"Dacha" (DAH-chah)

How can I describe the dacha? Everyone here knows what it is and many people own one. It’s much like a cottage. A small abode outside of a city where a family can plant a garden. Many people have an apartment or house and a dacha for the spring and summer months. It is more common now, though, for the dacha to be the only place of residence.

The older dachas are much smaller than a house, though modern ones more closely resemble a small house. They are surrounded by plots of land for gardening, sometimes a wide variety of produce. They look and feel rustic. The city doesn’t pipe water out to the dachas so families pay for a well to be dug. At the dachas I’ve visited, there was an outhouse and a Russian banya.

In short, the banya is a bath house. It’s a place where water can be heated for bathing and where the residents can sit in sauna-like conditions. It’s a small building with several rooms. One room is heated to 175 degrees Fahrenheit, sometimes more. Another room is supplied with water for bathing (or rinsing in cool water after the heat). And another room holds clothing and towels and the furnace door by which the rooms and water are heated.

Being out in the country is very refreshing. It’s a break from the dirt and noise of the city. Families work together during the day out in the garden, but at a slower pace. I’ve enjoyed delicious barbecue around a fire in the evening.

And I continue to pray for the salvation of the Muslim families who so graciously shared with me the dacha experience.

Shawn B.