4/10/09 Does this make it official?

May 30, 2009 · Filed under Uncategorized

In one weekend I have managed to do a couple of things that I believe rachet up my Ukrainianess a couple of notches. This weekend in Ukraine, we celebrated the First of May and Labor Day so we got both Friday and Monday off from school. Thank you Ukraine and your love of all thing holiday related.
My oh-so-Ukrainian weekend began Friday morning with some potato planting. We rolled out of bed, ate some breakfast, packed a bag a food, grabbed our buckets, and headed to my host family’s field. We actually live very close to the fields of my town so it was a quick walk. When I first arrived, I assumed like the naïve American that I was, that one person, maybe a couple of people, owned the fields by our house. As I have come to learn, the fields are divided into individual plots which many families who live all over Klevan work.
We met the extended family, including grandmother and grandfather, and the plow and horses on the field. There were several comments made asking me if I had come to watch how potatoes are planted Ukrainian style. I repeated that I was interested in seeing this phenomenon but was also here to help do the planting business. For those of you familiar with planting potatoes Ukrainian style, feel free to skip ahead. We started on the extended family’s plot, a long rectangular piece of field. We filled our buckets with potatoes, straight up potatoes. I have always known that potatoes sprout from themselves, but had never considered that this would mean in order to plant and grow more potatoes, one would in fact plant the whole potato itself. There were seven of us planting, my host family, their aunt, and two cousins. The grandparents were there on a consulting basis. Four of us lined up on one side of the field and the other three on the other. The two horses dragging the plow and the man guiding it came along the row, made a furrow, and we worked down the row, placing potatoes into the side of the furrow. The plow then came through again to furrow another row and cover the previous area ploughed and planted. And then we did it again. And again. And again. Then we moved to my host family’s field. And did it some more.
Once the planting was completed, I assumed it was time to pack it home. It was sadly the coldest and greyest day that it had been all week and we were all bundled in hats and coats as the wind whipped across the open fields. Instead of make a break for the house, it was apparently picnic time. We all popped a squat as dishes of mashed potatoes, fried fish, pancakes, sausage, eggs, and vodka (to warm the soul) were laid out on the blanket we had stolen from one of the horses. We toasted to potatoes and had ourselves a nice, if a bit cold, picnic.
My second event occurred on Friday evening. I went to another volunteer’s village not very far from mine, for an afternoon of shashlik (meat grilled on skewers over an open fire in the woods). Shashliking is a Ukrainian past time and after one afternoon of it, I completely understand why. The weather continued to be pretty lame, cold, grey, with spurts of rain, but a number of other volunteers and a few Ukrainians trekked to the woods for some delicious grilled meat. Honestly, it was not a pure Ukrainian shashlik experience. The founding reason for the get together was a large jar of salsa left by a previous volunteer that the current owner was kind enough to want to share with the rest of us spice craved Americans. So we made our shashlik tex-mex style with tortillas, beans, cheese, and the scrumptious salsa. Who doesn’t love grilled meat on a skewer?