One down, one to go

About 20 people showed up for my first Ukraine’s History Matters presentation and they seemed very interested, those who stayed.  One woman left early, she seemed distraught when I started telling the horrible facts about Ukraine’s past.  I could see by her body language that she was no longer looking at my photos projected on the screen.  She might have been agitated about some health issue as she was in a walker or wheelchair but her caregiver seemed to notice too that she was not wanting to be there. 

On the other hand, there was one elderly man from Armenia who had tears in his eyes.  His own family just barely escaped Armenia in 1915 when 1.5 million Armenians were butchered by the Young Turks.  He also fought in WWII and met Soviet soldiers at a certain river.  He tried to talk to some but they didn’t respond to him and it was explained to him by an older officer that the young ones were communist.  This man said later he was trying to investigate what had happened to the Armenians but certain authorities stopped his investigation or at least he got the strong message that he was NOT to pursue his own sad history.

I met many other wonderful older people, some were friends with my aunt.  They responded well to the photos and guessed which ones should have been the winners.  None chose the ones that the judges picked.  I realize now how very subjective being a judge for a photo contest is!!!

One more presentation left this afternoon, but before then I’ll see my stepdaughter Laura who lives in Tucson and is up to Phoenix visiting.  Also, a friend of mine just back from living in Uzbekistan will come too.  My other friends will not be there, one who I know from Philippines twisted her knee, another has papers to grade and another lives too far away.  Phoenix is HUGE, I drove 51 miles to find her new place in Northeast Phoenix.  One can burn up a lot of gas just visiting with people in this spread out city.  At least Kyiv continues to grow UP and not so much OUT!