Road to Polesia. Дарога на Палесьсе.
Belarus in Faces (part CXL). Беларусь у тварах (частка СХL).
Six years ago I had noticed two neat-as-a-pin houses and barnyards side-by-side in Chyrvonaje. I stopped to chat with the owners, sisters Maryja and Nina. After some gentle persuasion they agreed to having their portraits taken, and I subsequently gave them copies.
Maryja and Nina, Chyrvonaje 2008. Спадарыні Марыя й Ніна, Чырвонае 2008 г.
Their houses have remained in impeccable order. After after talking to the granny across the street (photos of the day for July 23), I waved to Maryja and Nina, who were watching from the other side of the road. They recognized me and bantered about my photography. We talked about their impending strawberry crop and they noted how important it is always to leave the first three ripe strawberries in the woods as an offering to God.
When I mentioned that I was on my way to Azdamichy and Tsjerablichy, Maryja’s eyes twinkled. She had been a bus conductor on the route from the district center of Zhytkavichy in Homjel’ Region through those villages to the district center of Stolin in Bjares’tsje (Brest) Region. She unerringly described the language, dress, and character of each village and recalled how the locals spoke of the continuing marked differences in attitudes “to the west of Malishau, beginning in Vjalikaje Maljeshava”. Malishau, the last village in Homjel’ Region before the border with Bjares’tsje Region, was the last village on the Soviet side of the border during the Soviet interwar occupation of the eastern Belarusian lands. Vjalikaje Maljeshava was the first village in the western Belarusian lands on the Polish side of the interwar border.
Maryja and Nina, Chyrvonaje 2014. Спадарыні Марыя й Ніна 2014 г.
Maryja. Спадарыня Марыя.
Nina. Спадарыня Ніна.
