Judy Corrado, from Manitowoc, Wisconsin, is the mother of Cosmo House resident Sharyl Corrado.
In the summer of 2005 my husband, Larry, and I visited our daughter, Sharyl, in Russia. She was completing a year living in Russia doing Ph.D. research and wanted us to see her “second home!” Sharyl first went to Russia in 1991 where she quickly learned to love the people and adapted to a more simple lifestyle with ease. We spent one week exploring St. Petersburg doing all of the tourist things: taking a boat ride through the city on the canal; touring Peterhof, the summer palace of Tsar Peter the Great; attending two ballets (my personal favorite activity); visiting the Hermitage (one of the best art museums in the world); eating in quaint Russian restaurants; shopping in an amazing outdoor market. One very emotional afternoon was spent at a cemetery commemorating the siege of Leningrad during World War II, in which approximately one million Leningraders died. But this was the Russia that most tourists see.
We spent the next week traveling and meeting several of Sharyl’s close friends. This is when we went to Lukoyanov, a small town located 230 miles east of Moscow. We rode on a train for sixteen hours from St. Petersburg to Nizhny Novgorod, stayed in Nizhny Novgorod overnight, and then took a taxi the for the 2½ hour trip to Lukoyanov. People, not things and places, were the highlight of this amazing part of our vacation! There we met Sasha and Lena Parkomenko, our hosts and good friends of our daughter. Although we didn’t share a common language, we became instant friends. Sharyl was with us and helped with all verbal communication.
The Parkomenko family had been preparing for months for our visit and Lena told us when we arrived, “You will find nicer homes in Russia, but you won’t find any cleaner than ours!” They lived in a simple apartment, as do most of the Russian people. They also had another area (a dacha) where they had a huge garden, which provided much of the year’s food supply. The people we met in this community were all very hard working and had a strong sense of family. They eagerly shared their material possessions with us and more importantly their love of family and the simple things of life.
One of the highlights of this trip for me was visiting a preschool in Lukoyanov. I am a Head Start teacher and have been working with preschoolers for many years. I was amazed to find many similarities in the way the school was set up in various centers. They had a housekeeping area, an art area, a section for manipulative toys, a book area, a block area, etc. What was different is that the girls played with the dolls and the boys with the cars, blocks, etc. When I mentioned that in my school the boys and girls all played in each area I was told that in Russia the parents wouldn’t like that! The school provided a warm and safe environment for the youngster, yet the school director told me that in the last ten years they hadn’t received any money for supplies or upkeep! Any repair work was done by family members of the staff and the only new supplies or toys were given by the parents. No money was available. She said that at times they don’t even have enough money to feed the kids and the staff brings food from home at that time. The art area had only a few pencils and some lined paper, but I saw a little girl enjoying drawing. The contrast to my well-supplied art area in Head Start was shocking.
The one impression that I came home with was the way the people all worked so hard to make a simple living, but they did not complain and were genuinely happy. Everyone had one or two jobs and also a huge garden that provided their food. They had cows, goats, chickens, etc., all living in their yards. They generously shared what little they had with others. We spent one evening with Sasha’s parents, and his mom and dad brought out accordions. The grandfather said, “Nothing makes me happier than seeing my grandchildren singing and dancing to my music.” He had five youngsters doing just that and soon we were all participating in our own way as we enjoyed the music.
I am thrilled to hear that the Cosmopolitan Club has chosen education in Lukoyanov as the recipient of donations from the Thanksgiving benefit dinner and other fundraisers throughout the year. Having seen the schools and met the staff—Sasha’s mother is a preschool director, Sasha (the husband) is an art teachers, and Lena (his wife) is a school psychologist—I know both the need for supplies and the creative ability of the staff to work hard and to use donated money wisely. While on the news we hear about the bad things about Russia–crime, corruption, drugs, alcoholism–in Lukoyanov we saw a different picture, one of kindness, caring, generosity, and hope. Despite language and cultural barriers, and thousands of miles separating us, I count several families in Lukoyanov, Russia, as my close friends.
Cosmo House resident Sharyl Corrado (on floor) and her parents
visit Lukoyanov preschool director Antonina Parkhomenko
and her husband (playing the accordians)