November: 22 | 23 | 24 |
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Thursday, November 22, 1990
 I was awake before the other three in the compartment, and jumped up to
use the toilet before it became crowded. I had tangerines, tea, and a vitamin for
breakfast. I spent most of the morning looking out the window. Alexander and I took a walk
at one of the long stops. We had a good lunch of soup and salad in the dining car.
Afterwards, we lingered a long time over drinks, talking with his many friends, also going
to the holistic health conference.
A "blue beret" soldier returning from Germany presented me with his
"quick reaction" sash. We arrived in Lugansk at dusk. It was a large city. We
crammed eight people in a four person taxi, and took it across town to a bus stop, where
we waited for two and a half hours for a bus to the village of Orechovka.
Svetlana was glad to see me again. I met their beaming children, Matve and Lusha (short
for Angelina), for the first time. I was surprised to discover a real ecological lifestyle
there. They had spent a month at the Findhorn
community in Scotland, after I met them last year. We enjoyed a big vegetarian dinner, and
seven of us slept comfortably on the living room floor.
Friday, November 23, 1990
I woke up to busy noises and children coming from the kitchen. I packed up my sleeping
bag, dressed, and went out in the yard to piss. I brushed my teeth, rinsed my hands and
face in the dirty creek, and went to the village spring with Alexander to carry water.
 At 08:00, we had to run to catch the bus
back into the city of Lugansk. We changed to another bus, which was jam-packed, for a
total two and a half hour nose to nose ride standing up. We arrived at the Palace of
Miner's, and registered for the "Immortality Symposium." We sat through several
boring new age lectures, based mostly on themes related to the teachings of the Russian
ascetic Porfiry
Ivanov (1898-1983). We had a good, long cafeteria-style lunch in the Miner's Palace
coffee shop. It consisted of a small plate of beef, rice, salad, yogurt, and cake.
Afterwards, during the afternoon session, I fell asleep. We left in the mid-afternoon to
make the long bus journey back to Orechovka. We tried to buy some things in a shop on the
way, but couldn't without ration coupons. We were able to get a snack in the bus
station canteen.
Back in Orechovka, we had a good vegetarian dinner of salad, potatoes, and other
things. We went to sleep early, at 22:00, after interesting discussions about Ivanov.
Ivanov was born in the village of Orechovka in 1898, and lived there his whole life. In
fact, he lived in the very house where I was staying. In 1933, he had some sort of Gestalt
experience at age 35 and began his experimenting on himself. He eventually developed a
regime of cold baths twice daily, physical contact with the natural environment, and
weekly fasting, in addition to general abstention and positive attitude. Ivanov's
techniques and philosophy now have a large following throughout the Soviet Union. There
are large annual gatherings of his followers in Orechovka.
Saturday, November 24, 1990
I slept late, before getting up for a light breakfast of porridge with the children.
The rest were fasting. Alexander and I went to the village post office to pick up some
packages he had mailed from Moscow. I had some carrot salad, bread with jam, and tea for
lunch. The others went to the sauna for their weekly hot scrub. I relaxed, got caught up
on my journal and radio, and finally got oriented on the map.
 Later, Alexander and I went to visit some
of his friends and neighbors, who were also Ivanov followers, Maria, a singer, her friend
Valentin, and her radiant mother, Nadia. We sang songs, and they told me of their
teacher's vision of the second coming, there in that spot. Maria, a Ukrainian, said
"the Russian language came from God, and one day the whole world will speak it."
I had to tell her that Americans thought the same thing, about English. They thanked me
for telling them. We parted as loving friends. And they presented me with my own photo of Ivanov.
I had a great dinner with the kids, of salad and vegetarian stew. I showed them my
APPALACHIAN LIFE picture book and Cherokee postcards. They were very interested. (I wished
I had brought photos, which would have been better.) I went to sleep at 22:30, after a
thorough discussion of Rainbow... and after the puppy pee was cleaned off of the pad I was
using, in the middle of the living room floor.
Sunday, November 25, 1990
We were woken up at dawn, with an alarm clock, and had breakfast of tea and pastry. We
again took two buses into Lugansk, but this time the second one was an "express"
bus. Once we arrived at the symposium, I had to use the toilet. I was having bowel
movements now only every other day, due to the reduced food intake in the Soviet Union.
 I prepared my speech on Rainbow. It went
well, with Svetlana translating. I held on to her tightly the whole time, behind the
monstrous Soviet dais. I liked having a translator, because the translation gave me plenty
of time to review my outline. I got the heartiest applause yet for my bike ride.
Afterwards, I made many contacts.
We had a fast-breaking feast in the cafeteria, of cakes, salad, yogurt, bread, and
cabbage stew. We stopped by the marketplace, after we left, and I got some pomegranates
and giant persimmons for the kids. Georgians are apparently resented throughout the Soviet
Union for being good at business.
Between buses, we had coffee flavored water with cookies in the station canteen, and
went to see a Soviet movie about the tragedy the Afghan war caused in one family. We had
to leave before it finished, to catch the bus back to the village.
We had dinner of salad and the previous day's leftover stew, which was still good.
Alexander, Svetlana, and I sat up late in deep conversation about their projects and
plans. I also read a letter from Findhorn, mentioning Vladimir S. in Leningrad. Was this
an amazing coincidence? It tuned me better into my problems. I gave my hosts four of the
111 Apache crystals before going to sleep.
Monday, November 26, 1990
We slept late, and had a late breakfast of tea and bread with syrup. We then slogged
through the slime to visit the head of the local Communist Party. We met him half way, in
a truck. He accompanied us back to Alexander and Svetlana's house for a parley. Alexander
raved in the particularly Russian emphatic way.
Afterwards, Svetlana, Lusha, and I prepared to return to Moscow. Matve went halfway
with us, and acted up quite a bit before we separated. We snacked on juice and cookies
between buses. In Lugansk, we shared a taxi to the train station. We met a number of
people who had been at the symposium who were also returning to Moscow. The line for
tickets got a bit stressy. We ended up with hard seats in the cattle car. But as if by
consolation, we had a good dinner in the station restaurant. We killed a lot of time
there, talking and watching Lusha play. We got seats together on the train, after trading
tickets with some others. We had tea and snacks before turning in.
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