History Repeats Itself – Belarus (Part 1)
Ever heard of Alexander Lukashenko?
Well, let me move on and come back to that.
I was lucky enough to travel to Russia with a school trip when I was 17 years old. Our herd of miscreants included Drama Geeks, D&D Nerds, Outcasts, and soon to be lesbians, and we took to the city of St. Petersburg like morons hell bent on our own deaths. (Literally, a good half of us took off at 2 AM to ‘explore the city’ and didn’t return until 5 AM, having gotten lost in the pitch blackness of the Russian night. It was a miracle we all came back alive…and NOT wearing fuzzy bearskin hats.)
This is the canal near the Hague (the Hague is the Russian equivalent of the Louvre in Paris, to which I have also been. Huzzah!) and it is far more beautiful in person. That gray tinge to all the photos is not the cheap ass craptastic camera I had at the time, Russia really is that dingy and gray.
Of all the cities I’ve ever been to, St. Petersburg still rests mightily atop them all. Well, save for maybe London, (I have a sincere soft spot for London). The dark layer of soot on the surface of things, the constant presence of smokestacks on the horizon, the overcast sky that never dared allow the trespass of the sun; it was well beyond anything one would have expected or hoped for.
Yet, St. Petersburg wasn’t the main event of the trip. The main event was the home stay in Belarus.
We traveled with a group called Project Harmony and a translator named Lina. She wore Cocteau Twins and Cure T-shirts and I bonded with her instantly as a result. She was a revolutionary without ever being Belarussian. She told us of the state run television stations that would edit clips of the aforementioned ‘president’ Alexander Lukashenko (I call him ‘dictator’) with footage of the protests and rallies against him. Riled us up while in the same sentence letting us know such talk could put us in Belarussian prison, or worse.
This building with a Teddy Bear on its face was along the walk to school I took with my host sister every morning. We’d arrive at school and be immediately shipped out to some day trip or cultural exploration. In the two plus weeks we were there, I was allowed to email my mother once because there was only one computer in the school with internet access.
I woke up every morning to this view, to Belarussian Potato Salad, Ham Steak slabs on buttered French Bread, sliced tomatoes with salt, and Peach Juice because Anna’s (my host sister) mother didn’t recognize the difference between an Orange or Peach on the front of the container. This breakfast will haunt me for my lifetime. It grew on me like a fungus.
We went to dance clubs and listened to the most frightening music while our Belarussian counterparts all stomped their feet, walking in place (apparently the hip dance move). The boys tried to teach us bad words, the girls took us to this church on Easter…
…then fed us more Ham Steak on buttered French Bread and Potato Salad (ask my friends. A few of them have had this salad, as I have worked for years perfecting it. It tastes like pickles and love.)
On one afternoon, an old woman on the bus lost her mind on me and started screaming at me in Russian. I didn’t under stand a word save for “Baaabushka!” which I had been saying repeatedly throughout the bus ride. When my Belarussian friend translated for me, apparently the old woman had been convinced my accent was too good to be American and that I was just pretending and should be ashamed of myself. I took compliment from that.
Anyway, this is Grodno.
Not so small a town just a few miles from the border of Poland, Grodno is a mirror image of thousands of towns in the Former Soviet Union. Yet, Grodno is special to me. Not just because of the chocolate I procured there that changed my life, not just because I could spend a nickel and buy every Depeche Mode Cd, plus seventeen Cure bootlegs, not even because of the Ham Steak, but because of May Day, 1986.
(Continued here.)
The great different between John Quincy Adams, the Federalist, and Jackson the Democrat is so clearly shown.