(Noy:) I am now writing this in the car on our way back to Warsaw. Why Warsaw, you might ask yourself- We should be on our way to Krakow. The following will explain everything. I will now try to summarize our day yesterday as best as possible- it will be very hard, because so much happened.
We woke up in our minus 5 star hotel (it was snowing and everything looked beautiful) and got ready for a long day. Our plan for the day was to attempt to cross the Ukrainian border and drive to Knihynicze where Grandma’s Grandparents and parents lived- and later where her two brothers wee born. We stopped by a nice hotel bar on the way to the border to drink something before the long wait to the border. This hotel, where the café was in, was a lot better than our negative 5 star hotel.
We reached the border and for some weird reason today was “going well” (explanation later) and they let us through with no hassle. We then started driving. On our way we saw the long line of cars waiting to cross back to Poland. The line consisted of hundreds of cars. You can imagine what Worry-doll-Ely’s reaction was. Right when he was done worrying about passing safely to Ukraine, he began worrying about whether or not we will get back to Poland before next morning.
We drove for quite a while in between small villages FILLED with churches- some old, some renovated- there were at least 3 churches in every village. Tomek told us that all these villages once consisted of many Jewish families- Now, of course, everything was destroyed and no Jews were left in the area. Ukraine was a very poor and not very technologically advanced country- and you can see that when you are driving in the streets. Every thing was destroyed- or abandoned. Horses with carriages passed the “highways” every once in a while. The roads were poorly made. Prostitutes, here too, were standing alongside the road. We passed through old town L’vov. The buildings there were very nice and old- some renovated. After L’vov we started heading towards Knihynicze- it took us at least 3 hours and much help from the Ukrainians people.
We reached this tiny village in the middle of no where, and asked a drunken man where the Jewish center was. Roosters were crossing the streets, and some ducks. We passed by a lake by which Grandmother’s family lived. We got out of the car and started to walk around. Here the ground was muddy and slippery from the melted snow. We went up a small hill near an old church which was the center of the village. It was slippery and Savta slipped. She hurt her shoulder, wasn’t sure if it was broken or dislocated (or both), in fact- we are still not sure.
We decided to head back, but before we did Tomek asked some local people if they knew anything about the Jews that once lived in Knihynicze- they called an old man out and he talked to us about his childhood and told us everything he knew about savta’s family. This old man was born in 1933, so he was a child when the war started and the Nazis came into their little village. He led us to the house which he claimed was the house in which the Rebisch family lived in. He told us they were very rich and had a tavern and a barn and a place to trade horses If anyone needed it. He also told us they were very orthodox wearing the matching garbs. He showed us where the synagogue was once and the mikve (both were located near the lake). He also recalled from his childhood seeing the nazi soldiers shooting several Jews. He also said that the rest of the town’s Jewish population was sent to the Rogatin ghetto. We showed him a picture of savta’s grandfather with some other family members and he claimed that it was taken inside that house. After talking to this man for quite a while (Tomek spoke to him in Russian though the old man spoke Ukranian and Tomek couldn’t understand half of the stuff he said), we said goodbye and decided to head towards the hospital in Rohatyn to get some help for savta. We reached the hospital, and Tomek ima and savta went in. From the outside the hospital looked pretty dirty and as if it was built during communist times. I do not have much to tell about this hospital because they left Ely and me in the car like little babies. We sat 3 and a half hours in the car- FUN STUFF. I went in to ask to use the restroom and they pointed to a door which led to another door. The toilettes were very dirty, and the room was very very small. The door barely closed, and there was no toilette paper. Outside there was a sink with a cup of pee in it. For a moment I thought It was soap, but later I found out that it was a cup of pee, I was very glad I did not use it J. The rest my mother will tell because she was in the hospital ( I’m glad they left us in the car) and she says it was horrible. Ely and I almost rotted in the car. Some nurses were staring at us through the window- every time we looked up there was a pair of them on one of the floors just staring. I tried to have a staring competition with one of them- but she won (but only because Ely pushed me out of the way).

(Ruthy:)The hospital visit will be described in detail only upon special request. If you think that it’s impossible to go back in time you are so wrong. We flew back in time and were placed in a communist hospital back in the 50’s? Maybe even further down the timeline. Dirty, deserted, broken, dark, primitive and cold.
The different doctors and nurses did their best but that was far away from what we wanted… No word in English to be heard. Tomek served as a translator but his Russian is not perfect and they prefer Ukrainian. Even the very “fancy” office of the head masters of the doctors (yes, Tomek managed to get friendly with them too) who were wearing very white ironed robes with bright white pants and matching shoes and even a matching stiff chef-like hat, even their office looked like a very successful set in a movie about Russia in the middle of the last century. The red dusty dial phone could probably be sold in eBay for plenty of money.
Alltogether a lot of energy with very little productivity. Finally Savta Miki had her arm stabilized in a very amateur way (again, more details are available including a demonstration), refused the pain killer shot (not wanting to get an infectious disease…) and with a lot of effort and debates, a letter was written in Ukrainian to be used in the border (see next chapter)on a small tzetale…
here it is:

The way back to the border went by smoothly.
In the border after we were able to skip most of the line (using the tzetale and some $5 bills and cigarette packs) we waited 4 hours before we were finally on the other side.
Again, many more details are available for those who will ask for them...
We still owe you an explanation for today’s title though. While we were waiting in line (after close to 3 hours when the time was 10:30 pm) Tomek left the car (to socialize with the other waiters that turn off the engine and get together to chat and smoke).
He met an old man who told him that he was waiting in line for 15 (!!) hours and added (very seriously): “Today is going very well…”

This was when we started to laugh hysterically (with Tomek).
4 Israelis and 1 Pole, in a car, at night on the Ukrainian border with hundreds of cars (with refrigerators on their roof and Vodka and cigarettes in their baggage) with soldiers wearing fur hats and 1 broken arm trying to understand the system behind the madness…


We finally reached the nicer hotel and stayed there, helping savta find a comfortable position, with Tomek’s help we brought the rest of the luggage from the Minus stars hotel stopping in the local emergency room to get a second opinion for Savta (using the Ukranian X-ray instead of the patient itself)…


Ps

The best explanation we found for the border system was the game: sulamot ve-chavalim. This was after we were able to climb a few ladders successfully, but almost after we almost slipped back on a huge rope when Tomek asked the soldier an “extra” question and was warned that the next question will lead him (with us) to the back of the line (with all the dollars, cigarettes and the doctor’s note about Savta’s broken arm) where we could spend the night (for free)…