«Those who do not remember the past are doomed to live it again», wrote American philosopher George Santayana. However, not the numbers and dates give an understanding of the past. Take a trip to the past, look at the life of Ukrainians a hundred years ago – all this can be seen with your own eyes together with Inna Velichko, who has been inviting guests to the Polissya House for several years in a row. Zhytomyr.Travel’s team also came to visit the sincere hostess
«I work in an art school, I teach fine arts. We often traveled, drew and decided to buy a house all together, where we could come to rest. There was not much money, and we decided to look for something cheap. Yuriy Kamyshnuy advised us to buy a house in Gorodske. We liked this place because there were two cottages: this one and another one that is falling apart. But they turned out to be two different hosts. The owner of this house, Vasily Romanyuk, when he found out what we wanted to do, not only sold it to us, but gave it to us. He was interested in maintaining, caring for his heritage. In the pictures, his parents are the last family who really lived here. They had seven children. After them, the house was alone until we settled in it»
«From the former owners in this house there is a bed, butchers bench. Everything else was given to us by the locals. Yuriy Kamyshniy brought this doll from India. What’s interesting: you turn her over – and she becomes a sheik. There are also similar dolls in Ukraine: here is a doll called «girl-baba». So she is young, beautiful, she has a ribbon, and is braided in braids, she is dressed in all red, bright, but years pass and the girl already «turns» into a grandmother (turns the doll – a girl who in our eyes becomes a doll-grandmother). Such a doll existed in two cultures: in Indian and in Ukrainian. Much in common is in the traditions of nations. And we will talk about it»
«Our project is 12 years old and the hut is 120. It was once built by a warrior who, while serving with the king in the navy, made a lot of money and bought the land on which he built it. During the October Revolution, these masters became enemies of the people, were expelled. From the wealthy they turned into exiles»
«Polissya Hut always looks forward to welcoming its guests. On November 22, we will hold a One Day in 1933 event for children. We will live one day as people lived during the Holodomor. We will prepare dishes that were then prepared by the peasants. Students from Brusilov will come to us. The event will be held both in our village school and in the Polissya hut, and then the children will unite and go to a monastery for a joint prayer. And from December we will have theme events for St. Nicholas Day»
«We are not a museum, we are a green tourism estate. People come to us and rest. We do not have a rope indicating that something is not worth doing here. We can spend the night on the bed, on the stove. We do excursions. I’m a teacher myself. I can organize, unite children. A large number of visitors are travel companies that bring tourists to our events. We have developed a thematic program for adults – parties. It will be a joint event with Yuriy Kamyshniy. The program can be seen on my Facebook page, and the program is very rich: in the museum of Trypillian culture we will talk about the Trypillian woman, take our guests to the «places of power» in Gorodske, to the artist for a visit, to have dinner (from the editorial board – on shame parties) tourists are exposed to the secrets of happy marriage, white magic, intimate premarital games in the Ukrainian village of the 17th-19th centuries. They are invited to take part in master classes on the creation of the «Love Divorce» and in the culinary «Ordering for Love», etc»
«We do not have any unique cuisine, but there are dumplings, pancakes, borsch, kuleshi – that’s all we do. Our goal is to keep our guests coming back. We «return» the children by the other program. There are classes that came several times and then celebrated their graduation. Sometimes children who come to class bring their parents, sometimes parents celebrate the Birthdays of their children at our place»
«Every Monday I teach at school 28. At some stage in life, I had to prioritize and make the right choice, but I was unable to completely abandon the educational environment»
«The freshest idea we want to embody and we are looking for opportunities is the production of the Forest song on nature, on the shores of Teteriv. This is the future, the plans, the dream I am voicing, but maybe it will come true sometime. There is a team of like-minded people who want to do this. And not for the money, but for the sake of the idea. And when there is such a team, everything must come true»
«Our first partners are a local school, we are constantly working with them, working hard, finding a common language. We are mutually beneficial. The school on our base conducts various activities, methodical associations, and we involve students in our activities. We are assisted by the village council, which helped repair the museum, now it is the best museum about Trypillya culture in Zhytomyr region. We benefit the community»
«My mother also moved to Gorodske, a little helping me. She likes the land. She has a household here»
«When this hut was being renovated, I offered my children from art school to help us. They really liked the idea. And then there was the swine flu: schools were closed, everyone was scared. I thought parents wouldn’t let them go, but they did. The whole team – there were eight of them – came here. They lived here for five days. The children also helped us, and cooked themselves, and then cleaned everything. They now, when they have become adults, remember how they sat here with a kerosene lamp, because there was no light. At that time, I was worried that the children would not freeze. And honestly, overdone, melted the stove (but it is not a battery that can be turned off, and immediately gets cold) … The girls slept in the stove. These nights they repeatedly ran into the corridor, opened the doors and returned,and in the morning they said «We are just like the grilled chicken». They slept in their underwear, and they wanted to remove their skin already (Laughs). After that, just tell them that «we are going to Gorodske» and they are «yes!», «We will live here»- «yes!», «Digging garden» – «yes!»
If you would like to travel to the past of our people, visit this village Gorodske that is in Zhytomyr Region https://goo.gl/maps/HPSia8bq0ZUSF8zy5 or call 067 723 53 82.
