percy saw her first dead guy today. well, actually her head was turned in the opposite direction. i didn't feel obliged to point the poor fellow out to her.
it was while walking to the supermarket. to get to the nearest supermarket from our apartment you go down our street a little way, cross over, go up a lane, past the car wash, up some steps, around the back of a small chemist, down the big street you emerge on, cross this street, along another relatively busy street for a couple of blocks, cross this street at the school with the green fence, follow the fence and go down the hill for a couple of blocks, down a set of rather dodgy concrete stairs and thru the carpark and you've arrived. whew! this unfortunately wouldn't have been the case if the supermarket in the metro station just four minutes of level walk from our building hadn't flooded in heavy rains the week before we arrived and is now closed. luck? providence? enforced exercise?
back to the dead guy. at the top of the dodgy concrete stairs is an apartment building with a playground and some open space in front of it. as i was coming down the hill i noticed a good number of people standing in a semi-circle in the open space. in my constant babble to percy as we walk along i asked her what she thought the signifigance of this gathering was. she either didn't have an opinion or as i suspect, hadn't seen it as she was looking in a different direction; she made no comment. i then noticed someone carrying flowers and thought immediately- "it's a funeral." great! is there some ukranian etiquette rule of not passing funerals or some other delicate toes i'm about to stomp all over? apparently not because even as the open coffin was carried out of a bus and into the building no-one noticed me.
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