I'm finally managing to find a few ways to entertain myself while Alla deals with her mom's stuff. A couple of days ago I set out for Vetka, a village not far from Gomel. Alla was very reluctant to let me go alone, and finally decided that since it was so important to me she'd take me there. It was easy to do, and I now have permission to take buses to other villages if I want to while she's tied up.
The trip to Vetka was interesting because it was listed as a yellow zone after Chernobyl and folks have the option of relocation from there if they are worried. I was cautious and kept my geiger counter on my lap all the way there. Amazingly enough, I got the lowest readings I've ever gotten, lower than at home, during much of the ride. Background radiation in Vetka was about what I'd experience in Boston. So far I haven't really found anything at all troubling with my geiger counter. The soil in the park near Alla's mom's place registered a tad higher than the air, but well below what folks in Denver experience all the time.
The main attraction in Vetka is a museum of handcraft, though I found the ride there sufficiently beautiful that I wouldn't have minded even if the museum were closed. We worried for a moment when we approached the museum because the biggest doors were locked, but once we found the public entrance we were in for a huge treat. They have icon art, wood carving, beautiful linen weavings in traditional patterns that have distinct meanings, beadwork, tools, all manner of samovars, a wonderful staff, and a useful bookstore. I loved it.
Today I got in a workout at a local gym. A one-entry membership cost just under $4.00. I was pleased to find a well equipped gym, and enjoyed the company of an aerobics class with nine very attractive women nearby. (For the statistically inclined, that was nine out of nine.) I hadn't brought a towel and the gym doesn't normally provide them. After I got really sweaty they took pity on me and gave me a clean sheet that must have been intended for their massage table and I used that to dry off after my shower.
I am always noticed around here. I don't look Russian, I wear the wrong clothes, and I speak the wrong language. Occasionally people make a point of telling me that they don't consider me an enemy, but at times "methinks thou dost protest too much." While I was waiting in line here at the Internet place I got another of those threatening protestations that I'm not an enemy. Fortunately, the guy's English was pretty good so I shook his hand and started a conversation. After half an hour of waiting together, he told me that he really does think I'm an OK guy and he's glad he met me.
Showing posts with label Gomel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gomel. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Victory Day
Yesterday was Victory Day, also known as "May 9" in the same way folks in the USA know Independence day as "Fourth of July." We started the day watching the Russian parade in Moscow's Red Square, televised live in Belarus. It was a pretty moving demonstration of appreciation for the people who saved the land from the Nazis. The statistics are staggering. The USSR lost 23 MILLION people. The USA, by contrast, lost just over 400,000. It's not surprising then that the former USSR is much more acutely aware of May 9 than other folks are.
Here in Gomel, Belarus, there was a parade that I missed and a bunch of concerts. Since Alla was tied up with her chores plowing through family artifacts and can't really share these chores, I went downtown on my own to hear the music in Lenin Square. I didn't try to get very far from the square because I don't really know where the other venues were and I don't do very well in Russian. The shows in the main square were plenty interesting enough.
They started with a series of choirs from various labor unions and work groups. My Russian is very limited so maybe I missed something, but I'm pretty sure there were no corporations represented or other groups not organized by the State. For all I know, there's no such thing as a corporation here, but I don't claim any clear knowledge of the political or economic arrangements.
One thing I am sure of is that folks are very careful not to make any mistakes. We've seen it demonstrated in the work of transit personnel, the folks who build fences and memorials for grave sites and other places. I finally learned that there is a directive from the very top that bureaucrats at the lower levels are charged with resolving all disputes and complaints within 72 hours. The guy who told me this went so far as to say that failure to resolve a complaint within the allotted time results in loss of job. Watch an employee of the State make commitments of any kind or even count change, and you'll see extreme caution to get it right the first time. As far as I can tell, the result is extreme reliability but at the cost of efficiency.
Anyway, back to the patriotic May 9 music. After the choirs they brought on a series of individual and duet performers who sang popular music, generally with a recorded instrumental track. I especially enjoyed this part of the program as the singers were more uniformly good and I found the music more accessible.
Alla came to join me when the show ended and we went to the circus. We saw an excellent troupe from Moscow. We were a little overwhelmed by their smoke generator, but we loved the show itself. They needed smoke in order to draw patterns in the air with laser light (which kept shining in our eyes so we kept our sunglasses at the ready.)
