Saturday, October 24, 1998

Gerry’s door pounding at 4: 00 am startles me awake! I bathe in water that is occasionally brown, and though not icy cold, it is not far from it. Taking a hot bath when I get back to the States is definitely very high on my first to-do list!

Last Glimpses

Within a half hour I am dressed, packed, and out the door. Marina, Dixie, and Martha are already waiting in the lobby. By 5: 00 am everyone else is down with their luggage, and we pile into a van for the drive to the airport.

We stack our bags in front of the “green” line (fast track with no declarations) at customs. We get through in less than half an hour with no hassles. The ticket counter is another story. We regroup upstairs for a final coffee and group picture together. Dixie is going through Frankfurt alone. The rest of us – Gerry, James, Martha, Kathryn, and I – are going through Brussels to Atlanta, except for Gerry to JFK.

I look one last time in the duty free shop, and decide to buy a nice looking lacquer box to go with the one from Lublin Edward insisted I should have. So that’s it for me – no more gifts from Ukraine!

Then it is time to board. I give a farewell hug to Dixie. I settle into my window seat, and to my delight, no one has the middle seat. I have a three hour flight to Brussels. I lean back in my seat, and only then realize how much my back, and my chest, hurt from the lamp burns I received. I am already blistering a little. The ten hour flight home is going to be very interesting, indeed.

Soon I will be back at Estrella Middle School in Phoenix, Arizona, and back to the routine there. But I think I will be a different person from my Ukraine experience. I will have a new perspective from seeing how people can struggle just to meet their basic needs. I will look at my Xerox machine with a new appreciation, that’s for sure. And black board erasers too. So much I take for granted in my classroom.

I vow to write letters to all who were involved with my trip – Washington ACCELS, Ukraine ACCELS, my school district, my host family, and all those who gave me gifts. I will email the newspaper office until Edward gets his own computer and Internet service. Maybe I can get his students and my students to be pen pals.

So what impressions and perspectives am I taking away with me before the jet soon wings its way to Brussels? Here are some initial reflections I have as I near takeoff:

1. Ukraine reminds me so much of my time in Wisconsin – similar weather, vegetation, rolling landscape, and very friendly people with a strongly defined culture.

2. Kyiv is a beautiful historic city, but the scale seems wrong. Individual buildings are impressive, but collectively they do not fit together well in a pleasing whole. Lviv is a much more esthetically attractive.

3. Ukrainian people were very friendly to me, largely because I got special reaction for my Ostapuk surname and Ukrainian heritage, but I hope also because they liked me for me. Never in my wildest dreams had I anticipated that my arrival at the press conference would cause such a stir, so much so that Kyiv TV, national radio, the newspaper, and later on, Novograd-Volynsky newspapers and a university journalist would pursue me. I even had a front page photo story of me and my family.

4. Ukraine history is incredibly complicated. It is much older than Russia and Moscow going back to Scythian times in 700BC, but only recently did it achieve independence in 1991 from Russia. In between, Ukraine was ruled by Lithuanians, Poles, Tatars, Austrians, Russians, Nazis, and Soviets, among the most important. Ukraine is really more like a buffer state with a large array of nationalities, languages, and cultures that have tried to dominate. It is no wonder that Edward speaks Polish, Russian, German, English, and Ukrainian!

5. Ukrainians are intensely nationalistic. They have kept their unique language, crafts, dances, music, etc. alive despite all the different foreign rulers. Now they are trying to stamp out Russian language in the schools. I witnessed Ukrainian language classes for Russian students. Polish culture is strong in western Ukraine because Poland ruled there for over 400 years. Edward is fiercely proud of his Polish heritage, which seems to come first for him and Ukraine second. Maybe this will change for him as Ukraine as a nation matures with time.

6. The students I met were super! They called me “Mr. Mike”, waved at me, and mobbed me for autographs, something I had no idea would happen. I was a celebrity in their small town, and for two weeks got to feel like Michael Jordan. I was sometimes uncomfortable with all the special attention, but I admit, it was my fifteen minutes of fame, as the saying goes.

7. Their education system is strong in the non-high money subjects such as math and languages, but very weak in more expensive areas such as science (I saw no lab equipment), computer technology (Internet is still not available), and text and library books. Even the huge gyms lacked many pieces of sports equipment that are common in the States. And the hallways were dark due to the energy budget crisis.

