Easter Bunny, bawk, bawk
Sunday 27 April is Orthodox Easter. On Saturday, Helena got up at 6am to begin cooking. She is an excellent cook and in particular, an amazing baker. She made 6 or so loaves of bread, 3 of which were intricately decorated w/ small pieces of dough. I photographed them, so they will eventually be up on my website.
When I got back from Russian class on Sat., I watched how they decorated egg. Helena brought from outside some small leaves, I think just weeds, but ones w/ pretty leaves. She wet the leaves and placed them on the egg surface, then wrapped a piece of cut up panty hose around, tying this with string to secure it. She’d had about 8 onions worth of onion skin boiling for some time, and this had created a natural yellow-orange dye. She boiled the eggs in this mixture for 7 minutes and then unwrapped them. I also photographed these, and they were so pretty and natural looking. They sort of reminded me of a Martha Stewart project, but really I think that woman has tainted the notion all crafts and rustic arts for my generation. Uck. It’s like she has taken the notion of making something pretty by hand at home and patented it and co-opted the idea for her own profit. Don’t even get me started.
Sunday morning at 4am, we got up, and at 4:45am, walked down to the church. It was cold. It was dark. I am quite the morning person, so my language skills were really at their best at that early hour. Not. As we walked, we were soon in a large crowd of people, all carrying baskets w/ embroidered fabric covering them. The baskets were filled with kolbasa, meat, the decorated bread (either homemade or store bought, as some people are moving away from traditional arts), decorated eggs and candles.
I could hear the bells ringing as we approached and soon we were walking among a huge throng in the rising light. We met a friend of Ira’s along the way and all walked together.
At the church, which is partly under construction as so many are here (churches were prohibited during Soviet times, so they’re still being built and enlarged some 10 years after independence), we stood in a curving line of people, all with baskets in front of them on the ground, waiting for the priest to come and bless us and our baskets of food. We unfortunately stood under the bell tower and those bells that sounded so pretty half a km. away were less melodic just above head.
After some time, a beared and bespectacled priest came around. He carried a small, handmade broom that is ubiquitous here. His helper carried a bucket of water and the priest liberally splashed water on people and baskets alike, saying all the while, “Kristos Vas Kres - Jesus has risen.” I only got a little water sprayed on me, as I was cowering behind Ira like the unbaptized person I am, but many people were quite drenched. Hey, it was cold and I’m not an Orthodox Catholic, so little holy water was wasted on me.
We got home around 7am and Helena, who apparently enjoys cooking for this holiday, but not getting up early to get wet for it, was waiting. She spread out all the food she’d spent the day before preparing and that we’d had blessed: pork roast, roasted chicken, the fancy breads (some rolled w/ raisins, some rolled w/ poppy seed and raisin), a very typical Ukrainian salad (krab, canned corn, rice, onion and mayo) and also the ubiquitious kolbasa and cheese. We opened a bottle of the sweet dessert wine that Ira so loves and toasted: “Kristos Vas Kres - Jesus has risen” and then the reply, “Vaistas Vas Kras - it is true he has risen.” It is tradition to say this 3 times.
We then played a game I don’t understand entirely, but which involves trying to break another person’s egg shell. I think I won, but maybe they were being polite.
Then we slept til about 1pm and then got up and ate again. I like this holiday, except for those damn bells.
28 April 2003
20 -24 April
On Sunday, we finished our conference and by lunchtime were whisked away to do our site visit. Site visit is the time when we visit the organization where we’ll work for 3 days. There are 5 other people in my group that will work with CEUME’s regional offices (Lviv, Donestk, Kharkiv, Odesa and Dnipropetrovsk), so all of the PCT’s and our counterparts went to the central CEUME office in Kyiv via taxi. I was a little tired and dehydrated from going out the prior night to a very cool club called “44” that is sort of a jazz club and had a good mixture of Americans, Europeans and Ukrainians. Being there was the first time I’ve felt “off-duty” or somehow relaxed in a way I used to think was normal.
Anyway, I’m in the taxi w/ Nancy (fellow PCT going to Lviv), her coordinator, and Bogdana is sitting up front. I am dizzy, we are driving fast through the city and suddenly we’re downtown, right across from the “Sports Palace” where major sporting events are held, like the recent Ukraine/Spain football match. Kyiv is a pretty city with many fancy old and new buildings, which how I am able to describe the architecture. It is so big city and I was feeling so country mouse. Or maybe tired mouse.
