Hand Soap
Sometimes it is interesting to see the paths that things made. Some of the humanitarian aid we get is from Czech, German and the USA. You can see people's names in clothes of even find chapstick and coins in pockets sometimes. Some of the things tell stories of styles or uses long gone. Sometimes it is clear the thing has been 'used up' but the owner just couldn't throw it away, so they give it away. Sometimes it travels millions of miles, over oceans, only to have us pass it on again, or burn it in our little personal garbage dump. But there is one thing that always keeps me thinking.
We get a big shipment of aid from Germany, once or twice a year. They provide us with all the toothpaste, shampoo, and soap that we need, as well as a good bunch of shoes, coats, cooking oil, rice, pasta, candies and cookies. Some items are new, some our homemade, and some are obviously one step from the trash, but what gets me thinking is the soap.
In the morning or evening when I wash my face, I look at the old style soap that I put out for the boys to wash their feet and socks. It is hard and yellowish brown. I used to buy it to do my own clothes washing when I lived by myself, but ours comes from Germany, and I just can't help thinking...what if...some economizing East German grandmother, who had a patriotic Nazi father, while cleaning out the basement sent us some old soap that had been made with humanitarian materials, if you get what I mean?
SPRING!
Well, miraculously, the week that I decided to go to Romania, the weather changed. It was beautiful and a comfortable temperature all week. We had a fun time. On the way back to Ukraine, we met an interesting guy who drove us over the border. He is ethnically Romanian (and that is his mother tongue), from a Romanian village in present day Ukraine. His wife is Ukrainian and they speak that language to their kids, but he studied in Russian for all of his schooling. His son races go carts, but on the Romanian team because their track is only 30 miles away, and the nearest one in Ukraine is hundreds of miles away in the capital. He is the mechanic for the team, and yes he used to race himself. He took us to the nearest big town, because although that was out of his way (by about 15 miles), the roads were much better than the direct one and he would have gone that way anyway. We met lots of interesting people on our journey - Romanians, Ukrainians, Peace Corps volunteers, and spoke English, Russian, Ukrainian, Italian and Spanish. It was a lot of fun.
Now we are doing spring cleaning for Easter. Not only is that in the house, but includes, tree planting and pruning; painting trees, fences, walls; wheat and potato cleaning and preparing for planting; earth turning; and garbage burning. It is an interesting time of the year, that is beautiful, with everything budding, until you get a breathful of burning garbage or leaf litter. Thank goodness that the mud is gone though.
There are several times of the year here that remind me how much people's daily activities depend on the weather. An agricultural life is very tied to the earth AND the sky.
Last year, I think I mentioned that one of the kids requested me to cut their hair into a mullet. I complied with suppressed mirth. He still has it, and another asked me yesterday. Although, I don't think it came out as good, he was very pleased.
I hope everyone is having a nice spring, and painting Easter eggs. If every you want to make a traditional Pysanky (painted egg), I'd love to show you how. Have fun, and I miss you all. Happy Easter! (ours is the Sunday after)
John
