Perpetual Change

Holidays – part II

Christmas (American)
For our actual Christmas, I decided to go with some volunteers who had arranged to stay in a cabin a few hours away. There is a famous pysanky (decorated Easter eggs) museum in the town nearby the cabin. This time there were 17 people and again I was the only one from my group. I have done a lot more Peace Corps Volunteer events this year. I have a theory on why, but that conversation we must have in person.

The cabin was wonderful, and the guy who runs it is a very interesting Ukrainian. I highly recommend the place; Vitaliy, the owner, speaks good English, and his standards are very high; it is as if you were seeing the beauties of Western Urkaine from the comfort of your own backyard. Check it out at www.karpati.info

The first day, I saw the pysanky museum and in the evening we watched Borat. I thought it was very funny and lived up to all the hype. More interestingly I thought, was what it said about Americans, British humor, and it even had some surprisingly accurate portrayals of mentalities left after the Soviet Union; at least some still here, in my neck of the woods. We also went out and had good pizza and beer with the group that had already arrived. It was almost like a Saturday night in America.

The next day we went to the cabin with SO much stuff. We were only staying there overnight, but we had extra sleeping pads and blankets, cooking utensils, food, presents, Christmas decorations. It was a bit ridiculous. We filled a whole mini-bus; I think that I have mentioned that they are called marshrutkas (a few of you are intimately familiar with them). Vitaliy had ordered this marshrutka but we still ended up waiting a long time for a few girls from a neighbouring village to arrive. Turns out that the marshrutka Vitaliy ordered was the 10 o’clock driver from that village. So they had to wait for the next one, only to greet the driver personally when they did make it.

Vitaliy had gotten us a tree already. It was waiting for us in the cabin, so we moved in, hung ornaments and lights, and later we strung popcorn. As people unpacked, more and more creatively wrapped ‘white elephant’ presents appeared under the tree. I actually had brought two because I had already thought of a present when I got that hideous, but well intended, knick-knack (that I mentioned in the last blog), so I put that and a nice Ukrainian calendar (that I had been given two of) in a gift bag. We hadn’t brought quite enough ornaments, so we made some origami cranes and snowflakes. I had brought a traditional grandma doll that brings good blessings to be the angel on top. By the way, Christmas lights now are amazing; I imagine there are even better ones in the USA, but all the diodes and twinkling variations blew my mind.

For lunch, Vitaliy had some woman from the closest village come in and make borsht and mushroom polenta; it was very delicious. So good actually that we had to take a walk afterwards, we were so full. On our walk we sung Christmas carols; it was cheesy but fun.

When we got back I made eggnog; I had done it with my adult English club that week and we had sung Christmas carols. The singing wasn’t pretty, but another volunteer who helps out, Hilary, liked it and she made it fun, especially with the 12 days of Christmas.

Then I started in the kitchen; we were still full, but we were having shashlyk for dinner, Ukrainian shish-kabobs, and they are easier to cook while it is still light out. The kitchen in the cabin has every utensil, even a dishwasher which was the first I had seen in Ukraine. My school has an industrial one, but I’ve never seen them use it; they wash by hand. People started playing pictionary, and some would drift in to help. Most of them knew surprisingly little about cooking but took excellent directions; Erin made a great salad by detailed directions; Ryan gets very excited about most events; he and Jon made mashed potatoes, before Jon, claiming that watching for the potatoes to finish boiling was “too much pressure,” and left. Nathan, who had organized all this, managed the grill and Hilary helped him. He knew what he was doing; we made a good team. This is the same Nathan from the Camp Iknow campfire adventure (see blog Camp Iknow). We had 14 pounds of shahslyk, about 10 pounds of mashed potatoes, candied carrots, Ukrainian vegetable salad, applesauce, and pumpkin pie. It was all delicious, if not traditional for Christmas. It took a full 2 hours to cook, even though it was all quite simple.

As the night went on, those that hadn’t cooked would periodically clean up the mess that the rest of us continued to make. It was wonderful and amazing cooperation. I would expect this from Peace Corps volunteers, but I had heard some horror stories from volunteers that had hosted other holidays. I think it helps to have it at a neutral place, where everything works like it should (I wanted to have an apartment with no special instructions. I almost got it, but not quite; again it would be easier to explain in person, or ask someone who visited).

In the evening we had quite a schedule of entertainment:
-eggnog with a trombone (Jon), trumpet (Nathan), and guitar (Gino) concert of carols. It was supposed to be a sing-a-long, but the other 14 of us got drowned out. The boys were so excited to play for us, though, that we couldn’t stop them (actually we tried, unsuccessfully).
-The white elephant, or yankee swap or whatever you call it; always an interesting event.
-I-pod concerts; I won’t explain these, because I hear they are popular in America; are they common knowledge?
-At midnight we had a Champagne toast. Yes, it was Christmas. Why? Because we wanted to.
Then people started drifting off to bed. I played cards for a bit– cribbage then presidents- then I too went to bed. The cabin has satellite TV but no one ever even turned it on!!

The cabin was very warm inside but whenever we weren’t making enough noise to drown it out (which was until wee hours in the morning), you could hear the wind quite strongly outside. I must say again how nice the cabin was. The bathroom floors were heated, and the beds, pillows, and comforters were so nice. It is very good by any standard.

The next morning, Vitaliy came back and made eggs, toast, fruit, and mimosas. Nathan and I helped out, and I got to pick his brain a bit about customer service and green tourism here in Ukraine. Then we sang all the way back on the bus. It all went very quickly. Hilary and I took Gino back with us. He would be accompanying me on my next big adventure, which was to start the next day. He had heard me talking about it at Thanksgiving, and I invited him along.

But first, one last story. The whole group was at the bus station trying to figure out how to get home, always the last adventure around here, and the 3 of us asked a taxi. Actually, Hilary said we should, and off she went with Gino in tow. I knew that it would take us about 5 hours by bus, which would probably take 3 by private vehicle, but I thought a taxi would be very expensive, and a bus was leaving soon, so I went to get in line for tickets. The cashier had just finished printing me three tickets when Hilary came in and said that a driver had agreed to take us for a price that seemed almost possible, but phenomenal. I said to the cashier very quickly, “How much to cancel those tickets?” She was dumbstruck; she hadn’t even given them to me yet; she asked why, but waved me away (as an idiot) before I could finish. So I didn’t have to pay for them. But then, sure enough (and I don’t know whose misunderstanding it was), the taxi driver wanted a LOT more. So I sent Gino in to buy the bus tickets because I was too embarrassed to return, plus I thought she might yell at me, which I hate. Instead, when Gino asks for 3 to my town, he recounts to me later because I wasn’t even inside the building, she calmly says, “So the taxi wouldn’t take you?”

That wasn’t the only bus fiasco on that trip, but it was the only one I laughed over. That night when we got back, we 3 went to Olya’s café for a quiet Christmas dinner of the best Borsht and Varenyky (Perogies, if you know that name) in Ukraine. Then we went home and played Boggle.

Christmas here is on January 6th.

Labels: holidays

posted by jjs @ 4:06 AM