I wasn’t entirely in my body and we were just about to meet our director and then I was going to go to my apartment for the next few days. It was just so much and I wished that I’d invested in sleep the evening before and not socializing. Socializing is important also I’m just too old anymore to get away properly on little sleep.
We enter the building and go up to the office. It’s modern and western style and we all sit down in a sunny, large conference room. We meet Oleksander, Sasha, who is the director of the organization. He introduces himself and talks about the organization, then asks the PCT’s to go around and talk about our experience and what we hope to bring to the organization. I’m a little panicked at this impromptu public speaking event, but decide to talk about the web development, of course, and about my new interest in event planning. Everyone goes around and does their spiel and it’s very interesting to learn about what my fellow PCT’s have done.
We then walk a couple of blocks to a very nice restaurant, Pervek, that serves traditional Ukrainian food. The wait staff wears costumes that I might associate w/ some sort of Bovarian festival and cleavage abounds, at least among the female staff. I ate salo for the first time! This is perhaps the national food of Ukraine, or at least tied w/ borscht. Salo is basically pork fat, but it’s really so much more. I ate some that was liberally mixed with garlic and I was shocked how great it is. I made the faux pas of mentioning how much I liked the “garlic butter.” I knew about salo, but I thought it was different or looked different. (For a full treatise on salo, read the FAQ sheet I have on this site, under PC Ukraine, of course.)
Anyway, it was more “stranger in a strange land” time - we ate at this most posh restaurant and I’m trying to make conversation with all these new people and trying to not appear as overwhelmed by all this niceness. I think maybe one day I will finally accept that things will be so different than I expected, but I haven’t yet.
I actually had a conversation about this with another PCT that will work in Kyiv. We admitted to being sort of disappointed that we aren’t suffering in this experience. I mean, I knew that I’d be in a city and I knew that by virtue of being in Europe, albeit Eastern Europe, that things would be relatively nice, at least compared to doing work in rural Mongolia, for example. But I still expected to work somewhere that might not have a computer, that was really grassroots, where people wouldn’t speak English better than me.
I want to be clear that I’m not complaining. CEUME is doing important work and it is a tremendous opportunity for me to work with there. I think I will learn a great deal and that I will be able to find areas to work that will be satisfying and that I might feel like I’m helping somehow. I’m just prattling on about how this experience is difficult for me, and how the difficulties are so unexpected.
One thing that is interesting in keeping this journal is the public nature of it. Some friends have written how they think it’s either interesting or brave of me to be so relatively frank here and write about feelings, etc. I also think that it is interesting b/c I’m realizing that I need to be careful about who and what I write. I have tried to only write about my experiences on purpose, as other’s stories are theirs to tell. It will be interesting to see if I ever get in trouble w/ this public space and my words.
Back to our original subject, after lunch, Bogdana showed me to where I’d stay for the duration of the site visit. I know that this concept must be tiring to read already, but yes, I was a little surprised that the apartment was a large, renovated, Western-style flat, complete with modern washing machine. My favorite part of the apartment is the fancy paint job, with sparkles mixed in. At night I kept feeling like I was dizzy and seeing stars as the glitter would sparkle in the light.
I spent the next couple of days at CEUME. Sasha kindly took time to orient me, I met many people who work there and got to go to a very interesting press conference and tour at a hospital for children victims of Chernobyl. Apparently there are many cases of children of cleanup workers and of people who remained in the area getting quite ill, and there were many young children at this hospital.
In terms of my actual job, I am unsure exactly what I’ll be doing, but it seems that in addition to some website work that they need help with, I could be working on event planning, conducting seminars for staff and/or the public about IT issues and/or doing whatever they need.
At the apartment, I watched “Emma” dubbed in Russian. I hate dubbing, but at least it was good practice for language. I also got to eat Chinese food and I was shocked how delicious it taste!!! I guess I have missed eating non-Ukrainian food a little bit, although I really have no complaints about it.
