On the Road Again

On the road again.

We have a two hour drive to Belgorod-Dnestrovsky to do volunteer work with some elderly residents this morning, so I figured this would be a good time to blog. I think I heard that the point of the trip today is to be able to see how citizens live outside of the city limits, and from what I gather, the conditions are not so hot. At times, it feels as though we are traveling back in time. I first felt it when we stepped onto the first plane, where I was expecting monitors in seat backs and in-flight movies, and well, more English (there was very limited translations for announcements, and the accents were so thick, I could hardly understand). The airport in Kyev and the second flight was going back another few years, with the very dated security checks and a plane with propellers, which was very cool. Even in the city, I feel the modernity difference. I think the most obvious difference is in the vehicles, with very dated cars and models I haven’t seen in a long time. Surprisingly, there are hardly any (I’m not even sure I’ve seen one) big 18-wheeler trucks. I’m sure that part of it is due to the size of the streets being so narrow (hardly enough for the amount of cars that drive on them), but in a place where pollution doesn’t seem to be a big issue, it’s something I would expect.

To recap yesterday, we worked in separate groups and visited some of the elderly residents that Chesed (a branch of the JDC, the organization we are working with) helps, and it was definitely eye opening. Chesed provides home health care, pension plans, transportation, etc, for many of the elderly Jewish residents that live in Ukraine, and it does really great work. The house that my group went to was that of a 72-year-old woman who was suffering from diabetes, arthritis, high blood pressure, etc. who had lost her father and brother in the Holocaust (which locals refer to simply as “the war”) after her family had been transported to Uzbekistan when she was young. They returned after the war had ended, and she worked a blue collar job for many years. She shared stories of her first experiences with people with skin color different than hers, catching scorpions in jars, and when she first understood what had happened in the war. It made the experience very personal, as we were able talk one-on-one with someone who had lived through such turmoil. She was so grateful that we were there, and was so excited that we painted her windows. Such a simple task with such a large reward.

After we left the elderly homes we all visited, we had the great honor to participate (with Migdal, another Jewish group we are working with) in Odessa’s city wide parade for April Fool’s Day, one of their largest holidays. The city’s population doubles from one million to two, and welcomes guests from several countries to celebrate with them. It’s the place to be for April Fool’s Day. I would compare it to spending Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Odessa residents love the holiday and are known for having a great sense of humor. As a general rule of thumb, I’d say that’s correct, however when we first started walking in front of the crowd (and boy, it was quite a crowd – people lined the streets for miles taking pictures and watching the floats), a group of boys decided that it would be funny to salute to our group (we were dressed as a traditional Jewish wedding) in WWII fashion. Needless to say, it set a pretty negative tone for the start of the parade, not knowing exactly what we would encounter. Odessa is known for having very Jewish roots, so I was shocked that we encountered such a blatant and public display of anti-Semitism. Not quite what I was hoping for, but I guess it’s true that it really is everywhere.

I think what really killed a lot of us was the quality of the air while we were walking. Everyone here smokes, and the city air just reeks of it. The only relief we got was at dinner when we were finally out of the smoky stench, but it was very hard to walk as far as we did in that air. I am constantly reminded of how much I like living in smoke-free Delaware.

Well, that’s enough for now.

Signing off,
Rebecca Marcus