A well in Gorenka:




P.S. Here's the same well - and the same house behind it - three years ago:



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P.P.S. Looked through my 2006 Pushcha Vodytsya and Gorenka pics, decided to make this post slightly longer - because, like the house and the well, some things are getting better and some are getting worse...

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This building had burzhuy - 'a rich bastard', more or less - written on it in 2006 (I probably do have a picture of it somewhere, but not on Flickr). I'm not going to transliterate the newer message here, the one above burzhuy - a rough translation is enough: "You're a dickhead." It sounds harsher in Russian, of course. Hundreds of people, including kids, are passing this centrally-located building every single day as they walk and ride to and from Gorenka in marshrutkas and in their own cars. It's kind of funny that many of them would probably act offended if you used the word zhopa ('ass') in front of them, and yet they seem capable of tolerating this derivative of the famous Russian three-letter curse. Also, imagine having to pass this building every day with a kid who has just learned to read...

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Speaking of kids and reading, and things that are improving - sort of, kind of - here's a picture of the gates of the Gorenka school in 2006:




And in 2009 (please note that the school is located a kilometer or so away from the cursing building):




Here's my quick translation:

You should love the book - it's a source of knowledge.

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Only those nations that have their own national schools can be strong in spirit. - Kyrylo Stetsenko

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Study, and read, and learn from foreigners, and do not disdain your own. - Taras Shevchenko