most of all, how I felt: absolutely at home. I felt in sync with the universe, as though every need I had as a human being was being met. I was also with a Georgian man I had fallen in love with. The joy of that gathering, the music, the landscape, and the experience of loving someone were inseparable. I wanted him, and I wanted Georgia.

I had come to Georgia as an American graduate student for a four-month internship with the United Nations Development Programme. I expected a formative professional experience. I did not expect to discover a place that would become such a profound part of my identity.