On Thursday, after talking to my PC Regional Coordinator about the site visit, I returned to Brovary. I had bought a chocolate Easter bunny at a cute bakery in Kyiv and thus armed, knocked on Ira and Helena’s door. It felt so good to come “home” and see them! We had a great dinner and I felt so happy that someone knows me and was happy to see me. Slowly things become more familiar and slowly I feel more settled. Of course this process takes time, but the meantime while it is taking its time can be rather lonely.
On Sunday, we finished our conference and by lunchtime were whisked away to do our site visit. Site visit is the time when we visit the organization where we’ll work for 3 days. There are 5 other people in my group that will work with CEUME’s regional offices (Lviv, Donestk, Kharkiv, Odesa and Dnipropetrovsk), so all of the PCT’s and our counterparts went to the central CEUME office in Kyiv via taxi. I was a little tired and dehydrated from going out the prior night to a very cool club called “44” that is sort of a jazz club and had a good mixture of Americans, Europeans and Ukrainians. Being there was the first time I’ve felt “off-duty” or somehow relaxed in a way I used to think was normal.
Anyway, I’m in the taxi w/ Nancy (fellow PCT going to Lviv), her coordinator, and Bogdana is sitting up front. I am dizzy, we are driving fast through the city and suddenly we’re downtown, right across from the “Sports Palace” where major sporting events are held, like the recent Ukraine/Spain football match. Kyiv is a pretty city with many fancy old and new buildings, which how I am able to describe the architecture. It is so big city and I was feeling so country mouse. Or maybe tired mouse.
I wasn’t entirely in my body and we were just about to meet our director and then I was going to go to my apartment for the next few days. It was just so much and I wished that I’d invested in sleep the evening before and not socializing. Socializing is important also I’m just too old anymore to get away properly on little sleep.
We enter the building and go up to the office. It’s modern and western style and we all sit down in a sunny, large conference room. We meet Oleksander, Sasha, who is the director of the organization. He introduces himself and talks about the organization, then asks the PCT’s to go around and talk about our experience and what we hope to bring to the organization. I’m a little panicked at this impromptu public speaking event, but decide to talk about the web development, of course, and about my new interest in event planning. Everyone goes around and does their spiel and it’s very interesting to learn about what my fellow PCT’s have done.
We then walk a couple of blocks to a very nice restaurant, Pervek, that serves traditional Ukrainian food. The wait staff wears costumes that I might associate w/ some sort of Bovarian festival and cleavage abounds, at least among the female staff. I ate salo for the first time! This is perhaps the national food of Ukraine, or at least tied w/ borscht. Salo is basically pork fat, but it’s really so much more. I ate some that was liberally mixed with garlic and I was shocked how great it is. I made the faux pas of mentioning how much I liked the “garlic butter.” I knew about salo, but I thought it was different or looked different. (For a full treatise on salo, read the FAQ sheet I have on this site, under PC Ukraine, of course.)
Anyway, it was more “stranger in a strange land” time - we ate at this most posh restaurant and I’m trying to make conversation with all these new people and trying to not appear as overwhelmed by all this niceness. I think maybe one day I will finally accept that things will be so different than I expected, but I haven’t yet.
I actually had a conversation about this with another PCT that will work in Kyiv. We admitted to being sort of disappointed that we aren’t suffering in this experience. I mean, I knew that I’d be in a city and I knew that by virtue of being in Europe, albeit Eastern Europe, that things would be relatively nice, at least compared to doing work in rural Mongolia, for example. But I still expected to work somewhere that might not have a computer, that was really grassroots, where people wouldn’t speak English better than me.
I want to be clear that I’m not complaining. CEUME is doing important work and it is a tremendous opportunity for me to work with there. I think I will learn a great deal and that I will be able to find areas to work that will be satisfying and that I might feel like I’m helping somehow. I’m just prattling on about how this experience is difficult for me, and how the difficulties are so unexpected.
One thing that is interesting in keeping this journal is the public nature of it. Some friends have written how they think it’s either interesting or brave of me to be so relatively frank here and write about feelings, etc. I also think that it is interesting b/c I’m realizing that I need to be careful about who and what I write. I have tried to only write about my experiences on purpose, as other’s stories are theirs to tell. It will be interesting to see if I ever get in trouble w/ this public space and my words.
