September 9, Last Night in Horodek, Celebration Dinner, OFF to Poland

BLOG ENTRY, September 9: , OUR LAST NIGHTS IN GORODEK AND A CELEBRATION DINNER


Today I am conscious that these blog entries are only reflections and experiences. They are made without information or knowledge of the history, customs, and local organization. My writing also leaves something to be desired but I do not have time to give it a thorough review and editing.

DINNER AT COUSIN LESHYA’S:

Leshya (Stanicki) and Jaroslaw Mazola invited us to dinner on Monday. Jaroslaw is a foreman for roof builders. He makes enough to put food on the table, and pay the utilities: gas, power, and water. He must not make much because most rooms only have one of the usual 3-4 bulb ceiling lights working. Leshya works as a caregiver in Italy, changing off with Maria every three months. At 1500 EURO/month for 6 months, her income goes to fix and maintain the house in repair. Since our last visit in 2003 the rough brick outer shell of the house has been stuccoed and an indoor bathroom added. Leshya came home for the wedding, giving up a week’s pay and making the 24 hr bus trip from Chusefort, Northeastern Italy. They have a large house, maybe 1500 sq ft, but not finished or furnished as well as the other houses. The house is situated near the small lake, or maybe it should be called a slough/fish pond, in town. You get there via a road which is really a rutted potholed trail, overgrown with shrubs, beside the lake.

The Mazola’s daughter Oksana and husband Yura and two boys, 1 and 3 live with them. Yura is a local fireman, and Oksana plays the domestic role at home. During dinner the nicely dressed Oksana slipped out to milk the goat for milk, which was put straight into feeding bottles for the babies. I slipped out, guided by Yura, to see the scene. We walked through the back yard of 2 sheds for poultry, animals?, and equipment?, by a crudely constructed thatched roof gondola, around another house which was in bad shape (we were told that Jaroslaw’s crippled sister lives there, tended by Oksana), and further back to a small shed. The goat was tethered in the shed and Oksansa was milking it. Three pigs grunted in a small pen. As we entered I had to lower my head for the ‘roof’ which I found on turning around to be a shelf with chickens, one of whose rears was right in my face. Together with the odors it was a bit of a shock, but nothing different with my own memories of growing up on our farm in Saskatchewan.

As usual for dinners and visits in Ukraine, we arrived to see a table being filled with the meal. Once we were sitting the hostess started putting (trying to put) large portions of food on our plates, despite our protests. I have developed a technique to deal with this. I pick up my plate and hold it on my lap, covered by my hands. I am willing to risk the insult to the host, in order to safe my stomach and me from the later urgings to ‘yeastey, yeastey’, eat, eat.

During dinner, Leshya told us the harrowing story of her first time travelling to Italy for a caregiver job in 1997. She had saved up enough for the trip, but only spoke Ukrainian and had no idea where Italy was located. She bought a ticket to Warsaw, the wrong direction. In Warsaw she learned that she had to go South to Krakow to get a train to Italy. On finally arriving in Krakow at 3am, she found herself lost, in total darkness, totally confused, and without food or knowledge of where to find any. She only had 200 dollars which she needed to save for the rest of the trip. Fortunately she met a lady who she had known in Ukraine. The lady shared her bread with her. Later a man came who spoke Polish. Leshya knew Polish (her parents had been forcibly moved from Poland to Ukraine). After some cautious converstation the lady and Leshya shared their bread and befriended the man. The man provided protection and later helped Leshya buy her ticket for the rest of the voyage to Italy. The experience reminded me of the stories I have seen on TV of women, looking for a better life, who get tricked into slavery and prostitution. Fortunately, many people like Leshya make it to their destination safely and are able to arrange an improved, but still deprived, life for themselves and their families.

My heart aches for these relatives and for the billions in the world in these kinds of situations. I anger at the thought of the greedy ruthless and corrupt leaders who cause these situations. At the same time I realize how inadequate the human mind is to lead the masses. Even great leaders cannot overcome all the evil caused by our their own minds and those of their supporters.

CELEBRATION DINNER:

Tuesday evening around 7:30pm we (Rose and I, Mike (Rose’s 80 year old brother) and Lillian) took our hosts (cousin Maria Murmil, her daughter Halya and husband Bill Burda, and their two small boys) to dinner at what is likely the best restaurant in town, and it was good. We billed it as a going away dinner, but it was also an early birthday celebration for Maria’s 60th birthday on September 12, and Christmas gifts presentation. Both couples gave Maria US$ 100 for her birthday and $200 which we usually give for Christmas, totaling $600. While these were gifts we suspect they will be used to pay most of the cost of $800 for a new roof needed on the house. Bill drove the 9 of us the three km trip in his small 10 year old Peugot car in two trips.

