Chernobyl Children's Lifeline - Mid Surrey Link

Many more homes we visited this time had indoor flushing toilets and baths. President Lukashenka has had a project for some years now of building new homes in the villages, and we were privileged to visit two. They are easy to spot - rows of completely identical houses, and we became expert at picking them out, even down to changes in design, labelling them "this batch", "the one before", and "an earlier batch"! "This batch" has gutters and downpipes from their corrugated iron roofs, and are decorated internally (poorly) by the builders before the walls have dried out. "The one before" had no gutters or downpipes, meaning that the water pouring from the roof is breaking up the surrounding concrete path, and were left to be decorated by the new owner. The new houses have a bathroom and toilet, with running water, and a "fitted" kitchen. They have two bedrooms, and a living room, and thus provide far more accommodation than many of the older wooden houses. Each house stands in its own strip of land which the owner can plough borrowing a horse plough, and plant with potatoes, carrots and so forth. Many have a block built shed at the back housing the family pig, and chickens - we met "Boris", who will be next year's salami! Heating is provided by a wood burning boiler off the entrance lobby, powering radiators and hot water. Book your morning bath - your host will have to get up two hours early to light the boiler, and if you come in cold late at night it's better to go to bed than to wait to warm up!