A narrotive ethnography

1. Romashki;
or,
A life less ordinary
A narrative ethnography into an alternative rurality in Ukraine
MSc Thesis: International Development Studies
Kloster-
Thomas Kloster-Jensen Macintyre
May 2010

2. Romashki;
or,
A life less ordinary
A narrative ethnography into an alternative rurality in
Ukraine.
Thomas Kloster-Jensen Macintyre
Thesis submitted for partial fulfilment of the MSc
program: International Development Studies (MID)
Supervised by:
Dr. Gerard Verschoor (Rural Development Studies)
Dr. Han Wiskerke (Rural Sociology)
Student number: 840219539120
Master program code: RDS 80433
Contact Information: ilovebrownbread@gmail.com
Wageningen University 2010, the Netherlands
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3. Acknowledgments
I would like to thank a number of people whom without this story would never have
been told. First I owe special thanks to my supervisors: Assistant Professor Gerard
Verschoor from the chair group Rural development Studies (RDS) and Professor Han
Wiskerke from the chair group Rural Sociology (RSO) who believed in my dream to
study a life less ordinary and supported me along the way with advice and
constructive criticism.
Second, I am indebted to my family and friends who have given me their love
and support throughout the journey of my thesis. There is nothing better when one is
far away from home than to know that there are people who are thinking of you.
During the writing process you have listened patiently to my stories as I began to
craft my work and gave valuable feedback which has enriched my thesis and,
furthermore, given me ideas to personally reflect on. I cannot name you all so I will
simply say that without every one of you this story would not be what it is today.
Third, I would like to thank the community of life in the village of Romashki,
Ukraine that welcomed me to their place and took such good care of me. I am
grateful for the inspiring talks we had with each other and the impressions we shared.
A special thanks to Marina Odajskaja for the front page painting of this thesis and
Pietro Raevski for the rest of the drawings.
Last, but certainly not least, I am eternally indebted to Pietro, Olga and
Ulyana Raevski who welcomed me to their home as a brother. You gave me the
opportunity to become part of a life less ordinary, and this life I will never forget as it
has become part of who I am now. I am honoured to have been part of your lives and
to have you call me a friend and a brother.
3

4. To Romashki,
4

5. Abstract
Living in harmony with nature and one another is a dream which many people
aspire to, yet nothing appears more elusive to most people than the realisation of
this dream. The purpose of this research was to explore the day to day practices
in an alternative rural reality where a Ukrainian family is trying to do exactly this.
Through employing the ethnographic tools of participant observation and
interviewing to explore the past and present lives of this less than ordinary family,
the intention is to present an engaging and inspiring narrative which can exercise
the moral imagination of those interested in an alternative image of the
countryside and its possibilities. The academic lens through which this narrative
research was viewed was through aspects of the Actor Oriented Approach (AOA)
and Actor-Network Theory (ANT). Through focusing on the possibilities created
by the subjects studied, as advocated by the AOA, and their relational position to
the community of life they are part of (ANT), this conceptual framework thus
positions the study as a focused but connected strand in a greater narrative of
life. The study reveals how the subjects are transforming a rural ‘space’ into an
alternative ‘place’ in the countryside. Through having forsaken, and now
cleansing themselves of the norms of modern urban society, this family gave
themselves up to their intuition on how a sincere and beautiful life is to be lived,
carrying out the routines and practices of a back-to-nature lifestyle. By following
the universal laws – to them the harmonious and beautiful laws of nature – they
have entered into their own very real, self described fairytale world where love for
people and the natural world provide coherence and meaning in their lives. This
fairytale is by no means a purely happy or universal one, but as in any fairytale,
the reader is challenged to exercise his- or her own imagination to find the hidden
meaning the story holds for each and every one of us.
5

6. Table of contents
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...........................................................................................3
ABSTRACT..................................................................................................................5
PROLOGUE: THE WATER FAIRY AND THE NEW ARRIVALS ..................10
INTRODUCTION: JOURNEYING TO THE REALM OF ROMASHKI ..........15
The dream of Romashki.......................................................................................................................15
The Netherlands ...................................................................................................................................18
The Moral Imagination........................................................................................................................22
CHAPTER 1: THE WATER FAIRY AND THE SUNFLOWER.........................26
1.1 Return to Romashki .......................................................................................................................26
1.2 The Water Fairy and a conceptual framework............................................................................29
1.3 The Sunflower and a methodological approach...........................................................................34
1.4 The double rainbow and the fairytale...........................................................................................36
CHAPTER 2: THE STORY OF PIETRO ..............................................................38
2.1 A fairytale and the children’s garden ...........................................................................................38
2.2 University, the potato casualty and Pietro is a doctor.................................................................40
CHAPTER 3: THE STORY OF OLGA ..................................................................43
3.1 Dawn has broken ............................................................................................................................43
3.2 Cleaning the house and fruit galore ..............................................................................................44
3.3 Friendship and America ................................................................................................................46
3.4 Dinner and bedtime ........................................................................................................................48
CHAPTER 4: A NEW LIFE IS BORN....................................................................51
4.1 Love in Lviv and a moped..............................................................................................................51
4.2 A doctor’s wife and European travels. .........................................................................................53
4.3 Anastasia: Image of a new life .......................................................................................................54
4.4 Romashki and a new life is born ...................................................................................................56
4.5 Vissarion and an ecovillage in Siberia ..........................................................................................58
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7. 4.6 Time for a summary .......................................................................................................................59
4.7 Reflection.........................................................................................................................................60
CHAPTER 5: FLOWER CHILD.............................................................................62
5.1 The journey continues ....................................................................................................................62
5.2 Birth of Ulyana ...............................................................................................................................63
5.3 To swim or not to swim: not a question for some. .......................................................................64
5.4 Ulyana’s stick dolls and Masha’s Barbie dolls.............................................................................66
5.5 Living the fairytale of Repka .........................................................................................................68
5.6 School and making a fairytale .......................................................................................................69
5.7 Children are selfish.........................................................................................................................72
5.8 Reflection.........................................................................................................................................73
CHAPTER 6: FRIENDS, LOCALS AND A WHEAT HOLIDAY.......................75
6.1 Romashki Natives ...........................................................................................................................75
6.2 The ecovillagers ..............................................................................................................................79
6.3 Those looking for something else...................................................................................................84
6.4 The wheat holiday...........................................................................................................................86
6.5 Reflection.........................................................................................................................................88
CHAPTER 7: THE LAND AND ONES PLACE IN NATURE ............................91
7.1 The Garden .....................................................................................................................................91
7.2 Olga and the garden .......................................................................................................................92
7.3 Pietro and the garden.....................................................................................................................95
7.5 Reflection: Nature calling!.............................................................................................................99
CHAPTER 8: SHELTER, ART AND FIRE .........................................................101
8.1 That vital heat ...............................................................................................................................101
8.2 The magic of cob...........................................................................................................................101
8.3 The arts and crafts........................................................................................................................104
8.4 Wood for fire.................................................................................................................................105
8.5 Reflection.......................................................................................................................................107
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8. CHAPTER 9: SWEEPING AWAY THE DUST ..................................................109
9.1 Responsibility................................................................................................................................109
9.2 The morning wash and the fly that bit me..................................................................................109
9.3 Medicine as Art.............................................................................................................................112
9.4 Water and information ................................................................................................................114
9.5 Cleaning and washing ..................................................................................................................116
9.6 Deadly disease or a blessing in disguise ......................................................................................117
9.7 Reflection.......................................................................................................................................118
CHAPTER 10: FOOD IN A FAIRYTALE ...........................................................120
10.1 Olga Preparing breakfast ..........................................................................................................120
10.3 What food do they eat, and why? ..............................................................................................122
10.4 The funny market .......................................................................................................................123
10.5 A playful squirrel........................................................................................................................124
10.6 A talk with Mr Sunflower ..........................................................................................................125
10.7 Local food....................................................................................................................................127
10.8 Reflection.....................................................................................................................................128
CHAPTER 11: SEASONS CHANGE, AS DOES THE FAIRYTALE...............130
11.1 A time of transition.....................................................................................................................130
11.2 Dejection......................................................................................................................................131
11.3 Askeladden and the troll: Attempt one.....................................................................................132
11.4 A window between two worlds ..................................................................................................135
11.4 My life in the woods....................................................................................................................135
11.5 Askeladden and the troll: Attempt two.....................................................................................137
11.6 Reflection: The fairytale revealed .............................................................................................140
CHAPTER 12: CONCLUSION OF THIS FAIRYTALE....................................142
12.1 Dawn comes with rosy fingers ...................................................................................................142
12.2 Farewell to the Raevskis.............................................................................................................142
12.3 A fairytale conference ................................................................................................................143
12.4 Creating the dream.....................................................................................................................144
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9. 12.5 The everyday life of a fairytale..................................................................................................146
12.6 Ulyana: The fairytale continued................................................................................................150
12.7 A parting gift from Romashki ...................................................................................................151
REFERENCES.........................................................................................................154
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10. Prologue: The water fairy and the new arrivals
Once upon a time Mother Earth was a place of profound beauty and harmony.1 A
canvas of colours covered her bosom and a great ball of fire in the sky provided light
and warmth to all life below. Trees and plants resided in the fertile soil, providing
shelter and food to the birds, animals and all Mankind. The water which flowed in the
oceans, rivers and lakes was crystal clear reflecting and absorbing the sunlight from
above and its purity provided sustenance and joy to all life around it.
This was a time when people of the earth lived in harmony with nature. They
understood her and respected her, taking only what they needed and giving back
what they could. They looked after her as a child looks after its mother, recognising
that they were but one strand of a greater web of life. The people lived in great
gardens which they had tended to with love and all were at peace with their
neighbours. War was unknown and Mankind prospered through communication with
the natural world around him.
But over time something terrible began to happen. A dark force began to shadow the
lives of Mankind. This was a spirit of greed which slowly began to enter the minds
and hearts of Man. People began to grow jealous of each other, wanting what their
neighbour had – a desire to want more and more. Man began plundering the earth in
an attempt to extract as much value as possible and started to move away from the
beautiful gardens to settlements which he believed would provide security and
means for greater wealth. These settlements turned into cities which built factories
which released chemicals and bad energy into the environment. Lines were drawn on
maps and weapons were made to defend one piece of land from another, or to attack
the other to gain its wealth. War became a way of life and people became afraid of
each other. Love and peace began to die and so did the harmony of Mother Earth.
Man lost the ability to speak to the plants and animals around him. Nature became a
means for gain.
*
In this time of crisis there just so happened to be a water fairy that lived in a little lake
beside a little village. From the great rivers which rage beneath the earth, the fairy
had once upon a time emerged through one of the channels which connect the
depths of the world below with the world above. She made her home in a little
marshy pond fed by a spring. Here she found sanctuary and peace to do what water
fairies must do. She lived happily her immortal life in the marshy pond and observed
the changing world around her. She lived content through the Golden Age of time2
when there was peace, stability and prosperity in the world. This was a time without
1
This story is inspired by “The Message of the Sunflowers: A Magic Symbol of Peace”
by Georgianna Moore (2002).
2
These ‘ages’ are based on the narrative poem Metamorphoses by the Roman poet Ovid.
See Mandelbaum (1993).
10

