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