Every year, Peace Corps Volunteers organize a mass party in Kharkiv to celebrate Halloween. It’s kind of a legendary event – we had about 70 people gather together this year. Kharkiv was crawling with Americans. Although the train ride was only 5-6 hours for me, there were volunteers who came more than 20 hours to dress up, dance, and have a great time until all hours of the night.
The Donetsk Oblast volunteers dressed up as a group, partly to show our Donbass solidarity, but also because we were more identifiable as a group than as individuals. What were we? Soviet Pioneers. The Pioneers were a children’s Communist scouting-type organization during the time of the U.S.S.R. Think Boy and Girl scouts, but instead of selling cookies – they generated good citizens who were”Always ready!”
During the past two weeks, the main topic of my classes was Halloween. Although Halloween isn’t celebrated in Ukraine (except by college-age students partying in costumes), the kids knew what it was. We had a bunch of fun vocabulary, did fill-in-the-blank texts, crosswords, and had contests and games. The best part was when I explained Halloween traditions. Baffled by how we make Jack-o-Lanterns, I drew ridiculous diagrams of how a candle is placed inside a hollow pumpkin. We discussed Haunted Houses, and the students teased me for hating them. I told them about “trick-or-treating”, and they thought that was the coolest thing. It was confusing at first, because I gave them the literal definitions of the words “trick” and “trick”, not realizing that they already had a phrase that is their own equivalent. I mimed walking to my neighbors house, holding a bag, knocking on their door and holding out my bag, saying….
“CANDY OR YOUR LIFE!” a 4th grader shouted in Russian.
“No, no, no – Your Wallet or Your Life!” yelled another boy.
I burst out laughing, asking them if that’s really what they would say here. They said yes, and I told them that if they said that on Halloween in America, that people would call the police. “You can’t threaten people like that, it’s just not very nice.”One tiny, sweet girl cackled and said “Candy? OR DEATH?”
That brought me to this. Enjoy.
Elise-
Cake or Death??? It should be the new Halloween theme everywhere. That’s priceless.
You brought a smile to my face.
Elise, your Mom shared this with me and I really enjoyed it. The Halloween video is hilarious but even more I liked your 7+ minute tour of the apartment! It is so interesting and boggles the mind when you think about our own riches here. Anyway…enjoy yourself and get everything you can from the trip. I lived in Guayaquil, Ecuador for a summer years ago and have never forgotten it. I learned many lesson there!
Love, Linda