11. seasons and the water fairy observed Man wander the land of Arcadia, feeding
himself on the food which nature provided in abundance.
However, time passed and the Silver Age came to pass. The supreme God Jupiter
imposed seasons on Man and the fairy witnessed Man having to build shelter in the
hills around the pond to protect himself from the elements and engage in agriculture
to feed himself during the harsh winters.
Then the Bronze Age came to pass. The water fairy began to feel the discontent in
the people around her. They were jealous of each other. She saw the envious
glances and looks of hatred among people from different places. Then the Iron Age
came to be. The birds of the sky brought news to the water fairy of great wars raging
between Man in not so distant lands. There were whispers of a great Queen of an
empire called Russia who was waging war on the people called Cossacks who lived
in the area surrounding the water fairy. Not long after a man clad in woven pants, a
cloak, and a sheepskin vest entered the community which had evolved around the
water fairy’s pond. He was riding a horse and by his side was the Kindjal, a dagger
which was the weapon of the Cossacks. His name was Romashko and he was
running away from the army of Queen Katherine of Russia. Because of the hills and
surrounding forest, the area was a good place to hide. The Cossack settled down
and the settlement came to be called Romashki after him.
Time passed and the village Romashki grew, but peace did not. One day the sky
filled with a thunder so unnatural that the water fairy and the animals around her hid
in fright. Planes flew across the sky dropping bombs. A hail of artillery shells
bombarded the ground and men in uniforms and guns fired at each other. The blood
flowed and the screams of dying men filled the air. ‘Why are people doing this to
each other?’ the water fairy lamented to herself in sorrowful terror.
Years after the rain of metal had ceased, men driving big machines came and
shovelled away the earth between the water fairy’s pond and the new ponds created
by the bombs. Water flowed freely up from the springs filling the space. The beavers
arrived and dammed the stream of water and the water level rose – a lake was
formed. Children came and started swimming in the lake. They splashed around and
squirted water at each other squealing with delight. Adults also came to swim and
wash their clothes. Oh, how happy the water fairy was! She radiated happiness and
energy into the water. ‘This is how life should be’, thought the water fairy with
pleasure as she watched the people laugh and bath in the water.
But over time fewer and fewer people came to the lake till at last there were none.
Reeds grew and covered the entrance to the lake. The lake became forgotten except
to the odd fisherman. The water fairy was sad and asked a crane to find out why
there where no people. The bird came back and said that people were leaving the
village for the city and many had their own way of making showers to wash
themselves. The water fairy wept tears for the people who did not want to swim in her
11

12. lake anymore. The animals and insects tried to comfort her, but she was melancholy.
She withdrew into herself.
Then, as always at a time of crisis, something extraordinary happened. While the
water fairy sat on the bottom of the lake weeping tears of unhappiness, she heard a
rustle in the reeds by the lake. ‘That is not the sound of the wind or of any of my
friends’, she thought to herself. “Go see what that noise is”, she asked Irenushka the
frog who attended her every wish. The frog swam to the surface of the lake and
quietly, so as not to be observed, looked to where the noise was coming from. What
the frog saw made her croak with surprise and she quickly swam back to the fairy.
“Well, what did you see?” asked the water fairy. “The most amazing sight”, replied
the frog. “People without clothes are making their way into the water.” The water
fairy, hardly daring to believe it, hurriedly swam to the surface of the lake and
concealed herself in some reeds. Brushing the reeds aside and wading through the
mud came two beautiful people. The first was a man. He had a beard and a lean
body with intense blue eyes. Next emerged a woman. She had dark hair, kind
generous eyes and a huge stomach. They were laughing and singing a beautiful
song. They waded into the water, frolicking as they went and finally, after giving each
other loving looks, plunged in. The water fairy was delighted with her new guests.
She wept more tears, but this time the tears were filled with joy, not sorrow. The tears
merged into the water and the water picked up the energy. Afraid the couple might
not return to her, the fairy decided to cast a spell on them. Waving the birch stick
which was her magic wand, she chanted the magic words: “Earth fire wind and hail,
open the realm of the fairytale!” The sun shone a little brighter, the water felt a little
fresher. The couple felt a special energy and spirit in the water touch their souls.
They felt happy and at peace and decided then and there that they would swim in
this lake every day – summer and winter, rain hail or shine.
Curious by nature, the water fairy sent out her attendants to collect information about
this most interesting couple. A squirrel came back reporting that the couple had
moved into an old mud house which was falling apart. They were collecting wood
from the forest and making their food on a fire. A crane reported that they had started
to clear away the nettles in the garden and were planting potatoes. A woodpecker
announced that the couple had that day cut the supply of electricity to their house. A
mouse which had taken the dangerous path from the house to the lake timidly
announced that the pantry was being filled with bags of flour, buckwheat and
sunflower oil. A hawk swooped down, and perching on a log sticking out of the lake,
told the fairy that the couple were using only tools and their own hands to renovate
their house and transform their garden. The water fairy listened to all this with
amazement. She remembered back to a time when everybody lived like this. ‘Ah, this
is too fantastic to believe’, she thought to herself. ‘I have seen this before a long time
ago. But can they live like this? Will they continue to respect nature I wonder? And
where do they find their inspiration?’
12