After Rose, myself, and Halya were dropped off we hopped around a few puddles to walk to a nearby flower shop/shack, about 6 ft by 9 ft, to buy a nice flower arrangement for 40 Hrenya ~CAD$ 5, then walked to the restaurant. It was across from the retail area of haphazardly located shacks and puddles, behind a few ‘normal’, ie brick/stucco stores and banks/money changers, through an alley with a few more shack stores, up some stairs to the back of the brick/stucco buildings, and into the restaurant. Nicely designed and painted, the restaurant was about 2,000 sq ft/220 sq meters. Ceramic tiled floors met nicely painted plaster walls and ceiling. A few framed large prints of what appeared to be famous paintings adorned the walls and 2 Venus 4 ft high plaster statues were placed amid artificial trees around the walls. The ceilings had curved designs in two levels about 6 inches deep, and modern lighting with ‘star’ lights imbedded. About 20 tables were nicely spaced in the larger area. A smaller area had a few tables set together for a large group. Customers could serve themselves from a self serve area or be served a prepared meal as we were.

Since we Canadians and could not read Ukrainian, except for Mike who has limited ability, Halya had preordered the food. Appetizers consisted of roast tongue (very good once you steeled yourself to try it), an egg salad, sliced cold meats, coleslaw, breads, cucumber/carrot pickles and beat pickles with horseradish, all very good. The main course was pounded pork strips wrapped and stuffed with a mushroom sauce filling, fried and then roasted in the oven; mashed potatoes with butter and dill sprinkled over them, vodka, Russian wine, and bottled water. We finished dinner with a dish of ice cream sprinkled with grated chocolate, cognac, espresso coffee for me and tea for the others. The others have learned to avoid the normal coffee which consists of a few teaspoons of coffee with boiling water poured over it. The total cost for all of us was 600 Hrenya, about $70.

OFF TO POLAND

We were up at 4am Wednesday so that cousin Wasyl (Bill) Ohinok could pick us up at 5am and take us to visit the Stanicki and Pietrucha cousins in Southeastern Poland. It was only a 50 km drive to the border, but Bill was not sure how long it would take to get through the border. He knew what he was talking about. We arrived at the Ukrainian side of the border at 6am to see a line of cars ½ km long. Bill skipped around it and scooted in about 100 yards from the Ukrainian exit customs (I suspect we could move forward because we had nothing to declare). My guess is that the border delays, which we were told can be around 24 hours, amount to a huge economic cost. Bill has been in the broker/transport business for years so he knows how to handle these situations. He jumped out of the van, a 1994 red Peugot on which he said he had 700,000 kms, talked to a few people in line, then to a few guards/customs agents, and went off into a building. On return, with a slip of paper, he wove through the line to within about 50 meters of the border. By 9:10am (8:10 Poland time) we were through the border, had stopped for coffee, bathroom break, and obtained Polish Zloty at the conveniently located exchange bank, at the rate of 2.76 Zolty per US$.

Within a few minutes we were visiting relatives. The highways were well paved, contrary to the oft patched highways of the Ukraine -reminders of how it used to be going from Saskatchewan to Alberta on Highway 7.

The first stop was just a few kms from the border, a quaint little farm house and yard where a small elderly (70s) couple lived, Anna (stanicky) and Wladyk Antonio. It could have been an old farm house in a remote Saskatchewan area. Their son lived in the next lot, in a much nicer looking house, but was just getting the children off to school. Mike and Lillian found the place by memory from their 1990 and2003 visits. Mike had not been able to contact them by phone, so he just walked through the fenced yard, by the classic water well with bucket and pulley for drawing water, up to the door, and knocked. After explaining who he was the door opened and he was welcomed by the wife. Once they knew him, there were hugs and kisses for all. Also visiting was Anna’s sister Maria (Stanicki) who we had never met before. Anna’s husband came out later. He was somewhat crippled by a stroke. We visited a short time and then headed off to find Mike’s and Rose’s cousins from their father’s side, the Pietruchas.

After 20 kms of rural paved roads we came upon the small town of Lukawiec, population of about 2000 according to our hosts, nestled along the side of a hill in rolling plains, and distinguished by a large new church with metal roof somewhat like a tall upside down skewed funnel with a pointed cap on top. Once again Mike and Lillian directed Bill, from memory of their earlier visits, to a small farm, maybe 10-20 acres on the edge of town. Yanina (Pietrucha) and Wladic Kuchciak received us with open arms, Yanina shaking from the excitement of us finally arriving. She was excited to meet, Rose, another Pietrucha, for the first time. After a ‘snack’ meal Bill left to return to Ukraine. He refused to accept any payment so I forcefully and sternly stuffed a US$ 50 in his shirt pocket, which he accepted.