Finally, we had an interesting experience with a brand-new restaurant. They had been open only two hours when we went in, so they had a good excuse for their confusion. Still, we were reminded once again that expectations about customer service vary from place to place and this meal was better for generating a story than for quelling an appetite. It demonstrated why some folks prefer package tours over self-travel. I think it would be very hard to get a good meal in Gomel without a guide or interpreter. We now know two or three ways to do it, and one way definitely not to do it.
Here in Gomel, Belarus, there was a parade that I missed and a bunch of concerts. Since Alla was tied up with her chores plowing through family artifacts and can't really share these chores, I went downtown on my own to hear the music in Lenin Square. I didn't try to get very far from the square because I don't really know where the other venues were and I don't do very well in Russian. The shows in the main square were plenty interesting enough.
They started with a series of choirs from various labor unions and work groups. My Russian is very limited so maybe I missed something, but I'm pretty sure there were no corporations represented or other groups not organized by the State. For all I know, there's no such thing as a corporation here, but I don't claim any clear knowledge of the political or economic arrangements.
One thing I am sure of is that folks are very careful not to make any mistakes. We've seen it demonstrated in the work of transit personnel, the folks who build fences and memorials for grave sites and other places. I finally learned that there is a directive from the very top that bureaucrats at the lower levels are charged with resolving all disputes and complaints within 72 hours. The guy who told me this went so far as to say that failure to resolve a complaint within the allotted time results in loss of job. Watch an employee of the State make commitments of any kind or even count change, and you'll see extreme caution to get it right the first time. As far as I can tell, the result is extreme reliability but at the cost of efficiency.
Anyway, back to the patriotic May 9 music. After the choirs they brought on a series of individual and duet performers who sang popular music, generally with a recorded instrumental track. I especially enjoyed this part of the program as the singers were more uniformly good and I found the music more accessible.
Alla came to join me when the show ended and we went to the circus. We saw an excellent troupe from Moscow. We were a little overwhelmed by their smoke generator, but we loved the show itself. They needed smoke in order to draw patterns in the air with laser light (which kept shining in our eyes so we kept our sunglasses at the ready.)
Finally, we had an interesting experience with a brand-new restaurant. They had been open only two hours when we went in, so they had a good excuse for their confusion. Still, we were reminded once again that expectations about customer service vary from place to place and this meal was better for generating a story than for quelling an appetite. It demonstrated why some folks prefer package tours over self-travel. I think it would be very hard to get a good meal in Gomel without a guide or interpreter. We now know two or three ways to do it, and one way definitely not to do it.
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Radonitsa
OK, we're in Gomel. Yesterday was a big holiday called Radonitsa. This is a religious holiday, but since everybody seems to celebrate it, it's a State holiday too. I'm a little fuzzy on the theological underpinnings of this holiday, and since Alla's family didn't discuss religion (her dad was a Soviet military officer) she didn't really learn anything about Russian Orthodox traditions growing up. As Alla described it to me, it's Easter for everybody else. I asked her if it were some sort of resurrection day and she said yes. So there you have it, at least until I or one of my readers should go out and Google it.
Anyway, the way it's celebrated around here is that everybody visits the cemetaries and leaves flowers and food. Getting to the cemetary was not easy at all. We couldn't get a taxi so we took a bus, which was full when it arrived. The other folks at the bus stop were much more aggressive than we and managed to get on. Wanting to demonstrate our own cultural understanding, we got on too. At least we got our feet onto the bottom step of the back door of our bus. Then the driver tried to close the doors and I realized that the only way our door was going to close was if I pressed into the crowd. The crowd absorbed me, the door dragged shut over my backpack and off we went.
At the first stop, a couple of people got off and we stepped all the way inside the bus to allow newcomers the same door-pressing enclosure I enjoyed. Presently, amazingly enough, the conductor parted the crowd and forced her way through so we could all pay. It reminded me of the progress of a sturdy Russian icebreaker during a harsh arctic winter. I don't know how either of them got through, but like the ships, our conductor moved successfully.
As I stood there imagining the stories I'd tell Alla about supposed invasions of personal space by the people pressing me from all sides, I actually felt somebody jostling the little camera case I was wearing on my belt. I looked down to see some poor little woman adjusting the foolish thing so it would fit into a more comfortable place between her ribs.
Presently we did reach the cemetary. The trip took longer than I expected because of all the other traffic, but in any event we had no problem getting out of the bus because everybody else wanted to get out too.
Our next problem was buying flowers. The store had none that morning, but they told us that any flowers that might be available were to be had at the cemetary. They also admonished us to arrive early because they would sell out. We hoped we were early enough, as it was already 11 a.m. and we still had to walk all the way around to the main gate on the far side to find the vendors, who had plenty of stuff yet to sell.
