Perpetual Change

Surrealism of Stayky

I went back to visit a village where I helped to mentor a new group of volunteers, as Stanley mentioned. Two were there visiting their host families, and they invited me along to enjoy the beach of the Dnepr River for some time. I only stayed a day.

When I walked into town, I went to the beach, where the girls were already with their host families and friends, and one mother was asking a lot of questions to them about me. People routinely talk about me while I am standing there, often regardless of whether I understand or not; I normally just listen innocently, but this time it grated on my nerves that she didn’t ask me; so when she asked if I could speak any Ukrainian, I chimed in that I speak Ukrainian well. Later I realized that this was the very first time that I ever said this. Usually when asked I say that I am studying or that I can get by.

While we were there, the one café in town had an employee with a birthday, and they came down to the beach to celebrate. All the ladies stripped down to their undies and went swimming – singing and doing shots from a little tray in the water. They of course recognized the two volunteers who came over to sing too, but when the volunteers called me over to take a photo of this, the waitresses even remembered me… from the one day when I had been there! The birthday girl, of about 40, made me take a shot with her, and then she kissed me! I was a bit surprised.

I have taken to packing in plastic sacks for short trips, as many Ukrainians do. It is amazing how little they take and yet still dress to impress. My (real) dad was proud of me! He said that is how he used to pack on the ships when he was my age. He actually used paper. This and other things inspire, more often now, the comment that I am a real Ukrainian. Usually this is closely followed by how I need to marry…or drink… or both.

When I was leaving the village, I stopped at a Museum dedicated to a very old culture that was in the Kyiv region before the Kyivan Rus. The museum was amazing. It was done excellently, and it was one of those times where you have to stop and ask, ‘Where AM I? How can they have been digging up artifacts for 80 years, and don’t all have indoor plumbing?!’ The most interesting part was that the museum is mainly for the Tripilya culture which lived in the area from 7000-4000 BC, but the day before my friend had seen an excavation of human remains that were 10,000 years old. Considering that the Tripilya people were the first agriculturalists, that means the remains in the hole, that she was staring at, are older than sliced bread!

posted by jjs @ 3:28 AM