All

Sergei Polischouk
Hetal Thaker
English 051
01/30/2015
Hope Against all Odds
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian, is a book written by A National Book Award-winning author, poet, and filmmaker, Sherman Alexie. According to: New York Times, _”This is a gem of a book…may be [Sherman Alexie’s] best work yet.” This book is a Diary of Arnold Spirit Jr. (Junior), the geekiest Indian teenager on the Spokane Reservation. Thru Junior’s eyes, jargon, cartoons (which accompany, often provide more insight than, the narrative), misfortunes, health issues and tragedy, Sherman Alexie telling a story, partially based on his own life story, about a serious issues of hopelessness, poverty, early death and alcoholism, that goes on from generation to generation in a “Third World Country’s” environment of Indian Reservations. Yet against all Odds Junior is a winner, he has proven on his own example. He proves that even with physical limitations, (he was born with water on the brain, just like Sherman Alexie himself), and no financial support from his family, he can find hope. He got out of the reservation bubble, went to rich, “All White”, school, scored good grades, exceled in sports, dated a queen of the class, and became popular and successful. In contrast, his childhood friend Rowdy has chosen to stand by his Indian roots, and continue poor, meaningless life style. Rowdy is strong and learn to fight for himself with fists, Junior is weak, yet he is a “Spiritual Giant”, no wonder Sherman Alexie choose “Spirit” for his main hero’s last name. One of the chapter titles is “Hope Against Hope” (Alexie 32). There is Hope for those who are willing to fight for their future, is a main theme of the book.
Message of Hope woven into the story from the very start of the book. Junior questions everything about his own life and life of the people in Indian Reservations as a whole. He is almost like a “Young Greek Philosopher”, trying to gig deeper into the problem to find a root cause of all poverty, misery, hopelessness, alcoholism and death. “My parents came from poor people who came from poor people, all the way back to the very first poor people” (Alexie 11). He sees clearly, that he need to do something, there is an answer, he just need to find it, he is not satisfied with a harsh reality of his life, and looking for a way out.
“But we reservation Indians don’t get to realize our dreams. We don’t get those chances. Or choices. We are just poor. That’s all we are” (Alexie 13). Yes, he is saying that there is no hope, and all the evidence of his surroundings supporting that, yet deep inside he knows that there has to be a way out. Yes! There is hope in Junior! He is not hopeless. He wears chunky, lopsided glasses. His head and body look like Sputnik on a toothpick. When he does not stutter, he lisps. When he goes outside, he gets teased and beaten, so he spends a lot of time in his room drawing cartoons. He says, “I think the world is a series of broken dams and floods, and my cartoons are tiny little lifeboats” (Alexie 6). Arnold (Junior) is drawing an imaginary world, and he is living in it, he is creating his own world, a world of hope.
Sherman Alexie is a poet, so it is not surprise that the story is very poetic. The way Junior talks, the way he thinks, and the way he feels all that is happening to him thru his life time. The way he respond to a death of his loved once when he has lost three of his nearest relatives at a same time, it’s a dark poetry, yet still a poetry, because only poetry can describe all the colors of Junior’s emotions, how he replaced tears with laughter to get thru the hardest times of his entire life. Somehow, he is always a total opposite of his best friend Rowdy. They are a same age, and they have grow up together, yet they are coping with life in such a different way. Rowdy is a true Indian in his eyes and Junior is a trader, but since they were very young Arnold (Junior) knew that he can never go thru life following Rowdy’s footsteps, Rowdy protected him form others, but Junior have decided to move on. Junior tries to invite Rowdy to join him on his journey. Junior said, “You can still come with me” (Alexie 52). “Rowdy stopped screaming with his mouth but he kept screaming with his eyes” (Alexie 52).Rowdy yelled, “You always thought you were better than me” (Alexie 52). Then Rowdy punch him and left, and Junior realize that their friendship came to the end. “I stayed on the ground for a long time after Rowdy walked away. I stupidly hoped that time would stand still if I stayed still. But I had to stand eventually, and when I did, I knew that my best friend had become my worst enemy” (Alexie 53). There are many interesting characters in this book, Junior’s parents, grandmother, sister, ankle, girlfriend, schoolmates, teachers, some of them like him, some not, yet the whole story is always about Junior and Rowdy. They have two different philosophies of life, two different sets of values. Rowdy is trying to tell Junior to stop trying, because there is no hope, you are who you are, you are and American Indian, living in a reservation in Spokane Washington, that is where you were born, that is where grandfather of your grandfather were born, and that’s where you are going to die, clear and simple. Junior is a dreamer, he does not want to see himself sit, and get drunk, and cry about his life. He is laughing when Rowdy is crying, they are climbing the same tallest tree in the reservation, but Arnold (Junior) is looking out over the lake, while Rowdy is looking in. Hope is giving him an inner strength. Hope is his main drive.
Sherman Alexie ended story about Junior on the positive note. In the end Junior said, “I would always love Rowdy. And I would always miss him, too. Just as I would always love and miss my grandmother, my big sister, and Eugene.
Just as I would always love and miss my reservation and my tribe.
I hoped and prayed that they would someday forgive me for leaving them.
‘Ah, Man,’ Rowdy said. ‘Stop crying.’
‘Will we still know each other when we’re old men?’ I asked.
‘Who knows anything?’ Rowdy asked.
Then he threw me the ball.
‘Now quit your blubbering,’ he said. ‘And play ball.’
I wiped my tears away, dribbled once, twice, and pulled up for a jumper.
Rowdy and I played on-on-one for hours. We played until dark. We played until the streetlights lit up the court. We played until the bats swooped down at our heads. We played until the moon was huge and golden and perfect in the dark sky.
We didn’t keep score.” (Alexie 230). Junior went thru a lot in his lifetime. He had an experience of every possible pain of his miserable existence. He has learned from it, got more mature, and looking ahead on his future with joy and laugher. Yes! He has found hope. Hope against all odds. He even made peace with Rowdy. He invite Rowdy again, to join him on his journey. Rowdy will not change his mind and his decision is final, he is and always will be a “True American Indian”, when Arnold Spirit Jr. is only a “Part-time Indian”, and that the whole plot of this book. Sherman Alexie, been American Indian himself, made an attempt to introduce different aspects of life in the reservation, Indian heritage, and all different ways they keep their spirit alive generation after generation. Sherman Alexie choose a diary as a format to share his message, he choose for a main character an American Indian teenager who is writing his diary, and using language that would be easily comprehended by teenagers who would like to know more about American Indians, their life style and life inside of Indian Reservations. This book is great introductory resource for teenagers and adults alike. Personally I find it easy to read, has an intriguing plot, and when I was done with it I knew that there is going to be a second book, because everyone would like to know how successful Junior has become. This book has increased my own hope. It was empowered me to strive for a greater things, and keep hope alive against all odds.
Work Cited
Alexie, Sherman. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2009, Print.



