As Promised

I have to be more timely.

This week we have had a houseguest from Chernigov, which is in the northern Ukraine, near the Russian border. She is a bright 23 year old who works with young people in her city warning them about drugs, talking about HIV, and trying to help them become proper citizens of this new democracy (she does not instruct them about smoking; she needs to be instructed in this herself). She is one of four Ukrianians with similar jobs who spent this past week in Washington on a program sponsored by the National Peace Foundation and run by a friend of my wife's. This is the third time we have hosted a participant. The earlier two were Russian men, who were much more difficult to communicate with, although language is still a problem.

Activities with Irina have taken up a good portion of our weekend and evening activities. We met the group at America, the restaurant in Union Station for supper last Saturday, and on Sunday my wife took her to the gym and the farmers' market in Takoma Park and then (after we ducked out for the baseball game), we met the group at the National Gallery and looked at the special exhibit on Venetian art (more about that later), went to a word-less performance which was part of the DC Fringe Festival (a 45 minute display of acrobatics by two Cirque d'Soleil trained young women who were tenants being evicted from successive dwellings by voracious condominium converters; the dwellings were rings, trapezes and nets) and had a terrific supper at Rosa Mexicana (to our knowledge, no Mexican restaurants in the Ukraine), where we had (the three of us) snapper Vera Cruz, chicken enchiladas with tomatillo sauce, delicious lamb and, of course, guacamole and margheritas). Monday night, I met the group for a performance of a DC youth choir at the Kennedy Center and a casual supper at a cafe nearby. Each morning, we had to escort Irina to her 9 a.m. first stop. (I am not sure what happened when I went to Texas mid-week) and last night, we had dinner at our house (from which we are recovering today) for 13, with vegetable soup (Ukrainians need their soup at every meal; good for the digestion), cod, green beans, corn, cucumber and tomato salad (Ukrainians don't eat lettuce at home) and a selection of cakes and berries. Today, they went to the beach and we are no awaiting their return.