Two women sidled through the gate, taking in the garden; Claire, me and Rich deep in gabfest. We welcomed them to their community garden, and introduced ourselves. Rich from New Zealand and we two Americanski. After some small talk, in English, one of them, looking at me asked,
“Why are you in Ukraine?”
I gestured to the garden-in-progress and answered with our message statement for this journey, and held my finger and thumb indicating small, “One small thing, do just one small thing.”
They understood.
One looked at me, “Not so small. That you come is good for our,” she searched for the right word, “psychology.” A nod and smile.
We chatted about how the garden works before they left. They will come back.

Weeding and transplanting

The garden space is an old vacant lot that was used for a dump by the neighbors and worse by the homeless. And little by little, (pomalenko), a place full of broken glass that seemed hopeless is becoming an enchanting, inspiring refuge for people to come in off the street and rest. Here, a community barn-raising effort is called Toloka.

Claire and Rich

Clever picnic table planter