Faces of West County: Valentina Pereverzieva and daughter Karyna
A Ukrainian refugee and her daughter settle into Sebastopol
While our country is in the throes of so much political strife, and hand wringing, many of us with serious doubts about our future, it’s good to meet new arrivals who still see the place for the promise it once and still holds.
I met a new refugee here in our country the other day, and we fell to talking. She soon after agreed to share some of her story with us.
My parents were both refugees. I’m pretty sure I’ve told you that before. They escaped Europe back in the 40s.
And I remember our family taking in a Cuban refugee, Bernie Saviago, back in the early 60s, during a short window of time when Castro let the gates open to a bunch of Jews. Bernie lived up in our third floor and later became a dentist. My wife has many refugees in her classes at the Junior College where she teaches ESL. Save the few Native Americans among us, we are a nation of immigrants/refugees. Valentina’s story resonates because of how close many of us are to our immigrant/refugee pasts.
I sat with her, together with Dave Berg, who together with his wife Catherine, are her sponsors here in Sebastopol. Dave is a retired school teacher, now substitute teaches in his so-called “retirement.” We were under a shade structure at Ives pool, while seven-year-old Karyna was having a swim lesson.
Valentina spoke in halting, hesitant English, but she is no longer reliant on her phone to translate everything into her native Russian.
Here’s some of this remarkable woman’s story:
Where and when were you born Valentina?
February 1991. I’m 33 years old. I was born in Siberia, Russia, but returned to Ukraine, where my father was from, when I was just one year old. My Siberian mother stayed back in Siberia.
What became of your parents? Do you have any siblings?
My mother died in ’96. I never really knew her. My father died in ’06. I grew up in an orphanage. It was like a boarding school. I have a sister in Siberia who I’m not in touch with and a half-sister in Ukraine who I am in touch with.
Funny, you don’t look Ukrainian. You have a similar appearance to our native Alaskans. Is that the Siberian part of you?
Yes. My mother was of the Siberian Reindeer people.
(Dave adds that the Reindeer people are similar to the Inuit people.)
You’re here with your daughter.
Yes. Karyna. She’s the one in the pink bathing suit at the end of the pool. She’s seven, and just finished first grade at Parkside School.
(Valentina is a single mother. Karyna’s father is a soldier in the war. They speak on the phone. He’s involved with munitions and drones, and clearing mines. Dangerous duty. We did not go into the details of their relationship.)
Are there many other Ukrainian refugees here in the area?
Dave: Throughout Sonoma County, there are at least 30-40 Ukrainians in the same program that brought Valentina and Karyna over here. It’s called United for Ukraine.
Do you have many other friends who have left Ukraine?
Oh yes. Many have gone to Poland or Germany, and one friend is in Norway. I was in Poland for a year before coming here in August of last year. Before we left Ukraine, we spent many nights in a bomb shelter. Every day there was bombing and much damage.
I am in touch with my friends back in Ukraine every day. We talk on the phone or Tik Tok. They would like to leave, but for many reasons, they can’t.
Are your friends planning on returning home?
My friends in Poland are not going back. My friend in Norway wants to return.
Do people stare at their phones all day long over there like we do here?
Oh yes!
Did you have a profession in Ukraine?
I was a seamstress. I’m not working here yet, but I hope that once Karyna goes back to school, I’ll be able to start looking for a job.
Is your goal to stay here, or return to Ukraine?
I would like to return. There is so much that I miss about Ukraine, but I know that it would be much better for Karyna to be here.
Is there enough food in Ukraine these days?
I think there is enough food, but it is much much more expensive than before. The electricity and water supply is very bad. Russia bombed the electricity plant and a dam and reservoir near the city I was from.
What’s the best part about living here?
Of course the best thing is that we’re safe. And that Catherine and Dave have given us a new life.
(Dave then adds, “And we actually like each other!”)
What has been the hardest thing to adjust to here?
Of course, language. But that is getting easier.
The big thing is that I’m not working and not independent yet.
What was the strangest thing that you found here?
When I first came here, almost a year ago, people would see me and smile and ask how I was doing. They seemed so friendly. In Ukraine, you don’t talk to strangers like that. We would think that something is wrong with that behavior. … Now I like it.
Do you have any new favorite foods?
Oh yes! Tacos! And burritos. Sushi and pizza too.
How’s it going for Karyna?
She’s made many friends, and English is coming very easily for her. She really liked her teacher at Parkside, and she really loves going to Sunday School (at First Presbyterian in Santa Rosa). She really loves her teachers there too.
(Karyna, out of the pool now following her swim lesson, sat near us, wrapped in a towel in the sun.)
Karyna, what do you like most about school?
My friends and the food. Especially the chicken nuggets.
Dave, what were you and your wife’s primary motivation in hosting Valentina and Karyna?
We’ve been involved for years in missions to Costa Rica, Ecuador, and New Orleans, through the Presbyterian Church, and also on our own. It’s a Christ-driven thing.
We went to Poland two years ago and were helping in Krakow with the many refugees. Through that experience we heard about Valentina and Karyna, and once we met, were compelled to help them. They were in Poland at the time, staying in an old school that had been converted into a refugee center.
It’s very generous of you to open your home and lives like this.
There are many people in our church who have also stepped up. There’s a whole circle of others who have been supportive of Valentina. People really want to help.
Valentina, were you a church goer in Ukraine?
Not as often as we go now. Our church community in Santa Rosa also feels like another new home.
Any summer plans?
Dave: A neighbor of ours has a cabin up at Lake Almanor and she invited us to stay up there for a while. Since school got out we also went down to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. That was amazing. We stopped at Pier 39, but there wasn’t one single seal there.
Valentina: We also ate garlic ice cream in Gilroy. That was so yucky. Eeech!
And I hope to start looking for work, once Karyna goes back to school. Meanwhile I will continue studying English online.
Well, thanks to all three of you. You remind us of how lucky we are here for the many possibilities, the spirit of generosity, and the freedoms we still enjoy.
In these trying political times, those are important reminders.
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Great story! Thanks