NOT DR. ZHIVAGO

With the weather warming up, a lot of people are heading to their dachas now so we thought this would be a good topic for the blog. The dachas aren't as romantic as the one in Dr. Zhivago. In general, people don't use them much in the winter because they're not very accessible. Also, they aren't as big or as nice or as remote as the one in the movie.

Last summer before we left Barnaul, Dave jumped at a chance to go with an investigator, Pavel, and do some upkeep at his family's dachas. Many families have a dacha. Pavel's family is the only one we've heard of with two.

Dachas are often located 5-20 miles outside the city, sometimes even farther. As you can see in the pictures, the dachas are one right after another after another. Each lot for Pavel's family is approximately 50 X 100 feet with a small structure in one corner

and an outhouse in another

The buildings are for shelter, not comfort. Usually there is no running water or heat, but most have electricity for lights (the stoves are wood burning). Some gardens have flowers, other have vegetables, and some have both mixed together. Pavel's family has one of each.

Pavel's family grows the flowers and the vegetables for their own use, but many people will take their ripened crops to the city and sit on the sidewalk and sell their corn, zucchini, tomatoes, peas, cauliflower, cabbage, potatoes, flowers, etc. Many of these people are older Russians who are supplementing their small pensions.

Church attendance suffers with this weekend migration, but it is a family tradition that is hard to break. As you can see, it is not for relaxing in luxury but to get out of the city. (This is the nicer of the two dachas)

This week's Russianism:
We've found it interesting the way the post office in other countries is used for lots of things besides mailing letters and packages. Here we make deposits at the post office, not at a bank. We're not sure what they use banks for. They also sell a variety of items like newspapers, magazines, greeting cards and coloring books in addition to laundry soap, some cleaning supplies, film and DVDs.