Ukrainians: Hospitality is their middle name

I never cease to be amazed by the hospitality in Ukraine. It's so great! And, it takes several forms:

1. You never make a visit to someone's home without taking a gift. Usually, this gift is a gift of food or candy. It doesn't have to be fancy or anything...just an offering of thanks. One example: one of my friends, Maya, is one of my pro bono language tutors (yes, one of them. I'm remedial...). Today, she came to my apartment to spend several hours listening to be labor through reading and interpreting, butchering Russian grammar, and continually stressing the wrong syllables. She was providing a service to me, and what happens? She arrives with a gift of apples for me. Isn't that sweet?

2. There is a kind of "reciprocal hospitality." Once you are friends with Ukrainians, they feel comfortable dropping by to visit. One example: Friday night, I was planning to spend the entire evening writing lesson plans for the bi-weekly lessons that I'll begin teaching in January. My apartment was really cluttered with books, papers, and worksheets. Dishes were piling up in the kitchen, I hadn't cleaned the bathroom in a week, etc. I got a phone call from one of the guys from church, and he says, "Iricka Amerikankah (that's me...my Ukrainian name plus the adjective "American"), Vaht are you do-eeng? Vee vill be zere in fifteen meenits. Bye." I had no idea how many people were coming or how long they were going to stay. I turned into a cleaning machine, scrounged up some tea and cookies (you must provide these to visitors), and answered the door to find 6 people ready to hang out. I knew 3 of them. Ha! They stayed for 3 hours. Isn't that joyful?

3. My Ukrainian friends never let me go places alone, if they can help it. One example: Tonight, I was at a small group Bible study across town and needed to get home. I knew which bus to take home and everything. When Tanya realized I was leaving, she became very upset; I then realized that she was asking if anyone was going my direction. Kostia won the toss (metaphorically), seeing as how he's from my part of the city. We spoke Eng-Ruski as we walked to the bus stop, on the 35 minute bus ride, and from my bus stop to my building. As we got to my building, I practiced my Russian and asked him where he was going afterwards. To my surprise, he told me he was going back to the bus stop: he was going back across town to visit his grandmother and had only come my direction in order to make sure I got home safely. Isn't that touching?

I love Ukrainians.