Day 1: Getting a Sense of the Place

Today, we decide to venture off to The Green House, one of the museums operated by the Vilna Gaon Jewish State Museum of Lithuania. There is a Holocaust exhibition there. Shiv has spoken to the director there before. We decide to visit her to discuss a possible collaboration and to see if she is willing to set an appointment for an interview.

Shiv has been here, but the rest of us haven't. We decide to cab it as we aren't sure how far away it is. Turns out that it isn't too far. The cab drops us off on a nondescript street. I am surprised. I didn't imagine a museum to be housed here. It's hard to describe except that it looks like a suburban area with some shops nearby. There is a small sign mounted on one of the buildings which reads "Jewish Museum." (See picture below: can you spot it?)


The road leading up to The Green House

We walk up the hill and I see now why it is called The Green House. I imagined it was a glass building resembling a horticultural greenhouse. It is wooden and painted green.


The Green House

We spend a few hours there talking to the director and a volunteer from Austria. We get a tour and a history lesson. I learn some things about the Second World War and the holocaust in Lithuania I had never heard of before. Like how the war began for Lithuania on 22 June 1941. Where I come from (Malaysia), and as a Chinese descendant, the war began in 1939 (maybe even earlier, when I think about it, as the Japanese invasion of China began in 1937). How segregation of the Jews was swift - by 6 September 1941 the first ghetto was set up; and how, six weeks later, the first smaller ghetto was liquidated. Liquidated. That word; it has a fluid quality to it. It's not a word that was meant to apply to human lives. Makes me think of how water condenses and becomes air. Poof. A split second. The bat of an eyelid. Liquidated. 100,000 Jews were killed in Ponar alone. Of the 240,000 Jews in Lithuania, only 20,000 survived. The Jewish community today numbers 2,000. A far cry from the days when Vilnius was known as the Jerusalem of Lithuania or the Jerusalem of the North.

The director suggests we visit the Tolerance Center about 10-15 minutes walk away. She is busy and asks us to come back later. We head off. On the way, we decide to head for the Choral Synagogue, the only remaining synagogue in the city. We meet two caretakers; one of them, Isroel, agrees to be interviewed on Sunday. Saturday is off limits as it is the Shabbat.


Exterior of Choral Synagogue


Interior of Choral Synagogue

We head off, we are hungry now. We duck into a cafe. I order a Spanish sandwich. When it comes, I find I have the wrong one. Dan is eating my order. I get his cheese and tomato, melted in a panini roll. The food doesn't agree with us. Mine is odd. It has mayo in it. Globs. We eat a few bites and vow to look for 'real' food. I don't think we have gotten used to the flavours yet. Dinner last night was equally forgettable.

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At the Tolerance Center, we buzz a doorbell and are allowed in. I am not quite sure if the center is open to the public. I don't really understand about the need to be buzzed in. Did we come at the wrong time? The lady in attendance there is very nice. We tell her that we have been directed to the center by the director of The Green House. She unlocks the steel mesh on the upper floor so we can see the exhibit and allows us to take pictures. We take a few. Physical evidence of Jewish culture. Some are from the 18th century, salvaged from the remnants of the Vilnius Great Synagogue. [Below: Fragments of Reader's Table (Omed) and Prayer Shawl (Tallit) and Torah Ark's Doors]



It is almost time to head back to The Green House. We walk briskly and pass a park, where I can't resist taking this photo of a lady having a quiet lunch moment. The pigeon at her feet seems like a lunch companion.


Lunch for two

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The staff at The Green House are really nice. They welcome us warmly. We chat with Rachiel, the director. The conversation veers off to her personal story. She talks about the Nazi invasion and how she, like other children, were at a youth/children's resort by the sea when it happened. How among the children, there were Jewish kids too. How some went off to Sweden by sea, how some went off to Russia. Like her. To an orphanage. I am curious. Who told them to do so? How did they go without adults? Did their parents send money to them and organise passage? I guess we will hear more when we have a proper interview with her. We set a date and a time to do so.

