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Make your own magical egg!
Posted by yosyp on March 19, 2003 at 01:57:30:
In Reply to: Re: I know other stories posted by Ivan on January 12, 2003 at 20:11:41:
The tragedy in all of these stories is that life is so difficult in Ukraine today that too often women see marriage to a foreigner as their only way out. IT would be quite interesting if at some point in the future a sociologist did a study of just how these marriages come out. I do want to commend Ina for her spirited defense of Ukrainian womanhood. And she's right. Ukrainky are kinda special!! (my wife would never believe I said such). No, not all Ukrainian women are PhD's, but I get the sense that by and large it is indeed the foreigners who are getting -- by far -- the best of the bargain. And no less tragic is how much Ukraine loses!
On a lighter note, sometimes a kind of justice does prevail......
Some years ago I was teaching English in Ukraine and happened to be invited to the pre-wedding bash for a local girl and an American -- a real Georgia cracker. This cracker was super wealthy (inherited wealth of course) but, to put it kindly, was a complete idiot. He owned a huge chicken farm "out in the boonies" and was interested in nothing except how many of his chickens he'd lose each day. He'd probably never read a book in his life, and was proud of having never gone anywhere beyond Atlanta; his sole expectation of his wife-to-be was that dinner would always be ready, the house always clean, and she would always know her place.
I was no less amazed by the bride to be. Nineteen, maybe twenty, very nicely put together, (and someone who certainly knew how to flaunt her charms) but rather atypical of a "ukrainka" in that I doubt she had a domestic bone in her body. Trying to chat with her was difficult, as her English was almost nonexistant (how did these folks talk to one another??) (and her Ukrainian wasn't much better) but it was incredibly obvious that simple gold digging was very much the order of the day here. But this was a match I felt good about. Ukraine was rid of someone who I doubt could ever have been "do jakoyish miry korisna svoyi derzavi" (most of the family I discovered were not so petty mafiosi) and the groom got pretty much what he deserved.
I did kinda feel sorry for mama-in-law though. (she had come not only for the wedding but was also going to accompany her synochok and his wife on their honeymoon to Krym. The poor woman, no doubt of a proper Baptist upbringing, was also in somewhat of a cultural shock. Noting that her soon to be daughter-in-law favored rather revealing blouses she quietly inquired of me "Do all the women here dress so, ah......., provocatively?".
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