13. The fairy consulted a wise old apple tree which stood close to the lake. “What do you
think of these people?” the fairy asked the wise old tree. The tree thought for a long
time before replying: “Today I saw the man with the beard pick up one of my apples
from the ground. He examined it intently, then put the apple to his nose and inhaled
deeply its aroma. Smiling, the bearded man looked up at me and nodded as if to say;
‘this is a good apple, thank you’. I think these people understand the nature around
them and are communicating with us. I pick up their positive energy and it makes me
want to live and produce the finest fruits for them to eat”. The fairy thought about this.
‘They speak our language!’ she concluded to herself and was filled with joy.
And every day the couple came to swim until one day there were not just two of
them, but three. The woman’s stomach had shrunk and she was carrying a little
person in her arm. The water fairy, unable to contain her curiosity at what had
happened to her Adam and Eve, sent the frog Irenushka, to investigate. Irenushka
came across Belka the squirrel whom she addressed. “Yes”, replied Belka, “I saw it
all. I had been out gathering nuts in a walnut tree outside their house. Looking
through the window I saw a woman lying on a bed of straw and a man kneeling
beside her. It was a sunny day and the light was shining through the window onto the
couple. I could see their faces: The look of exertion on the woman’s face and the
concentration on the man’s. He was talking calmly to the woman. She was not afraid,
but looked tense and was breathing heavily. Then out of the woman and into the
arms of the man a little person emerged. This little person did not cry. The man
tenderly dried the little person and placed it in the arms of the woman. With a cord
still attached between the little person and the woman, the couple spent the day with
their new creation. In the evening, the cord was cut and the part not connected to the
little person was buried under a small plum tree close to the house. The look of
happiness on the couple’s faces and the look of wonder on the little person were
amazing”. Irenushka listened intently to what Belka said and when the latter had
finished, Irenushka hopped back to the lake and related the story to the water fairy.
‘Ah, yes’, the water fairy thought to herself with joy, ‘A new person has been born in
Romashki’.
A few days passed in bliss. Then, what the fairy had feared most of all in the world
happened. The family stopped coming to the lake. Worried, the fairy once again sent
out her attendants. Word came back that some important looking men had come to
the house of the family, strong words had been spoken by the men and despite the
smiles and soothing talk of the couple, the men remained angry until they left. Soon
after, the family packed some of their belongings and left the village. Oh! How the
water fairy cried! ‘Why have they left?’ she lamented. ‘It was all too good to be true…
Will they ever come back?’ And as the months passed the fairy fell further and further
into a state of melancholy. Each new day seemed just like the last. All the beauty
around seemed dull and bland. The animals around her again tried to comfort her to
no avail. But then, just when the fairy was about to give up hope she heard a rustle of
the reeds, a splash of water and her heart fluttered as she knew her friends had
returned.
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14. The beautiful life continued as it had before, but the water fairy increasingly wanted
to know more about these extraordinary people. ‘If only someone from the outside
world would come and explore their lives’, she thought to herself. ‘Someone with an
outside perspective to discover their motives for moving, the way they live their lives
in detail, what their philosophy of life is.’ The water fairy looked up into the sky,
closed her eyes, and sent a wish to the heavens above.
To be continued…
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15. Introduction: Journeying to the Realm of Romashki
“Develop your imagination. This is a powerful means of truly acquiring the
comprehension of Being. The inability to cultivate a fertile soil for the
development of the imagination in yourself, as well as in another, is a sign of
an inferior mind.”
Vissarion: Commandment 393
The dream of Romashki
I entered the village of Romashki for the first time in the summer of 2008. Travelling
through the vast expanses of the former Soviet Union, I had met a guy who knew a
girl who had heard of a guy and through a serendipitous chain of events, I ended up
in a small remote village south of the Ukrainian capital of Kiev. In a reduced state
from the Ukrainian cognac the night before and traumatised from the manic driving of
my new friend Max, I sat with Max and my Romashki contact Andrey, eating salo (pig
lard) on bread with raw onions. As I forced the fatty salo down my throat, helped by
the Ukrainian vodka, I looked around at the new landscape I had before me. It was
not quite what I had expected. Andrey’s house seemed to be made from clay, with an
earth floor covered in straw, a simple primus on a bench to cook food, and a Russian
oven along one side of the wall which served to heat the house with its flat top also
serving as a bed. The mud walls were unpainted and earthy brown, but covered in
art. A piano stood against the wall, a trumpet rested in the corner of the room.
Wandering out into the garden I climbed up a mulberry tree and gorged myself on the
ripe purple berries. As the dark juice ran down my face, I looked around the garden.
Dotted around with what seemed like reckless abandon were various plants and
trees, the only ones of which I could recognise being tomato plants and corn stalks.
Around the property was a natural fence of acacia trees, behind which I could see
rolling hills with forest and wild grass.
As the evening approached other young people started arriving from here and there
and someone pulled out a guitar. The merry crowd sat around an open fire and
began to sing songs in Russian and Ukrainian. I realised I had arrived in no ordinary
village. I felt included but excluded at the same time. This was not something I was
used to and I did not know how to act. I was accepted as a friend into the circle of
people, but I did not understand the social codes of these strange people around me.
That night I went to bed on the oven top not knowing where I was, or what I was
doing in this place so far from home. Little did I know that the next morning I was to
meet the people who were to change my life forever.
3
This commandment and those that follow in the next chapters are taken from the 61
commandments of The Last Testament, by Vissarion (2009). Vissarion is the spiritual leader
of a community in Siberia, Russia.
15

16. *
The next morning Andrey took the bus back to Kiev where he worked. Uncertain
what to do and where to stay, my new friend Camilla from Kyrgyzstan suggested I
come and meet some of the other people in the village.
Following a winding path through the village, we passed traditional Ukrainian houses
with square vegetable plots, enclosed by fences. The village was quiet, with few
people about. Many of the houses looked run down and uninhabited. Walking
alongside Camilla, she remarked how beautiful life was on this sunny day. I nodded
in polite agreement, unsure of what she was referring to. Then we turned right off the
path, stepped through a gap in the bushes and entered another world. My first
impression was of surprise and wonder. In front of me stood a man with a long beard,
intense blue eyes, and a smile. His tall lean body was tanned and his long hair was
bleached from the sun. The only item of clothing on his body was a cloth wrapped
around his waist. He walked up to me and embraced me. “My name is Pietro”, he
said. Then the woman beside him introduced herself as Olga. I looked at her and felt
the warmth in her eyes and the kindness radiating from her body as we embraced. I
16

17. looked around me at the simple clay house, the apples Olga was cutting up and
placing on a tray. I saw the little child hiding behind Olga’s back and I saw the simple
clothes they were wearing and their happy content faces. Most of all I felt a profound
sense of something out of the ordinary. Here were people living a life very different
from my own – something exotic and unknown. ‘Who are these people?’ I wondered
to myself. ‘What kind of life do they live here and why?’ Olga and Pietro exchanged
a few words in Russian, and then Olga turned to me and asked in English: “Maybe
you would like to live with us for few days?” I looked at their happy expectant faces
and said: “Yes, that would be nice”. And that was when it all began.
Looking back on that first time in Romashki, it all seems a little surreal. I had met a
group of people living a life so different from what I knew life to be. In a simple clay
and straw hut, without the modern amenities of electricity or running water, an
alternative life had been constructed and was being lived by a very remarkable
family. Once a doctor and a lawyer, respectively, in the city of Kiev, Pietro and Olga
had voluntarily moved from the city four years ago to live a more ‘beautiful life’ closer
to nature where they would give birth to their daughter Ulyana. On their two hectare
plot of land they grew their own food and attempted to live as self-sufficiently as
possible in harmony with nature and the people around them.
For nine days I was to be part of their lives. These were days spent gathering fruit
and vegetables from the garden and the surrounding forest, swimming in the nearby
lake and cooking food on an open fire. Pietro and Olga were to tell me stories about
the native plants and animals which lived around them: Which plants could be used
to heal which disease, and the role the various animals played in their lives. They
also told me about their relationship with nature and each other: The importance of
connecting with the life around you, of living with positive energy, and of living in a
space of love. They told me of Anastasia, a woman who lived alone deep in the
Siberian forest without a house or any money and they told me about Vissarion, their
spiritual teacher who had founded and was living in an ecovillage in Siberia.
I shared their mealtimes of simple vegan food, I washed myself with clay in the lake
and I walked through the forest barefoot and carefree. Like a tourist being led on a
tour, I listened eagerly in the somewhat detached but excited way only possible when
on holiday. Everything was different and thus exotic. I revelled in the freedom and
beauty of my new surroundings and the exotic nature of Pietro, Olga and their
daughter Ulyana. This life was very different from my own western notion of
‘progress’: primitive compared to what I was used to, and based on feelings and
emotions which I could not understand. But the life was exciting in its otherness and
in fleeting moments of romance I imagined myself living this life.
Soon, however, it was time to leave. “Maybe you will come back here to write your
thesis”, Olga said. I put my sandals back on my feet, hoisted my backpack on to my
shoulders, and smiling to Olga (and myself) replied: “Da, yes, anything is possible!” I
was off to study molecular nutrition and economic development in the Netherlands.
Romashki was not a place I envisaged returning to for a master thesis. But I wanted
17

18. to return one day to visit of course. I waved goodbye and walked the tree lined path
back to the bus that would take me to civilisation, ready for my next adventure.
As I now look at a photograph of Pietro, Olga and myself from that time, I am struck
by how little I understood of their lives back then. They look calm, happy and in touch
with their surroundings. I look excited and somewhat natural, but I could read on my
face that look of being out of place. I was a tourist of sorts that had entered this new
life innocent and naïve like in a child’s dream and that was how I was to leave it.
*
The Netherlands
Life can do funny things to a person. You travel, you meet new people, experience
new things and then the things which you thought were something, are no longer
what you though they were. After one week of studying in the Netherlands I changed
my mind as to what I wanted to study. I announced boldly to my study supervisor that
I wanted to change my field of studies. I persuaded her to let me change from
economics and nutrition to sociology. I started studying the sociology of rural
development and have never since looked back.
I entered this new field of academia with gusto. The countryside I envisioned when I
heard the word ‘rural’ held a romantic place in my heart. Where I grew up in New
Zealand I was surrounded by a countryside where sheep resided on rolling hills,
cows ate grass in green paddocks by the sea and a summer job meant picking
apples in an orchard or grapes in a vineyard. What confronted me in my studies was
far from the pretty images in my mind. Landscapes of struggling farmers, peasants
and urbanites and their complex relationships to the land opened up in front of me
like an unfolding drama in a novel: Peasants of the Andes of South America eking
out a living growing potatoes high in the mountains and struggling to survive in a
market economy; children in Manila, the Philippines, living in (and making a living on)
rubbish; mass industrial farms in the Netherlands transforming the countryside in the
name of scale and economic efficiency. The landscapes we live on and the people
that populate it seemed to me diverse and in many cases exotic. They could also
appear to be sad and at times even depressing. These were people from all walks of
life trying to exist on the land, but struggling to live with dignity in a rapidly changing
world of globalisation and modernisation. ‘But is this the way it has to be?’ I thought
to myself. ‘Could it not be another way?’
There were three aspects which captivated my imagination in the field of rural
sociology and development studies. First was the notion of modernity and its
discontents. As is noted by the anthropologist Arturo Escobar there is an increasing
understanding that there are no modern solutions to today’s modern problems.4 This
is clearly demonstrated by the ecological destruction taking place on a global scale,
4
See Escobar (2004).
18

