Afterwards, Оля offers to take me on a tour of the compound. Stepping out of the house, we walk down a path shaded by low-hanging branches and pass through a wooden gate built into a handmade brick wall.
"Покажу тобі мою хату," she looks over her shoulder to tell me as she leads the way. "Тут колись мама жила, а тепер я з чоловіком і з сином." To our right, a stable with a compost pile built up against the wall. A cow lows, and somewhere, a low-pitched grunting. Оля gestures towards a back door as she shoos a chicken out of the way with her foot.
Once inside, Оля immediately begins showing me her tile stove. They burn wood inside the stove to keep warm, but there is also a cooking range built into it. The stove penetrates the wall that separates the kitchen from the bedroom; warmth from the stove can radiate through this wall without filling the bedroom with the smell of burning wood. Ingenious!
Directly next door is a two-story house which appears to be a mansion by comparison; indeed, it's the first two-story structure I have seen since arriving in Старе Богородчане.
Just inside another gate is a black and tan puppy tethered to a dog house. He jumps up against the gate excitedly when we approach. After he catches my scent, he licks my hand like a happy pup, and this makes my miss my own puppy thousands of miles away :( I bet Miles is going to wiggle so much when I get home.
We ascend three steps to a porch and enter the two-story home through a custom-made wooden door. A curved staircase appears on the left, while to the right is an inhabited room. Вуйко Офіс, the elderly uncle, resides here while construction is being completed. We wander through the kitchen, a living room with bright windows, a bathroom, laundry room, комора. I admire the craftsmanship applied to the hardwood floors throughout the home.
"Ану, хто це будував?" I ask Оля. "Та ми будуємо!" she replies proudly. Марія's family, здається, are incredible builders. The craftsmanship is exquisite.
The екскурсія is gaining travelers--at this point, we are Оля, Вуйко, myself, a little boy of about 5 or 6 named Андрій, another little boy whose name I don't know. "А там нагорі є другий поверг," says little Андрійко in his little boy voice. He wants to show us the second floor.
Now I must subdue my irrational fear of heights to continue on with this tour--the staircase to the second floor is unfinished, and instead of treads on each step there are planks of wood. Like, uneven planks of wood with knots, and bark. This is super-unsteady; my palms clam-over immediately. Still, I oblige the gracious tour guides and ascend the staircase after them. Ой Боже...
The second floor is not quite as finished as the first, but it is just as nice and well-built. One can imagine how beautiful it will look when completed. The most impressive feature is the wrap-around balcony that offers a glorious view of, well, the rest of the село.
Mounds of onions cover the floor of said balcony. "Я тут сушу свою цибулю," Оля says sheepishly.
The presumed future bedroom of Марія and Ihor houses an extensive collection of herbs laid out on a spread of old newspaper. Apparently they were collected by Вуйко, who studied medicine at one time. He formulates homeopathic remedies using these herbs. Could explain why he's in such good health.
By now, another fellow has joined the tour. He is tall, dressed all in black, olive skin, salt and pepper hair and mustache--a Slavic Johnny Cash. "Мій чоловік, Роман," Оля introduces us. She passes the toddler, whom she was carrying on her neck this entire time, over to her husband. "Йди до тата," she says to the little one.
Стьопа arrives as well, inviting us to come eat "Поки ще гаряче," he cautions. Our Slavic Soul Train heads back to Пані Надя's house: down the unfinished staircase, out the front door, past the excited puppy and his own little house, through the gate... but it all grinds to a halt at the stable.
"Ану покажемо тобі крилики," exclaims Оля,"ти ще певно такого не бачила!" She gestures to a pen brimming with rabbits pressing their faces against the wire enclosure. Роман takes a handful of freshly-cut hay and sprinkles it into the pen. The rabbits swarm it and nibble away.
Роман opens another pen and pulls one the rabbits out. "От, дивись який він здоровий!" he says proudly. "Будете його їсти?" I ask innocently. He chuckles, rabbit in one hand, toddler in the other.
Now Оля wants to show me the stable. "Тут наша свиня," she says, pointing to a large pig--the source of those previously-unidentified low-pitched grunts. "А тут друга свиня," she points to another large pig in a different pen. "А там корова--вона стяє," laughs Оля as I spy a cow pissing with uplifted tail. Yep, that's livin' off the land for ya. At least it wasn't shitting...
Стьопа знову кличе на обід. The potatoes are getting cold! Quickly, we scurry back to Надя's house. Обов'ясково, I wash my hands. You can take the girl out of the city... "Сідайте," invites Надя, "Налити тобі водку чи вино?" Hmmm. It's about 10 am. Vodka or vino? Vino.
A small table in the living room is clustered with chairs, and overflowing with food: plates of kielbasa and cheese, boiled dill potatoes, sliced tomatoes, hard boiled eggs topped with squirts of mayonnaise, fresh cucumbers, breaded and fried pork medallions, grilled kabob removed from the skewer. There are so many dishes that we eat from tiny plates just so we are able to fit them on the table!
I notice that people tend to eat with their own forks from a communal dish. The company drinks a toast, and afterwards всі закусають--everyone eats a small piece of sausage, or pickled vegetable... something small to chase the shot with.
Надя promptly begins piling food on my plate: a mountain of dill potatoes, a thick slab of колач (homemade bread)... well, that about satisfies my carb intake for the day, not to mention my soul. The hospitality is so generous, and such a welcome change from the anonymity and loneliness of the city.
Maria's family welcomed me as one of their own. Since my arrival in Ukraine and throughout the various tribulations of my trip, I finally feel comfortable. With a full belly and a dull morning buzz, my body makes way for the 'itis. Too soon, however, because it is time to hit the road to Bukovel...
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