Time Flies

We send special greetings and deep love to our dear friend Tom Hermes and his family. (He continues in his battle against brain cancer.) You are in our thoughts daily.

It’s been more than a month since our last update here. Time flies when you’re having fun, or at least when you’re swept up into a busy routine. Our life here has settled into a full yet comfortable routine that includes regular classes, preceded by varying amounts of preparation time, and interspersed with exercise, multiple English Club meetings, and exploratory visits to different parts of the city and region.

We have been asked by a few different local organizations to host these English Clubs, at which participants hope to improve their English by talking with native speakers. The cutest were the younger group of children at our city’s Children’s Library – we were greeted on the first Sunday afternoon by 22 perky faces that ranged in age from about five to fifteen years old. We also have an older group at the Children’s Library, an adult group at the Regional Library, and a student group at Marcia’s university. We enjoy conducting these groups together, and are still figuring out how best to use the time to maximize their speaking of English. We’re using everything from songs (the hokey-pokey elicited mixed revues) and games with the youngest, to photos, books, conversation cards, and discussions of art and current topics with the older groups, in an attempt to both make it fun or interesting and to encourage conversation.

The temperature has dropped significantly in the past week, and we’ve gone into our “winter” suitcase to pull out some of the extra layers that are stored there. The interesting thing is that the heat in our apartment, and in every other indoor space in town, will not be turned on until some mysterious power determines that it is the right time to do so. It is all somehow controlled centrally, and apparently since there are still some occasional warm days there's no reason to turn on the heat yet. As a result, students sit in class bundled up as if they were in a snowstorm, classes at the university have been moved to the warmer from the colder rooms (more sunshine makes the difference), and we have unpacked one of the two electric heaters provided us by the Peace Corps. We were pleased (assuming no one put a penny in the fuse holder) to learn that operating the device has no ill effects on the electrical system in our apartment – a situation not shared by some other volunteers that we know here, whose electrical systems blow fuses every time the heater is turned on. Once the heat is turned on, we have no control over it, since there is no thermostat in the apartment. If it gets too hot, our only option will be to adjust the windows!

We were pleased to welcome our first visitors from home late last month. Matt and Evelyne were on a bicycling trip through Eastern Europe, and left their vehicles in Bucharest in order to fly to Odessa, where we met their flight. We spent a fine first day in Odessa, which sparkled in the fall sunshine. It turned out that Odessa was celebrating the re-opening of its opera house after two years of renovation. Our evening stroll took us through the leafy older central part of town. Crowds gathered outside the opera house there to enjoy the night’s simulcast performance shown on two large video screens, creating a festive atmosphere. The second day of their quick visit was spent in our somewhat-less-sparkly home town. After a walking tour of the highlights, we were able to offer a home-cooked meal, and also got in a few hands of bridge. We’re grateful they made the effort to see us, and enjoyed our time together.

Two older gentlemen who live in our building stopped Peter one recent evening as he was about to head up to our apartment. They were sitting outside on one of the rustic benches near the door to the building. They invited him to join them and share their drink and snack. First Peter was offered one of their two disposable plastic shot glasses – after first “sterilizing” it by swishing a bit of their powerful homemade brew around in it. They also offered to share their snack, which at that point consisted of one piece of bread with a large slice of salami on it. Tearing it into three pieces was difficult, so the gentleman made the final break using his teeth. The three toasted, then drank and ate, while the two of them tried to make conversation with Peter given his still-quite-limited Russian. It was a nice gesture on their part, since showing warmth to strangers is not the typical approach here.

Observations on a recent morning run:
· No fewer than six different head-scarf-wearing, rustic-broom-wielding bent little grandmothers were out vigorously sweeping sidewalks, gutters, and pathways.
· Another grandmother was tending her five-goat herd as they nibbled their breakfast in the large city park near our apartment.
· Numerous plastic trays of leftover food were set out beside doorways, further examples of locals caring for the feral dogs and cats.

Also recently seen was a woman, dressed and on her way to catch a bus to work. All of a sudden she stopped, reached into her purse, and pulled out a little package of leftovers. She bent down and laid them out near the window well of a building where a family of cats lives, before hurrying off to continue her day.