The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian Reading Journal (25 points)
Please bring the completed journal entry for the corresponding section to class on the section due date. The entry should be typed. Five percentage points will be deducted for each late entry. The final journal should be stapled.

Name:     Sergei Polischouk               
Section #:       Why Chicken Means So Much to Me               
Page #s: 7 - 14

Write a summary—at least four sentences, and no more than two paragraphs—of the section.

An American Indian teenager telling a story of his life and childhood in Indian Reservation. How he was raised by a poor mother and father, and a lot of nights he would go to bed without a diner. On the days when his parents would bring home Kentucky Fried Chicken (Original Recipe) he would notice that when he is hungry, food tastes much better, so he would state that, “a good piece of chicken can make anybody believe in existence of God.”

Then he would go deeper into reasons why his family is poor, why his family come from a poor family. Goes all the way back to the very first family of American Indians and concludes that they were poor too, and had nothing but their hands,  to cover them selves. His final conclusion is that, “poverty only teaches you how to be poor.”

Write any passages that stand out to you (include the page #). Find at least one.

“But I can’t blame my parents for our poverty, because my mother and father are the twin suns around which I orbit and my world would EXPLODE without them.
And it’s not like my mother and father were born into wealth. It’s not like they gambled away their family fortunes. My parents came from poor people who came from poor people who came from poor people, all the way back to the very first poor people.
Adam and Eve covered their privates with fig leaves, the first Indians covered their privates with their tiny hands.
Seriously, I know my mother and father had their dreams when they were kids. They dreamed about being something other than poor, but they never got the chance to be anything because nobody paid attention to their dreams….Page 11”
“But we reservation Indians don’t get to realize our dreams. We don’t get those chances. Or choices. We’re just poor. That’s all we are.
It sucks to be poor, and it sucks to feel that you somehow deserve to be poor. You start believing that you’re poor because you’re stupid and ugly. And then you start believing that you’re stupid and ugly because you’re Indian. And because you’re Indian you start believing you’re destined to be poor. It’s an ugly circle and there’s nothing you can do about it…. Page 13”

Write at least two questions and two comments about the section.

