Cluster Reunion

Last week I had the privilege of meeting my cluster mates for our first reunion since training. There was a lot that we did so I’ll try to condense this entry and include only the most notable things.

Innate racism?

My journey to Armiansk, where our cluster mate Michael lives, required a circuitous route from my town of Shevchenkove. The first leg of my trip was a bus ride north to Kharkiv, from where I’d take an overnight train to Jean-Koy, which is further south of our destination, from which 4 of us would meet up and together take a bus north to Armiansk.

It was on the first leg of my trip that I encountered a strange instance of racism. Standing outside of the bus, waiting to board, I looked through the window where there was a child not more than 7 years old. With an expressionless face, devoid of any air of contempt, the kid slowly, almost mechanically, as if mandated by duty, raised his index fingers to the ends of his eyes and pulled them back while staring directly at me. I reciprocated by giving him the dirtiest look I could possibly give. He retreated behind the curtain. Meanwhile, I stood there wondering if I should chide the child in front of his mother and everyone on the bus. I wanted to tell his mom but I figured it wasn’t worth it. It might lead to more misunderstanding. A minute or so later, he came out from behind the curtain and did it again. And we replayed the exchange that I have just described.

Of course I can’t blame the kid. He is after all, just a kid. But it made me wonder how, in a place where one rarely makes contact with Asians, this child knew to make that gesture. Are some people just born with this propensity to point out differences? What does one expect when making that gesture? Do people feel better about themselves after doing such a thing? He must’ve known that I wouldn’t have appreciated it.

Dancing under the stars

One of the notable venues of Armiansk is the discotech that Michael recently discovered in the woods. A narrow pathway through the woods leads to it. Looming over it was a canopy like that of a small stadium. But it only covered the table area. In the middle, where the dance floor was, there was no roofing. One could easily see the stars by just looking up while on the dance floor. It was pretty amazing.

Like any discotech, it seemed to operate only at night. It certainly got busier as the night went on. After a round of beers, we hit the dance floor and more people joined as time passed. Before long there was a large crowd. I broke it down as usual and got a high five from some stranger.

Евпатория, Крым (Yevpatoria, Crimea)

On one of the days, we decided to take a bus trip to Yevpatoria, which is a town on the Western coast of Crimea, which is a peninsula in the Black Sea. Yevpatoria is largely a tourist destination and it was crowded. But it wasn’t uncomfortably so. There were a myriad of vendors and boardwalk games (minus the boardwalk, it was just cement if I remember correctly).

The beach was beautiful. The sand: perfect. The water was blue and clear but not as blue or as clear as that of the Caribbean. The floor of the ocean was mostly rocks and it was hard to walk on. It was also littered with the occasional boulder. But the water felt great. It perfectly complimented the hot, subtropical weather. Looking out on the ocean, as it was a touristy beach, there were lots of large beach toys scattered across the view: giant water slides, inflated floating devices for rent, wind-surfers, boats, etc. It looked like a child’s bathtub that he’d forgotten to clean up after his bath from the perspective of a Lilliputian.

Sitting on the beach, we were approached by moonshwine sellers. We decided to get a bottle of the homemade wine, which tasted a lot like cough syrup but was good nonetheless: more for the novelty than the taste. The moonshwiners were extremely nice and basically gave us a free wine-tasting session, which included all the different wine bottles they had, all of which were in previously used plastic water bottles. To top the day off right, we got some shwarma before heading back.

Shady business

I stayed in Crimea until Wednesday because there were no seats on the train for my next destination on Tuesday. Everyone else except Maggie and me had stayed until then. But I was the last to leave. So after Maggie left, Mike and I decided that we’d go on a hookah run because we ran out of coals and shishah. We didn’t have anything better to do so we ventured off, not knowing whether we’d find anyplace that sold them.

We asked around and made our way towards the general area where we were directed to go. We happened to walk right up to the store, which had a few hookahs and hookah equipment in the display window. As we walked closer, however, we found that it wasn’t really a store. The door was open and inside was a guy wearing just a beater and a pair of boxers sprawled out on a bed, which was really the only piece of furniture that was in there. I called out “извините” (excuse me) a few times, almost to the point of shouting, before he woke up. I asked if he was selling those items in the window and he indeed was. We did business and then before we walked away, the guy pulled something out of his pocket. His hands revealed an array of packets, made of printer paper, with staples on each edge, holding inside of them, (I’m guessing) pills. The paper had pictures on them, printed by a color printer. We promptly declined the offer and left. We crossed the street, which at the very moment had a cop car passing by. But nothing came of it. I guess it was pretty stupid to buy shishah from such a place, but it worked out fine. Unless of course I’m unknowingly tripping on acid right now and all this is a figment of my imagination.

After my trip to Crimea, I went straight to Kiev, from which I took a 45 minute bus ride to Obukhiv, my training site, to visit my host family. But you can read about that next time.