Saturday & Sunday 12/16-17
Saturday was an interesting day for us. We started off in Vesheveche visiting Nastia. She always greets us with a big beautiful giggly smile and a hug. We went to sit by ourselves in a little room where we could concentrate on our English lesson. We brought her a little notebook to study with when we’re not there, which really pleased her. And using a deck of flashcards we brought from the States, we really drilled her in the alphabet and she’s starting now to write words too (hat, cat, ball – elephant!) We play cards with her to reinforce the numbers in English. War is a great game because she really enjoys the “drama” (War!) and it’s a fun way of teaching her to put sentences together (six is greater than four; four is less than six, etc.) We also played Concentration for the first time, where you turn over two cards at a time and try to remember where the pairs are. Nastia was so adorable. She was sitting on my lap and thought I didn’t see her peek at one of the cards, a 10, before it was her turn. We had a good laugh and then, when she went, the first card she turned over was another 10, she had her first pair. Boy, was she pleased. We hated to leave her, and she followed us out to the car, holding my hand and you could see she just wanted to climb into car with us.
We left Nastia to have a meeting with Sergei, the mayor of Veshevitche. As we’ve committed to helping the orphanage raise funds for a new mini soccer field, which will be used for all of Veshevitche, he had promised to give us a tour of the village. We started with the kindergarten, which has children 2-6 years old. The kindergarten was closed, as it was Saturday, but the teacher showed up all dressed up to give us a tour. The building was old and all the trappings threadbare (the “mat” when you walk in was an old sweater minus the sleeves laid our neatly in a square) but it was still a very warm and cheerful building housing a classroom, nap room, kitchen and even a museum they are putting together with antiques of the town. The teacher showed us how all their teaching materials are painstakingly made by hand. And like most buildings Sergei showed us, the kindergarten is heated with wood and coal but they plan to be switching over to gas.
(Note: Veshevitche is village (population 1,773) said to 500-600 years old. The quaint cottages, each with its own version of a picket fence, line the main road with fields reaching behind. They have electricity but many people still fetch their water from wells which dot the road. Outhouses are the most common type of bathroom facility.)
Before proceeding to the Cultural Arts Center, we stopped at a WWII memorial for soldiers who fell in and around Veshevitche. During the war the village was occupied by the Germans, who Sergei said were not bad at first but got crazy at the end. Veshevitche was considered a front in the battles for Kiev, and many battles were fought in the village itself. A tragic footnote about Nastia’s orphanage is that after the war, Ukrainian/Russian soldiers who had been prisoners of the Germans returned home to be classified enemies of the people and when they were sent to camps, their children were put in this orphanage, along with other homeless children.
At the Cultural Arts Center, we had a tour by someone who we have seen at her other job at the orphanage and a few other locals. In the foyer there was one bulletin board filled with Soviet-era awards. On the other wall was a matching bulletin board filled with current-day awards, which they laughingly told us they prefer. They showed us their social hall with its stage, an old bare room with old wooden folding chairs lining the perimeter. Interestingly their antiquated wall sconces, if you look close, have the Soviet hammer and sickle embossed on them. We sat and watched a couple of videos of local pagan holidays that predate Christ. In one holiday, every July 7, they build a fire and couples jump over hand in hand; if their hands stay locked, they would have success. Young girls build wreaths and set them on the water and if they float together, their true love will be with them. (Of course the mean “water god,” jumps out of a boat and scares them.) Then they all dance and drink till dawn. The other festival had to do with finding mates, and was actually rather bawdy, men and women playing games passing sticks between their legs, etc.
We also saw the hospital (which was closed for lunch) and the new pharmacy and the two private stores (there’s still a state-run store too). The school was also closed and next to it was the original schoolhouse, now abandoned dating back over 100 years. Michael asked about seeing the gymnasium and the mayor offered to call the principal and have him come down to open it up. All in all, the people of Veshevitche were very accommodating and gave us a wonderfully warm welcome.
We ended our day visiting our little Sasha, who was awakened from his nap to see us. He emerged from his room with a black eye, a beautiful little shiner. His best friend Timor had thrown a slipper at him. Later Timor, who’s actually a very nice little boy, a little goofy but full of personality and totally lovable, said he felt very bad about it. It was very sweet actually. Sasha didn’t seem to mind at all. We had a good time playing with Sasha, riding the bike with the one training wheel down the hall and eating another big banana (we asked Sasha if he would give Daddy a bite and he started mugging, pretending he wouldn’t, all the while the cutest little devilish smile on his face, but of course he did).
On the way back to Zhitomir (this is the hour drive we take every day to see the kids) we were talking to our driver about the fact that Radomishle, where Sasha’s orphanage is, used to be 70% Jewish. Ivan said he has some Jewish friends in Radomishle (that’s where he lives) and would be happy to introduce us to an older friend in his 70’s. We’ll probably meet him the beginning of the week and ask him about life during and after the war. We ended our day by looking at another another apartment that was not suitable, and finished our day at our favorite cafй, Julius Meinl.
Note: while studying the map, Michael found a small town not far from Radomishle called Ozerian. We are wondering if this might have been the ancestral home of his grandfather’s family, the Ozer. Ozer means lake, so we might be reaching with this theory. But we understand that there are good records in Zhitomer for the entire Zhitomer region, and we hope to get a chance to visit the archive this week.
Today, Sunday was a quiet day. Our translator Svieta didn’t feel well so Michael and I went ourselves to see the kids. We had a great time with Nastia, who didn’t feel much like studying today. Instead we played Concentration and War (Nastia won!) just for the fun of it. She ate M&M’s and shared a few with mommy and daddy. And we talked to her, with my faulty Ukrainian, about life in Miami. I asked her if she had any questions about life in America and she nodded yes but was too shy to actually ask. So I told her about our house and the room she and Sasha will sleep in. I told her we like to go to the beach and each ice cream and ride bicycles. That got a big smile and when I asked her she said yes, she wants to ride a bike. Daddy asked her if she was frightened about going to America. She was silent. He said (through mommy) that it was normal to be frightened but that we would always take care of her and Sasha. And we told her that we’re going to have a wonderful life together, her and Sasha and Daddy and me. And we’ll always be there to love and help her and Sasha. And Nastia didn’t say much but she listened hard and smiled a lot. And as we were preparing to go, Michael asked her for a kiss and she leaned with no hesitation and gave him one. Which was the first time it came that natural. The other great thing is that while we were playing War, every time Nastia and I won, I’d yell, Yes! And toward the end of the game, when we would sweep the cards toward us, she’d say, Yes! with that big brilliant smile. A couple of precious moments that we treasure.
We ended our day, after a meal at the Taverna restaurant with a very accommodating English-speaking waitress in a rather revealing pirate costume (not that Michael noticed), looking at yet another apartment. This one is right across from our hotel, so we know the area. And it turned out to be really nice. Michael and I have a nice bedroom with a balcony overlooking the town square (and a statue of Lenin) and Svieta will bunk down in a nice little sitting room that we’ll have to pass through to get to the kitchen. We have a small modern kitchen with a microwave and hot water. And a bathroom with a Jacuzzi and a washing machine. We took it for 10 days starting tomorrow. Life is good. We’re hoping it’s a sign our luck is changing and things will start moving a little quicker. Stay tuned! (Editor’s note: Guess who’s going to have to carry the suitcases up the 8 flights of stairs?)
It should be noted that this is the 11th anniversary of Lauren and I meeting at a Chanukah party at Mitch Weissner’s apartment. It’s nice to think that some of the people there that night, namely Mitch, Jennie, Lebo and Lisa are probably reading this blog all these years later.