Perpetual Change

A trip to England

Sidenote: Today I answered a question which I had not understood. It
really bothered me and I couldn?t figure out why, and I realized
because it has been a long time since I have done that. The ambiguity
with which I regularly put up with is now gone. It was surprising to
me.

And again now, I will post about someone other than myself but I think
you will all find it very interesting. I have one more camp of ten
days, and then I should be back to posting regularly.

Today I walked into an office where I regularly do some work. There
had been a man who worked there, and with whom I enjoyed working, but
he had abruptly disappeared one day. When I inquired about him, I was
told that he had gone to England to make money. Well it certainly was
not the first person I had known to leave the country, but today he
was standing there in the office, and he is the first person that I
have known to come back! I was a bit taken aback, both that he was
back and that 4 months had passed since he left; it seemed like last
week. My eyes only grew wider as the conversation continued. We were
seated around a table to celebrate one of the employees birthdays; I
was swept in as often happens, and a 2 minute visit became a two hour
meeting. Here are some highlights from the conversation.

He is back because he was stopped by the authorities on his way to
work. They were thoroughly checking apartments near the airport
because many foreigners live there. They were on heightened security
after the uncovered terrorist threat last week. He was taken with
only the clothes on his back, they rounded up tons of people, and they
were mad, he said.

They said it was his problem to get back home from Kyiv because that
is the only place that they were sending him. But they did not stamp
his passport as a deportee. However, the Ukrainians wanted to when he
arrived home, and he argued them out of it.

They didn?t confiscate his money (he had less than 20 pounds) but they
did take from others who were carrying big sums. To this the priest
present, who is the organization's director, said ?Thank god, for once
it was a good thing not to have any money.? Everyone cracked up; he
is normally a very solemn young guy, who is very concerned about
finances.

His friend had some other type of visa for six months, some sort of
cultural study. When they brought him in and questioned if he worked,
he said no he was only studying English folk culture! To which they
asked skeptically, "Is there so much folk culture to study for 4
months?!" And he said, ? OOOOH, there is SOOOO much!? It was funny to
here him tell the story, but this friend is indeed working and still
there.

He told about how the first day he got there, his fellow country men
were afraid to let him wander on the street after dark in a strange
city (for me coming here to Ukraine, this didn?t seem the least bit
unusual), and that he started hard physical labor two days later and
that the next day he was so sore he wanted to go home, but like an
animal he says, you get used to it, and after a month you can live
normally.

His young son did not exactly recognize him when he got home. Then
asking where he was going the next day, and when the answer
came "work," he pleaded that it would not be that work that took him
away for so long. His young daughter told him about how his wife
cried when he left, but she could not comfort her.

He told about not knowing where even to buy bread, at being afraid/
intimidated to shop or cook, that they were sick of eating sandwiches
for breakfast lunch and dinner (I also can relate very well to this.)

They all agreed that it is less interesting to live there, because we
have everything, it is stable and there is no adventure. When you get
up there, you know what will be; here in the morning, you wonder what
the day will bring (although I agree in the fundamental assumption, I
cannot say I feel their respect for the unexpected, and I will be glad
to leave it behind).

He tried to say that his own people 'are not nice, but no not that,
not unhelpful, but no not that either.' He could not articulate it. I
think I know what he wanted to say though. They are doubtful and
pessimistic. In another country that means they are going to be
careful getting involved with too many people because it could get
them caught, but even here, breaking into new groups is difficult and
Ukrainians have a hard time quantifying or seeing their pessimism.

Then the birthday girl made the same argument that I usually do. That
Ukrainians have so much opportunity, that they have so many resources,
and if they stop looking beyond the border, then they can build the
same society here.

And through none of this they asked my opinion. It was as if I had
always lived in Ukraine and never been abroad. Only on the boring to
live in America concept, and if England had state Health care (they
told him that they did not; he was on a tourists visa, but I think
they blatantly lied to him). It was very interesting to be only an
observer in this conversation, because usually I am the one in the
center of it.

posted by jjs @ 10:07 AM