Alla chose floral arrangements but did not buy any eggs or bread to make food offerings. I discovered when we reached her father's grave, however, that she had brought him some bread and vodka, which she left on a plate and glass still there from her previous visit.
The cemetary was pretty well packed with people, many of whom had installed picnic tables at their grave sites. Although we had a picnic of our own, neither of her parents have tables at this time so we ended up going home hungry after paying our respects to each.
Most of the rest of our time here in Gomel has been devoted to apartment cleanup and other family business. Alla succeeded in collecting her mom's last pension payment and as I write this she's changing over the telephone service to her name. We've also done a pretty good job of preparing the back bedroom for the arrival of a tenant. We have more to do there, and plenty of work to do on the front bedroom and the kitchen.
My next guaranteed outing will be going to the circus. There's some big foreign circus in town and we got (for the first time in my life) ringside seats. Right at the main aisle no less! And this extraordinary privilege is costing about $8 apiece. Belarus is more generous than Russia in extending subsidized pricing to everybody and not just to citizens. This probably won't last if they get a greater flow of tourists, but I'll try to make the best of it now.
That's it, then. I doubt that you'll hear more from me until we finish our apartment cleanup project. Oh, and I seem to have volunteered to paint the fence around her dad's grave site. Do v'strecher ("until later," but I've probably mangled the spelling.)
Anyway, the way it's celebrated around here is that everybody visits the cemetaries and leaves flowers and food. Getting to the cemetary was not easy at all. We couldn't get a taxi so we took a bus, which was full when it arrived. The other folks at the bus stop were much more aggressive than we and managed to get on. Wanting to demonstrate our own cultural understanding, we got on too. At least we got our feet onto the bottom step of the back door of our bus. Then the driver tried to close the doors and I realized that the only way our door was going to close was if I pressed into the crowd. The crowd absorbed me, the door dragged shut over my backpack and off we went.
At the first stop, a couple of people got off and we stepped all the way inside the bus to allow newcomers the same door-pressing enclosure I enjoyed. Presently, amazingly enough, the conductor parted the crowd and forced her way through so we could all pay. It reminded me of the progress of a sturdy Russian icebreaker during a harsh arctic winter. I don't know how either of them got through, but like the ships, our conductor moved successfully.
As I stood there imagining the stories I'd tell Alla about supposed invasions of personal space by the people pressing me from all sides, I actually felt somebody jostling the little camera case I was wearing on my belt. I looked down to see some poor little woman adjusting the foolish thing so it would fit into a more comfortable place between her ribs.
Presently we did reach the cemetary. The trip took longer than I expected because of all the other traffic, but in any event we had no problem getting out of the bus because everybody else wanted to get out too.
Our next problem was buying flowers. The store had none that morning, but they told us that any flowers that might be available were to be had at the cemetary. They also admonished us to arrive early because they would sell out. We hoped we were early enough, as it was already 11 a.m. and we still had to walk all the way around to the main gate on the far side to find the vendors, who had plenty of stuff yet to sell.
Alla chose floral arrangements but did not buy any eggs or bread to make food offerings. I discovered when we reached her father's grave, however, that she had brought him some bread and vodka, which she left on a plate and glass still there from her previous visit.
The cemetary was pretty well packed with people, many of whom had installed picnic tables at their grave sites. Although we had a picnic of our own, neither of her parents have tables at this time so we ended up going home hungry after paying our respects to each.
Most of the rest of our time here in Gomel has been devoted to apartment cleanup and other family business. Alla succeeded in collecting her mom's last pension payment and as I write this she's changing over the telephone service to her name. We've also done a pretty good job of preparing the back bedroom for the arrival of a tenant. We have more to do there, and plenty of work to do on the front bedroom and the kitchen.
My next guaranteed outing will be going to the circus. There's some big foreign circus in town and we got (for the first time in my life) ringside seats. Right at the main aisle no less! And this extraordinary privilege is costing about $8 apiece. Belarus is more generous than Russia in extending subsidized pricing to everybody and not just to citizens. This probably won't last if they get a greater flow of tourists, but I'll try to make the best of it now.
That's it, then. I doubt that you'll hear more from me until we finish our apartment cleanup project. Oh, and I seem to have volunteered to paint the fence around her dad's grave site. Do v'strecher ("until later," but I've probably mangled the spelling.)
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