Belated Ukraine Post #1--Saint Nadia

[Note: This is a post I wrote a week and a half ago and am just now getting around to posting now that I have Internet in my dorm room at LCC.]

Since the Internet here is variable to non-existent, I’ve decided to start typing up blog posts on my laptop and will transfer them to Blogger via my flash drive at some later date. Sorry for the delay, everyone (Mom, I promise I’m not putting all the good stories on Facebook and not on Blogger…last time I just ran out of time to update my blog).

It was raining cats and dogs (possibly literally, there are enough of them around here) for the last half hour or so, but Nadia had given me a plate of fresh blinchiki (thin pancakes), a bowl of strawberries straight from the garden, and a small container of sour cream. Already having a sugar bowl on my table, I added sugar to the sour cream, sliced up the strawberries, and applied the mixture liberally to the blinchiki. It doesn’t get much better than that.

In other food news, Nadia gives me four times what I want and three times what I can eat comfortably, and I still manage to eat about half of the total. Sigh…just as well I’m only here until next Sunday.

Overfeeding aside, I am still convinced that Nadia is destined for some sort of Ukrainian Baptist sainthood. The family is currently without a washing machine, dishwasher, hot water, or car, all of which they had when I was here two years ago. Plus, the kitchen is being remodeled, so Nadia’s using a room in one of the sheds on the property as a “summer kitchen”. And yet everyone is fed, clothed, and transported as needed. All of this with 11 kids at home!

first impressions

Bulleted list, because Internet time is limited:

~I have my own little apartment! It's across the courtyard from the main house, and Nadia's parents used to live there before they moved in with her brother's family. It comes with its own stove, sink, and bathroom, but has no hot water. Of course, the hot water heater for the main house is broken as well, so it's not like I'm really missing out...

~The kids have all grown up so much. My particular buddies are the middle school set--Valera, Ruslan, and Liza. They come over to sit at my kitchen table and we all sing out of my Ukrainian hymnal. Valera in particular is my buddy (always has been), and is quite concerned about me going anywhere by myself. When I said that I was going to Kharkiv next week to pick up Melanie, he thought he should go with me to make sure I'm okay. Such devotion is deeply touching and only occasionally cloying. :)

~It is a little bittersweet, however, because I remember when the older kids were my buddies and tagged around with me like the middle kids do now, and now they're adults or almost-adults with their own lives. Oleh especially makes me sad...he was my favorite student (not best student, but favorite) when I taught here, and now he's going through a rebellious phase, is home for roughly 5 minutes a day during daytime hours, and then rides off on his moped to parts unknown.

~Strawberrries fresh from the garden. Need I say more?

~Viktor went to a funeral in Kyiv, so I've been doing extra kid duty. We play any and every game I can think of. My personal favorite is making up treasure hunts for them in English. Ruslan, who's pretty sharp, translates the clues with some help from his cell phone dictionary, and then they all work together to figure out where the next clue is and go off running. I shouldn't have started it on Day 2, however, as now they want daily updates.

~Game night crew, rejoice! I have started a Qwirkle fad among the Y kids. I think they played it 10 times yesterday. If this keeps up, I shall soon feel about Qwirkle the way I feel about Uno (i.e., will be happy if I never see it again). But I think it teaches good thinking skills. They also have a game called "Football Manager", which runs on roughly the same principles as Monopoly.

~Between Internet limitations and not being in charge of my own food, there's no way I can keep up with Weight Watcher points until I get to Lithuania. That said, I think I'm running around with the kids enough to cancel out the extra food.