August 1, 2004

August 1, 2004

DAY 45

 

 

HEY ... moya zheenka ( my wife ) is making fun of my culture ! Just because the little old Ukrainian lady in the truck camper parked next to us turns her sandwich baggies inside out and washes them ...

When I bought the "Ukrainian Survivor" t-shirt this morning, her comments were ; "HA ... you'd be a loser on Ukrainian Survivor. They'd vote you off first. You can't out drink, you can't out eat, and you most certainly can't out dance any of the Ukrainians here. Not even the fifteen year olds". This was after we watched a fifteen year old boy eat lunch. We had watched him a few minutes earlier in the finals of the talent competition. I guess dancing the Hopak must consume a lot of calories. After he finished off a huge plate of food from the Ukrainian buffet, he went back for a big bowl of borscht. I never knew borscht could be dessert !

We watched the finals of the talent competition this morning. It was very impressive. The winners of each category from Friday and Saturday competed today in a "Best Of Show" type competition. GEEEZ ... who'd have thought that 5 year olds could dance traditional Ukrainian folk dances like the Hopak and the Pryvit that well ? ! ?

After lunch, we sat around and watched the afternoon kids' show conducted by the MC's of the Festival, Ihor Baczynskyj ( Bachinski ), and Roman ( Ron ) Cahute. They are a couple of middle aged Ukrainian guys from Toronto who MC the main stage events every year, apparently. Sunday afternoon is their kids' show on the secondary stage where they invite all the youngsters up to sit in front of the stage and sing and dance a bunch of songs about counting in Ukrainian, telling time in Ukrainian, English to Ukrainian word translations, etc.. It was kind of like watching the Ukrainian version of Sesame Street. Very cool ! They mix in a few witticisms just to keep the adults paying attention. Sample ; "How do you call a moose in Ukrainian ?" "Hudea sudaw, moose." Maybe you'd have had to have been there !

After the Festival ended in the afternoon, we just relaxed around the trailer for awhile. Sat out in the lawn chairs with the cats, napped, read, etc..

After supper, an older couple a few trailers down from us, pulled out their violin and accordion, and started to play. Soon, their adult son joined them, with a guitar and harmonica. Most of the people who were staying overnight inthe camping area to leave tomorrow morning began to gather around, and before you could say "zabava", a party had commenced. Some of the teenagers gathered some dead wood out of the forest, and started a campfire in the middle of the campground road. Two grandsons of the original couple joined in, with another violin and another accordion. Some guy with instrumental spoons joined in. An hour or two later, a full drum set showed up. And finally, late in the evening, a tsymbaly ( dulcimer ) appeared. So ... we went to sleep listening to Ukrainian dance music being played by fire light ; 2 accordions, 2 violins, guitar, harmonica, spoons, drums, and a tsymbaly !

DSK