19. the displacement of millions of people from their homes,5 and the inability for western
enforced notions of development to provide a minimum of wellbeing for the people of
the world.6 We are at a point in history where, as sociologist Zygmund Bauman
notes, “the planet is full.”7 By this he means we have run out of ‘undiscovered’ places
in the world in which to colonise and exploit for our own means – as places to throw
away the waste of civilisation; be it people, physical waste, or outdated ideas.
Therefore, whatever waste we currently produce now – and we are producing waste
as never before in our consumerist society – will build up in our own backyard. This
struck a chord as I looked at my own life, the lives around me, those on television
and in the books I read. It did indeed seem like ‘waste’ was piling up around us.
Another author who writes about the notion of modernity is the economist
Schumacher. In his inspiring book Small Is Beautiful8 Schumacher writes
disparagingly about how our obsession with size and efficiency is making us lose
touch with the greater beauty in life. He talks about people, not economics. He states
that modern economics (the backbone of modernity in its present state) considers
consumption to be the sole end and purpose of all economic activity. This philosophy
leaves no room for artistic creativity or a lasting place-based-identity as people have
attached their identities to the consumption of ‘things’.9 Looking at my own life, and
those around me, this could not seem more true. Consuming the fruits of modernity,
life appears transient, unpredictable and a little bit scary. And this is what we call the
path of progress! Consumerism, industrialism and a transient life always on the move
to a new job or identity. Is this the way life should be? I became interested in looking
for small and beautiful alternatives to our current western paradigm of modernity
based on size and efficiency.
The second aspect which caught my imagination was the notion of rurality. Rurality
for me is a word which describes a certain subjective image of the rural that we have
in our minds. This image is different for different people. During my adventures
across the Netherlands, I saw physical representation of the rural very different from
that of New Zealand. In the former, flat green pastures were flanked by canals and
modern windmills towered over industrial scale farming. Whilst in New Zealand there
were vast expanses of rugged farmland dotted with thousands of sheep far from
civilisation. I was intrigued to hear my fellow classmates from all over the world relate
their images of the countryside. Some described rural landscapes as endless
deserts, some as great plains with cattle and some of villages with small plots of
land. Some talked of the rural with indifference, some with a tear in their eye, and
others with barely concealed disdain. I began to realise that the countryside was a lot
more complex than I had imagined. Even the same space was envisaged differently.
5
See Bauman (2004).
6
See Escobar (2004).
7
See Bauman (2004:5).
8
See Schumacher (1974).
9
See Ibid. From a sociological perspective this has significance if we derive our identity from
ends, and not means. If consumption has become an end in itself, then we are assessed by
what we consume and since we are consuming and throwing away ‘things’ at breakneck
speeds, our identity linked to consumption becomes transient and unstable.
19

20. It could be visualised as a place purely for nature and for leisure, or as a space for
massive industrial farms to feed the people of the city, or as a place for man and
nature to live in harmony with each other.10 What we think the rural is or should be is
constructed in our own minds.11
Perhaps not wanting to give up my romantic notions of the rural, I found myself
becoming interested in the relationship between man and the land.12 How Man could
integrate his activities, needs and desires, with the land, in a sustainable manner.13 In
the literature I read about the ‘radical rural’14 which is a very different expression of
the possible trajectories the ‘post-productivist’ countryside can take.15 In particular I
was fascinated by the ‘alternative’ back-to-the-land social movements.16 Here we
have a collection of different neo-rural communities practicing small scale farming
with a focus on self-sufficiency and ethics based on a sustainable relationship
between humans and the natural world.17 This is a lifestyle which challenges the
mainstream stereotype of the rural as being somewhere to go for a holiday, or
somewhere simply to produce food. These were people who were moving back to
the land as if they were returning to a natural preordained condition in which man
was one with the earth: Respecting it, caring for it and making their living with it.18
This was an image of the rural where Man belonged in nature – an image I seemed
to remember from a village in Ukraine.
The third aspect of my studies which struck a chord was something I first began to
feel during the confusing mass of articles, lectures and information thrown at the
student. This was the idea of the narrative as a way of bringing coherence into the
accounts being told. The more I listened and read about development and the rural,
the more I realised that I was taking in stories about people and their lives. The
10
This is based on the three paradigms of development discussed by Marsden (2003): The
Agro-industrial paradigm, the post-productivist paradigm, and the integrated rural
development paradigm, as cited in Wiskerke (2007: 7).
11
See Murdoch and Pratt (1993).
12
This study will focus on the man-nature relationship of sustainability in the rural sphere.
However, there are other movements based in urban areas which address the same issues of
sustainable development. See, for example, transitional towns
(http://www.transitionnetwork.org/) and urban ecological villages
(http://urban.ecovillage.org/index.shtml).
13
This is the third development paradigm: The integrated rural development paradigm,
discussed by Marsden (2003). It stresses the multi-functionality at farm and/or regional level.
14
Halfacree describes the ‘radical rural’ as places which strive for the production of truly
different forms of rural space, which not just extend the scope of rural possibilities but also
concern the issues of the ideological underpinnings of the forms of rural space currently
debated. These ‘radical visions’, as Halfacree also calls them, imagine produced rather than
induced difference, which challenges the system itself. This would drive rural development in
a fundamentally different direction than it is on today (2007: 131).
15
Post-productivism can be described as the emergence of a multifunctional rural regime,
represented geographically as an increasingly regionalized rural (Halfacree 2007: 130)
16
See Halfacree (2001; 2006). For other rural social movements refer to Woods (2008).
17
See Halfacree (2007: 132).
18
Schumacher describes those who move back to the land as ‘home comers’; people in
search of a new lifestyle, who “seek to return to certain basic truths about man and his world”
(1974:129).
20

21. turning point in my studies came when I made that fundamental connection between
the words in the books, and life ‘out there’. I was reading a book called Wasted Lives,
by sociologist Zygmund Bauman.19 This book on ‘modernity and its outcasts’ begins
by stating that there is more than one way in which to tell a story.20 His is a story of
modernity and the waste it has created in the wake of economic progress and
globalisation. Bauman’s story is a grand narrative of modernity, where all its
constituents are products or agents of waste. For him, waste is a metaphor for the
redundancy of people – a side-effect of modernity – where people possess multiple
and transient identities, with no permanence or belonging.21 It is a decidedly
pessimistic and fatalistic story of society and does not leave much room for
alternatives or hope. It is persuasive and passionately written, and reflects the
despair increasingly felt by the outcasts of a modernizing society, aspects I
recognised in myself. However, the words: “there is more than one way to tell a
story”22 echoed in my mind throughout the book. Bauman then sets forth the
challenge to the reader: “This book ought to be read as an invitation to take another
and somewhat different look at the allegedly all-to-familiar modern world we all share
and inhabit”.23 And indeed, after reading this book, I accepted Bauman’s invitation
and I did take another look at modernity. In one of those unexplainable moments of
clarity, I remembered another story I had once experienced. This other story was a
very different expression of the ‘modern world’ argued against by Bauman and even
the one he was describing himself. I thought of Romashki and I thought of the
Raevski family: Pietro, Olga and Ulyana. Theirs was another story of how people live
in our ‘modern’ world and the more I thought about their story, the more I felt it was a
story which needed to be told: not necessarily for their sake, but for the sake of those
of us who do not hear about these stories – those of us looking for something to
inspire us in life at a time when there seems little else than despair.
Remembering the parting words of Olga, I sat down with pen and paper and wrote a
letter to the Raevski family asking if I could come and live with them and study their
lives. A few weeks later a letter arrived from Ukraine saying: “….You are welcome to
stay in our house as long as you like. You may describe everything you see and feel.
We are happy to share our experience with people…” After preparing what needed to
be prepared I jumped on a train and headed due east towards the land of borsch,
Chernobyl and a village called Romashki in Ukraine.
*
19
See Bauman (2004).
20
See Ibid: p.1.
21
See Bauman (2004).
22
See Ibid: p.1.
23
See Ibid: p.8.
21

