The Changing Face of Georgia...

Tbilisi—There are many good efforts being made to clean up the city and change Georgia’s image. New construction worksites can be found all over the city; new roads and sidewalks are being put in. It is like a city-wide beautification project--and its inspiring to see. We have witnessed several positive changes even in the 6 months that we have lived in Tbilisi. How GREAT to see crews of young people clad in matching blue T-shirts converge on a park and transform it into a clean, bright place pleasing to the eye--and new playground equipment installed on top of that! And to wake up one morning to see new fluorescent trash bins lining the street, where before we were hard-pressed to find a trash can in public. This ‘make over’ the country is experiencing is opening doors for changes in other areas as well. Georgia is continually developing and transforming, and we are sure to witness much more of that as we live here.

Here are some pictures of recent changes we’ve seen around the city!

It may be tough to see, but looking through the trees you will see a man has tipped over the dumpster and is shoveling the trash into the dumptruck. NOW - there are shiny new silver dumpsters that can be picked up and dumped by the dump truck. The new dumpsters are all over the city!

This summer they lined the alley that we live on with new street lights!! At first, they did not look so "new" as you can see...but now they have painted them a nice shiny silver!!

Here there are people sweeping and cleaning up our alley...

They are installing new playgound equipment all over the city. This one is in Batumi where we visited in September, and there are two new ones close to our apartment building - they even have baby swings :)

Here a man is unloading a machine to use for street repair. It is great to see new roads and sidewalks put in, however, the man wearing flip-flops, shorts and a baseball cap to operate heavy equipment would be an OSHA nightmare!!!