Mi Dacha es su Dacha!

Dacha: Russian word for a seasonal or year-round country home.

Instead of dwelling in a sukkah for Sukkot, JDC employees opted to honor the holiday in a slightly less temporary abode, namely a delightful Belarusian dacha!

On Wednesday, September 26th, nearly 25 JDC employees traveled to the organization's lawyer's Dacha for a day of barbecuing (shashliki), box wine, and Belarusian countryside leisure. A lovely day of group bonding and enjoying the natural surroundings ensured that the spirit of the festival of booths was felt by all!

Since kosher meat is not sold in Minsk, the barbecue posed a bit of a challenge for the "koshervores" among us (ie Eritchka and I). But thankfully Eritchka brought along a few packs of Hebrew National hot dogs brought to her via freezer pack all the way from New York! Thanks Eritchka!

Yum! Check out by "bun!"

And now I would like to introduce you to some special JDC folks:


(Pasha, myself, Yoni)

First we have Pasha the JDC driver. Pasha is great. He drives the JDC minivan with skill and grace! He has made it his personal mission to have me speaking Russian by next week (we'll see...) and even miraculously taught me to pronounce the tricky guttural Russian letter "bl" correctly. Pasha enjoys smoking his pipe at the dacha, fishing, Mongolian films, and classical music.

And then, of course, we have Yoni. Yoni is the JDC Minsk representative and the head of the JDC office in Minsk. He is my supervisor, has helped me adjust to life in Minsk, and introduced me to many of the people I will be working with this year. Yoni enjoys DJing during long drives to areas in the "periphery" of Belarus and has impeccable taste in music. Yoni also likes to ask me in Russian if I'm sleeping because "Ya nyee splyoo!" ("I'm not sleeping!") is a whole Russian sentence that I can actually say!

(Iliya)

And next we have Iliya, also a JDC driver. Iliya is an excellent van driver and I am grateful to him for picking me up from the airport when I first arrived in Minsk. Iliya speaks Hebrew, which I really appreciate, and is generally a nice person to talk to.



(Natasha)

Then we have the oh-so-helpful Natasha, director of logistics for the JDC Minsk. Natasha has helped me so much, from organizing my visa to helping me find an apartment. Her English is excellent, which is great since I always have about a hundred questions for her.


I am grateful to all of these people and many more for helping me through my first three weeks in Minsk.

In the words of one of my favorite (and personally relevant) novels, Absurdistan, by Gary Shteyngart, "When you are in Absurdistan, my mother will be your mother, my wife your sister, and you will always find water in my well to drink." Oh, and my dacha is your dacha too!

(I learned a new dance at the dacha. It's called "Ifoundtheouthouseyipee!")