Question 1.
Why author Sherman Alexis choose an ironic / satiric style of writing using jargon of a teenager, who talk very descriptive to explain the reader the root cause and effect of the problems concerning American Indians and life in reservations?

Question 2.
Can I as a reader use this book to learn more about American Indians and challenges of their life?

Author Sherman Alexis choose to talk about serious issues concerning American Indians, in an easy to read, often funny format, to raise awareness about their life in hope that if young adults read it, they would be the once to build a future in years to come, and issues such as poverty in reservations that goes on generation after generation will be addressed with a positive outcome.

Book was written with use of author’s real life experiences, and then changed into a fictional format, with intend to talk about serious matters in a confessional story of a life of a physically challenged American Indian teenager, who was born and raised on Indian Reservation in Spokane Washington.


The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian Reading Journal (25 points)
Please bring the completed journal entry for the corresponding section to class on the section due date. The entry should be typed. Five percentage points will be deducted for each late entry. The final journal should be stapled.

Name:     Sergei Polischouk               
Section #:       Hope Against Hope               
Page #s: 32 - 43

Write a summary—at least four sentences, and no more than two paragraphs—of the section.

An American Indian teenager talking to his math teacher about hopeless life on the reservation. He feels like there is no hope for him or anyone else, because all they are a children of people who have no hope, and those people came from people who had no hope.

Math teacher is trying to tell him that there is hope. His hope is to get out from the reservation into an outside world, and realize all his dreams, by becoming what he always wanted to be, using all his intellect, inner gifts and abilities.

Write any passages that stand out to you (include the page #). Find at least one.

““You’ve been fighting since you were born,” he said. “You fought off that brain surgery. You fought off those seizures. You fought off all those drunks and drug addicts. You kept your hope. And now, you have to take your hope and go somewhere where other people have hope.”” Page 43.

Write at least two questions and two comments about the section.

Question 1.
Is author Sherman Alexis talking thru Mr. P the math teacher about hope, to imply that the only way to realize hopes and dreams for smart Indian teenager is to leave hopeless reservation and go to the outside world, because there are no way to realize any hopes and dreams by staying in reservations surrounded by hopeless people, who have lost or gave up on they dreams, and just wasting their life been drunk or high?
Question 2.
Why options to realize hopes and dreams are so limited for those who stay on reservation?

Author Sherman Alexis knows from his personal experience firsthand what life is like on reservations, it is a lot like a third world country, so the only way to change anything for a Indian teenager growing up there, is to get out, move to more civilize part of the country, get education and a job.

Life on reservations are self-sustained, they form this way of life of poverty and hopelessness and there are not much one person can do to change what has been established for generations, getting out is the only option.


The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian Reading Journal (25 points)
Please bring the completed journal entry for the corresponding section to class on the section due date. The entry should be typed. Five percentage points will be deducted for each late entry. The final journal should be stapled.

Name:     Sergei Polischouk               
Section #:       Junior transfers to a white school, his sister got married and moved to Montana               
Page #s: 48 - 100

Write a summary—at least four sentences, and no more than two paragraphs—of the section.

An American Indian teenager taking advice of his math teacher Mr. P and transfers to a new school where mostly white kids go. He wants to get out from the reservation life style, get his hopes up, and learning to stand up for himself, gained respect and see a possibility to achieve his dream, when he will be done learning there.
His sister also got fed up hiding in the basement all the time. She meet an Indian gambler at a casino, were impressed of his courage to gamble all his money, got married to him and moved with him to Montana. When she see that her brother is doing something to get away from poverty and hopeless life in reservation, she wanted to get out too and make something of her self.

Write any passages that stand out to you (include the page #). Find at least one.

““It’s strange, isn’t it?” I asked. “What does it mean?”
Grandma thought hard for a while.
“I think it means he respects you,” she said.
“Respect? No way!”
“Yes way! You see, you men and boys are like pack of wild dogs. This giant boy is the alpha male of the school, and you’re the new dog, so he pushed you around a bit to see how tough you are.
“ But I’m not tough at all,” I said.
“Yeah, but you punched the alpha dog in the face,” she said. “ They’re going to respect you now.”” Page 68.

Write at least two questions and two comments about the section.

