Although not only natural beauty drew her to come here - at
the turn of the century her husband, a British Ambassador, Richard Jenkins and
she were keenly interested in our country. They often came and did a lot for a
progress of a free press, NGOs and small business. A little later, Maurizia
worked for several years as a senior political adviser to the UN mission and
continued to stick to her line – she got international funding for a variety of
projects, like a publication of books on the Abkhazian Folklore and opening of a hairdresser in Gal district.
An indefatigable temperament let her meet lots of people and
travel all over Abkhazia, going to the remotest places. One winter in a nasty
cold, we went to Odish to see some church. She was driving a UN jeep, I was
lying in the back seat, as it was forbidden to take strangers, so I moved to
the front seat when we went out of town and no one from the UN could see me.
On a deserted way she picked up two young soldiers walking
to their frontier post, shivering from cold with automatic guns over their
shoulders. Twenty minutes later we dropped them at the bar, where also young, a soldier waited for them being
hungry for two days. When we drove further, I asked if she was not afraid to
take into the car unknown armed men in an absolutely lonely place. She shrugged
her shoulders, "Well, nothing happened" (as many foreigners, she
omits another, not necessary in her opinion "not").
This time, Maurizia came to see how projects are developing,
for which she had once found funding. To my surprise, there were projects much more than I thought. People greeted her
with warmth and love, even strangers came up in the streets, domino players at
the seaside asked her to sit with them, in the bookstore the shop
assistant did not take money for Daur Nachkebia’s novel "Seaside of a
Night", in the market Rosa Piliya
gave her bananas and grapes for the interest to Abkhazia.
Maurizia again rushed across the country - to the Chkhuartal and Okum villages with a Vice Speaker of the Parliament Emma Gamisonia to see how our
deputies work with their people; to
Kodor Gorge with Roman Dbar,
where they found and cleared the place in which
the UN helicopter was shot down - Maurice planted poppies there; to Gal region, where the same hairdresser is still running; to Pitsunda to Lyudmyla Lolua with whom she keeps long-term friendship; and to the
church of Lykhny at Easter with Batal
Kobakhia and so on.
We spent unforgettable hours in a trout farm of Razhden Agrba. Once in tough times Mauricia
could find money for developing the farm and Razhden did not forget it. We
feasted in his house, the toastmaster was Roman Dbar, the air was shining
of such refined compliments of the
toasts - we said to each other so
many high words, that the excess of
love certainly dripped to the trout lapping
in the waters.
For more than three weeks time Maurizia managed to do so
much that her energy surprises. Before leaving, she acknowledged that much of
the country changed for the better, but not all has been done yet. "You have to build an
independent state, it is not as simple as you think" - she said, with her
own unique accent.
Six days after her departure some gentlemen from Chkuartal
village came to Emma Gamisonia in Sukhum, they found the London phone of Mauricia Jenkins and called her to express their warm feelings. Many years
ago, Maurizia said: "I understand that when I come here being no longer as
the wife of the Ambassador, people will not pay so much attention to me".
- "Well, that's normal" - I replied.
Both of us were mistaken.
1 comments:
Lovely article! Thank you for sharing!
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