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Journey to the Borderland

May 3

Posted by Lindsey Whissel on 05/03 at 04:13 PM

Today was full of little adventures…

When we left Poltava, our hosts were kind enough to send us off with a bag of food and drinks for the train-ride. Unfortunately, I was unaware that they included a bottle of vodka stored in an unmarked spring water bottle (I’m sure you can guess where this story is going), so when I awoke this morning, I groggily reached for the nearest bottle of “water”… nothing like a surprise swig of горілка at 6:15am to wake a girl up!

We had another early-morning adventure when we arrived at the train station. None of us where sure what time we were supposed to arrive at Simferopil; Mark had been told 6am, Ashley and I had been told 10am and they collected our tickets when we boarded the train, so we had no way to check. We stopped at one station for a few minutes and thought it might be the right one, but there was no signage, so I couldn’t even put my meager Cyrillic reading skills to use. We eventually discovered it was indeed Simferopil when the local Rotarians came on board to tell us the train was about to leave and we had to get off immediately. Now, I described what a feat it was to get all of our bags in the compartment over a period of about 40 minutes, so you can imagine what a circus it was to get them out in about four, but somehow, we managed.

Our hosts were very gracious and my host Demetri insisted on carrying all my luggage. Independent American woman that I am, I felt terrible about this and kept trying to help, but Ukrainian chivalry won out. I felt extra bad because we’ve been given many gifts since we arrived, so our luggage is growing heavier by the hour—I’m learning there is nothing quite like Ukrainian hospitality:). On the ride from the station, Demetri told me he is a lawyer and explained something about the legal system in Ukraine that I found very interesting— he practices commercial law, but all lawyers in Ukraine are obligated to take on a certain amount of pro-bono criminal defense cases each year.

When we arrived at the apartment, I met Demetri’s wife and two daughters (fourteen and two). I’ve found quite a little friend in Kristina. I brought a couple of WPSU activity books and I’m happy to report coloring is a cross-cultural way to entertain a child. At one point, the babysitter was trying to get Kristina to count the crayons and I practiced along with her in my head. I must admit, I was a bit proud that I bested a native speaker (albeit a two-year old one)—she only got to семь (seven) and I made it all the way to десять (ten)!

The day held yet another adventure (all before noon)… my first experience doing laundry in Ukraine. My pocket dictionary failed me and the only word I was able to get was “cotton,” so that’s the cycle I went with and I will simply have to hope for the best.

In the afternoon, our team had our second round of professional visits. I visited two TV stations, ITV and Black Sea TV, and was able to learn interesting things about both. I was excited find out the producer who gave us a tour of Black Sea TV is also involved with the movement to stop censorship in media, so I had an interesting conversation with him about the struggle for free press in Ukraine.

A side note- I learned that Nikolai, my guide and translator for the day, participated in the first Ukrainian GSE trip to Canada. It was fun to be able to compare experiences and hear how much he gained from his participation in the program.

We ended the day with a presentation at a joint meeting of the two Rotary clubs in Simferopil. I think it goes without saying, we were well fed and many happy toasts were exchanged:)

The final event of the evening was a personally momentous one—I read my first book entirely in Russian! It is called “The Fox and the Rolling Pin” and is a full six pages long. My host family was wonderfully supportive and encouraged me as I struggled through the words until I finally finished.

Word of the day: друг / Подруга (male/female) – (druk/ pa-dru-ga) – friend (in honor of my little friend Kristina:).
* In Crimea, the primary language is Russian, so I’ve shifted gears and am practicing my русский instead of my український.