hetmanandherring

[hetmanandherring]

Look at this beautiful young lady sandwich from our school’s prom last night! ✨💞💃

[hetmanandherring]

Golden hour together.

[hetmanandherring]

.@jason.jozwiak’s first and last Ferris wheel ride in Shepetivka 🎡 😒 (at Shepetivka)

[hetmanandherring]

A splendid day in городище with @the_hisstorian to start the summer ☀️ @karligallo18 @jason.jozwiak (at Городище)

[hetmanandherring]

I don’t know how many more jobs I’ll have in my career where two smiling young ladies walk up to me in the break room at lunch and say, “Today is beautiful. You are beautiful. Take these lilacs!” 💞💐😻 #teacherslife #howiseepc #peacecorps @peacecorpsukraine (at Shepetivka)

[hetmanandherring]

You’ve got a better cafeteria and you’ve got a better teacher’s room, but I’ve got the best colleagues 💞 (at Shepetivka)

[hetmanandherring]

Although the weather is gray and snowy, it is warm with laughter during 10th Grade English Club! 🧐🤣🎲🍬 (at Shepetivka)

[hetmanandherring]

Want to know what your colleagues think of you? Participate in a “guess your colleague” drawing contest. ☀️🇺🇸🍪😊 (at Shepetivka)

[hetmanandherring]

Where is West?

We started our Ukrainian adventure 18 months ago in a small village an hour north of the nation’s capital, constantly curious about the location of our future home. I would explore the corners of the map with my newly minted grandparents, having them share tales from different pockets of Ukraine over warm compote and stale ginger cookies. My upstairs grandma, Hanna, would recount her childhood in the Carpathians in a quick lilting Romanian accent while her best friend, Halya, would share the former glory of her life in central Ukraine, grounded in industry and life near the river. Often the conversation would drift towards the distant “West.” We were told, “In Western Ukraine people think differently, they act differently…it’s a whole different world.” When we were finally given a place to point to on the map we thought we might just find out.

In our first weeks in Shepetivka we were dazzled by the brightly lit new cafes, free WiFi, french fries and pop music; the shops filled with goods from Poland, Italy, Germany and beyond; people driving Toyotas, speaking Ukrainian and discussing their hopes for economic reform. 

Although monuments of its Soviet-past lingered, this place was decidedly closer to the “Ukraine” we were told awaited us. Just 20 miles east of the seemingly forgotten Molotov-Ribbentrop line, our city was proud of its strategic importance in Ukraine’s tumultuous history. But it didn’t take long before the weeds began peaking through the cultural cracks. When asked which Ukrainian cities we’d visited our new colleagues would reminisce their own times in the idyllic West; the beauty of Ternopil’s lake in the summer, the modernity of Lutsk’s infrastructure and once again, how Lviv was the cultural epicenter of “a whole different world.”

Our first blush of Lviv proved to be a whirlwind of expectations met, Ukrainian flags flying with the lighthearted confirmation that Ukraine belongs among the gems of Eastern Europe. A cultural pride oozing from the seams of every café, street performer and trident laden gift shop. At once a bigger Krakow, a smaller Prague, and a place that Ukrainians can be proud to showcase to foreign tourists.

But after passing through a few more times (and history books) it was hard to ignore the emphatic presence of UPA flags, the Bandera Bros lurking around tourist squares to strike up debates with foreigners about their rustbelt “civil war” and the times I’ve seen Ukrainians shamed for the language they spoke. Like much of the current world, it became hard to ignore Ukraine’s precipitous tread through the undertow of populism.

All this leaves me fascinated by where exactly we live on this nebulous map.

During a recent conversation about our holiday schedule with my Vice Principal, a jovial Turkmeni woman who came to Shepetivka 30 years ago with her Polish military officer, she noted that it was common to have off Good Friday in Western Ukraine and Easter Monday elsewhere. Befuddled, I looked beseechingly at the history teacher who had overheard us and asked, “So where is West?”

My VP smirked, flipped her hand over like a pre-Lenten pancake and replied:

Не такий, не такий.

(Neither here, nor there.)

