Perpetual Change

Flat Stanley IV – Around town

Monday, 31 July
Today I just walked around town with John. He had lots of errands. Each store is small and does, or sells, something very particular. So you have to go to a different one for everything. 3 stores that John wanted to go to have changed in the last month while he’s been away!
Then in the afternoon, he went over to a friend’s house to can cucumbers. They’ll be pickles when he opens them and they are good to eat here in winter when it is hard to get fresh vegetables and rare to find frozen vegetables. It is possible to buy them already canned but it is much cheaper to do it yourself, about half price, and that is a lot of money to people here. Every family has their own recipes too. They also can tomatoes, peppers, and fruits. It is a lot of work though.
Then after that, we went to see this friend’s new turtle. It was a tortoise (lives only on land). Some people have turtles or fish here but most people have cats and dogs. Almost everyone has a cat or dog. Some have guinea pigs and a few have birds.

Tuesday, August 1
In the morning, John and I went with friends to a neighboring town to buy an embroidered tablecloth. It is a tradition for family to give this at a wedding but John is going back to the USA for a good friend’s wedding soon and he will bring one to her. He bought a pretty tan wool one with white embroidery.
Then we went to the 2nd hand bazaar. John needed new sneakers and this bazaar is like going to a big mall or factory outlet store. John found nice shoes for a good price, but the girls with us couldn’t find anything that they wanted. [editor’s note: John must have Ukrainian instinct somewhere because he has only bought 2 articles of clothing in Ukraine, both of which took him a long time to decide between many similar items, which is typical of him, and both have turned out to be very popular, where as he has seen many people wearing the exact same item.]
Then this evening there was a Plast meeting. Plast (пласт) means “scout”. It is like Ukrainian girl and boy scouts. John is helping to plan a camp with them that I will get to go to just before I leave. Tonight’s meeting was for last minute details and to tell the campers’ parents everything. It sounds fun. I’m excited.

August 2, Wednesday
John usually has English club for students my age at the library on Wednesday, but the librarian called and said everyone is at the sea for vacation. Ukrainians love to go to the mountains or the sea for vacation, to Crimea or Odessa, a big town like Savannah. John says you can tell lots of people are gone because the bazaars are quieter than normal. They still seem pretty busy to me. So instead, we went to the pool. It was big and nice on the edge of town but you pay for 1 hour, so you must wait for the hour to begin. They clear everyone from the pool, and then they let us in to change and swim. And there is a woman that watches all the lockers so that no one steals anything (they don’t lock) but she also watched us change! Everyone wears little speedos and they think our swim shorts are funny!!

August 3, Thursday
John had more errands today, and one was to check his email. He goes to a special ‘club” like the computer lab at school, a room with lots of computers together, and he pays for the time that he uses on the computer. Many people do this because they can’t afford computers.
Then we went swimming again, and then we started cooking. John has Taco Night Thursdays before his adult English club. He invites some Ukrainians and the volunteers in the neighboring villages. We made the tortillas in the morning. It isn’t too hard. John learned how to do it here from a Mexican-American volunteer. He made chicken fajitas tonight and one of the volunteers brought her host sister. She was very amazed both by the unique food and that John cooked. Ukrainian men virtually NEVER cook. Everyone here thinks Americans are fat and bad cooks. John and the others are trying to change their opinions. The dinner was very good and we had fresh watermelon and chocolate for dessert. Ukrainians eat a lot of chocolate, but it is very good.
Then at English club there weren’t lots of people but we had an interesting debate about leadership and politics. The political situation in Ukraine is very interesting right now. There was a peaceful revolution 2 years ago and now the person who lost that revolution has become the Prime Minister and will have to work with the winner, the current President. Many people are confused and disappointed.
After the club, some of us went to have ice cream at a café where smoking is not allowed. There are very few places like it because almost everyone in Ukraine smokes even though they know how bad it is. This is another part of John’s work, to change their behavior.

August 4, Friday
John spent most of today preparing for an environmental camp that we will go to next week. We had to meet with some of the students, print and prepare lessons, and find a translator to help. We did find time to go swimming though. There we met a friend of John’s who is a swimming trainer. He is going to marry an American soon and speaks very little English so he wants John to give him some studying ideas. He said he would come over to John’s tonight but he never did. John and I worked and read some more while we waited. John made stuffed peppers with meat and buckwheat. Buckwheat is called grechka in Ukrainian (гречка) and it is very good and popular. People eat it a lot, but it is hard to find in America. His friend never came but that is normal for Ukrainians to change their plans and not tell anyone. We got to watch a beautiful sunset.

August 5, Saturday
Not much happened today. We did go swimming again, and checked internet. We just hung around because it started to rain then. The potatoes are very fresh at this time of year (they keep them in the basement all through the winter) so the mashed potatoes are particularly delicious now.

August 6, Sunday
We went to church today at the Ukrainian Catholic Church where John sings. There are lots of Ukrainians that live abroad in other countries. When people live in other countries but hold on to their old culture, they are called Diaspora. Ukrainian Diaspora keep a lot of their traditions very strongly, and John has a prayer book from a Diaspora Church in Connecticut. It has the Ukrainian church service on one page and the English translation on the facing page, so it was easy for me to follow along and to understand. There are no benches in the church, so everyone stands the whole time, but in this church they don’t kneel and put their heads to the ground. The music was very pretty, all without instruments, only singing.
After church we went home with a friend of John’s from the choir to visit. Her husband plays basketball on Sunday mornings, and he met us back at their apartment. A friend of his came to measure their windows, because they are very old ones and John’s friends want newer, better ones. This friend speaks in Russian even though he speaks and understands Ukrainian also. It was peculiar; he would speak in Russian, and they would answer him in Ukrainian. People can be very proud and stubborn here of their Russian (or Ukrainian) heritage. He is a Ukrainian citizen but only since the end of the Soviet Union.
[Editor’s note: perhaps I mentioned this before, if so please excuse the repetitiveness. During the Soviet Union, there were 15 nationalities, but only one citizenship; because of that (or other reasons) your nationality was printed into your passport. That custom was kept and continued after Ukraine’s independence. So Ukrainian citizens may have other nationalities printed right on their documents, and in fact they might feel much closer to this other nationality. Somewhat related is the fact that people often comment on how I can learn Ukrainian in 2 years and Russians living here can’t learn it in 15. I was of the impression of ‘why would they,’ when everyone understands Russian. Language is a tool, not an art, and people won’t learn another when the first works fine for the tool’s purpose, to communicate. This was my opinion, but recent events which I will discuss soon in another post have forced me to admit that the Ukrainians’ indignation with these individuals is somewhat well founded. Often they can speak very good Ukrainian (in my area, though not always in other places I have visited) but choose not too, which seems to be some under-handed statement]
He left and we all went to their father’s house in a neighboring village. We made shashlik (Ukrainian tasty barbecue), and saw this house that he is building. It has a pond where he will grow and catch fish, and a small garden, and he will put in solar panels to conserve electricity. It will be very nice one day, but people only build when they have extra money, so it is little by little with big breaks in the middles sometimes. They don’t use credit or have much investing, so the building is there investment.
Then we went home, packed and went to bed. We will have an early day again tomorrow; we are going to another camp!

posted by jjs @ 7:43 AM