Ukrainian Encore: Day Trip to Dzhankoi

This morning Alex, Vera and I boarded a bus to Dzhankoi to see what we could do to help Alex's 20 year old sister, Nastia, and her 6 month old baby find a place to live. We'd heard rumors of abandoned houses in villages selling for as little as $1200. This didn't seem to be true, so we decided to fix up the room in the old school that she was given by the government. This was a school used in one of the old collective farm villages many years ago. Various members of Alex's family have lived in the school classrooms including Alex and Nastia.

The room she'll live in measures 20' x 20' and has 2 windows, both with broken glass. There's running water, but only outside the house about 20' from the front door. The outhouse is farther. Currently there is no door to her classroom, and the floor consists of ceramic tile which gets very cold in the winter---especially for a toddler, so she wants to cover it with wafer board to help insulate. There is electricity, and she plans to use an electric heater during the winter. We're getting a wood burning stove, a table, a wardrobe closet, a door, new glass and some paint. Their uncle, who is a builder, is coming Saturday with some of the men in the village to help get it all cleaned up and put together.

I felt what she asked for was very humble and modest--a nice surprise, because that's not what I was expecting. It actually made me want to do more to help her. How very differently I live.