8. It was very hard for me to live without a shower, hot water, and a menu that seemed like dinner instead of breakfast many days. But everything was freshly made from what was largely organically grown in the garden or bought fresh in the local markets. I ate mostly healthy foods which were better for me than all the processed foods we typically eat in America. I took a chance in drinking unpasteurized milk, but never stopped drinking bottled water, just in case. I did not have any bowel problems the entire time.

9. Ukrainians are a fiercely proud, very hard working people. They never let me pay for anything, even though most of them had not been paid for months. While I was there, the government told the teachers they would be paid in commodities – vodka, cigarettes, sugar to name a few on the list.

10. I was able to narrow down where the Ostapuk surname still exists. It is in the extreme northwestern corner of Ukraine where its border meets Poland and Belarus, about 60-90 miles from Lublin, Poland. I found out that many Ostapuk families immigrated to Canada from here, and not so much to the US. Maybe my Grandfather Michael was on his way to Canada, but got stuck in New York City where he died of splinter blood poisoning in 1937.

11. Novograd-Volynsky is an old Soviet military town. Many of the pensioners walk, sit, or rant against the new system which has taken away their pension or severely reduced it with high inflation. They seem to fear the newly independent Ukraine because they have lost their security, and one can hardly blame them. They still wear their old Soviet hats, uniforms, and march once a year with their Communist flag.

12. People in Novograd-Volynsky walk everywhere, and seem to be in good physical shape. I started getting in walking shape about the same time I got my infections. Sometimes I walked 6-8 miles a day, something I never did at home.

13. Edward was a great host! He had a hard time opening up to me in the beginning, and I with him, but in the end, we shared great talks about history, politics, religion, and social change. I learned more from him than I ever would have learned from a book.

14. People dressed very nicely, but due to the poor economy, could not afford that many different outfits. I noticed many of the men and women wore the same outfit days on end and not by choice, I’m sure.

15. I learned to do vodka and cognac toasts, even in the middle of the day! I learned to eat chocolate at every meal, a dessert I almost always passed on at home. I bought a large bag of Lviv chocolates to take home and share with my wife Kathy, family, and students.

16. Novograd-Volynsky was a small town, and so it seemed that most everyone knew everyone else, and kept bumping into each other. The teachers got calls from their parents in the night, something that would very rarely happen in Phoenix. The students who lived near their schools walked, and if they were tardy or missing at school, a simple phone call or a visit from the teacher got the rare laggard to class.

17. New School #11 contrasted sharply with the older World War II era campuses and the stark Soviet style apartment complexes. The older schools had more “stuff” while it appeared that School #11 was still struggling to get enough supplies.

18. Everyone went out of the way to make me feel at home. At every level, I was treated as more than a guest. Valentina and Edward gave up their own rooms for my sake. People treated me warmly, but sometimes did not know how to relate to my American forwardness, which I see as an overture of my American friendliness.

19. It was curious and enlightening for me to read the translation in the newspapers about what they thought of me as their guest. Here are some of the news quotes:

a. “It was so exciting to see how our guest from America reacted when he heard that eight year old Ivan Ostapchuk was to sing for him. He waited until the end of the concert and then found the boy, and embraced him as his own child.”

b. “He is a 51 year old father of four children, and was as excited about our children as he was his own.”

c. “Michael is a frank man, a little bit shy, but very attentive to all. He didn’t have any secrets about America. And like a good guest, he showed respect and good knowledge as to our events and facts about our country and the whole world.”

d. “You said great things about us too: ‘I am your friend; I hope you will someday come to my Phoenix home and we can continue our talk like brothers; Your teachers, parents, and authorities are interested in teaching your students well; Your children are the future of your nation; I am fascinated by your natural beauty, and river banks. I walked in your cold mornings, and your autumn is beautiful; The Ukrainian people deeply impress me. You are very talented in your work. You have strong character and you must know how to survive. We had the same situation in America 225 years ago when we first got our independence from England. We had hard times and financial crisis, but we were saved by our fierce independence. We learned to work hard, and no one knew then how strong America would be today. Our experience can be a lesson for your country today. America will be your friend. ”

We lift off!

Goodbye Kyiv! We head northwest, and somewhere down below me is Novograd-Volynsky. Goodbye, Edward, Valentina, and all the wonderful people I met and who made my stay so memorable! And then before we cross the border of Ukraine, I smile to think that maybe I am flying over the village my Grandfather Michael may have once lived in. What a thought! Farewell, Ukraine, as I squint one last time to catch a glimpse of the landscape through dense clouds below.