Day 22

Keeping Herstories

Today, we had an agenda. After our usual morning routine, we hired a taxi, loaded girls and went on a photo shoot. Morning routine was not quite usual: I tried doing some laundry in the shower.

Our first stop was a hospital. With a little pre-arranged help from interpreter Anya, we told Tanya to instruct the driver to go to the building where the babies are delivered. This is the place where Sasha and Nastia first entered this world. Tanya was born in Donetsk. Ro took a few photos so the girls would always remember and be able to tell, and show, where they were born.

Then we drove through some back streets to where there were houses more than apartment buildings. There seems to be the land of apartments and the land of farmhouses and the land of houses, among other lands not necessary to mention here. (Man, I’m starting to sound like English is second language!)

Anyway, at Tanya’s command the taxi driver pulled over. It was a home in ruins. There was a great deal of large things cast around. Sasha and Nastia were under strict command not to get out of the car. Second stop was Grandma’s old house. It was close to where Grandma currently lives and Tanya didn’t want to attract Grandma’s attention. It is thought that Grandma is malevolent and not only doesn’t approve of the girls being adopted but believes they are better off just finishing their education by the 9th grade. We will not be visiting Grandma. We took photos of this ruin because Sasha and Nastia lived with Grandma for a while. Sasha said the house caught on fire not once but four times, with the two young girls inside. Let’s just say there were some issues here.

We stopped briefly at the flower market. This is across from the trolley/bus stop. It has helped me more than once to get my bearing when we were lost or had gotten turned around. I will always notice the flowers! Until this trip, I always thought I had a good sense of direction, but golly gee, I also realized I have lived by tall mountains all my life so I was never really tested!

Flower market. The girls picked three red roses and the seller curled ribbon around the stems. Then we set off for the cemetery. We kept driving and driving. I expected us to pull up to an area in the center of town or near the edge in a park like setting. We were completely out of town. We drove past some larger homes and some with large gardens out back. Then, just as we were running out of road, we passed a small airport and look a left. I saw gravestones. Some were made of metal, oddly, and other materials. All had photos of the dearly departed. Some, as with American cemeteries, were well tended and others had been neglected. We drove another mile on rough muddy road. There were little tables and benches in some plots. Trees had been planted. The snow was just about melted out here, revealing trash and weeds. Even further in the cemetery. I think we discovered the “forest lawn” of Slavyansk. This part of the cemetery was about 30 yards wide and kept on going.

Finally, the driver was instructed to pull over. These were fresher graves. That makes sense. The girls’ mother passed away only last May. The ground was hopelessly muddy. I made my way though a different route than Tanya, Sasha, Nastia and Rolan. I managed to stay mostly on tufts of crusty weeds. There it was, only marked by a wooden cross and the customary silk flowers and a cloth with a prayer (thanks De). The girls left their roses. I said thanks to the woman who gave birth to these lovely girls. I promised to take care of them. (Rolan) I can understand where stories of zombies come from. The ground over the bodies rises quite high. The wet snow and rain makes the ground very soft. When your foot gets stuck in the mud, it is easy to imagine something horrible is reaching up from the grave to getcha!

We spent 10 minutes trying to clean our boots on the little snow we could find so we wouldn’t bring the cemetery back into the taxi and the hotel. Our trip back into town was quiet. Not a word spoken.

The girls played in the room, battled with balloons, even Tanya. Then we went into town to eat at the café “Absolut”. For some reason, we were turned away. It may have been booked. So we went back to the pizza place. We are tired of that place, and are looking for anything else. We have found a couple of burger joints we need to try. We walked to the town square market and picked up some food. Then a bus back to the hotel, and an expensive taxi round trip to the internot. Tanya came over, ate some food, watched some TV, and made a Valentine. We are hyping Valentine’s day. Tanya got tired, and went home. We watched BBC for a while, and crashed.