Belated Ukraine Post #3--Random Kid Stories

[Note: This is a post I wrote a week or so ago and am just now getting around to posting now that I have Internet in my dorm room at LCC. It describes my first weekend in Ukraine.

1) Ruslan, age 13, ate 10 ice cream bars on Sunday (here, it’s very common to buy individually wrapped ice cream bars, much more so than buying a bucket—or in this case, a plastic bag of bulk ice cream). I don’t know whether to be impressed or horrified.

2) When I packed for the summer, I packed quite a few pairs of earrings (at my friend Lena’s insistence :)). However, I noticed that most of the young women connected to church here don’t have pierced ears, and I wasn’t sure of the church’s stance on the issue, so I hadn’t worn them. Valera, age 13, said to me one day, “You have pierced ears. Why don’t you wear earrings?” When I explained that I wasn’t sure if it would be looked on favorably, he assured me that Inna and Alina, his cousins who attend our church, wear earrings, so it would be fine if I did.

I wore earrings to church on Sunday. On Sunday afternoon, Yan (age 8/9) came up to me, clearly distraught. “Miss Sally, you’re wearing earrings! You’re not supposed to!” “I’m not?” I asked, bewildered. “No! God said we’re not supposed to.” Still not sure what the actual church belief here is, but I’ve decided, in the interest of not confusing small children with varying notions of what’s acceptable, to wait until Lithuania for my earrings. :)

[Update, courtesy of Olya, an older cousin: Apparently the church technically doesn’t believe in wearing earrings, but since Inna and Alina are the pastor’s beloved granddaughters, no one’s going to say anything. Still think I’ll save my earrings for Lithuania.]

3) Ihor (age 8/9) asked me, “How are you related to us?” I attempted to explain that I wasn’t technically a relation but that I considered them all part of my family.

“I think you’re like our sister,” he said, “or maybe a cousin. I feel like you’re part of our family.”

It’s nice to be loved.

4) Valera (age almost 14 and don’t you forget it) asked me and Melanie if we were going to get up early enough on Sunday morning to catch the early bus to church with him. I told him no, we were tired because we had stayed up until 2 a.m. the previous night catching up on a year’s worth of conversation.

“2 a.m.! What Egyptian strength!” he responded with fervor.

“Egyptian strength? What on earth is that?” I replied, confused.

“Haha, you just swore!”

“You said it first,” I pointed out.

“No, I didn’t. I don’t swear.” (Said very piously.)

Mel and I were utterly baffled by Egyptian strength (I realized partway through Mel’s visit that perhaps I have more patience with Valera than most people, as Mel got to the point where she would flee to the other room with a book when he would come in and start talking away in Ukrainian using his outdoor voice), so we decided to ask my friend Nataliya about it when we went to her house for tea.

“Egyptian strength? I have no idea,” she said. “Maybe it’s a Biblical reference about the Israelites as Egyptian slaves…?”

So we’re all baffled, but apparently it’s not anything profane.

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.