Back to our original subject, after lunch, Bogdana showed me to where I’d stay for the duration of the site visit. I know that this concept must be tiring to read already, but yes, I was a little surprised that the apartment was a large, renovated, Western-style flat, complete with modern washing machine. My favorite part of the apartment is the fancy paint job, with sparkles mixed in. At night I kept feeling like I was dizzy and seeing stars as the glitter would sparkle in the light.
I spent the next couple of days at CEUME. Sasha kindly took time to orient me, I met many people who work there and got to go to a very interesting press conference and tour at a hospital for children victims of Chernobyl. Apparently there are many cases of children of cleanup workers and of people who remained in the area getting quite ill, and there were many young children at this hospital.
In terms of my actual job, I am unsure exactly what I’ll be doing, but it seems that in addition to some website work that they need help with, I could be working on event planning, conducting seminars for staff and/or the public about IT issues and/or doing whatever they need.
At the apartment, I watched “Emma” dubbed in Russian. I hate dubbing, but at least it was good practice for language. I also got to eat Chinese food and I was shocked how delicious it taste!!! I guess I have missed eating non-Ukrainian food a little bit, although I really have no complaints about it.
On Thursday, after talking to my PC Regional Coordinator about the site visit, I returned to Brovary. I had bought a chocolate Easter bunny at a cute bakery in Kyiv and thus armed, knocked on Ira and Helena’s door. It felt so good to come “home” and see them! We had a great dinner and I felt so happy that someone knows me and was happy to see me. Slowly things become more familiar and slowly I feel more settled. Of course this process takes time, but the meantime while it is taking its time can be rather lonely.
Thursday 17 April through 20 April, I was in Kyiv at the beloved PiG for our mid-training conference. Dan, Larry and I made our way, all by ourselves, to Kyiv. So you are duly impressed, this involved taking the now-familiar marshrutka to the Losina metro stop, a transfer through byzantine hallways at the Chreschiatik station to another metro line, exiting the metro to then walking underground on one of the many pathways that allow one to cross streets w/o walking in traffic. We then completed our journey with a final marshrutka, where I got to say the phrase I’ve been practicing for some time, “Hastonivite, pozjalista - stop here, please.”
An aside: I heavily employ mnemonic devices to learn language. For example, I remember “hastonovite” because it reminds me of “hasta la vista, baby.” I remember “newdeli - week” because it reminds me of “new dehli.” I remember “pamogat - to help” b/c it reminds me of pomegranate. Sometimes I wonder if these are too complicated, but they amuse me and seem to help.
Anyway, it was surprisingly good to see everyone, or at least the 40 or so of us who are in the “Business” group. There was much gossip and comparing of home stay experiences. Rumors of possession of particularly unsavory porno and some other such nonsense predominated the first couple of days, but some gossip that was confirmed to be true was equally juicy. I hereby retract any previous statements that our group 24 is boring and not living up to PC standards of hedonism.
For the three days we were there, we had seminars and interviews each day from 9am to 5pm. On Friday night, we had a grand dinner where we met our Coordinators, who are our counterparts from the organizations that we’ll work with. Most had traveled from far away, but mine, Bogdana, of course just came from Kyiv.
Bogdana is probably around my age and speaks English better than I do. She is the coordinator for trainings for CEUME and I hope to work with her, traveling around the country organizing and running such events. We talked a lot about traveling and also about how she had lived in DC for a year. She’s urbane and very used to working with Americans, so again I see that my experience will be so different than I expected.
An aside: I heavily employ mnemonic devices to learn language. For example, I remember “hastonovite” because it reminds me of “hasta la vista, baby.” I remember “newdeli - week” because it reminds me of “new dehli.” I remember “pamogat - to help” b/c it reminds me of pomegranate. Sometimes I wonder if these are too complicated, but they amuse me and seem to help.
Anyway, it was surprisingly good to see everyone, or at least the 40 or so of us who are in the “Business” group. There was much gossip and comparing of home stay experiences. Rumors of possession of particularly unsavory porno and some other such nonsense predominated the first couple of days, but some gossip that was confirmed to be true was equally juicy. I hereby retract any previous statements that our group 24 is boring and not living up to PC standards of hedonism.
For the three days we were there, we had seminars and interviews each day from 9am to 5pm. On Friday night, we had a grand dinner where we met our Coordinators, who are our counterparts from the organizations that we’ll work with. Most had traveled from far away, but mine, Bogdana, of course just came from Kyiv.