22. The Moral Imagination
As I sat on the train crossing Slovakia into Ukraine, I reflected on the ‘what’, ‘why’
and ‘how’ of my research. My research was to be an exploration into an alternative
rurality in Ukraine. By alternative rurality I was referring to a lifestyle being lived in a
rural area, based on a set of images and ideas, values and principles, which would
generally be perceived to be outside the cultural norm of the west. The Raevski
lifestyle I believed to be exactly this. Yet unlike the master narrative of society put
forward by Bauman, my research was to be a mini narrative based on research into
just one family24 and the myriad of surrounding human and non-human actors which
give them meaning. It was not going to be a comparative study. Although I planned to
talk to the community of life around the Raevskis, it was predominantly their reality I
wanted to explore. I surmised that as we live our own personal and unique realities, it
was more important to explore these realities in depth and gain a real appreciation
for them, rather than compare and contrast at a more superficial level the different
realities in the hope of discovering trends in these alternative ruralities. My research
would not focus on the political or economic aspects of this environment. Although
the historical context of Ukraine as a post-communist state which has moved to a
market economy is a backdrop for this research, it is the actors themselves which will
be the focus, exploring how they construct their own lives away from the conventions
of modern life.
The reason I wanted to study this alternative life in the countryside was because their
story inspired me, and because I believe it will act as an inspiration to academics and
the general public in the notion of what the rural can be by providing a very unusual
and poetic account of a rurality which most people are unfamiliar with. There has
traditionally been a lack of research into these alternative ruralities,25 though there
are now emerging studies into more unconventional narratives of rurality in the
countryside.26 These studies are an exploration into the ‘otherness’ of the rural that
has generally been ignored in research.27 However, although there is an increasing
fascination with ethnographic research in rural studies,28 situated ethnographic
research into the construction and lived day to day reality of a family in an alternative
back-to-nature rurality is missing from the literature. On the one hand, research into
24
The Raevski household is the unit of analysis for this research.
25
Cloke and Little (1997) make this point by citing the review article by Philo (1992) which
discusses the neglected rural geographies of the countryside. Philo discusses the danger of
portraying British rural people “as all being ‘Mr. Averages’, as being men in employment,
earning enough to live, white and probably English, straight and without sexuality, able in
body and sound in mind, and devoid of any other quirks of (say) religious belief or political
affiliation (Philo 1992: 200). Apart from highlighting ‘forgotten’ items for the rural research
agenda, Cloke and Little (1997) further point to the “discursive power by which mythological
commonalities of rural culture will often represent an exclusionary device, serving to
marginalize individuals and groups (Cloke and Little 1997). This study seeks to explore a
more specific representation of a minority vision of the countryside.
26
See, for example, research into lesbian communities in the rural U.S.A (Valentine 1997),
and religiously charged rural area of a shaker community (Philo 1997).
27
See Cloke and Little (1997) and Little (1999).
28
See Cloke (1997).
22

23. back-to-the-land movements are a means of engaging with the critique of
mainstream rurality in the productivist landscape29 broadening our notion of the
possibilities provided by the countryside in a time when alternatives are being
sought.30 And on the other hand, ethnographic study into real lives reveal the
decision making processes taken by individuals in constructing and living the life they
imagine, including all the challenges and contradictions, hopes and fears of the lived
everyday life.31
How I wanted to explore and represent the life of the Raevskis and Romashki was,
as mentioned, through ethnography. Ethnography is an in depth exploration of
human interaction and culture which is both a method and an end product. As a
method, the main pillar of ethnography is participant observation, which involves the
anthropologist being immersed in the social setting to be studied for an extended
period of time. They participate in the activities performed by members of the setting,
make observations regarding the behaviour of the group, listen to and engage in
conversation, and try to understand the culture of the group within the context of that
culture32. More specifically, the type of ethnography I wanted to engage in was
narrative ethnography which in this case will refer to the critical analysis of
representational practices in ethnography. This aims to work against the objectifying
practices of ethnographic description, highlighting the researcher’s narrative
practices in crafting ethnographic accounts33. It will thus be a reflexive account, as is
emphasized in contemporary anthropology34 where the author is a positioned
character with an important role in the story.35 I believe the ethnographer is an active
part of the process of transferring knowledge: both in his interaction with the subjects
of the research, and in the multi-stage process of crafting these experiences into a
29
See Halfacree (2006; 2007) and Ploeg (2006).
30
Halfacree (2006) asserts that unlike back-to-nature movements in the 60’s and 70’s,
today’s movements are historically positioned at a time when the productivist alignment of
rural spatiality is being sorely challenged, thus providing a scope for these movements to
critique more seriously the emerging mainstream rurality.
31
Halfacree makes a calls for engaged research which will report on how these expressions
of the ‘radical rural’ evolves, stating that study into these ‘real lives’ be not just concerned with
people explicitly attempting to live a ‘radical rural’ life but also with neighbors and those
farther afield. (2007: 138).
32
The main pillar of ethnography as a method is participant observation, which involves the
ethnographer immersing him- or herself in the social setting to be studied for an extended
period of time. They participate in the activities performed by members of the setting, make
observations regarding the behaviour of the group, listen to and engage in conversation, and
try to understand the culture of the group within the context of that culture (Bryman 2004:
293).
33
See Gubrium and Holstein (2009: 24). Another way to refer to narrative ethnography is as
‘a method of procedure and analysis aimed at close scrutiny of social situations, their actors,
and actions in relation to narratives’ (Gubrium 2008: 250). This focus on the narrative activity
as it unfolds in everyday day within situated interaction is not the focus of this ethnography,
though it is mentioned.
34
See Goodall (2000) and Mascia-Lees et al (1989).
35
Cloke and Little describe reflexivity as the concern for the intertextualities of the situated
author-knowledges of the self (1997: 3). This is a means of addressing the issue of
subjectivity in ethnographic research which a more detached realism genre has traditionally
tried to overcome (Goodall 2000).
23

24. narrative to convey the impressions. As the ethnographer is the window into this
‘other’ way of life, why should he then not then be explicitly part of the story?
Ethnography is also the term given to the written product of the research – a written
representation of a culture. In light of the narrative methods mentioned above, and
with the focus on reflexivity, the representation of this alternative rurality will be what
has been labelled the ‘new ethnography’36. This refers to ‘creative narratives shaped
out of a writer’s personal experiences within a culture and addressed to academic
and public audiences.’37 The narrative then becomes a framework for understanding
the subjects and their stories.38 Considering the fairytale landscape of Romashki and
the poetic nature of the Raevski lifestyle, I wanted to capture a chapter in the story of
their lives by entwining my life story with that of theirs, giving it the context afforded
by deep engagement in their lives, and representing the story in an easily assessable
narrative.
And so it is time to outline the questions I was hoping to answer in my research. First
of all I was interested in the motivations behind the Raevski’s move from the city to
the countryside: What are the motivations behind a change in life-style from an urban
to a rural space and place? To make such a fundamental change in lifestyle was to
me amazing, and so I wanted to explore the reasons and context of this change.
Second, I wanted to explore what it meant to live an alternative life in the countryside:
What are the routines and practices of an alternative rural reality, and what is the
philosophy behind these? It is easy to talk romantically or disparately about some
‘other’ life in the countryside which one has no real connection to. I wanted to
experience first hand the day-to-day practices and routines of an ‘alternative’ life in
the countryside, and the philosophy behind it. Lastly, I wanted to explore the
dynamics of this new life: How are these routines and practices constructed, and
developed over time? In other words, how did this family craft a lifestyle which
reflected their philosophy of life and how does their day-to-day life transform over
time as a result of trying to live the image of the life they imagined.
*
Feeling tired with my abstractions I sighed and gazed up at the brown floral curtains
above the train window. My eyes wandered to a wooden cupboard which held three
36
See Goodall (2000).
37
See Ibid: p. 9. As an example of this, I was inspired by the ethnography The Broken
Fountain, by Thomas Belmonte (2005). In this ethnography Belmonte describes the poor in
Fontana del Re, an impoverished neighborhood in Naples, Italy. By employing vivid portraits
of the characters he meets, for example: “but if Giorgio was lean like a bird of prey, Carlo was
massive like a bull” (Belmonte 2005: 10), Belmonte creates images which allow the reader to
imagine the scene the ethnographer is describing. He also writes in a reflexive first person
voice, describing his personal thoughts: “Sometimes, if a family quarrel was especially brutal,
I found myself trembling and speechless, but my attempts to judge, in a moral sense, were
invariably foiled.” (Belmonte 2005: 22). Both the images created and the reflexive approach
act as a window for the reader into the world Belmonte is describing. Both these techniques
are employed in this research.
38
See Gubrium and Holstein (2009) and Sandelowski (1991).
24