[hetmanandherring]

Ukrainian Ethno-Futurism met fashion today in Shepetivka featuring drawings and pieces by Designer Ганни Ткач (Anna Tkach). (at Музей Миколи Островського)

[hetmanandherring]

Масляна (pre-lent) festival 🥞🍷 Outdoor hockey games 🏒 Ferris wheels 🎡 Miscellany 👹 (at Шепетівка)

[hetmanandherring]

Wearing Both Shoes

After four energizing days of delving into Ukrainian language and culture, swapping stories and struggles of community life with volunteers, I returned to the capital for 24 hours of urban rejuvenation.

Across the street from the matchbox double that we favor chiefly for it’s proximity to our favorite bar, I notice a new lightbox hanging over the archway with a stock image and craft beer. Dismissed as one more entrepreneur’s hob cobbled marketing attempt, we descend the staircase into the warmth of a familiar basement.

Shuffling for a few minutes to find a table we land across from the bar, under the beer menu board. Minimal rebranding now gently pointed towards a brewery based at the foot of Ukraine’s tallest mountain, Hoverla. Somewhere lurking behind our conversation about the brilliance of Paul Beatty, the trade off of safe spaces and the emergence of peanut allergies the atmosphere had shifted. Overpriced burgers had given way to a staggeringly long salo menu. The American dive bar jukebox had ceded to well curated Ukrainian indie rock. This place had become a shade more Ukrainian.

In one of the comfortable silences of marriage my ears honed in on two middle-aged men speaking something roughly Germanic under the bathroom hieroglyphs. Just as my interest had waned, a man taking all his style queues from Mole in The Wind in the Willows caught my eye. He burrowed over to our table insisting we had met before, the trite way confident men believe they can will their way into your past.

We exchanged the typical expat formalities with the successful Danish entrepreneur before settling into the audience he was after. A dozen years in St. Petersburg in the early nineties, followed by another dozen down south in the Ukrainian capital. After highlighting his war stories from the Russian (economic) Wild West, applauding the skeletal costs of a competent Ukrainian labor pool and heeding a warning to Odesa to curb corruption, we are finally asked the most decidedly western question.

“What do you do here?”

“We don’t live in Kyiv. We’re English teachers in a small town in Khmelnytsky.”

“Where?”

“Khmelnytska oblast. It’s halfway on the train line between Kyiv and Lviv.”

“Are you near Ivano-Frankivsk? We set up an office there in 2014. I have to be careful about speaking Russian when I’m there.”

A cartographer’s daughter quickly constructs a hand map to demonstrate relative location by oblast.

The Dane waves a paw of dismissal, “I don’t know any of the provinces.”

As the subterranean mammal who had been in Kyiv 12 years, yet flunked basic Ukrainian geography, continued pontificating I scooped my chin up off the floor and the reality of our experience in Ukraine poured over me. How different our experience would have been had I come here on a corporate secondment; had Jason started managing a satellite development office or simply if we lived in the capital. How few Ukrainian traditions, idioms, holidays, annoyances, struggles, superstitions and words we would have needed to understand to get through a work day and before huddling around the warmth of the expat community. 

Outcasts of the expat world, The Peace Corps was founded by a generation of Americans with an unrivaled sense of community and has maintained a hard line on the importance of cultural and community integration. Leadership guru Simon Sinek echoes this by reminding us (by way of Stanley Milgram) that the less abstract people become, the less capable we are of doing them harm. As a millennial inseparable from the experience economy, it took a vapid Dane for me to see that I too had become just a shade more Ukrainian.

[hetmanandherring]

“Blood and Water”

FADE IN:

INT. LIVING ROOM – BREZHNEV ERA FLAT – DECEMBER EVENING

MIA, BROTHER and their mother talk over the phone on the day after their mother’s 58th birthday.  The connection is clear, mother is difficult to hear.

                                                           MIA

It sounds like you had a good birthday yesterday. It’s almost Christmas. Do you want to sing some Christmas Carols?

Mother urgently moans through the telephone.

                                                      BROTHER

She’s shaking her head yes.

MIA sings Jingle Bells, Frosty the Snowman and Santa Claus is Coming to Town a cappella into the telephone.

                                                      BROTHER

She’s humming along and moving her arms.

                                                          MIA

What else do we know? The Twelve Days of Christmas?

                                                     BROTHER

                                         (Chuckles)

How are you going to remember all those words?

Mia quickly Googles the lyrics and begins singing.

                                                           MIA

On the eighth day of Christmas…wait, is it eight ladies dancing or maids a-milking?

                                                     BROTHER

I’m surprised you’ve gotten this far.

