Krasnosilka Green Preservation Society

On Tuesday, we traveled to Yuri's mother's home village, known as Krasnosilka. It is three hours outside of Kyiv, an hour outside of Zhytomir. Yuri's cousin, Ivan, graciously offered to drive us from Kyiv to visit the family. The weather was threatening rain, with dark clouds always on the horizon. It would have been okay but the roads beyond Zhytomir were in a very poor state.

The Krasnosilka bus stop - in our 7+ hours in the village, we never saw a bus

Once we arrived at Krasnosilka, we traversed many dirt roads until we reached the first village house. The first person to greet us at the first house we visited was Yuri's cousin who burst into tears upon seeing us. The daughter of one of Mama Daschko's sisters who had never met us before; she was thrilled to welcome us to her home. We shared information about the family in Canada and were quizzed about where we were traveling and why. Inevitably the question of why we couldn't stay longer in Krasnosilka was raised. We then sat down to a huge meal, which included copious amounts of vodka and various meats and fewer vegetables.

Lots of food. There was fish, pork, sausage, ham, and chicken.

After lunch, or, more realistically, enough food for 3 lunches, we went for a walk to see the village. On the walk, we visited various cousin's houses, walked their fields, and met their neighbours.

We also met Yuri's cousin's cow.

We also went to the nearby cemetery to visit Yuri's grandmother (my great grandmother), uncles, and aunts. While the rest of the family's graves were in the new cemetery, to reach my great grandmother's grave we had to make our way through a small path cut through the forest. Her grave was one of only a small few that remained of the old graveyard that was now reclaimed by the forest. They told us that since no one of the other families remained in the village, the graves had not been maintained as they were unable to continue to massive job of clearing out the new growth.

There were hundreds more graves like this lost in the forest beyond

On our way back it started to rain and gust, so we were forced to take cover back at the house.

The rain started literally a second after this picture was taken

After the skies cleared, we were taken to see where Yuri's mother's house had once stood. While a new house had been built on the ground, as is common with villages in Ukraine, the well that her family built and drew water out of still stands. We all had a sip of the water, which was still surprisingly clean and fresh tasting.

Thanks again to Yuri's cousin for getting us water the ol' fashioned way. Which is also the way they currently get water.

  We also stopped by cousin's summer house which was nearby. Inside, there was still standing a pich, a type of clay oven, famous in Jewish-Ukrainian and Ukrainian life and literature as a place upon which children would sleep during the cold nights of winter.

They would have slept where the pot is sitting near the wall

To close out the day we had a massive 2nd lunch, which was more like dinner by virtue of the time we ate it. Similar foods and similar quantities of vodka and wine were provided.

People seem to age faster on the village, as everyone commented on how young Marla and Yuri looked.

  We had a wonderful time, and with much  tears and hugs left for Zhytomyr and our hotel there.