Spoooky!

So, first off I would like to wish all you readers a happy Halloween, it is one of my favorite holidays and I am sorry that I have to wish three of them, but I am also happy to say I had a wonderful Halloween here in Oster. One of the past volunteers taught the word "spooky" to my host family and it is a favorite word used quite frequently in the house, but yesterday was the day that it would be used for everything.

Adam and I from Kozaletts playing a bluesy version of "When the Saints go Marching in" He on the Saxophone and myself on my Harmonica.

A few days before the 31st I noticed a strange fog come over in Oster in both the mornings and evenings. In certain areas of the town I would notice the fog hanging a few feet over the ground which was quite soothing in a weird way. It seems fitting that so close to such a scary spooky day, in a region of the world where there has been so much violence that energies make them selves noticeable.

Since coming here to Oster I did not realize the history that had gone on here. Just a s a quick summary, dozens of civilizations came and went and because of Oster's geographical position between Chernigov and Kyiv as well as Moscow and Kyiv, it was used as both a camping area for army after army and a settlement for those who chose to stay. Also because it is at the crossroads of two rivers it has always been a military and economic powerhouse. You wouldn't think that in this small town of 7000 individuals you have relatives of the Goths, Visigoths, Vikings, Mongols, Tatars, Cossacks, Pols, Lithuanians, Russians and probably more.

During WWII, known here as The Great Patriotic War, all of Ukraine was a war zone and all of it at onetime was occupied by Nazi Germany even Oster. It is said that of for every 2 Soviet casualties, (an estimated 26 million,) 1 of them were Ukrainian. For those of you who are not Math Majors, half of the soviet casualties were Ukrainian, this not including the millions who died in the synthetic famines created by the USSR in the 30s. It is interesting to see flowers left on old soviet monuments, I found myself first thinking, why would people still praise those people? but when you look a little farther in, and you start to understand the community you live in it seems that people are simply remembering lost family members and praising the courageous liberation of their own town regardless of political denomination. I find it enlightening and humbling.

Sometimes as Americans it is easy to see a statue of Lenin or a Sickle and Hammer as some sort of soviet relic, something that people so not believe in anymore, but I am starting to think that they also may be a means of remembering those who sacrificed it all, in thier own hometown. I do not think any American can know what it feels like to have their hometown turn into a war zone, and for people here in Ukraine it is all too recent of a feeling. With the horror of the war came the pride that they now have after defending their land. It is customary for grooms to carry their brides on their wedding day up he steps of war memorials to offer flowers or gifts, and to take pictures, paying their respects because without the sacrifice of their families, they would have never fallen in love.

So could the spooky mist be the spirits of so many who have come and gone in Oster? I like to think so.