Monastery Caves (Pechersk Lavra)

Today is Sunday and once again, Paul, Shiva, Cheryl, and I set off for another adventure at 10:30 a.m.  Nothing really starts here before 10:00 as we've discovered, but that's OK, we've all adjusted.  My usual bed-time nowadays is 11:30 p.m. after I've had a chance to speak to Tyler and Sydney when they get home from school at 3:15 p.m.  Kyiv is 8 hours ahead in time and in order to skype with them, I stay up later.  My whole day schedule has shifted to fit in here although I still find myself waking up each morning shortly after 6:00 a.m.  Oh, and everything runs on military time, so no 5:00 p.m., it's 17:00.  I'm good with it after four years in the military, but back to today's adventure.

I wanted to go to Perchesk Lavra which is a major Christian Orthodox monastery founded in 1051 A.D., a cave monastery, and it is very much in use even today (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiev_Pechersk_Lavra).  Along with St. Sophia Cathedral which I'm going to see next weekend, it is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Cave Monastery as it is referred to is considered Kyiv's number one tourist attraction.  As all of our adventures outside of the City Center require a metro ride, we headed over to the local station "University Station", a place we are all familiar with now at navigating.  After three stops on the metro we needed to find Bus No. 24 or Trolley No. 38.  We found the bus first so on we hopped, paid the conductor (and not the bus driver) the required fare and a few minutes later we arrived at our destination.  As we came closer to the monastery we noticed the women were pulling out their scarves and covering their heads.  Not wanting to insult anyone, Cheryl and I pulled our scarves from our purses and covered our heads as well.

The monastery is located on a series of hills and includes many churches and buildings and it was very difficult to figure out where to go and what to do.  I thought given it's UNESO status that there would perhaps be a few signs in English or a map / guide we could purchase in English so we could follow along.  Unfortunately not, so we followed everyone else who seemed to know where they were going and did our best to muddle through.  We found the main entrance to the caves, the part we wanted to see, so we each purchased a few candles and went through the doors.  The guys were in front and Cheryl and I followed behind.  We had been able to follow the signs for "No Camera, No Smoking, Women Cover Your Head" but we didn't realize that we were required to be in a skirt - that detail wasn't in our guide books, and not clear in the signs we could make out.  We were stopped by a monk who showed us we were not dressed appropriately and that we needed to leave.  I felt horrible, not because I couldn't get in but because I had offended their faith and customs.  I handed Paul my candles and asked him to light them for me.  I went outside, looked around a bit, and sat down on a bench to wait for the guys.

I kept watching people go into the church, the line was continual and then it dawned on me that women were going into the church wearing pants and not being turned away.  Hmmm... what were they doing right that I had done wrong?  I sat and watched and noticed that just before the women in pants reached the church door, they took off their head scarf and tied it around their waist, making a pseudo skirt.  Really... that's it, that's what I need to do in order to get in?  I sat for what must have been five minutes contemplating what I should do, should I take my head scarf off and tie it around my waist and go in or should I wait?

I waited.

I was really seriously thinking of tying the scarf around my waist but all of a sudden a scene from the movie "A Bug's Life" popped in my head, it's where the main character Flik is trying to describe something to Dot and he picks up a rock and wants her to pretend it's something else, but at the end of the scene she goes, "It's just a rock."  That's how I felt about the scarf as a skirt...how is a sheer see through piece of material that would barely fit around my waist let along cover or hide anything, somehow magically transformed into a skirt, I'm still clearly wearing pants.  How does this suddenly make it OK for me to enter the caves?  I couldn't shake the feeling I was having, a certain hypocrisy if I tied the scarf around my waist.  I decided it was better for me not to see the caves then to take part in what I felt was a facade.  I mean no disrespect to the Ukrainian people or to the Christian Orthodox Monastery, but I just couldn't do it.  I have another weekend here, and I do have a skirt in the closet, so I think I might try to go back next weekend and do the experience properly.  I was able to take some pictures outside and of course, walk down and then back up three hills.