Question 1.
Is author Sherman Alexis trying to show us American Indian wisdom, using grandmother as an advisor how to get respected in life?
Question 2.
Will American Indian teenager from the poor family get ahead in life, if he will try to get educated outside of reservation?
Author Sherman Alexis is showing in this example, that it’s not about place where someone is born, or amount of wealth someone is born into, it’s all about internal drive and passion to learn, are the main key to get ahead in life and overcome poverty of the life style in Indian Reservation.
Education is one way to get ahead in life, and that’s what our main character choses. His sister on the other hand chose a different path, got married and moved away from reservation, to rich up to her dreams that way, with a help of husband.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian Reading Journal (25 points)
Please bring the completed journal entry for the corresponding section to class on the section due date. The entry should be typed. Five percentage points will be deducted for each late entry. The final journal should be stapled.

Name:     Sergei Polischouk               
Section #:       Junior started dating Penelope, a beautiful white girl and getting good at basketball               
Page #s: 101 - 149
Write a summary—at least four sentences, and no more than two paragraphs—of the section.

An American Indian teenager start getting more mature, more sure in himself. He started dating Penelope, a white girl, queen of the class. Deal with her father Earl, and his racist views.
He goes to dance, and getting good at basketball game under supervision of his coach. His sister send him a letter, telling that she is looking for a job and live with her husband in a trailer in Montana.

Write any passages that stand out to you (include the page #). Find at least one.

“And I am an Indian.
And Penelope’s father Earl, is a racist.” Page 109.
“Kid, if you get my daughter pregnant. If you make some charcoal babies, I’m going to disown her. I’m going to kick her out of my house and you’ll have to bring her home to your mommy and daddy. You hearing me straight, kid? That is all on you now.” Page 109 – 110.

Write at least two questions and two comments about the section.

Question 1.
Is author Sherman Alexis telling a story about Junior dating Penelope, to show readers that for Indian teenager from reservation the only way to get ahead in life and overcome poverty is to start going to a school our of reservation, start dating, and possible marry a white beautiful and popular girl?
Question 2.
Is author Sherman Alexis stressing the point of importance of physical education, to become sure in yourself and have a winner personality?
In the eyes of Junior if he is dating and white, beautiful, popular queen of the class Penelope, he is stepping up in the world, I the eyes of Earl, Penelope father for her to date poor Indian boy from reservation, is stepping down in the world toward life in poverty, and he didn’t raise his daughter to give her away to a poor Indian boy, so they can make charcoal babies.
Junior realize that he needed not only to change the school, go out of reservation to blend with a white community of teenagers, and date a beautiful, popular, white queen of the class. He also need to excel in sports, specialy basketball, to become popular and see himself as a winner. He needed to go to go on thru life with that attitude, and be a successful, educated person with a happy family.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian Reading Journal (25 points)
Please bring the completed journal entry for the corresponding section to class on the section due date. The entry should be typed. Five percentage points will be deducted for each late entry. The final journal should be stapled.

Name:     Sergei Polischouk               
Section #:       Junior loses his grandmother, becomes TV star, and scores on his childhood best friend in basketball               
Page #s: 150 – 198

Write a summary—at least four sentences, and no more than two paragraphs—of the section.

An American Indian teenager deal with death of his grandmother and his ankle. Defines alcohol been main reason not only for poverty but also for death in his Indian community at a reservation.
A TV reporter ask him for an interview about competing in a basketball game against his own Indian schoolmates and childhood friends. And how weird that feel to be a member of a white school team playing against his own from the reservation.

Write any passages that stand out to you (include the page #). Find at least one.

“And then my mother start laughing.
And that set us all off.
Two thousand Indians laughed at a same time.
We keep laughing.
It was the most glorious noise I’d ever heard.
And I realize that, sure, Indians were drunk and sad displaced and crazy and mean, but dang, we knew how to laugh.
When it comes to death, we know that laughter and tears are pretty much a same thing.
And so, laughing and crying, we said good-bye to my grandmother. And when we said good-bye to one grandmother, we said good-bye to all of them.
Each funeral was a funeral for all of us.
We lived and die together.” Page 166.

Write at least two questions and two comments about the section.

