Our Ukrainian guests have been with us for almost two months now. Here’s a few little observations and things I didn’t know.
They are so ultra polite and reserved
At first, I thought it was all about creating a good impression and it would wear off. It hasn’t.
Most of the time we are hardly aware of our guests being in the house; they are very quiet (almost too quiet), spend most of their time in their rooms upstairs and only come downstairs to use the kitchen and eat their food. They are so very, very polite and respectful. Often I try to spark a conversation, it takes a while to get going and then often full of lightheartedness and smiles.
They like Mr Bean!
We wanted to find something on TV for them to enjoy, taking their limited English into account. I suggested Mr Bean and we have watched a number of the 30 minute programmes, plus the movie Mr Bean goes on Holiday.
It is lovely hearing them laugh and chuckle, for just a moment they can forget the war. I think this has been a success. Any likeness of Mr Bean to myself is purely coincidental.
In Ukraine maternity leave is 3 years
Now this sounds like a family-centred and inspired policy. Arguably many other countries are ahead of the UK with their social policies.
Accountants go to prison
If a dodgy dishonest person gets his accounts cleared through an accountant and the malpractice is found by the authorities, the accountant goes to prison, not the client. You wouldn’t want to be an incompetent accountant in Ukraine, would you?
I asked our guests if the UK was how they expected it to be
We have more shrubs, trees and green spaces than they expected. They especially like our woodlands.
Knowing the UK is a relatively small island with a sizeable population, they thought we would all be crammed closely together. They have discovered that this does happen as they have already seen in Portsmouth, London and Luton but they have their own green spaces.
They adore our monarchy
Yes, they absolutely adore our monarchy and all things royal. They loved seeing Buckingham Palace and all of the other touristy traps in London. I have promised to take them back to Buckingham Palace, onto one of the Palace tours. They can recognise every member of the royal family and have loved watching The Crown on TV while still in the Ukraine. I must admit I would struggle to put names to the faces of the royal family and as for their fancy titles, well that’s beyond me.
In fact we have been to London twice now. Next time I’d like to take them around some of the parks and perhaps to Camden Town, just for some variety.
They do not feel comfortable in restaurants or cafes
While Rachel and I quite like stopping for a coffee in a cafe, or eating out in a restaurant, they do not. They seem to feel very uncomfortable in doing that. Perhaps it is a cultural thing?
Always prefer to sit in the back seats of the car, not the front seats
At first I thought it might have been my driving that put them off (and that would be very understandable!). Perhaps I’d offended them in some way, or perhaps it is a cultural thing. In their family, only the father drives, not the mother and from what I now understand, this is not unusual. Cars are said to be quite expensive in Ukraine and therefore a family would only have one car.
They build things, repair things and grow far more food than we do
As regular readers will know, we seem to have a regular stream of workmen doing all kinds of jobs in our home – the plumber, carpet fitter, electrician, worktop fitters, kitchen fitters, gardener, car mechanic and so on.
In Ukraine they (mostly) do all of these jobs themselves, only bringing someone in when all else has failed. They have the skills and equipment. I feel a little inadequate.
Our guests had a very large garden where they had a number of fruit trees and land to grow all kinds of vegetables so they would be almost self sufficient through the winter. This makes my token row of runner beans seem rather pathetic but then we tend to have smallish gardens these days, especially in towns and cities. In some ways, I think they might have had it just right.
The photo
The other day we walked down Whitehall and Anna said “Look! There’s a Ukrainian flag!”
Indeed, there was a Ukrainian flag flying about the Cabinet Office and at least one other building in Whitehall. I was proud to say this was about our solidarity with their country. I didn’t need to say anything else, it was understood with a quiet, serious nod.