Georgian Flower Seller in Moscow

This Georgian sells flowers at a kiosk near a Moscow metro station with her fellow country women. There are about a half dozen of them working different stalls, which remarkably are opened 24 hours. The women call out to people passing buy, offering both imported and local flowers. Most of these women were born in Abkhazia, but haven’t seen their homeland since they had to flee during the Georgian-Abkhaz war in the early 1990s. When I mentioned I was in Abkhazia in September, they started to call out names of places in Abkhazia like Ritz Lake and Novi Afon Monastery, asking if I went there. They were keen to see photos, which I showed them on my phone. This woman, who said she was over 70, mentioned that she had traveled a bit around Europe and didn’t see any place that had better natural beauty than Abkhazia. I asked her about the flower business and she said it has been tough lately because flower prices have risen sharply. For instance, flowers from Ecuador are up 50%. I asked what she would do if she loses her job. She said she would go Georgia to live with her children.