Obukhov, Ukraine - October 2006

I’m not sure how best to summarize the plethora of experiences I’ve had in the past couple of weeks, but, as always, I feel a list would serve me well in this particular instance.

My host family: They’re great. I couldn’t ask for better, really. Tamara is a single mom who works in a pre-school in Kyiv and is more or less working all week long. She’s quick with a smile and always comes to talk to me for a little while after she gets home, no matter how difficult it may be for me to communicate with her. We’ve had some good talks about where she’s from, Ukrainian and American holidays, and our families, among other things. She always makes sure to have breakfast ready for me in the morning, regardless of my ever-changing schedule, and has yet to allow me to do the dishes. (Thankfully, I can sometimes do them after she leaves for work in the morning or when Tanya is watching TV in the living room.) Tanya is my 17 year old host sister who’s a student at an institute in Kyiv. An institute is more or less a kind of college – this particular one is a kind of technical/professional school of economics and managerial something. She’ll start an internship next year (at least I think that’s what Tamara was telling me), but for now she pretty much takes care of the house while her mom’s away, cooks most of my dinners, hangs out with her boyfriend Maksym and watches TV. She is the reason I started watching Dom 2 (House 2), a Ukrainian reality TV show that’s more or less a cross between Real World and Survivor. I don’t understand much, but I LOVE it already. My goal is to one day be able to watch Dom 2 and actually understand what’s happening. Of course, it may be Dom 7 by that time, but still, it’s a goal. They’re good to have.

My Cluster: The four other Americans who live in the same town as I do: AnnMarie from Wisconsin, Trina from Illinois, Mary from California and Jeremiah from Colorado. We get along well, which is good, as it could be unimaginably painful if we didn’t. We like each other so much we even choose to hang out when we don’t have to. Hopefully, this won’t wear off any time soon.

My Town: I feel like I’ve got it pretty good. There’s internet, two supermarkets, five schools – at least two of which have running tracks and swimming pools, lots of playgrounds/parks, a place to fill up your vessel of choice with treated (and, thus, potable) water, a basketball goal (we have plans for this, of course), and lots of other stuff I haven’t even found yet. Not to mention Obukhov has a paper factory responsible for the beloved brown toilet paper available throughout Ukraine (apparently they make other types as well, but they’re more expensive and rarely selected…at least from what I can tell) as well as a dairy factory. The dairy factory has a store close to my LCF (Language and Cross-Cultural Facilitator…basically my Russian teacher/overall life-saver)’s apartment. One day soon I will suck it up and eat ice cream even though it’s cold out, as it’s supposed to be quite tasty and, obviously, locally made. Talk about fresh. Speaking of cold, it’s pretty chilly these days. We had a spell of about two weeks where it was very nice out, but the rain has begun and I hear it may not stop for quite some time. Except of course when it turns to snow and ice. My side of town got our hot water turned back on last Friday, which meant I took a LONG bath last weekend…and so did the rest of my host family. We just had our heat turned on this week, which was good. It wasn’t so bad inside without it – it kind of reminded me of my dad’s house in Wisconsin – but I was pretty excited to put my hand on the radiator after a bunch of strange noises came from it and felt that it was warm. I ran into the living room to tell Tanya, who was equally happy to hear the news. It’s strange to have not only your building, but the whole city’s heat controlled by something I imagine to resemble the Wizard of Oz. It does, however, give me a peek inside a part of the Ukrainian psyche, or at least I like to think it does.

So, it wasn’t much of a list, but I feel my post is definitely somewhat exhaustive in scope. Hope it helps fill in some of the gaps that may be looming. Thanks for all the emails and pleasant thoughts. I’m trying to write back to as many of you as I can, but my hour sessions at the internet club fly by faster than a Ukrainian mosquito. (Yes, they have mosquitoes here. The ONE thing you thought you might be able to be rid of for a while…alas.) Hope you enjoyed and that you’re having fun!