Americans dining in the 'Dova

Last night Pete and I finally escaped sans kiddos for a dinner out!  A master’s student Pete had met at the Fulbright orientation meetings invited some of the Fulbrighters as well as some Peace Corps volunteers in the area over to his place, so despite my skepticism that a young guy could cook a decent meal for all of us, we accepted the invitation and taxied on over.

Besides us, the attendees were:  a Russian-American bachelor giant of a man, a married couple of professors who are grandparents from Phoenix, a beautiful young woman who is a recent graduate of Chapel Hill, a long-haired young dude from Kansas now in the Peace Corps, a man from Chicago working on his master’s degree, and his friend who has been living in Eastern Europe as a master’s student and Peace Corps worker for the last several years.   If this motley crew had gathered in America, it would have been a very strange dinner party indeed.  At the very least, we all would have appeared to be part of some Murder Mystery dinner with all of the various roles.

But once we got past all of the initial introductions (“How long have you been in the ‘Dova?” the Kansas dude asked), the group actually gelled quite well and it turned into a very spirited and quite enjoyable evening!  The local wine, which was brought in 8 2-liter plastic soda bottles labeled with little sticky-notes like “Chardonnay” and “Merlot,” started flowing and the conversations were fascinating as everyone shared their observations and experiences.  Some of these people have some crazy stories about living here, traveling across borders, dealing with officials, etc!  Several of them are currently stationed in villages a few hours south of here and we were interested to hear about their perspectives and those of their students and/or colleagues.

My concerns about the food were soon allayed – our host’s boyfriend brought forth quite the gourmet meal with spicy pumpkin soup, braised pork with pomegranate seeds, carrots with currants and nuts, and buckwheat.  It was a delicious feast, and quite a treat to have someone cook for us!

By the end of the evening, we were sad to leave.  I suspect that the political, spiritual, lifestyle, and philosophical views varied greatly within that room, but sharing a common language and experience in a foreign land goes a long way to bond diverse strangers.