After an hour metro ride, a 2 hours electric train ride, a little standing around and waiting, and a short marshrootka ride, I walked through an iron gate to see a little babooshka sitting at her summer kitchen waiting for us. She greeted us with her deeply ingrained smile and ushered us into the dacha.
Upstairs were two big rooms (one for the girls and one for the boy) and a small room for storage. We dropped our stuff and returned down stares for dinner.
The daughter of the babooshka was preparing potato and mushroom veroniki. We had them ready in no time and sat down to a feast of fresh veggies and veroniki. I sat next to Babooshka and she told me not to be afraid of her. I wasn’t afraid but I know why they put me next to here. She is quite insistent that I never stop eating, ever! 🙂
The next day my friends and I took a walk in the fresh country air.
Along they way where blackberry trees, wild cherry trees, big colorful wild flowers and fields and fields of green grass. I had never seen this side of Ukraine before, I am in love. When we returned to the dacha I helped gather the last bit of strawberry a this season. Surrounded by fresh food that you can just pick and eat as you go on a walk or hang out in your yard! This is where I would live if I could.
This babooshka lives here all alone and is bent over from the years of hard work. She is a woman who loves God and her huge family. And she has spunk, she reminded me of my grandma. She didn’t always understand what the young people were talking about but she would come out with these random things that got us all laughing.
It was a great way to spend my last weekend in Ukraine
onlygrace247 