Thursday, October 15, 1998

Edward goes in early to his school as usual. I bathe, and enjoy squash pancakes with two meat patties, pear soda, a sweet roll, and good strong coffee. It is a nice change from garbanzo beans, cabbage, and carrots.

I thank Valentina for a very nice breakfast, and leave a bit later than normal. Even so, I decide to take my time and not hurry on my walk like I usually do. It is a very cold morning today, in the mid-30s F, I estimate. I even put on my gloves for the first time. I walk off the beaten path a little, and take some pictures of the military wall and the general countryside near school.

Many Teachers and Special Surprises!

I enter the school, and encounter the geography teacher in the workroom. I decide on the spur of the moment to give her one of my blow up globes from my goody bag. She is thrilled! Later in the day, I run into her and a colleague when I am with Galina. Galina translates how I use the globe in my own geography classes. I demonstrate a few lesson plan ideas for them.

I proceed to Edward’s room. At the end of class, his students want my autograph again, and I whip out my pre-written post-it notes. Edward is beginning to be annoyed, and I don’t really blame him.

Older PE students happen to come by the room and invite me to their Period 3 class if my planned schedule allows. Edward tells me and them maybe later in the week. I have a full schedule already and will be at School #9 tomorrow.

I ask Edward if I can go to Nina’s classroom. She teaches English and has been by two times to see if I could visit her room. Edward escorts me to her, and I observe her sixth grade class. She suspends her regular class for me to interact with them as I determine. They ask some new questions, and I decide to conduct a quiz with some of my prizes at the end.

Nina next takes me to her International Club room and surprises me with some special gifts – 1929 Soviet money, a Kamchatka napkin (she visited there once), a slide of frost on a tree, some Soviet medals, and post card size calendars. I give her one of my Arizona silver coins as a thank you.

Edward finds me, and takes me to the faculty meeting room where to my surprise sit ALL the English teachers in his town district! They are all women and sit around a horseshoe-shaped table arrangement that fills the room. Edward places me at the head of the horseshoe, and there once again, are our clay-held national flags.

Edward asks me to give an introduction, and I do. But the energy in the room is low, and no matter what I try, it seems that this session is not going well. Most say nothing. Thank goodness, two teachers, Olena and Tanya, who are escorting me to School #9 tomorrow, keep the session going. Just when I think that the session should mercifully end, someone asks about cost of living in the US, and this becomes the catalyst for renewed interest. They are very interested in my salary and living expenses, and ask a zillion questions. They begin to realize that things are relative. I may make a king’s ransom salary compared to them, but just a one month’s summer electricity bill for me is more than most of them make in several months of teaching!

Everyone is now in a much friendlier mood, and it is time for a reception in my honor. There is coffee, rolls, cookies, chocolate, and to my great surprise, cognac shots and champagne! And it is not even noon yet, at a faculty meeting no less!

They have me sit at the head of the U, and their faculty leader sits next to me, fills my shot glass with cognac, and teaches me how to do a proper Ukrainian toast. “I am drinking now! You are all to drink with me.” We toast to health, family, countries, and friendship. They keep filling my glass each time we have a toast! I am starting to feel woozy. I tell them that if I was in America at a school meeting drinking alcohol in the middle of the day, I would be arrested and lose my teaching license. They all say, “But you are in Ukraine now, and you are doing Ukrainian traditions today! ”

Now I am feeling good, perhaps too good, and I make an impromptu speech about how Ukraine will be successful and prosperous again someday, and that hard work and perseverance will result in a much better life style for everyone, just like America once had to experience. Everyone cheers me in obvious good spirits.

At the conclusion of the gathering, Valentina gives me my schedule for tomorrow’s visit to School #9. I go to Edward’s room and meet Lyudmila for lunch. The cold sunny morning has been replaced with total cloud cover, misting rain, and foggy windows. It is great to see we will have soup, meat rolls, bread, and hot tea today. I politely ask Lyudmila to tell the cafeteria staff to cut down on my portions due to my just concluded reception snacks. We have to hurry because choreography class is almost ready to begin. Actually by the time we go there, the class is already underway. Irina greets me at the door.

Dancing with the Stars

It is a typical ballet type room and layout. A full wall of mirrors is opposite waist high handrails on three walls. She puts the mixed gender class through their step and footwork paces while a male teacher plays the accordion.

Their dance instructor is well known all over Ukraine. She has won many national awards, as have her students. I recognize their smiling faces from the two previous concerts I have had the privilege of attending.

I watch, enjoying the moment. But at one point, when the boys do a squat kick Cossack-style dance, I get up and decide to try it. They all laugh hysterically as I make a complete fool of myself, and it sure breaks the ice of professional seriousness in the room. A bit later, I try to do some footwork at the rail, and the instructor corrects me, all in good fun. I feel it is OK to make a fool of myself, just to show I am a good sport.

Next up is a Mexican dance, for my benefit, no doubt. I give our some “grito” yells, and they all laugh and try to imitate me. When we are done, I teach them all how to do an authentic yell. They all laugh again in self-satisfaction as more and more of them figure it out.

We keep going. Next is an old fashioned rock-n-roll song, “Rock Around the Clock.” It is just OK in my opinion, so at the conclusion, I motion for the accordionist to play it again, take the hand of one of the girls, and try and jitterbug with her. She laughs so hard she can hardly follow, so another girl comes out and takes her place.

Finally it is time for a Ukrainian dance, and I go up to their instructor and ask her to lead me. She happily obliges and the students love it. It ends with them asking me to do one more rock-n-roll song, this time solo, so I do my old dances from college days. We all have a good laugh and everyone claps. We take some group shots and say our goodbyes.