25. metal hooks: the first hook was naked, the second held a plastic cup and the third a
plastic bouquet of flowers. I smiled at the tackiness, glad I was on the way to a place
where the flowers would be real – away from a world where the beauty of nature had
to be expressed in the artificiality of plastic. The train was shaking and so was my
hand as I finished the words in my diary. I sat back and looked out the window at the
greying dull blandness which would only get blacker as night time and Ukraine
approached. I had a nervous feeling in my stomach which the beer was only slowly
helping to quell. I was imagining how it was all to be. Beyond answering research
questions, the intention of this journey was to craft a narrative from the lives of the
Raevskis which would provoke the imagination of the reader. By using a bit of
imagination and placing ourselves into a story and reflecting on the decisions and
actions taken by the characters, I believe we can forward our understanding of the
motivations of humanity to dare to challenge the norm of society and create their own
place and reality far removed from that considered sane and enviable.39 But here I
was on the train, not even in Ukraine. The possibilities appeared endless and I had
no idea of the different worlds I would soon to enter.
39
An important aspect here is what Johnson (1993) calls the moral imagination, broadly
defining it as an ability to imaginatively discern various possibilities for acting within a given
situation and to envision the potential help and harm that are likely to result from a given
action. This is in the same tradition as the ‘sociological imagination’ of Mills (1959), which
describes the application of imaginative thought to the asking and answering of sociological
questions.
25

26. Chapter 1: The Water Fairy and the Sunflower
1.1 Return to Romashki
I arrived back in Romashki much the same as I arrived the first time, a little over one
year before. Max’s driving had not improved, but as we sped through the countryside
in his little match box Ukrainian car, I had a feeling I knew where we were going this
time. Andrey was sitting beside me just like last time and his easy going nature and
that ever present hint of a smile on his lips put me at rest. Correspondence by mail
with Pietro and Olga had taken place a few months earlier, and I knew many things
could have happened to complicate my research, but Andrey assured me that Pietro
and Olga were expecting me, and that everything would be fine. Upon entering
Romashki I saw the familiar house of Andrey and although he had made changes to
the garden, it was basically the same. I felt like I was coming back to a place that was
a mystery to me – this time to become better acquainted with it.
After drinking tea with Andrey and Max I walked the path to the house of the
Raevskis with increasingly busy butterflies in my stomach. I was now in Romashki
and there was no turning back. If the living conditions of the Raevskis had changed,
or if their expectations were very different from mine, then there would be nothing for
me to do but accept and adapt. But when I turned into their house, saw Pietro, Olga
and Ulyana, and saw their smiles as I approached I knew everything was going to
work out. I was welcomed as a brother into a family. Pietro’s beard had gown a little
longer and Ulyana has grown taller, but they were as I remembered.
After presenting my gifts of Dutch wooden shoes, klompen, I took off my own shoes
and declared that I was going for a swim. I remembered the ritual of the swimming
from my last stay: every morning and every evening, every day of the year. As a
participant in their lives, their ritual would therefore become my ritual. Pietro nodded
his head with a beaming smile and said: “Yes, absolutely, go for a swim”.
It was summer and warm as I made my way down to the lake. Running around my
legs were the two dogs Reven and Bozina who were only puppies the last time I was
here. Now they were fully grown, running around playing and hunting mice in the
fields. The path from the Raevskis to the lake winds up and down two little hills, and
as I walked the path I marvelled at the scenery. The village Romashki is situated in a
nature reserve, close to the Dnieper River in the province of Kiev. Being a nature
reserve means there is no industry in the area and wildlife is protected. Unlike much
of Ukraine, the region is hilly with parcels of forest and fields of wild grass which
cover the rolling landscape. The village Romashki is spread out over the hills, with
many of the houses and gardens, including the Raevskis, on a slope. The village is
made up of four sections which occupy the different slopes of the hills. The four
sections are connected by a gravel road, but also a myriad of paths which wind
26

27. through forests and past swampy lakes. The house of the Raevskis was one of the
closest to the lake and the only traffic was the tractor of their nearest neighbour and
the odd person walking to the lake.
I made my way down the final hill and caught sight of the lake. It was about a hectare
in size and surrounded by reeds on its banks. It was still and the perfectly calm water
reflected the forest on the other side of the lake. Around me on this side of the lake
were apples trees in an orchard. On the little flat piece of land just above the lake I
took of all my clothes, and made my way down to the water. Up close I could see
water rings at different places in the lake. ‘This water is really magical’, I thought to
myself. ‘I wonder what hides beneath the surface!’ I stepped into the water and
waded into the mud and water to my waist. The lake has springs which feed it fresh
water, which means that although the top ten centimetres of water is heated by the
sun, everything below is cold. I summoned my courage for that first shock and
plunged in. I swam across the lake and then lay floating on the surface gently kicking
my legs to stay afloat. Then I swam to the shore, got out, and did a variety of
exercises to dry myself. Pietro and Olga did not use towels and so neither would I.
The sun was shining on my naked body and I imagined that this was the way life was
supposed to be. Searching on the ground under an old apple tree I found an apple to
munch on and walked back to my new home.
Dinner was the staple of gretchka – buckwheat, which had been soaked overnight in
water to soften.40 I watched Olga prepare a plate of food for Pietro, and I copied what
she did. First I poured sunflower oil on a plate and added a pinch of salt. To this I
added a raw chopped onion. I then took a piece of the bread and dipped it in the oil
and onion. This was the appetizer, so to speak, and was to be my appetizer for the
next 15 weeks, with little variation. I then added more oil and salt and then the
gretchka. Depending on the vegetables in season, or what was left in storage, the
main course beside the gretchka could be anything from baked potatoes to squash
and millet. This first day it was potatoes baked in an iron pot in the outside fire pit.
We stood around the simple outside table in the garden and ate the food. I looked
around with excitement. This place and this life were really different from where I had
come from. Here we were outside eating simple food mostly from the garden, with
birds singing in the trees, wearing only shorts and a t-shirt and eating with wooden
spoons.
I decided to breach some difficult issues I knew I would have to bring up sooner or
later. These were the issues of anonymity, privacy and informed consent. I had
thought of waiting, but I was too excited and impatient. However, I was unsure how to
proceed and perhaps a little worried what their answers would be. I looked at Olga,
then Pietro. I opened my mouth to speak, but closed it again, unsure what to say.
What if they had misunderstood what I was planning to do with my research? What If
they did not want some aspects of their lives studied. What if my mentioning the
40
All foreign words in this story are Russian unless otherwise stated.
27

28. research would distance myself from them on the friendship level?41 What if…what
if…? Olga saw my hesitation and laughingly said:
“You want to say something, don’t you?”
I gave a little grin and started speaking.
“Well, there is something I want to talk about”. I paused to make sure they were
listening and continued seriously:
“I am here with you for two reasons which are equally important. I am here because
I want to be part of your lives as a friend, and I am here to do research into your lives
and write about it.”
I paused, and observed their faces. Pietro was gazing over my head into the
distance and Olga was helping Ulyana chop some onions. Having started I falteringly
went on, hoping they were at least listening:
“It is therefore important for me that we are clear about what I can study in your
lives, and what I can write about. Can I for example use your names, or do you want
me to protect your identity?”
Olga looked up from Ulyana and, giving Pietro a casual glance, looked into my
eyes, smiled, and said seriously:
“Tom, you can write about anything you want. Write about all your impressions
about Romashki and about us”.
Not daring to believe these words I tried again:
“But what if I write something you do not like. Maybe I will offend you?42”
Again Olga smiled:
“But you must write what you feel Tom. If you write things we do not like, then that
is a refection on ourselves, not on you. We must deal with that”.
She turned her attention back to Ulyana. Her words were serious, but it was clear
this was not an important topic of discussion. Pietro simply nodded and did not say
anything.
Olga’s words opened a new door to what lay ahead. I could write exactly what I saw,
heard and felt about these people and their lives. There were no restrictions. I tried to
let this sink in and the seriousness of the project began to dawn on me. My
abstractions on the train all of a sudden became much more real as I now stood here
41
See Agar (1996) for a discussion on the different relationships a researcher can have with
their subjects.
42
Issues of informed consent and anonymity are very important in research concerning
people. An example of the difficulties which can arise is demonstrated in the ethnography
Saints, Scholars and Schizophrenics. Mental Illness in Rural Ireland (Scheper-Hughes 2001).
Anthropologist Scheper-Hughes discusses the bad feelings displayed towards her when she
returned to the community she had lived in and described in her ethnography. Scheper-
Hughes employed anonymity as a tool to protect the identity of her informants as an attempt
to prevent potential embarrassment and humiliation on the informant’s part if people knew
who provided the information. However, the way she wrote her ethnography clearly did not
accomplish this with angry villagers claiming they recognised themselves in the text and some
were very unhappy at how they were represented. This highlights the importance of what and
how to represent in research, raising many ethical dilemmas for the researcher. In my case,
Pietro and Olga clearly gave consent for me to write what I felt, but it also lurked in the back
of my mind as to what and how I would represent their invisible cultural world in the written
form.
28

