Barn Charm - Eva's Farm

The barn I'm sharing this week is not that "charming".  In fact, just looking at it you'd think it's from the previous century.  However, Eva, the farmer, (with two of her prized pigs) was most definitely a warm, charming and intelligent woman concerned with making a living for her family in western Ukraine.  In December 2001, I spent almost a month working with farmers like Eva, teaching them how to set up farm cooperatives to grow better crops and market what they raised.

Here are some members of the farm women's councils that I was there to help (the pretty young woman in the black fur coat and hat was my interpreter Ina.  Thank goodness for Ina.  I'm peeping over Eva's shoulder):

The women were very excited when they learned that I was from Kentucky because I would know about making bourbon and raising tobacco.  Here we are in the stripping room behind Eva's home.  The women are stripping Eva's tobacco crop--getting it ready for market.  I didn't have the heart to tell them how anaemic those tobacco leaves were in comparison to Kentucky crops.

We traveled long distances between rayons (districts) over snowy roads in cars that broke down frequently.  Here Elena and I stop at a traveler's shrine to ask for a little help:

Here's one of the workshops that I conducted.  Yes, it was always cold and yes, I carried those flipcharts all the way from the United States because I knew such training materials would not be available.  These students were surprised when they were not lectured too, instead working in small groups to come up with solutions to their own problems.

Ina and I stayed in a remote village while in western Ukraine.  This was my bed.  You can see I was well protected by the Russian Orthodox church:

My stay in Ukraine was not all work.  On the weekend my host Maria and others from the village took us sightseeing.  We saw a Christmas market and the ancient Mukaceve Castle.  Here I'm holding hands with Count Mukaceve:

I'm thinking about Ukraine now because in just a month I'm headed to Russia.  On this map of western Ukraine, I've marked the places I stayed and worked.  Notice that the names are also in the Cyrillic alphabet.  I'm trying to learn just a bit of it now for Russia.  I've read that there's not much English signage.  Be doing well to recognize "toilet"! :-) Should have started studying sooner. . .

Now if you'd like to participate in the Barn Charm meme, or just see some interesting "barnery" from many different places, just go to Bluff Area Daily .