When living is your whole life

Two hours on a hiking trail from Boita through the forest and we are almost at the top of the hill. We pass a home distillery, climb some more, take a right through the trees and arrive at our destination. Johanna and Nikolai’s farm. He is 85, she is 72. The friendliest of welcomes. Nikolai shows us the vegetable garden and pulls out a handful of green onions. Meanwhile, Johanna cannot stop saying how happy she is to see me. Talks about how faith sustains her through all the tough periods in life. Why don’t they move to the village? “we always stayed here, this is our place”. They have a few sheep, hens, and a donkey that helps take things to and from the village. Yes, on exactly the same path we came on. After a few minutes, they set a chunk of (handmade) cheese, some bread, and the green onion on the table. “Eat”, they ask us, “is it good?”. Yes, it is. Very. splitting with us the little they have makes the simple meal even tastier. We leave with them some cookies and some fruit ( the donkey already got an apple and the banana peel :). they would like to cook for us some ‘clatite’, but this really is too much. we tell them we have a 2 hours hike back to the village and we part with hugs and hope we’ll be back.

I posted a picture of this amazing couple on Facebook and a friend commented that poverty photographs well everywhere. True, but I would argue this is not about poverty. It is about choosing to live a hard but honest and as strange as it may seem to us pretty fulfilling life.

Johanna and Nikolai in their summer kitchen

“Let me get some cheese for you”, Johanna

Nikolai at 85

Home made cheese

Lighting fire in the oven

Revisiting childhood fairy tales

The dwarfs are working in the forest, as the only sound to be heard is that of the flowing river

Back to the greenest green. The green that never knew thirst. The green of fairy tales. The dwarfs’ little wooden house waiting for Snow White. The towers where the princess spins the endless fleece. The storks in their nest - have they already brought the babies to the waiting families?

I went to Romania, curious to see whether there are any strings left connecting my adult and child self. I expected to feel a sense of belonging; the food, the language. And I did. Eating mom’s food at a hotel’s breakfast, or at dinner, speaking the language I used to speak with grandma. But nothing prepared me for the sheer enchantment of the countryside, its pure and simple beauty. A place that ignores the modern show off and just lives its life. Where man lives within nature rather than fighting it. Where carts filled with hay or logs replace the horrible traffic jams we became so familiar with. The longing for a simpler life. Lacking in modern comforts but rich in space, fresh water and sweet smelling air. It stole my heart.

That’s who brings babies into the world, right? Complete with church’s blessings ;)

The hay is drying, almost ready for winter storage

Traffic. 2019 or 1919?

So simple - so beautiful hours and hours of driving through green fields dotted with hay stacks.

Waiting for the prince to climb up the wall and save the princess ….

Suddenly, the names of my two dolls came back : Ruth and Aviva ….