Chapter 1- Natasha
Natasha, filling my 6 liter bottle with filtered water for $0.36
This is Natasha. I don't know her last name, or even her patranymic name. Since the day I met her almost a year ago, she introduced herself as Natasha and she sells me my water. The water in most of Ukraine is undrinkable from the tap...even to Ukrainians! So, it's not like the people who grew up here can drink it either. Since I have been buying water at this shop, almost every single time I go, Natasha is working. I asked her one time if she owned the place, and she admitted she did not. Her hours are from 9-2, Monday through Friday. She is always in a cheerful mood and always asks how I am- the thing is that she also listens to my answers. Sometimes her friends or family are in the shop when I show up and she has her Bible discussion group in the shop on Thursdays. I was asked to join once, and politely declined. Sometimes the members I meet for the first time try to get me to take their literature, and I always decline with a "thank you but, no.", just as Natasha comes to my rescue. Come to think of it Natasha has never tried to get me to take literture.
Another thing she will do is use words that I don't know in everyday conversation. She will change them when I tell her I don't know them, but if it is a word she thinks I should know, she will write it down for me to look up when I get back to work. So far she has taught me the Russian words for lucky, taxes, forever, and expressive.
A few months ago, I ran into her at the market and she said she was making Monti. I told her that it was a new item for me, so she invited me for dinner at her house with her husband Volodia. It was a great experience. One I have not forgotten. Volodia picked me up in his car at my apartment, we ate, and then spent two hours looking at photographs before calling it a night.
My stopping in for water can easily turn into an hour long visit. Natasha usually has a bag of cookies or sweets in her desk or sometimes fresh cucumbers. If it is warm outside and I arrive a little sweaty, she always offers me a "free sample" of filtered water. Two, on a really hot day. In the winter, when finding any reason to prolong not having to go outside, the offer of hot tea was a regular occurrence.
Volodia is a really nice guy and I like running into him when he visits her in the shop, but it is Natasha that I see once, sometimes twice a week. I am so glad to have people like Natasha in my life who I will cherish and look back on with great fondness. She is one of the people who shapes my life in Ukraine, and I am the better for it.
Chapter 2- Vasya
Vasya, putting fruit out on his stand
This is Vasya. When I came to Razdol'noye a year ago, one of the first things I had to do was learn where to buy stuff. Everything from meat to toilet paper. Lenara showed me all of the places I needed to know- characterizing many places as the "place with the cheapest price" on whatever we were looking for that day. Our bazaar (called a rinok (ree-knock) here, is not terribly big, but most of the people from the outlying villages have to come to buy from our rinok, since they usually can't get more that the occassional farmer setting up a stand in their village. I do go every month or two to a bigger town's rinok, but, for the most part, I am able to get most of what I need in our bazaar. On that first day I introduced myself to a farmer, Vasya. He has been permanent fixture in the front stand of the rinok. Always with the best selection of fruits and vegetables. There are several others that sit at various spots in the rinok selling a couple of items- maybe they grow scallions or dill in their yard, and they bring them to sell. But Vasya, on the other hand, has a little of everything that's in season. He stands outside every day with his wife, Luba, and older son, Maxim, selling their goods. Sometimes daughter Nastya is there, or Maxim's wife Natasha, but usually just the three of them. The first day I introduced myself and told him I was from America, he asked if I was from Colorado? It turns out that the towns first volunteer was from Colorado and she made quite an impression on them. I told him I am from New York.
The thing about fresh vegetables is that they don't tend to last all that long. If you tried to buy a weeks worth at the market, surely most would rot before you could eat it. For this reason, I see Vasya and family 3-4 times a week. Every single time the guy is genuinely happy to see me. "Ooohhh Sim, is it going good? What do you need today?" If I choose something he doesn't deem worthy, he will help me pick a replacement. Vasya is the epitome of customer service in this town. He knows that return customers need to be taken care of and treated well. His family is following suit and as a group they qualify as people that I will look back on with fond memories everytime I eat a fresh cucumber...or even a rotten tomato- and I will say "Vasya wouldn't have let me buy that one!"
Chapter 3- Victor
Erin, Victor, and I standing at the bus station
This is Victor. Without looking for him, I see Victor everywhere. For a town with so many taxi companies, Victor is one of the lone proprieters. About a month after arriving to site last year, Victor's was the first taxi I took. I took it with some Ukrainians and after the ride I asked for his business card. He too remembers the town's first volunteer and always asks about her. He is also super excited to speak with any "real Americans". To the point that he has a little diary in his taxi that he asks Americans to sign. A tradition begun, no doubt, when Anne was here and would have other volunteers visit. It continues even today with Erin and my friends who take his taxi for the first time, everyone gets the book to sign and he whips out the cellphone to show the photos of "real Americans" who have taken his taxi. Maybe hoping, on the off chance, that we would recognize one of them.
Last October I was expecting El to visit and needed to make arrangements to get her picked up at the airport. There were no buses home that late at night, so my option was pretty much to get a hotel and take the bus back the next day. This was not a cheap, but at least it was a possibility. Then, I ran into Victor. I asked how much a taxi would be for the 5 hour roundtrip. I mean, if it was cheaper than a hotel and bus tickets, then it became a realistic option. The trip is usually 800UAH ($100), but for me, 400UAH. Well, this was much cheaper than the hotel/bus option and got us back to my apartment much faster than staying over. I was sold, and Victor has been my first call for a taxi every single time I have needed one since then. Our phone conversations always start off the same...him answering: "da, Seeeem?" (yep, caller ID on his cell phone displays my name). With me replying: "Victor, are you working?"
