The Foreign Service Journal, January-February 2017

98 JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2017 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL LOCAL LENS BY FRANCESCA KELLY n MESTIA, GEORGIA Please submit your favorite, recent photograph to be considered for Local Lens. Images must be high resolution (at least 300 dpi at 8” x 10”, or 1 MB or larger) and must not be in print elsewhere. Please include a short description of the scene/event, as well as your name, brief biodata and the type of camera used, to locallens@afsa.org. T his is Mestia, in the Caucasian Svaneti region of Georgia. The region’s medieval towers, which number nearly 300 or so, were built either as fortresses against clan warfare or as bunkers against avalanches—perhaps both. They are gener- ally attached to stone houses that feature one great roomwith a fire for cooking, sleeping areas around the outside for both people and livestock, and a “newlywed’s alcove” for privacy. Most of the descendants of the original families who built the towers still own them. In other words, these towers have stayed in the family for 1,000 years! n Francesca Kelly is the spouse of U.S. Ambassador to Georgia Ian Kelly and a frequent contributor to The Foreign Service Journal . She took this photo with a BLU cell phone on Oct. 17 after the first snowfall of the season.