29. in person pondering how I could possibly represent these special people and their
less than ordinary lives. The moral decisions in my story would not just be those of
Pietro and Olga, they would be mine as well.
For now though the dinner was over and it was time for the dishes. Olga showed me
how to wash my plate and spoon using a cup of water from the well and nettles
picked from beside the well. I then followed Pietro to the bottom of the garden to
collect the drying sliced apples which were lying on asbestos-concrete plates to dry
in the sun. We collected them into baskets, and took them in for the night. Dusk was
approaching, and following the rhythm of nature, dusk meant bedtime. Pietro, Olga
and Ulyana prepared to head down through the garden to their blankets under the
sky which was their bed during summer. “Na dobranich” we said to each other,
Goodnight in Ukrainian and we parted. My bed that first night was made of straw,
inside the house, with logs as a frame. The bed was surrounded by wild flowers and
their sweet aroma accompanied my journey into the unconscious land of dreams.
*
1.2 The Water Fairy and a conceptual framework
The next morning I awoke up from the sound of a bell. I opened my eyes and saw
Olga carrying a little metal bell which she was ringing. I tried to avoid looking at my
watch but caved in; it was 8am. I crawled out of my sleeping bag and went outside to
welcome the day. Pietro came walking up from the garden with a spade.
“I am going for a swim”, I said.
“Very good Tom”, he replied. “Absolutely good”
I made my way cheerfully down to the lake. My back was a little stiff after the sleep
on the straw, but this feeling gradually eased as I moved about. Reven was running
around my legs, the sun was shining and the air was fresh. I reached the lake and
took off my clothes. Just as I about to step into the water I heard a noise. It sounded
like music, and it was coming from somewhere a little way off in amongst the reeds.
Intrigued by what I recognised as singing, I waded through the marshy reeds
following the sound. At last I stopped. The singing was coming from behind a clump
of reeds a few meters away. Not wishing to make a scene I crept slowly up to the
clump of reeds, and crouching down, quietly brushed the reeds aside so I could peek
through to see what was going on. In a little clearing sat a beautiful female creature
on a log. She was holding flowers in her hands out of which she was making a crown
and while she was doing this she was singing a simple song with a clear radiant
voice:
Spring is green,
Summer is bright,
Autumn is yellow,
Winter is white
29

30. I crouched silently not daring to make a noise, spell-bound by the scene in front of
me. The creature was short, with long red hair and beautiful dark eyes. A frog was
crouching beside her. Suddenly she stopped singing and looked up in the direction of
the reeds I was hiding behind. A smile appeared on her face.
“Irenushka”, she said, addressing the frog beside her, “would it not be very rude to
be spying on an innocent water fairy like myself without her knowing?”
“It would be very rude indeed!” replied Irenushka with a stern croaking voice.
“It makes me recall”, the water fairy continued, “what happened once upon a time to
a certain young hunter called Actaeon in the Greek myths who stumbled upon the
goddess Diana while she was bathing naked. Diana, the goddess of the hunt, was so
embarrassed and offended that she punished the unfortunate Actaeon by turning him
into a stag and he was subsequently hunted down and killed by the jaws of his own
30

31. hunting dogs.43 I would hate to have to resort to such tactics on one who was spying
on me. Of course, if the person was to make himself known and come up with a very
good excuse, I may be persuaded not to turn him into a mouse to be hunted by his
dogs”.
She laughed at her own words and her eyes twinkled merrily. Rather sheepishly
and with flaming cheeks I coughed loudly and emerged from the reeds.
“I was, um, looking for mushrooms,” I uttered, pretending very hard to be surprised at
seeing the fairy and the frog and desperately searching the ground. Irenushka the
frog looked at me severely and said:
“Do you really think mushrooms grow in marshes amongst the reeds?”
“I am from the city”, I replied weakly, “I do not know these things”.
The water fairy looked at me for a second and then laughed heartily:
“It is in our nature to be curious of life around us. You are new here. Well, let me
introduce myself. I am the water fairy of Romashki. I am the guardian of this sacred
land and this is my attendant Irenushka the frog. And who are you?” she finished,
addressing me with her eyes.
“My name is Tom”, I replied trying to look her in the eyes.
“And what are you doing here Tom?”
“I am here to live with the Raevskis of Romashki and explore their lives” I replied.
The water fairy looked at me with wide eyed interest before she looked up at sky and
mumbled a few words of blessing.
The water fairy motioned for me to sit down on a dry log beside her and I sat down
gratefully.
“Tell me more about what you are exploring” she asked.
I thought for a second before beginning slowly:
“I want to explore the world the Raevskis live in”. I paused, surprised at how
general this statement sounded before continuing. “I intend to focus on how the
Raevskis use the resources around them as a means to reaching the ends they
desire: the way they create and restrain their own possibilities in life.44 There is a lot
of talk about how we are losing our identity in modern world where great forces of
Modernisation and Globalisation are determining our lives.45 I do not deny that these
forces are important, but I want to explore how people themselves create
opportunities from how they perceive the world around them, overcoming the
constraints of the modern world”.46
The water fairy nodded thoughtfully and asked:
“And how does this relate the Raevskis?”
43
This story is from the Greek tale Diana and Actaeon (Bulfinch 2004).
44
This is referring to the notion of agency, referred to by Long as ‘the knowledgeability,
capabilities and the social embeddedness associated with acts of dong (and reflecting) that
impact upon or shape one's own and other's actions and interpretations’ (2001: 240).
45
The fluid modern world of Bauman (2004).
46
This is referring to the Actor Oriented Approach (AOA) which according to Long entails
focusing the study on actor-defined issues or critical events. It also takes into account issues
of social heterogeneity with a view to understanding the differential interpretations and
responses to circumstances (i.e. we have to deal with 'multiple realities') (1992; 2001).
31

32. “Well”, I replied, “I find it fascinating how the Raevskis are creating their very
different reality based on how they perceive the countryside and world around
them.47 They seem to be living in a very simple way, in a world I always thought was
very complicated. It strikes me that we live in the same world, but they use the ideas
and material objects around them to make a very special reality for themselves. I
want to explore how they experience the everyday life on the land and the notions
upon which these experiences are based on.”48
The water fairy looked at me intently and nodded before challenging me further:
“But Tom, instead of just perceiving the Raevskis to be different from you because
they dress differently and brush their teeth with mud and live a simple life, you need
to get further below the surface. You must look at how they are organising their
reality below the surface of their actions, try and reveal the hidden in their rural life”
Irenushka had been taping her leg impatiently but could suddenly not restrain herself
any longer:
“But are you only looking at people in your study”, she croaked.
I had expected the water fairy to be annoyed by this interruption from her attendant,
but she just nodded at the question. Irenushka continued:
“You know, Tom, humans are not the centre of the world. There are other animals
and plants which are equally important”.
I looked at Irenushka and could not help smiling when I answered:
“That is true; there are also very important talking frogs”. I reflected for a few
seconds on what Irenushka had just said, before continuing: “Yes, that may be true,
but how would I give voice to all the life around which I would be studying? That
would be impossible and is it not people I want to study?”
The water fairy smiled at my confusion and spoke:
“You do not need to give voice to all of life around you. But perhaps you should
think about taking a more holistic approach in your study. By just studying humans
you are creating a divide between nature and people. This reinforces the notion that
humans are beyond the natural world, instead of the idea that they are inextricably
interconnected to it. In other words, by only focussing on humans you are not taking
into account all the other forms of life which you depend on and which depends on
you.49
I was about to speak but the Water Fairy cut me off.
“Tom, listen: Everything in this world is connected – it is all one. We cannot do
anything which is not dependent on something else.50 If you take this into account in
47
This has to do with how they produce the life around them, rather than being induced to live
this way. This relates to the ‘radical visions’ of the rural described by Halfacree (2007).
48
The construction of the alternative rurality will be studied from the perspectives of lived and
imagined space (Halfacree 2007).
49
See Murdoch (1997).
50
Agency in this case is not centered in any one object (unlike the Actor Oriented Approach in
which agency is centered on the subject), but is created through the changing relations
between objects. This is referring to the Actor-Network Theory (ANT) which states that the
world around us is made up of interrelated actants (human and non-human actors) which are
defined, and only have meaning, in their relations to each other (Latour 2005).
32