It has only been day 2 but it has been very productive. We are all knackered and can't wait to get back, shower and have some dinner. I check my mobile. No news from Vy about the internet. I text him. I get a reply back that he is too busy and can't come. He suggests Saturday evening. I say okay and ask him to keep me posted. We will be meeting a historian and guide tomorrow. I know we will be out all day. I tell Vy that he needs to let me know sooner when he will come so we are in to let him into the apartment.

That night, we eat at an Irish place. Or at least a place owned by an Irish person. It is a mixed cuisine menu; there is pasta, there is Thai soup, there is fish. I order the Thai soup. It blows my socks off - all heat, no other flavour. I vow to myself to go with the safer option in the future.

Arrival: A Recap

Today is already Day 4 in Vilnius, though technically speaking, it should be Day 3 seeing that we arrived late on Thursday, 28th August, at about 11pm.

The flight was delayed, leaving us stuck on board an Air Lithuania plane for about an hour before we finally taxied and took off. When we arrived, we are met by V, whom we had arranged our rental apartment with. He takes one look at our luggage - all 9 cases and a few hand luggage pieces and realises his car is not up to the task. We have 4 people in our team; Jesse and Dan, who will handle the camera and video; Shiv and I, who will deal with the interviews, archiving, collection of samples and audio transcripts. Really, it is my partner Shiv's project and part of her PhD research. I am playing the role of research coordinator. Jesse and Dan will be taking footage and shaping it into a documentary. We have 2 hard cases for the video and sound equipment, two long carrier bags for tripods and boom pole, plus a few other cases holding everything else including an audio recorder, laptops to a scanner, though we did decide to skip on the printer.

We decide to split up and grab a cab since V's car isn't big enough for us and our luggage. The cab driver doesn't look too pleased; he refuses to let us put one of our bags on the back seat. He motions with his hands; he doesn't want us to scratch the back of the seat. V comes over and shows his disapproval, helping the cab driver pile the bags high in the boot. It's all in. V tells the cabbie the address of the apartment we are going to. We get in; Dan and Jesse go with V. The cabbie veers off from the pavement and screeches away. For the first time in a very long time, I actually decide to put on my seatbelt, though I don't usually when I am in the back seat. His driving is nerve wracking to say the least. He doesn't smile and he doesn't seem to care for strangers. Similar to the people we passed at the airport; most don't smile and when they bumped into us, they didn't look up; they didn't make way either despite the overladen trolleys - I come to the conclusion that Lithuanians in general aren't particularly friendly. Then again, it's early days.

We are deposited in front of a building. It looks like an office block, with shops downstairs. Are we in the right place? There is no sign of V or the guys. A lady comes towards us and I realise it's J, whom we made the payment transfer to. We are joined by Vy, a skinny man with dusty blond hair. They ask us to follow them. Shiv and I drag 3 suitcases between us up to a heavy wooden door. Vy opens the door and I catch a glimpse of a long flight of wide stairs. I groan. Shiv's bag alone is 29 kgs. Thankfully, Vy helps lug one case up the stairs.

The apartment is sparsely furnished but clean. V and the guys join us 5 minutes later. They are huffing and puffing. They went up 3 flights of stairs, as did we. We give the apartment a once over to make sure we know where things are and what's in it - kitchen, bathroom, bedrooms, washing machine, etc. But no internet. Why? Okay, it appears there's a mix up of sorts. V is talking. Vy is talking. J is talking. All deep in animated conversation. I don't understand a word they say but I do know we specifically asked if there was internet access when we booked. J, who we paid the deposit to, is apologetic. So is V, whom we corresponded with and answered all our queries before we booked. Vy is anything but. There is talk about payment to Vy. Apparently, he is the landlord. He says to me haughtily, "I, no money, no internet." I try and explain that we were expecting to do an online bank transfer to pay the rental, but no internet, no money. He tells me he is too busy tomorrow to come and put in a modem. He suggests I go to an internet cafe and pay him first. I decide that I am too tired to haggle. I get straight to the point and tell him that we agreed to take the apartment because we were informed there was internet access. No internet, no money, I say sternly. He tells me he'll come tomorrow to fix it. Fingers crossed.



That night, we hunker down to discuss the brief for the project...