Before we left for Zaporozhye for the Christmas holiday, we had to say goodbye to our best Ukrainian friend so far – Yegor. For the past semester he has assisted several professors at DCU to fulfill his internship credits needed to complete his degree at Capital Bible Seminary in Washington, D.C. He was the best sort of friend for two newcomers to Ukraine – fluent in both English and Russian, with a native’s knowledge of Ukrainian cultural norms as well as a good grasp of American culture learned from his time spent in the U.S. He played tour guide, showing us around Donetsk, though he had only lived in the area since September. We learned where to get the cheapest prices and best selection of electronic equipment (radio market), where to get great blini (Russian pastries) an enjoy karaoke by the locals (if we were so inclined). In the grocery store he introduced us to new juice varieties, canned fish, pelmeni (bite-sized meat pockets) and delicious cream-cheese filled frozen treats. He took Dave to his first-ever Champions League soccer game, and invited us both to church. He even helped Dave rescue the dessert for our first dinner guests by spending the whole afternoon looking for cream cheese and powdered sugar. He was always willing to take us around, show us the sights or come to our apartment and hang out. We will miss him a lot, and hope that he will come back and visit us someday!
Making friends here is difficult, obviously because of the language barrier, so we really appreciate the people we’ve gotten to know so far, even though all of them speak a fair amount of English. At this point, we simply can’t communicate any other way. People like Yegor, fluent in both languages and cultures, are not that common and we’re grateful to have spent time together. Many of the people we know well are Americans, because we speak a common language. In the future, we will expand our friendships to include monolingual Russian-speakers as well, but sometimes it feels like that time can’t get here fast enough.
Laura
