There's a huge pig carcass lying on the kitchen
counter. I walked in to make myself tea and didn't
even notice it until I leaned down to throw my old tea
bag into the pechka. I thought it kind of smelled
like ham. Over the soft chirping of baby goosies I
stared at the open skeleton. How did I miss this
when I walked into the room?
Inna walked in and laughed at me for not noticing
right away.
"That's a lot of meat."
"Not really," she answered as she prodded the hunk of
meat. "Not much salo."
Then she laughed and pulled the tail. "Do you want
any borsch?"
Hmmmm, even if I were hungry, I'm not sure if I want
to eat a foot away from that.
The pig is one component of the upcoming Easter
preparations. The Orthodox Easter, or Paska in
Russian, is on Sunday. Tomorrow Inna and I are going
to Babushka's to make the traditional Paska bread,
called paska as well. I have English clubs but I
won't be sorry if I don't make it back in time. With
the school year almost over it is even harder to go
every day. If there is one realization I get out of
Peace Corps it is that I don't like teaching.
Tomorrow is clean Thursday. People are supposed to
wake up before sunrise to shower. I don't think I am
going to take part in this tradition, but I am going
to go to the church at 3 am on Sunday to get the food
blessed. Last year the priest sensed there was an
American before him and I took my glasses off just
before he doused me with holy water. My guess is that
they possess the same sixth sense as the geese do:
foreigner sense.
The strangest part of all of this is that I've done it
all before. This will be my second Paska in Ukraine,
the second time around the traditions. This time I am
determined to make the recipe for paska my own so I
can recreate it in America in….two years I suppose it
will be. It's strange to think that I've been here
long enough to repeat experiences, that instead of
counting how much time I've been here, I'm counting
how much time I have left. It adds a certain urgency
to the things I want to accomplish. And a nervousness
about what lies ahead.
4-24-08
"Wake up, Emily! Hurry, hurry!"
I'll never understand why they don't try to wake me up
ten minutes before we leave as opposed to two minutes
before with rushing. Deema drove us to babushka's
house, closer to the sea. I entered a room warm from
a pechka. Sitting on two stools was a trough of
dough. We're talking a trough big enough to fit 80
eggs and over 12 bags of flour.
Inna and I began to knead the dough together while
babushka poured a bucket of melted butter over the
top, added raisins and sugar, and fussed over the
state of the mixture. By the time we were done I had
blisters on my knuckles.
Then we waited. The dough needed at least forty more
minutes to rise properly. Inna and I talked about my
friends and about the man down the street that wants
my number, about how ugly his new house is. When the
dough was ready we cut it into smaller pieces, rolled
it into balls and placed it into old cans. We hauled
all of the cans to the really big pechka and placed
them inside.
While they baked we milked a cow and helped around the
house. It is hard for babushka and dedushka (grandpa)
to do all of their work on their own nowadays. While
the elderly in America get to retire, often to a life
of comfort, here they have to work the same as they
always did. They still have their fields, their
animals and their house to keep up. Now they have
arthritis and hunched backs to hinder their work.
The paska turned out beautifully. A crisp golden
brown and it smelled so good! We are forbidden to eat
any until after the priest blesses it at 3am on Sunday
morning. When we got home Inna and I ate borsch for
lunch. She asked if I knew how to cook borsch. I've
always been under the impression that to help out in a
Ukrainian kitchen I must start small. I have been
stuck at the chopping vegetables stage since I arrived
and I think I finally proved myself ready for the next
step. I'm not sure I would choose to make borsch on
my own after being subjected to it every day for two
years, but for all of you in the states hankering to
try a bowl in a year or two, this is for you.
By the way, I've finally attached some new pics!
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