In the Line of Fire

So today one of the local army's second in commands took me to the buffer zone right between Georgia and the Russian occupied territory of South Ossetia. This was nerve racking, just a bit, because we were standing right on the national line of Georgia and the buffer zone; according to the Georgian soldiers guarding their side of the buffer zone, no one crosses it (Georgian or Russian) unless you want to encounter crossfire or start something that you definitely don't want to finish. I could stand on the hillside, behind low lying barricades, and see into South Ossetia, one of the most dangerous places in all of Georgia (because it's still Georgian territory, just occupied by the Russians). It was odd to think that as I was looking over towards the Russians, they were looking back at me, watching, to make sure that I, and the soldiers I was with, didn't cross into the buffer zone. When we went to another military blockade on the buffer zone a few miles away, we witnessed a woman crossing from South Ossetia back in Georgia. Cars cannot travel on these roads, you go by foot, and if you choose to go into South Ossetia...well, there is nothing more the Georgian government can do to protect you. All the way there and back it was noticeable, the bullet holes in the sides of buildings and the houses set just back off the road that were bombed and left to crumble. My host mother's sister's house in Gori, my town, was leveled when a bomb landed on it. Now come to think of it, when we went to the military base, where I teach, for the first time, I remember pointing out a building and asking my host brother what it was. He naturally said, "those are bullet holes," not knowing I was talking about the building as a whole. This is an interesting place, and the only reason they asked me to go with them to the buffer zone...because I'm a Journalist :). They thought as a Journalist that I'd be interested in this kind of stuff, so I could go back to America and tell people there Georgia's side of the story. I guess in a way I'm already doing that. Cheers.