Clockwise from bottom: 1) a pig is killed at the end of the wintertime in a village called Medjheshevi, in a plain just below the Ossetia mountains; 2) a common situation in Georgian villages, this old man is left only with his few belongings in a dilapidated house; 3) traditional practices such as getting water to drink from wells are still current in desolated villages.
At first, life in the villages appeared to continue as it had for centuries. The closure of the collective farms led to a re-distribution of land and goods. People lived on what they grew, their livestock and by bartering for what they could not produce. Nonetheless the deterioration of the economy rapidly began to affect life in the village. Schools, hospitals and transport were the first casualties. Administrative buildings were stripped and left derelict.