Life in a village in the south of the Ukraine: a harsh one.  People rarely laugh. There isn’t much to laugh about. Life is a struggle. Summers are wet, winters are cold, incomes are low. 

A staple food item: cabbages.

Wood is the only means of cooking and staying warm.

There’s an asphalt road in the middle of town. That’s the only one. 

The road is a good place to try and sell stuff. 

All the side streets are unsealed and after a rain, a quagmire. 

Crossing the river on the footbridge is a precarious business, especially for the elderly. 

Communism collapsed, leaving behind it old, abandoned factories and memories of full employment.

A hard life and at the end of it, in accordance with the Orthodox Christian tradition, your image on a gravestone.