Question 1.
Is author Sherman Alexis showing us insides of life and death on Indian reservation, how they live their life as a community, and how they express their emotions when someone is passed away?
Question 2.
Is author Sherman Alexis showing us that anyone can get ahead in life and become more successful at anything he does, if he tries hard and work on it?
Indian surely life their life like a one big family, live together and die. Tears and laughter is their main way to express their emoting and deal with death, and people at a reservation die often. According to this story alcohol has been a major cause of poverty and death in Indian reservation. Only five people at a reservation, including Junior’s grandmother did not drink, all others were drinking all the time, and it seem that since Junior identify the problem, he wants to make changes to his own life and possible stay away from alcohol and not get addicted.
Not only Junior join all white school, he also manage to become a basketball star and scored on his childhood friend Rowdy.
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian Reading Journal (25 points)
Please bring the completed journal entry for the corresponding section to class on the section due date. The entry should be typed. Five percentage points will be deducted for each late entry. The final journal should be stapled.

Name:     Sergei Polischouk               
Section #:       Junior sister dies in a fire, he grief over her death, made peace with his friend Rowdy               
Page #s: 199 – 230
Write a summary—at least four sentences, and no more than two paragraphs—of the section.

Junior told that his sister is burned to death in a house fire, he deals with his grief thru laughter, and happy that his parents are still alive. He goes on a summer break in school, misses his girlfriend Penelope and write her letters.
Junior and Rowdy were friends since they were born, but when Junior went to all white school outside of Indian Reservation, Rowdy did not want to be his friend anymore. Now after Junior sister dies, Rowdy blames her death on Junior, saying that she would still be alive if he never went to all with school and leave reservation. Then they made peace with each other and become friends all over again.

Write any passages that stand out to you (include the page #). Find at least one.

““Happy families are all alike: every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” Well I hate to argue with a Russian genius, but Tolstoy didn’t know Indians. And he didn’t know that all Indians are unhappy for the same exact reason: the freaking booze.” Page 200

“”It’s all your fault,” he said.
“What’s my fault?” I asked.
“Your sister is dead because you left us. You killed her.” Page 211

Write at least two questions and two comments about the section.

Question 1.
Is author Sherman Alexis showing us two different views, one is of Junior, that alcohol is cause of all problems in the life if American Indians: poverty, death, unhappiness, and another is of Rowdy, that an Indian should never leave reservation, stay true to his roots and heritage, and except reality of life in the reservation: poverty, death, unhappiness as normal part of life, and solution is to get drunk all the time, just like everyone else does?
Question 2.
Is author Sherman Alexis showing us that the path that Junior chooses is life will more surely lead him to success as oppose to the path that Rowdy chooses for himself?

Alcohol is a great problem among poor people, and as well in a poor American Indian reservation lifestyle. When people do not have any hope, they get drunk to deal with their problems, and often die from it. Its one thing to accept reality that you’ve been born to poverty, and another is what you do about it,

Junior is a fighter, he fights for his right to be happy, successful and financially stable American Indian. Junior sister Mary was a fighter too, she got out to have her own family, but use of alcohol lead her to death. So the point of the story is that one is not only needs to become the best he can be at everything he attempts to do, but he also need to overcome his addictions. Rowdy is on the other hand choses to continue long time tradition of other Indians in reservation, and even so he fight everyone with its fists and always wins, he is not a fighter at all, and goes thru life without trying to make a change about his future.

Sergei Polischouk
Hetal Thaker
English 051
01/30/2015
My Daughter Alla
My youngest daughter Alla is twenty-three years old. I remember the day she was born like it was yesterday. At some point that night I realized my life would never be the same. I cried, because I knew that my wife could not have children any more.
I changed diapers and clothes, made meals and tried the best I knew how to help my wife provide my daughter, and our whole family with a stable life. She grew from infant to toddler with ease and with these changes my life became brand new again. She used to climb up on my shoulders, when I was sitting on the sofa and playing my guitar. As a result, as time went by, she become musically inclined, and started learning how to play the flute yearly on, as well as singing in a school choir, and worship band in our church, and she does it till this day.
By the time Alla entered elementary school, she were a cute little “brunette,” in contrast to her “blonde,” older sister Raisa. I remember her first broken heart. I swear the pain I felt was just as fierce. I love the way her smile can lighten up my day and her bubbly laughter bounces inside my head. Even as the first heartbreak went away, I knew there were more to come. So, that was the major topic of the following few years.
Years went by and she became a very beautiful teenager, got good at playing basketball and hockey, joined high school band to play drums, and flute. Latter Alla had multiple offers to work as a model, yet all she wanted were, to have a family of her own.
Once again it was a stormy night that I will not forget, when Alla finished high school. I cried that night too, watching my baby cross the stage to receive her high school diploma. Soon after that, Alla fell in love with a “preacher son,” Leon, marry him and moved to Ashville, North Carolina.
Now she is expecting a child, my grandson, in April, so I be crying with my tears of joy once again. The more years that pass the more my Alla comes to mean to me. My daughter, is just that mine. She is my daughter, my friend and also one of my proudest joys. ...
Sergei Polischouk
Hetal Thaker
English 051
01/30/2015
My Teenage Dreams
I was born and spend all my childhood near Pacific Ocean in the city of Vladivostok and letter Nakhodka. Since I was 6 years old my dream was to leave USSR and move to USA, my family got an invitation to New Jersey from a sort wave radio gospel radio preacher from USA, but Russian Government didn’t give my family permission to leave USSA. When I went to my first grade in school teacher told everyone in class that I am a traitor and not loyal to my homeland and I wrote  USA on my arm with a pen so I can keep my dream alive.