The house was another old, slightly remodeled home, of the basic brick/block construction with covered with stucco. The inside showed its age and the elderly parents satisfaction with the old home: planked floors, plaster walls, old tiled heaters in the rooms and for the kitchen stove, no hot water other than provided on the stove, narrow 48 inch pull out chesterfields for us two visiting couples, one bathroom for everyone, with running cold water and an old flush toilet, tub, sink, and small clothes washer. We each had a sitting/bedroom but Rose and I had to walk through Mike and Lillian’s dinning/bed room to get to the bathroom. The sink tap comes out of the wall about 2 feet above the bottom of the sink, making it difficult to avoid splashing water as the tap is turned on. There was no electricity when we arrived in the morning. A new styled front door and PVC windows has been added by their son, Marek, who works in Italy, and who is planning to remodel the house for his parents to live in the ground level basement, currently being used for garden storage, and his family to live upstairs. Clearly though, these people were generous with their home, food and time, for their Canadian cousins.

After the snack we went out to see the ‘farm’. There were too many things to describe. In the back yard there were geese, ducks, chickens, and their related droppings, a tethered barking dog, a barn and storage shed for the small >20 year old tractor. Further back were some recently tilled fields. Walking along we saw a small tractor pulled mechanical potato picker, and another one which dug up the potatoes and left them on the ground for a team of 15 young and old to gather and load into a tractor pulled cart. Later travels showed many of these situations in the area. There were two small fields of reeds, once used for making baskets, but that venture has now stopped with the reeds still being grown (later travels revealed many more reed fields). We never found out what is done with them now. One lot contained a small pallet construction business. We learned that the 50-70 year old logs (they must have started growing after WWII) were brought in from the Czech Republic. Logs were stripped of their bark, sawn into beams, and then cut into lumber for the final process of making pallets.

We walked down the nicely paved narrow road to visit more relatives, Yalena’s brother Anjay Pietrucha & his wife Katerina, and receive more snacks. These relatives, mostly second and third cousins, were starting to become a blur to me, as I did not understand the conversation other than Rose explaining to me the source of some round of laughter. We returned home at 5:30pm for supper later in the evening.

On the way home we were surprised to find a small official looking building 2 doors down from our host’s home. Inside I found a small library, 5 computers hooked up to the internet, 2 with young boys at them, phone service, and a large plasma TV. Poland has a program similar to that of Industry Canada to fund and encourage local community information sources and access to the internet. I was able to check our email, bank account, and call home for messages using our prepaid Shaw calling card. Supper was thankfully light because of the insistence of Mike and Lillian, but still Yanina seemed disappointed that we did not eat all of the platters of food on the table. The food was good, very good. Yalena makes everything herself, except the vodka (and we found a few places where the ‘vodka’ was home brew). We had a hot red-current tea-like drink, sliced meats, unique egg and meat salads, and a range of home made canned pickles and beet relishes. Nevertheless, Mike ended up with diarrhea the next day.

Supper had not finished long when more guest’s arrived, Rose and Mike’s cousin John Pietrucha and his wife. The food was brought out again, and the visiting began again. Before long the conversations were getting loud and excited, as family ties were renewed. I could not take it any more and went to do this writing.

My understanding of the history of the area is that the European wars, together with Russian and German occupations, and Stalin’s manipulation, exploitation, and starvation of Ukrainians and Poles, left the Stanicky and Pietrucha families decimated and strewn around the world. Even first cousins did not know each other. Some of the Stanicky family in Poland had been suddenly and forcefully moved to Ukraine, leaving remaining members heart broken. Others were penalized for things like selling eggs, and sent to Siberia, shot, or had bodily limbs cut off. One story is of a family member made to walk over burning coals. Some, like Rose, Mike, and Lillian’s Stanicky, Pietrucha, and Derin families, left and came to Canada. Latecomers to Canada in the early 1900s they had to live in the more northerly areas and struggled to eke out an existence with no infrastructure nothing in place – courageous pioneers. I am often reminded of the words of one of Canada’s late Governor Generals, Romeo Leblanc ‘that Canada was built by the extraordinary efforts of ordinary Canadians’. Amidst the improved living standards of these families in all their current countries, the families still seem to harbor in their behaviors and demeanors, an inner sadness of their past lives.

FEELINGS:

Visiting distant relatives in other countries with different cultures is difficult at any time, but we are finding the conditions wearing. I have not had a shower or bath for a few days. Mike and Lillian seem reluctant, or too trusting, or simply as unable as us to change the situation. After all they are relatives and we all want to meet each other. We feel a bit stuck, but yet safe and appreciative of the generosity of these people and of the opportunity to experience the life of for the majority of people in Ukraine and Poland. We are looking forward to moving on. We also realize that the people we are visiting live better than many others. We still have four days in this area, one more night in this house and then 3 nights visiting a Stanicki cousin near Jaroslaw, where on September 14, we catch the express Eurail train to Warsaw with first class tickets.