Dear Justine,
I heard your story about living in India. Things you wrote in your letter remind me our living in the countryside.
I was young and my children were little; we lived in Moscow. It;s a real cosmopolis with twenty million people there. Definitely, itґs heavy to stay there in the summer and all caring parents are doing their best to take the children out of town for summers.
We were living in poverty, but luckily, my mother had got a small plot of land about eighty miles from Moscow. There was no house at first, but we were enthusiastic. We asked for permission of a neighbor to live in his barn until he returned from abroad. It was a new area for cottages and not all of the owners had advanced to build houses.
Like in India, there was no electricity and no running water. We had to cook on a campfire, to use candles instead of lamps and to carry water from the well. It was half a mile to go to the well and I always had my children with me. I used to take them on a sit-down stroller. One sat as itґs expected - on the seat, the other rode on the roof, and the cans were attached to the footboard. This water we used for cooking, washing up and laundering only; we had to walk a mile to the river for rinsing or bathing. These difficulties were more than rewarded with the pleasures of living in the nature. It was a wonderful time, so I understand your feelings very well.
At the daytime we were walking to the surrounding forests, fields and villages, swimming in the rivers. At night time we used to light smoldering mosquito spirals and I invented stories and fairy tales for the children because it was too dark to read by candlelight. In this way we spent our summer for a few years and have never regretted this. Now our life is good and we have built our own summerhouse. What about you? Can you imagine living in India forever?
Best wishes,
Toma
2012
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Photo by the author