Trip with Vera

In the late Fall, I had the opportunity to visit Alekseyevskaya with Vera. Alekseyevskaya is her hometown, or stanitsa which is a Cossack village. It is about five hours North of Volgograd. Vera is a descendant of the famous Russian Cossacks. The weekend that we went to her village there was a celebration for St. Michael s day. St. Michael is the patron saint of the village. The festival was also to celebrate the harvest. I was able to see men and women dressed in traditional Cossack attire and visited a museum that showcased their rich history.
I also had the opportunity to meet Vera’s mother and grandmother that weekend. They had never met an American before, which seemed odd, but the village is so far off the beaten path that did not surprise me. Americans come into contact with people from all over the world just about every day, so it’s easy to take that for granted.
Of course neither woman spoke English, poor Vera, she spent the entire weekend playing translator. Her grandmother was the inquisitive one. She asked me the question “with all of the conveniences that you have in America what do you do with your time?” What she meant by conveniences ranged from washers and dryers, dishwashers to indoor plumbing, which Vera’s family had only put in a few years before. When she asked me that, I really had no clue as to how to answer.
I mean I go to work and school, but so does the majority of the rest of the planet I suppose it is more about time management. Her cousin also interviewed me for the village newspaper. Being a journalist myself, I decided to compare notes and there were a lot of similarities. I spent about three hours talking to this woman, well with Vera translating, and I had questions of my own. Despite the language barriers I really liked her family.
Vera’s family lived off the land growing, producing and storing most of their own food, they wanted to have goose for dinner and instead of going to the store grandma went to the barn with an ax. Vera asked if I wanted to watch the goose execution and I passed on that opportunity. It was interesting watching the preparation process, which is something we typically don’t see. It included pulling off all of the feathers, which were later cleaned and used as stuffing for pillows. Down pillows are popular in Russia. Anyway, the next processes included cleaning and dissecting the goose, which grossed me out, her grandmother just laughed, and looking back on it I had to also. The parts of the goose to be cooked were later put in the freezer for storage.
After dinner everyone sat down to watch T.V. We watched the news, a show similar to American idol (you can’t escape it…) and figure-skating. My grandmother and I used to watch figure skating when I was little, and to watch it with her brought back pleasant memories, when we thought something was good or bad we would look at each other and nod or say a few words to indicate approval. This was something that was a bit of a universal experience for me. The weekend was one of my favorite parts of the trip, and I am glad I had the opportunity to meet Vera’s family.