It was an Era of Socialism in its worst form. In the late 80’s I was finishing my High School, and at that time everyone I knew understood that we been brainwashed for 70 years and a lot of them wanted to live USSR and go to the Western World, but it was impossible to realize. Soviet Union was on a fast race downhill. Life there were a lot like living in the cave, no one was allowed to go visit western country, and see what life is like on the other side.

I never had a car, car were way overpriced, so I was using my bicycle and public transportation to get around. I can remember growing up and wanting to wear a blue jeans, or hear a new Pink Floyd album, but things like that were illegal to have, and were not sold in stores, but on the black market there were available at a price of few month salary of a regular worker. I remember getting my ear close to a speaker, on short wave radio station, to hear Western music that was transmitted from a free world country, not far from Soviet Union border.

Yet, all that was not main reason my family wanted to immigrate to USA. Main reason was, no freedom to choose a religion or what God to worship, Soviet Union’s philosophy and position were really quite simple, there is no God, everyone should to be an atheist, and anyone else who wants to worship God, be Christian, or Jewish, or Muslim, were placed in jail, simply because he is trying to teach his own children, what to believe in. Soviet Union law stated that children are property of the government, and only government has a right to say what children allowed to learn, and what they should believe, parents had no say in that matter, and may Christian, Jewish or Muslim preachers spend many years in USSR Concentration Camps, my grandfather was one of them, that is why my family were looking for a way to get out.

I also had another dream. I was fourteen years old school goer back in my home city Nakhodka, Russia, USSR. I had a dream in with I’ve seen my four children, two boys and two girls in their teenage years. When I woke up, I knew that I don’t have any children yet, but that dream got stuck in my memory.

Four years later I got married, and I was sure that I will have two boys and two girls, not far apart their ages. And by The Grace of God, or some kind of miracle, it happened exactly as I’ve seen in my dream, back when I was teenager myself, even color of their hair match, two of them had dark hair and two were blondes. 

When they all grown to their teenage years, they all look exactly as I’ve seen them in my dream. Now years went by, and my youngest daughter got married and expecting a boy on April 15, 2015, so dreams do come true. 

My oldest son Maxim was born in Nakhodka, Russia, USSR, on August 16, 1986, and he was a happy little blond boy, and he was only year and a half when my family moved to Europe, first to Austria, Vienna, and a week later to Italy, Rome, and that’s where my second son Aleksander was born on July 23, 1988, and he had a dark hair, we stayed in little town Ladispoli for 2 month and it was a very hot summer so we spend a lot of our time on the black sand beach and enjoy salty Mediterranean breeze.

On August 31, 1988 we all came to United States, and Lancaster county become our new homeland, and here my daughter Raisa was born on February 16, 1990, she did flip over inside of my ex-wife’s, so a C section was required to get her out, and in did she was a blond, just like in my dream. One year later on July 2, 1991, my youngest daughter was born and she had a dark hair, they both came to this world thru a C section, and I was present at Lancaster General Hospital at the time of their birth.

Maxim now 28, working as a mechanic. Aleksander now 26, he is a Penn State, behavioral science  graduate with a bachelor degree, he is working as a therapist with a mentally challenged children at a Philhaven in Harrisburg. Raisa now 24, soon will be 25 is a HACC graduate and working as a physical therapist / massage therapist in Hearshey Spa . Alla now 23, got married in 2010, moved to Ashville, North Carolina with her husband Leon, and now expecting my grandson come to life.

Well maybe not all my teenage dreams come true, but those two certainly have, and I’ve been blessed by God with four beautiful children, that I love dearly with my heart, and we all here in United States, were my children will never have to face problems of Soviet Union Regime, I am glad and proud that we are Americans now.