By now my head is pounding, not only from the dancing, but maybe from all the cognac. We go back to Edward’s room around 3: 15 pm and he is having his Polish class, beginner grades 1-3. They are so cute! While Edward teaches, I journal and try to recover a little. Maybe it’s my illness getting stronger.

After class, Edward asks me to write a message in his International Club scrap book. This class is the most advanced at school in terms of general geographic knowledge. The students have a special room decorated with items from USA, Poland, and Germany. This is the same classroom I visited earlier with Nina when I wrote in their journals and I got Russian money. Edward tells me that the Club will be hosting a party for me one week from today as my visit nears its conclusion.

Walk Home

Finally, it is time to depart for home. What a whirlwind of a day! It is raw, windy, and cold outside. It feels the coldest yet since I’ve been here. It is around 40F with a 15 mph wind making it feel below freezing, even in my fingers. Cattle graze in front of school on the common lawn area. The street light is still out at the main intersection. The first policeman I have seen directs the spotty traffic.

The market stalls are busy today. I see bananas, apples, chocolate, shirts, cigarettes, fresh fish, cabbages, carrots, beets, candy, and dish soap, among other items. Edward tells me that most of the items, except for what is locally caught or grown, are products imported from Poland, and a few from Turkey. He says he is worried about such import goods and their prices because soon Poland will join the European Union, and the “open” border will be closed with Ukraine. A visa will be required, he says. It’s not the expense so much, he says, but the delay and red tape to get one. He says that Poland has promised no delays for citizens of western Ukraine because it was once part of the Polish Empire for 400 years, and so many Ukrainian citizens of Polish ancestry still live here. But he is not so sure.

We pass welders fixing the water pipe, or is it the central heating pipe for the apartments? In any case, October 15 is supposed to be the date when the local authorities turn on the central heat. But Edward states that it’s not so cold yet, so they will probably delay it. I think to myself, “It’s cold enough for me! ”

New Eating Routine

We meet his mom coming back from the garage storeroom. We go upstairs. We have a new routine to accommodate my eating requests. Edward is hungry for “lunch” and I never am. So he and his mom eat while I journal in the bedroom. Actually, I think this works out well for all of us. I cut down to three meals a day, Edward gets some one-on-one time with his mom, I get some journal time, and I eat dinner with them around 7: 00 pm when I am actually hungry and we all get to sit together and visit. So that’s what I am doing now, and for the first time since I left Arizona, I AM CAUGHT UP!

Dinner tonight is “milk soup.” I love it! It is a combination of short noodles, warm milk, and sugar, and is the closest to having a bowl of cereal as I have had. I eat two bowls full. I also eat tomatoes, pork cutlets, and some cabbage and garbanzo beans. Both Edward and Valentina notice my improved appetite with the change in meals for me, and Valentina nods approvingly as I eat away.

After dinner we eat more spiral “arrow” chocolates from Lviv. Edward says that tomorrow night we will travel by overnight train to Lviv, a very historic city. I can hardly wait to see it; I have heard so much about it from Edward. Lviv used to be one of the four most important regional capital cities of the once huge Polish Empire in Central Europe. It dates back to the 1200s.

Multiple History Lessons

A little later, Edward pulls out some post-Soviet regional maps of western Ukraine. For the first time, my mental map of this part of Ukraine comes into better focus. I see his town on a close up map, and four of them put together, show a clear demarcation between woodlands to the north and steppe lands to the south. Novograd-Volynsky is located near this transition boundary. Edward tells me that the northern woodlands near the Belorussian border still contain wolves!

He next leads me into a deeper discussion of the history and culture of Lviv in preparation of our trip tomorrow. He starts by reviewing the border changes that have occurred with Lithuania, Poland, Ukraine, Austria-Hungary, Russia, and the Soviet Union. It seems that this corner of the world has changed hands almost more than any other area.

We also discuss my surname – Ostapuk. He says that the “uk” ending is common along the northern region near Belarus and Poland, and very near the Polish city of Lublin, just across the border. This Ukrainian region was for a long time in the Polish Empire, then the Russian Empire, and finally the Soviet Union. He states that before, during, and after World War I there were huge upheavals in population, and that many Ukrainians migrated to the Lviv and Carpathian Mountain region when Poland was re-created on the map after World War I. He speculates that my Grandfather Michael could have indeed been from the Lublin area, migrated to the Carpathian region (my dad told me of both places when he spoke of my grandfather), and then to the US. He also thinks the large regional center, Zhytomyr, might contain records of him. It is the center of the entire old northern region once known as Volhynia, and current oblast.

I take some photos of the maps, and then Edward shows me a picture book of Vilnius in Lithuania because it compares very favorably with Lviv in age and architecture. I am impressed. He was there in 1985 after he left the Soviet military. Edward tells me that he was a young Oktoberist (up to age 10), then a Young Pioneer (age 15), then a Komsomol member. He admits that he was a leader in all those groups, but tells me that he never considered joining the Communist Party itself. He considers his time in the military as good training, and it was also the “thing to do” at the time for all young men.

I Am Getting Sick!

I suddenly find myself very tired, and ask to be excused. I am not feeling very well – as a matter of fact, I feel lousy. I have a sore throat, and my right ear has been bothering me all day. I think all the cold air and wind battering my Arizona constitution, is finally getting to me. When I swallow the entire right side of my throat hurts like crazy. Am I getting strep throat, or an ear infection? I take some Sudafed and Excedrin, and go to bed. Hopefully, I will feel better tomorrow for my upcoming adventure.