Visitors from the Ukraine

The first time Dilya and Kolya Storozhenko applied for a visa to come to the U.S. to see their daughter and meet her American husband of six years, their request was refused by the American Embassy in the Ukraine. No reason given. But the next time they applied, they left the office clutching visas valid for ten years, no reason given. They lost no time making plans to visit their only child Sasha, now 25.

After a little over two weeks in the U.S., the Storozhenkos have taken “probably a million” photos, according to Sasha, and they know what they like to eat best. Burritos morning, noon and night for Kolya and anything served up at Chipotle’s for Dilya.

What has surprised them most about their daughter’s adopted homeland? “The openness and the friendliness of the people,” Dilya says without hesitation. And the landscape, they agree,  that is so different from their surroundings at home that they have nothing to compare it with.

In the last two weeks they’ve visited Steamboat Springs, Grand Canyon, Arches and Mesa Verde national parks in a whirlwind trip by car. “We were on a schedule, “ Sasha explained. “It was hard to tear them away from photographing one place in order to move on to the next.”

In Cheyenne they visited American relatives and had the distinctively non-tourist experience of traversing a muddy path to see a large herd of goats busily consuming a field of weeds surrounding Cheyenne’s Veterans Hospital. They’re from Kharkov, a city of three million, where goats don’t hire out to provide a chemical-free method of destroying weeds.

At the dinner table, Dilya made a worried little face when the full force of the hot sauce she’d been game to try, attacked her taste buds. But she didn’t say a word. In fact, the pair said very few words, restricted by their lack of English skills. Kolya managed a big smile and a “very tasty” after he’d consumed a dinner of beef brisket, salad and homemade rolls. It’s surprising how much can be conveyed with gestures and smiles and how quickly and easily friendships can begin to form, seemingly by instinct.

Tuesday night they’re coming to my house for dinner unaccompanied by their daughter/ translator who will be away on a business trip. We’ll be forced to depend on the Google translator device on a smart phone if we really need to clarify something. The rest of the time we’ll smile and gesture and do the best we can.

No matter. I have no doubt we’ll have a great time.