If he is working, he is never more than a few minutes away. If he is not working, or more realistically, working out of town, he will ask where I am and where I am going. Then, in true customer service style, he will tell me that he will call a friend who will come to pick me up- turning himself from driver into dispatcher.
The buses arrive to the station at pretty much the same times every single day. A schedule all the drivers know, and if they feel like being proactive can go and wait for the next bus to see if anyone needs a ride. Some of the drivers in town like to sit in their cars near the House of Culture and wait for a call. Not Victor! I see him more often than not at the bus station trying to hustle his next fare. I live just close enough to the bus station that I don't usually need his service unless it is cold, or I have luggage, or it is late at night. But, there are plenty of times that I do need a taxi and Victor has become my man.
Every time I get out of his taxi he tells me two things. "Say hello to your wife for me" (whom he never met, by the way) and "Seeeem, call me" as if I might forget to let him know when I needed a taxi. My response is the same everytime, "I will" and "Victor, you are my first call every time. Every time!"
Chapter 4- Tanya
Tanya- if she doesn't sell it, she can tell you where you can buy it
This is Tanya. You may remember her from the fresh ginger experience a few months ago? She works in the bazaar. The way that the rinok is set up, there are three kinds of sellers. Those with freestanding stands, like Vasya's vegetables. Then there are those that work from compartments. Think of a row of garages or self storage units. A steel box, probably 14x14 with a steel door. The unit doubling as a secured storage for the goods for sale as well as a giant display rack. The third option is inside one of the buildings. There are a couple of brick and mortar shops in the rinok and one is the butcher's area. This is a building that has all of the meat sellers standing one by one selling virtually the same thing...pork. One guy has beef and once in a while I see someone with chickens or ducks. But, for the most part, just pork. This large room also has a couple of shops along the perimeter. Most offering the same things...mayonnaise, coffee, pasta, and sunflower oil. One lady sells shoes and there is a shop that fixes cell phones, but mostly the same offerings at each stall. Tatiana (or Tanya if you want to shorten it) works at one of these stalls. This girl has infinite patience for my Russian and every time I need mayo or sunfloower oil, of even if I don't need anything and am just walking by, I will stop by just to say "hi". I have met several people in front of her cubicle as one of her offerings is hot tea and coffee as well as cold juice by the glass. I have been at her stand at all hours of the day and have seen the people on their way to work stop in for a hot dixie cup of coffee as well as the tired pork vendors getting a cold juice to refresh after a long day of shooing flies.
Tanya has my favorite greeting of all peoplle in town when the sees me coming and gives the biggest smile and says "how are you?" when I say "fine" she knows from repetition that my follow up is "and how are you?" by this time she has already started saying "fine" in the most elongated cadence of anyone. The word is nore-mal-na. But, with her smile and elongation I hear Naaahhhr-maaaahhhl-na. Every time. She always asks me questions about America and usuallly about things like if I miss my family. She always listens to my answers and lets me drone on trying to practice my Russian.
She recently asked if I knew how to cook borsch. I admitted that I did not, even though I did have a recipe given to me by my host mom (also Tanya). Sadly, I told her that I could not read the cursive handwriting. She said, "then why don't you bring the recipe here and I can help you with it?" Last week I did and we deciphered the whole thing. It was a lot more complicated than I thought, but I am ready to give it a shot. The thing is that it is very hot these days and soup is not really on my menu. Each time she asks me if I have made the borsch yet. I explain, maybe in the fall, but not yet. When I make it, I promised to bring her some, to which she replies with a big smile and a hearty Naaahhhr-maaaahhhl-na.
Chapter 5- Oleg
I told Oleg yesterday that I needed a new photo, beacuse in all of the pics I have of him he isn't wearing any pants! (because they were taken at the sauna)
This is Oleg. He doesn't sell anything. You may remember Oleg as the guy responsible for getting me involved with the sauna club that I have come to truly enjoy. As, at the time, the only other male working at the library, Oleg sort of took me under his wing and showed me things that Lenara couldn't or wouldn't. From day one he has treated me like "one of the guys", and even he has no idea how much that has done for my happiness here. Oleg no longer works at the library, and his daily work routine has become somewhat of a mystery to me. I still see him at the library sometimes, usually when he pops in to buy something at one of the shops downstairs. Of course, I still see him at the sauna every week. I have asked about his work, but could never quite tell if I was getting a straight answer or if something was being purposefully muddled into translation to get me to stop asking questions. I don't think he was fired, but I suspect was probably moved into a way less desireable job that he didn't want to talk about with anyone, let alone having to make an effort to explain it to me.
I think that there has always been some contention between Lenara and Oleg, but when I was asking about the people I needed to buy New Year's presents for, she made sure that he was on my list. With that, I knew she too appreciated how much he has done for me.
When I recently bought my bike, Oleg took me and introduced me to the used bike guy. When I needed to buy a vah-neek, the bundle of branches to beat yourself with at the sauna, Oleg took me and introduced me to the lady who sells them. When my computer broke, Oleg offered to call his friend who fixes computers. He calls me every weekend, even when I tell him I will be out of town, to make sure I am still on for sauna. He looks out for me, and I am thrilled to have met a gentleman such as he.
I recently learned a Russian phrase that is saved only for the people who go above and beyond for you. It is "tee nas-tee-ash-ee droog". It means you are a true friend. And if there is one person I could say that about in this town, it is Oleg. A true friend I will never forget.
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