There isn’t much left of Kopachi. It was a small village that was contaminated and completely evacuated after the Chernobyl disaster in 1986. Most of the homes were made of wood and destroyed by decontamination teams. They were buried and a series of mounds now represents where the homes used to be.

I always got strange looks when I told people I was visiting Chernobyl. Maybe it was for fear of me getting radiation poisoning, or many people don’t have a desire to see a place that is synonymous with death and destruction. But for me, it was important to be reminded of how fragile life and the environment really are.