On our last day together, dads and kids took a trip to the city of Gori, the birthplace of Joseph Stalin. He was born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili, a patently Georgian name, but later traded his surname for Stalin (Russian for steel).
As you can imagine, the kids were enamored with the museum . . . luckily there was a train in the mix. Apparently Stalin hated to fly and preferred to thunder around the Soviet Union in his famous armored train.
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| Off with his head! It's not every day you get the chance to decapitate Stalin. |
Curiously, there was no mention during the guided tour of the estimated tens of millions of deaths attributed to Stalin's reign of terror. Communism ever lingers.
After what they declared a "sickening experience" in Gori, the guys took the kids to nearby Uplistsikhe, an ancient town hewn out of rock, dating back as far as the Iron Age.
I'm sure the children were quite interested in the coexistence of Pagan and Christian architecture found here, as well as the unique combination of styles of rock-cut cultures from Anatolia and Persia; but since I was in town at a yoga class, having girl time, I really don't know.
Based on photographic evidence, I can only really be certain there was ample sun, wind, and stone. And a fair amount of theatrics.
I'd love to find out how these experiences will affect the girls. I'm sure they are absorbing *something* meaningful from this exposure to history and culture. Just like to a man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail. To a child the 3D world is a jungle gym.
ReplyDeleteIt's hard to know how much they absorb, but one thing I'm sure of is that they have a much better understanding of what a big diverse place the world is than I did at their age.
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