Last Day in Poltava...maybe

We are hoping to get Ukrainian passports today, but we had some problems getting Svieta's Ukrainian social security number, so hopefully it will all come together quickly. If all goes well, we will travel from Poltava to Kiev this evening. I will be sad to leave. It's begun to feel like another home to me. Especially after I studied the map and walked all over, I finally know where I'm going! There is a certain sweetness to life here.

Zhenia's aunt Zoya did my friend Linda's hair today, and we both got manicures for a total of... Five bucks! I've never had one before but hey, for five bucks? Don't worry Loren, I won't make a weekly habit of it...notice I said weekly.

We met Zoya and her husband Pasha when we went back to say goodbye to Zhenia's family. I feel bad for Zhenia because her great uncle is opposed to the adoption and he has some old ideas from Soviet times about evil Americans. He glared at us when we got out of the van, then followed Zhenia into the courtyard where he told her she was going to be raped, we probably only wanted her for a kidney or something, or we would steal her blood. Then he said she was a bad person for wanting to go to America and cursed her. Then he left. She cried and said she wished she hadn't come. Luckily for her the others in the family that we had met before are very supportive, so that helped her heal. I did feel bad for her though because they had planned for everyone in their family to come see her off, and the only people besides her Babushkas Katia and Mosha, Uncle Roman, Aunt Natasha, and cousins Sergei and Katia who came were Pasha and Zoya. The others aren't sure they approve. Zoya was friendly from the first moment, but Pasha spent some time surveying us and listening to us, asking some pretty direct questions like, "Do you want to have a large family so you can convert them?" By the end of the evening however, he said that he felt we were sincere and that we really loved Zhenia. He also said that after all of the pain in her life, she finally got the winning lottery ticket by being chosen by us. I really love her family and consider them part of mine now as well.

Yesterday, we went back to their village to say goodbye to Linda's daughter Anya's grandfather. What a sweet man! He and his girlfriend Ria had a spread layed out of green borsht (amazing soup!), fried chicken, potatoes, salads, fresh vegetables from their garden, homemade pickles and pickled tomatoes, garlic bread... Here are my warnings to those still coming to Ukraine if you are invited to a family's home:

1. PACE YOURSELVES. I'm serious, everyone will be done way before they expect you to be done, and you will hurt their feelings if you don't keep eating. My advice is to eat very slowly, and load your plate a little at a time. Try to time your bites and your servings when you know they are watching, and the rest of the time, just hold the food on your fork, or you will feel like bursting.

2. When they fill your drink, it is a Ukrainian superstition to leave the glass on the table. If you lift it up, they say it means you are trying to hurry through your life = short life.

3. For the many toasts, never toast with an empty glass, it means bad luck.

4. They also believe if the last person you toast is male, it will bless you financially. Hmmmm.

Ria gets up at 5 am every morning and goes out to work in their field. Then she works at a brick factory from 9-6 moving 9 pound bricks from one conveyor belt to another with 1/2 hour off for lunch. Upon returning home, she works in the field again before doing the household stuff. I will not complain about how busy I am again! My whole outlook has changed from my experiences here. I hope I never go back to being the same person I was before. Wow.