Following the pig event on Thursday, we walked through Chervonograd. According to Joe, it’s a large city, built in the Soviet Style. (Concrete, concrete, concrete). However, Jaroslava’s neighborhood has more of a village feel. She lives in a large roomy house (next door to the pig, etc.), but the streets are dirt roads, many people have livestock, and every inch of available yard is used as a garden. The potholes are huge, the buses are bumpy, and the people are wonderful. We walked over to Joe’s old apartment when he was in the Peace Corps. Very grim looking building. We then went to his old school. Also a grim building, but some very lively students inside. We met with his former colleagues and then went to an English class so the kids could ask questions. They asked Joe a number of questions, like “Do you like chips?” “Do you play the guitar?” How old are you? Are you married? The children had British accents when they spoke English, but I thought they sounded great. Every student learns English in Ukraine. The system is very different though, but they do have nearly 95% literacy rates in the country, far better than the U.S. As in the U.S., discipline is getting harder, especially since many children live alone or minimally supervised by grandparents because their parents are working in other European countries to earn money. We had lunch with several of the English teachers, and found out that Joe is still a celebrity, even 7 years later! We finally went back to Jaroslava’s house and enjoyed the evening immensely, especially since homemade wine had been added to the vodka-cognac repertoire. Jaroslava speaks impeccable English, but her husband does not, so we had some great translation moments as we talked about Soviet history, Ukrainian nationalism, Orthodox Christianity, and more. We then finished the evening playing “Duroc,” or “Fool,” a card game popular in Ukraine. Jaroslava is a recent cancer survivor, so Gene and Jaroslava compared doctor and treatment notes and had a great bonding experience. In addition, Jaroslava and I had much in common, same age, same former profession (English teacher), many of the same interests. I truly hope that she does well. The next morning, we went to Lviv to walk around. Lviv is one of the most beautiful cities in Europe. Much of it was not destroyed during the wars, so there are many beautiful churches, theaters, museums, and such. It definitely has a more western feel than Kyiv, and because it is so close to Poland, you can see Polish signs and some folks speaking Polish. At one time, it was part of Poland (and many other countries.) We flew back to Kyiv on Friday evening and had our first Ukrainian McDonald’s Meal: Big Macs and McTasty’s (QP with Cheese back here). Today we’re at Joe’s house, and tomorrow, we fly home. We can hardly believe it! Probably no more posts until we’re back in Indy. I’ll try to include photos then.
