7th day, April 11, 2010

This morning on the train from Lviv, we spoke with another guest worker; this man works in Poland, and he was on a two day journey to his home in southern Ukraine. Lyuda says many people work abroad and often don't see much of their families, as there are no jobs in Ukraine. Even her son Sasha works as a dance teacher in Moscow, not Ukraine.
On our way to Novoukrainka (we changed trains somewhere!), we met Vika, Lyuda's daughter, in Kirovograd. She is delightful, sweet and full of smiles and jokes. She obviously loves her mother very much. A journalist, she has lived in Kirovograd for 13 years. When we arrived, Lyuda's husband Oleg picked us up at the station and from there we went to several cemeteries for ancestor day. One where Lyuda's father (2005) and the next was in the village where her mother (2001) lay. Many people were there from the village;this is a social event that occurs within two weeks after Easter, and the yerd was crowded with well-wishers. We spent about 1 1/2 hours there, eating a standing picnic next to the grave, from a little table attached to the fence which surrounds each plot. People lay elaborate artificial flowered arrangements as well as food and sweets on the ground in memoriam. Wine, a sweet one they call church wine, and vodka, again. We met several of Lyuda's old school mates. We placed flowers on the crosses, as they stand at the site, they put the small bags of sweets and Easter bread, but then when they leave they find someone who knew the deceased relative, and give them the sweets and a hand towel for men or a small scarf for women. I don't know if I'm conveying this exactly right. We also visited Lyuda's granny's grave and her uncle's, then we drove to another cemetery to where her brother was buried, outside of Novoukrainka (2005)Her father and brother died within a month of each other and she misses them greatly.
After this we went out to the sanitorium where we filled many large water jugs with mineral water free from the faucet within the building. No one was around, and I wondered whether everyone does this. Certainly the tap water is undrinkable.