There are some great pictures below if you’re just following the visual documentary. But for those who insist on the whole story, I’ll tell you that Monday the 18th was a blast. Nastia’s school let her come over with us to Sasha’s for a few hours and of course they had a great time together. We all did. Nastia called him Sashka Bara Bashka, which he loved and kept repeating. I told him to call her Nastia Para Pastia, which was also fun. We rode bikes and played with the little prizes that come inside of these chocolate eggs we gave them.
Also, we finally found an apartment to move into. It’s a fourth floor walkup near our hotel, looking right out on the lenin statue in the main square of Zhitomer. Theres one comfortable bedroom and a couch in the den off the kitchen for Svieta (our translator). The bathroom is great. Even has a washer/drier! They cut the water off at 11PM, as we learned when we returned late from the internet center last night… But after three weeks of uncomfortable hotel rooms and strange foods at restaurants for every single meal, this seems like home. We went to the supermarket and laid in supplies. Lauren cooked up some pasta and we made decaf coffee (first in weeks). It was a great night. I even lit up my last cigar.
The judge would not see us as he had promised us last Friday. This was very frustrating of course. But he did agree to meet with Svieta alone for some reason. He told her that there was a chance for a thursday court date.
Also, the driver of our car, Ivan, introduced us to two of his friends, Isaac and Nina Press. They are two of the very few Jews remaining in this town that once was more than 70% Jewish. The Nazi’s killed thousands of them during the war and the rest have moved away, many to Israel.
Now they don’t have the 10 men required for a minyan, so they don’t pray together anymore, but there’s no question that they still identify themselves as Jews. They have a small but nice home and a big garden where they grow flowers for the last 26 years.
Oops, only 2 minutes left, I’ll have to upload this and write more tomorrow.