Time in the Countryside
During the summer, we went to a neighboring region to visit some relatives in a mountain village. The town is about 2000 people (the size of my high school) and the name of the town is the same as most people�s surname. We stayed with the family for 4 days (during which my host grandma talked non-stop). They have lovely 3 kids and live in a beautiful spot. They have a refrigerator but no indoor plumbing (ie. out house, bathing in a bucket, dinner dishes in a pot). They still cook on a wood stove but yet they had electricity; no light bulb in the outhouse though, only around the corner, must be interesting on winter evenings. Oh, and they have a DVD player
The pecking order, that I discussed during training in reference to changing TV channels, definitely applies to fetching the cows. We had fresh milk 3 times a day.
Meals are structured a bit differently. For instance one day in the mountains, this was the menu:
Breakfast
fried cheese patties with sour cream on top and kefir (a cross between yogurt and milk, that I had not known before)
Lunch
milk soup with potatoes and pasta in it (that was not a mistake, it was new to me too);followed by something very similar to ricotta cheese filled crepes with more sour cream and to drink, milk
Dinner
something like cheese filled raviolis with potatoes and sour cream, more milk, and ice cream for dessert. There was cut tomatoes and cucumbers on a community dish at lunch and dinner.
I am not making this up; this is definitely the land of milk and starches. It really was all delicious, though; and the homemade cheese was so fresh tasting, but I was disgusted at how much I ate and what exactly it all meant together.
The salo (something like bacon with very little meat; it is a national dish) was so pure (of fat) that I ate 3 pieces before I realized that it wasn�t white cheese.
We played a lot of cards and Frisbee with my village cousins. I couldn�t remember how to play Old Maid though; can anyone help me with that? The cows feed on any scrap of grass which means there are lots of nice trimmed meadows to play in, but they are also covered in poop piles which didn�t seem to bother anyone but me. Often here, I have wished I could turn off all the things I know about food and general sanitation. I loved playing with my cousins, but sometimes their climbing on me really kind of grossed me out. That probably isn�t a very cultural sensitive thing to say.
We sat around one afternoon playing dominoes and listening to a new CD another cousin had brought. Aaron Lewis� Outside, and a Limp Bizkit remake of Guns n Roses was on it. I have looked for that song with so little success in the States, and here we were, three generation of Ukrainians and me, sitting around high in the mountains and all appreciating it.
...the ugly
We are supposed to be very culturally sensitive in our blogs, so sometimes I think it all comes out a little too rosy (and them in my private journal, I write what is left and it seems a bit pessimistic). So I have written this entry for a bit of balance. Usually when I think everything here is so normal, I hear a story that makes me stop and think. I have heard the following stories about close friends or family
My host dad's brother died in prison after one year of his two year sentence. Officially, the cause was a heart attack (at 30) but my host dad said he had been beaten many times on the head when he went to visit him before his death. He was in a regional prison for stealing a jacket, although he had had other previous, small altercations. Ukraine's human rights violations have been sited as an obstacle to EU consideration.
A friend was denied a visa to the United States. He wants to travel for a month. Unfortunately, he fits a profile (young, divorced with a daughter) of illegal Ukrainian immigrants to the USA. The whole process was conducted by an American consulate official in the language of his choice, after he paid the processing fee of $100, which is more than an assistant principal's monthly salary here. The average length of these interviews, as specified to me personally from a embassy employee that I asked, is 3 minutes.
Speaking of teacher salaries, they weren't paid this week, which is a somewhat normal occurrence.
I met an American agricultural consultant, who has worked in developing countries all over the world including South America and Southeast Asia; he thinks this may be the most corrupt country he has been in. I have heard many stories of Americans and Ukrainians who were expected or forced to pay off doctors, surgeons and police. Not to mention that in my quiet little training village, a very prominent business man was killed the third week we were there. The funeral was huge. The story is that he took money from his business partners; I can't confirm that. Another story that we didn't see in the news, but I believe, is that a store owner of a rival two shops in town was killed along with her son and his wife, in their home, by shotgun.
These aren't pretty stories, and I don't wish to scare you. I fear not at all for my safety and security, and Ukrainians are extremely hospitable and friendly, but every time I think it is just like home, or my time in Italy, I pass a statue to Lenin, or I have a conversation about a story like these or about how better things were during Soviet times.
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Editorial note: Soviet times hold a very different mental image here than for us, obviously, but they also hold a different place in different areas of Ukraine. Where I am now, Soviet problems were mostly remote and everything else was mostly stable, even during Stalin's orchestrated famines, goods flowed to this area from the nearby porous borders. The EU has hardened those borders, and that has had a substantial effect on these people.
Autumn
The season has been very pretty, but not as I expected. There haven�t been many colors, but all of the leaves have fallen off. I never thought about how pretty it would be to watch them falling in a soft breeze. I used to see the empty trees, while my parents were in Philadelphia, but I never thought about the process, after the changing at least. And now they have raked all the parks and we haven�t had snow yet. I think the green carpets and the bare trees are really a quite striking scene.
The weather (they say) has been very warm this autumn. Except for maybe two weeks, it hasn�t been any colder than Florida in the winter really. I have really enjoyed it. And it isn�t getting dark TOO early, at least not yet. I however go out often, during the day, without a coat. This is VERY surprising behavior to Ukrainians. They dress more by season than daily weather, and in fact some have commented to me that they know they don�t need to wear a coat for this weather, but it is autumn now.
Thank you to all that sent birthday wishes from all over the globe. It was really sweet. They make a really big deal here, so I started changing the subject when people asked about a month or so ago, but an amazing amount of people remembered. Some of my students at a different school found out, and I don�t even know how. They wished me many nice things, I need your opinion. Yes, today, you get to vote on Ukrainian school children�s marks. I had one class, with which I was not happy, and they knew, who found out it was my birthday, and went to the nearby market between classes to buy me a flower (a traditional gift), but they were late coming to class. Do I mark them as tardy? I haven�t been able to decide.
When ever a teacher says autumn to me, they quickly correct themselves because they think that is only the British variation. It always makes me a bit defensive (though I don�t show it), as if we, Americans, can�t have that word also.
And finally, I must say once more how amazing it is to me that everything grows in three months, even potatoes and carrots and beets. I thought these grew through the winter, but no, they would last through winter, but they have finished growing before that. The idea of having an orange tree with the last fruits while it is blooming with next years is such a foreign concept in so many ways. And, oh, how I miss grapefruit off the tree in the backyard early in the morning.
see my Peace Corps Blog at www.jjspc.blogspot.com
