U.S.-born video blogger Peter Santenello likes to get close to his subject. So in 2016, he left his comfortable life on the West Coast of the United States and came to Ukraine, where he has documented his experiences in a series of videos.
Santenello, 40, grew up about four hours from New York City in Panton, Vermont, but spent all of his adult life on the West Coast. His best friends were Russians living in San Francisco. They sparked his interest in the countries of the former Soviet Union.
“I remember I had pen pals when I was 14. I wrote letters back and forth with people from parts of the Soviet Union. I would write to them and they would write to me, and it piqued my interest,” he said.
Santenello first came to Ukraine in 2003.
“I found it such a sincere country,” he said. He started traveling when he was 24 years old, after he had managed to save up $20,000 to travel around Europe for seven months. However, he ended up being away from home for two years on what turned into a round-the-world trip.
That was when he first got to explore Ukraine.
“I took a boat across the Black Sea from Istanbul to Odesa with a Georgian friend who invited me,” Santenello said.
The next time he returned was in late 2016, as he wanted to work on his video blogs about the country’s life, but didn’t want to live the fancy lifestyle of an international traveler.
“I like the uncomfortable things, because they press you a little bit, change the way you are,” he said.
To pay for his trip this time, Santenello decided to make money while on the road.
“I’ve always had a business, and I know how to make money. What I want to do is work at something I really enjoy, and that’s filming.”
He checked out Ukraine’s large cities, but really wanted to see rural life.
However, one thing was missing in his plan: a host family. Then Santenello’s Ukrainian assistant, a native of Avdiyivka, an eastern Ukrainian city 700 kilometers southeast of Kyiv, helped by contacting some people she knew well.
That’s how Santenello met the Burkut family — 35-year old Anna, her husband and their three children, who had to flee Avdiyivka in 2014 after Russia launched its war against Ukraine in the Donbas. They evacuated to a small village of Osypenko in Zaporizhzhya Oblast, where they had a house. It eventually became a home for Santenello, who stayed with them for a month-and-a-half last summer.
“My whole aim is to be a bridge and show Westerners the other side (of the country), not through the political landscape or some glamorous tourist video,” Santenello said.
Santenello immersed himself in rural life, helping the family dig a well, sell corn at the local beach, do the gardening and repair the house, which had neither gas nor running water. He documented his experiences with the Burkuts in a series called “Fish Out of Water” on his YouTube channel.
“Oh, the well — when they (the Burkuts) said ‘Let’s dig a well’ I thought a machine would come and do the whole thing,” Santenello recalled. “I never knew we’d have to do it all by hand, but it was a cool bonding experience.”
Santenello said that people in Ukraine — albeit not as friendly as they might seem to a foreigner at first — are open to visitors and are ready to share everything with them. “Not every family can share their house with the stranger, but they embraced me in their family. They were really open and caring. Seeing such closeness in a family is rare, but I probably shouldn’t say that because my mom would be angry,” Santenello added, laughing. “I will certainly take that all experience to my grave.”
For the Burkuts, Santenello is now a member of the family.
“We were surprised by his open mind and sincerity,” Anna Burkut said during an interview with the Kyiv Post in the village of Osypenko in December. “He’s so genuinely curious and kind that soon people started bringing him presents.”
When he left the family to keep on traveling, Santenello started a fundraising campaign and collected more than $2,300 so that the Burkuts could have an indoor bathroom and running water.
Santenello is continuing to document Ukrainian life in new YouTube series — the latest one documents his trip to western Ukraine. Now back in Kyiv with his Ukrainian girlfriend, Santenello is happy with the way his life in Ukraine is turning out.
“I’m so happy to be out of American anxiety. I’m not Ukrainian and I don’t have any big expectations of living here — I’m not immersed in the current chaos of American politics, nor do I get involved in Ukrainian political strife.”
Check out videos from Ukraine at Peter Santenello’s YouTube channel.