33. your research then you will better understand the relationships of life around you and
how these relationships influence the lives of the Raevskis and vice versa.
“That all sounds very well”, I said, “but I still do not understand what that really
means”.
“I will give you an example”, the water fairy said. “Once upon a time there was a lot
of fighting here in Romashki. Men fired at each other with guns and people died. But
when they left I found a gun lying in between the reeds. It was so innocent. The gun
had no meaning without a bullet, or a person to pull the trigger, or somebody to aim
at. Everything is relational – nothing has meaning outside of these relationships. Not
just people are important, but also the plants and animals around them; the sun,
moon and stars above them; and the invisible energy inside and around all life. But
although everything is connected, the relationship between the elements can and do
change. Perhaps we enact the reality we want ourselves by deciding how these
relationships are to be perceived and lived”
“This all does not make sense!” I said feeling bewildered. “Guns without bullets –
everything being one – enacting realities: This is all just a big mess!”
“But that is exactly the point!” cried the water fairy excited. “Everything is mess!51
We can try to pretend to make life’s processes easy, but that is really just distorting it
into reality. It is better to accept that life is very complicated and instead think of novel
ways of expressing this mess. Your perspective is of course on the Raevskis as
actors, with a focus on their reality and you will take a holistic look at the community
of life around them in an attempt to break down this artificial divide between Man and
nature.52 But most importantly you must think of the metaphors and allegory you can
use to articulate the ‘mess’ of your impressions and experiences”.
I pondered this. ‘How could I understand and represent all this mess?’ I thought to
myself. As if reading my mind the water fairy exclaimed in sudden excitement:
“How about you write a fairy tale. After all, your tale will have a fairy in it”.
She looked at me with a playful expectant frown, her lips curled halfway up for a
smile as she spoke the last words:
“You will include me won’t you?”
I looked at her coyly and replied:
“It depends. Tell me more about what it means to write a fairytale”.
“That you will have to find out yourself”, she said sincerely. “All I will say is that you
have to tap into the magical mystery of Romashki and develop your imagination”.
*
The water fairy and Irenushka followed Tom up the hill with their eyes as he left.
“I think he still needs to be taught a lesson for interrupting your song”, Irenushka
said at last.
51
This metaphor of ‘mess’ is discussed by sociologist John Law (2004). The metaphor
describes a world where social relations appear increasingly complex, elusive, ephemeral,
and unpredictable. This is a world where life processes are in a state of flux and where there
are no provisionally stable realities.
52
See Murdoch (1997).
33

34. The water fairy thought for a moment:
“How about we make his swimming experience a little more difficult? He seems to
be a little too comfortable in the water. What do you say about throwing some extra
challenges at him so he can prove how much he really wants to live this life?
Perhaps we could make the water a little extra cold for him?”
Irenushka looked up at the water fairy and replied with a smirk:
“Splendid”.
The water fairy pulled out her magic wand of birch, and chanted the magic words:
“Earth fire wind and hail; open the realm of the fairytale”.
A soft breeze blew over the water and the spell was cast.
*
1.3 The Sunflower and a methodological approach
I sat on the bench outside the hay barn, opposite the house, enjoying the sun. With a
pencil in my hand and a book on my lap, I sat looking out over the garden and the
house of the Raevskis. Olga was baking bread on a grill on the outside fire and Pietro
was down in the garden with a scythe cutting the grass. I continued looking out into
the blue, my mind blank although I was attempting to think some very anthropological
thoughts. None appeared. So I tried again a little harder, frowning and placing my
chin on my fist in posed concentration.
“What are you thinking so hard about my friend?” a voice came from behind my
right shoulder.
I turned around and saw a plant with a tall stalk, a black head of seeds and large
yellow petals.
“Was that you Sunflower?” I asked.
“Indeed it is” replied the Sunflower. “I was observing you thinking so hard about
what you were looking at”.
“Well, yes”, I replied, “I am thinking about how I am going to study the lives of the
Raevskis”.
“Ah” replied the Sunflower, “and what have you decided on?”
“I figure that if I observe Pietro and Olga in their daily routines I will understand a
little about their lives. I will participate in their lives: swim with them, eat with them,
and work in their garden. Basically become part of their lives.”
The Sunflower was silent for a minute. Then it said, “Yes, as I follow the sun
through its journey across the sky every day, so must you follow the journey of
Pietro, Olga and Ulyana”.
“But you do so in blind faith”, I said. “No matter what else is going on, you only
follow the sun, every day of your life. I want to be more critical and perhaps take
different paths, different perspectives, of the Raevskis”.
The Sunflower replied thoughtfully:
“Yes, some say that I symbolize infatuation or foolish passion because I blindly
follow the sun. However, I think of it more as loyalty and constancy. These are good
traits in studying life. You must be careful not to lose sight of what is important. You
are here to study the lives of Pietro, Olga and Ulyana. They are the most important
34

35. part of your life now. Look around at what there is to see, but never lose sight of your
goal, for some days there will be clouds in front of your sun and sometimes there will
be rain”.
Without turning away from the sun the Sunflower asked me how I was to carry out
my research.
“Apart from participating in their lives, I plan to conduct interviews with both Pietro
and Olga and I have books with ideas which I will read” I replied. Remembering the
words of the water fairy I continued:
“I hope to begin understanding the world they live in by exploring their imagination:
The unique reality of the different life they are living: where their ideas come from and
what they imagine life to be”.
The Sunflower swayed gently in the breeze thereby nodding its head.
“That sounds good. But remember, the path you take to explore their lives – the
methods you employ – are never innocent. You are enacting a reality through your
method.” 53
Confused, I replied:
“But am I not simply looking at the world in another perspective? What do you
mean ‘enacting’ a reality?” “Ah”, replied the Sunflower, “yes, perhaps different
perspectives, but what if there are in fact multiple worlds? The world you enter will
depend on the path you take. You create this world through the questions you ask,
what you choose to look at and the impressions you thus take in”.
This made me pause to think. This all seemed rather messy. Should there not be a
cleaner way of going about research? I thought to myself.54
“And”, continued the Sunflower, “if there are multiple worlds, which one do you want
to produce through your method?”
At last I gathered my thoughts and replied:
“If this is true then I want to produce a reality which best represents that of the
Raevski reality, the one that is most morally appealing to them and to me”.
“That is a big challenge young man”, replied the Sunflower. “The world we live in is
slippery and ephemeral, unpredictable and elusive. You will have to think hard about
the window into the reality you want to enter. And remember, these realities change
over time. And this is the interesting part. If the way we live changes over time, then
so would our reality. We can therefore choose the reality we like better and make that
one real – we can choose the world we live in”.
“Pietro and Olga are from the city, I noted, “Their worlds must have changed a lot”.
“Then perhaps you should begin by exploring their past lives to understand how
their world has changed and to get an idea of the reality they now want to live”.
53
This is based on the idea of the performativity of method (Law and Urry 2004). Law and
Urry state that all methods “involve forms of social practice that in some way or another
interfere with the patterns of the physical or the social” (2004: 402). See also Law (2004) who
states that methods do not just describe realities but help to create them.
54
Law discusses the need to divest concern with method of its inheritance of hygiene. He
calls for new ways to explore the complex and messy world, for example, through
embodiment and through the researcher’s own private emotions (Law 2004: 3). This call for
reflexivity will be embraced in this study.
35

36. 1.4 The double rainbow and the fairytale.
Getting off at bus stop Romashki, one is surrounded by large golden wheat fields.
Like stories and pictures I have heard from the cornfields of Iowa in the USA, these
stretch to the horizon, as far as you can see. One could be tempted to think of this as
a rather boring view; monotonous fields of semi-parched earth. Yet I found the scene
very pleasant when I stood there in real life. There are gentle rolling hills, and the
country road is lined with trees and should one be lucky enough to come along this
road in June or July, then the dripping fruit of mulberry trees will be at their disposal.
Across from the bus stop is the sign which reads “Pомашки” (Romashki).55 An
asphalt road then winds down between the trees towards the village. Following this
road there are birch and acacia trees and a derelict house with a large walnut tree
outside. Further down on the left hand side one comes to the house of Andrey. This
is the start of the village and meeting point of the many who come and go from
Romashki. From Andrey’s house it is a hop skip and a jump down a muddy path, a
gravel road, and into the gap in the bushes to the house of the Raevskis.
It just so happened that Pietro and I retraced this walk back to the wheat fields by the
bus stop mentioned earlier. These fields are partly owned by the villagers who rent
out the land to big farmers who pay rent through bags of wheat to the villagers.56
Now big combines come to harvest these fields of wheat, or whatever else is
growing. What is left over are patches of straw and stubble. It was this straw that
Pietro and I had come to collect to use as material for repairing the house and to
sleep on. We each filled up a large bag and balancing them on our heads began to
walk back home. It had started to rain, obscuring the sun, but the temperature was
warm. Soon after it started the rain stopped. For some reason I felt the desire to stop
and look around. Looking back at the path we had taken I saw one of the most
extraordinary sights of my life. Two complete rainbows. I just stared in wonder and
amazement. I could not believe it and could not speak. Like two beautiful and vibrant
lovers spooning in heavens above, the sight evoked a profound sense of harmony in
my mind. Petro stood beside me and nothing was said. Then he looked at me,
smiling and spoke with a special note of contentment:
“We live in a fairytale”.
I looked at him but could not read his face, though I felt something profound tingle
through my body like a shiver. We put the bundles back on our heads, and barefoot,
continued walking across the hills back to our little cob house.
Lying in bed that night I thought about the rainbows and I thought about what Pietro
meant when he said: “We live in a fairytale”.
55
This is the Cyrillic way of writing the name Romashki. Cyrillic is the writing system used in
Ukraine and many other Slavic countries including Russia.
56
This system of landownership is left over from the time of communism. Nobody I spoke to
could explain why it was still like this, but it was accepted with the expectation that it would
one day change to private ownership.
36