                                                           MIA

                                     (Significantly louder)

Eight maids a-milking!

Seven swans a-swimming!

Six geese a-laying.

Five golden rings.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 CUT TO:

INT. BEDROOM – BREZHNEV ERA FLAT – MIDDAY – NEXT DAY

MIA and BROTHER speak over the phone, stifling tears.

                                                          MIA

Did you know that you aren’t able to cry at the same time as drinking water? It’s a trick I use often.

                                                     BROTHER

Just let me know the earliest you can get here. I’m not going to have the funeral without you.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  CUT TO:

INT. OFFICE BUILDING LOUNGE – 3 MORNINGS LATER

PEACE CORPS STAFF MEMBER enters a dark, near empty lounge and starts to tear up, MIA smiles in surprise and everyone begins laughing softly.

                                    PEACE CORPS STAFF MEMBER

Well it wasn’t supposed to be me getting emotional. I just wanted to make sure you are okay and that everything is taken care of for your trip.

                                                          MIA

It’s okay. Thank you for coming and for all your help. We are all set.

                                  PEACE CORPS STAFF MEMBER

Do you have someone to pick you up at the airport or did you rent a car?

                                                         MIA

We rented an economy car. It’ll be easier for everyone.

                                PEACE CORPS STAFF MEMBER

Yea, that’s true. I heard there is a huge snowstorm expected to blow through the Northeast next week. You might want to upgrade to the four-wheel drive.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  CUT TO:

INT. KITCHEN – AMERICAN TOWNHOUSE – COLD JANUARY MORNING

AUNT and MIA prepare snacks for separate car trips.

                                                         AUNT

Is there any reason the Brita is on the counter?

                                                           MIA

I wanted to take advantage of drinking tap water, but it’s so cold outside refrigerated water was too cold to drink.

                                                        AUNT

No problem, I was just curious. Can you not drink tap water in Ukraine?

                                                          MIA

                              (Pondering a moment, then sighs)

Well, not really. You can…but you don’t.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  CUT TO:

INT. AMERICAN CHAIN RESTAURANT – FOLLOWING MONDAY EVENING

MIA sits next to her husband at a booth with COUSIN.  A waiter silently drops off their drinks and scurries away.

                                                       MIA

I know you were in North Carolina for a lot of years. So how did you end up back in Pennsylvania?

                                                   COUSIN

                            (Takes three long, slow gulps of water)

Well, Mia…about four years ago my life fell apart.  

                            (Pausing)

Everyone, including me, thought I had this great husband with a high up job on the railroad. The whole town thought he was the model father.

Then out of nowhere he loses his job. He was stealing from the railroad. He was buying drugs.

                                                      MIA

So you wouldn’t see any money coming out of your bank account.

                                                   COUSIN

                             (Shaking head in agreement)

Turns out all those late nights at work his boss had introduced him to heroin.

                             (Disgusted, continues)

I should have known. Months before that he had surgery and when I called the pharmacy to pick up his pain killers they told me he had already asked the for the maximum amount weeks in advance…

                                                        MIA

                            (Takes three long gulps of water)

That’s how it usually starts. It’s an epidemic in America.

                                                     COUSIN

I lost everything.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  CUT TO:

INT.  LIVING ROOM – AMERICAN TOWNHOUSE – SAME EVENING

MIA exchanges messages with CLOSE FRIEND on WhatsApp.

CLOSE FRIEND: How are you feeling about going back?

MIA: Fine. Going to miss good water for drinking and showering.

CLOSE FRIEND: Of all the things

MIA: This sounds small until you don’t have it.

                                                                                                             FADE OUT.

[hetmanandherring]

A walk in the park. 🍁🐿🍄 @allisonstoner16 (at Shepetivka)

[hetmanandherring]

Even after researching, I have questions (at Kontraktova Ploshcha)

[hetmanandherring]

On Sunday @panivalkova dared to do two things I would have never expected at @bandershtat (a festival dedicated to promoting Ukrainian nationalism through the arts): cover Nina Simone and sing a song in Russian. Experimental without being heavy, they were a fabulous live show. #bandershtat #ukrainianmusic (at Бандерштат - фестиваль українського духу)

[hetmanandherring]

Пам'ятник Небесній сотні у Чикаго (США) 🇺🇦🇺🇸@history_of_ukraine