Bogdana is probably around my age and speaks English better than I do. She is the coordinator for trainings for CEUME and I hope to work with her, traveling around the country organizing and running such events. We talked a lot about traveling and also about how she had lived in DC for a year. She’s urbane and very used to working with Americans, so again I see that my experience will be so different than I expected.
A quick note to follow up that the party was interesting - a funny mixture of young Ukrainians, young to middle aged PCT's and great pizza. Who knew that shredded, sauteed carrots, onion and mayo would be so good on pizza? Ira was disapointed that we wouldn't dance much, despite my providing an example. Ah, well, now she's learned a valuable cultural lesson that Americans don't dance. (apologies to those Americans that do, of course)
14 April 2003
11 Apr. 2003
“But what is happiness except the simple harmony between a man and the life he leads?”
- Albert Camus
OK fine, I got this quote off a cereal box. A generic brand cereal box. Nonetheless, it accurately sums up the joy that I am feeling for having pursued my dreams. The payoff is huge, when one is lucky, from following the voice that says crazy things like, “We need to leave this rich life in CO and go to Ukraine, learn Russian, leave all friends, family, dog and a strong love behind, ok? Whattaya say?”
We are preparing the house to host a party tonight. I made chocolate chip cookies (I will later devote an entire journal entry to the wonders of Ukrainian and Russian chocolate), Helena is making a pizza, Ukrainian style (she’s sautéing carrots and onions right now, and I’m suspicious about the package of ketchup on the table) and Ira has been rearranging the furniture and cleaning. We invited a nearly equal number of Americans to Ukrainians and most of the Ukrainians that are coming speak some English. I think I may enjoy preparing for the party as much or more than the party, but that’s ok, too.
I feel so comfortable with Ira and Helena and especially so when we are all crammed in the kitchen, discussing food, weather, whatever questions they think up for me about the US and Helena is often very curious about Costa Rica. I also ask tons of questions for them and have become more adept at refusing more food. I am very lucky that providence saw fit to match us together.
I also could devote a journal entry to the common thread of women in their kitchens. As much as I enjoy cooking, I also enjoy the time in the kitchen with friends or family. (MOM!! Stephanie!! Jules, Free!! McGill!!) I love how quickly I felt home in the kitchen, even before I had 5 words of Russian down. I love how Helena has a system of doing things in her kitchen, which of course reminds me of my Mom in her kitchen (although Mom has more complex systems set up in her kitchen!) and reminds me of Dona Christina in her kitchen in Puntarenas (Costa Rica) and reminds me of countless women I know and have known in their kitchens and also of a few select men, of which right now I can only think of Charlie of Chez Wicker. I think that for me, part of what I cherish the most from traveling and living abroad is finding human commonalities that transcend culture and borders. I’m not prettying anything up here, there are certainly differences and big ones between peoples, but I like to remember the similarities, too.
“But what is happiness except the simple harmony between a man and the life he leads?”
- Albert Camus
OK fine, I got this quote off a cereal box. A generic brand cereal box. Nonetheless, it accurately sums up the joy that I am feeling for having pursued my dreams. The payoff is huge, when one is lucky, from following the voice that says crazy things like, “We need to leave this rich life in CO and go to Ukraine, learn Russian, leave all friends, family, dog and a strong love behind, ok? Whattaya say?”
We are preparing the house to host a party tonight. I made chocolate chip cookies (I will later devote an entire journal entry to the wonders of Ukrainian and Russian chocolate), Helena is making a pizza, Ukrainian style (she’s sautéing carrots and onions right now, and I’m suspicious about the package of ketchup on the table) and Ira has been rearranging the furniture and cleaning. We invited a nearly equal number of Americans to Ukrainians and most of the Ukrainians that are coming speak some English. I think I may enjoy preparing for the party as much or more than the party, but that’s ok, too.
I feel so comfortable with Ira and Helena and especially so when we are all crammed in the kitchen, discussing food, weather, whatever questions they think up for me about the US and Helena is often very curious about Costa Rica. I also ask tons of questions for them and have become more adept at refusing more food. I am very lucky that providence saw fit to match us together.
I also could devote a journal entry to the common thread of women in their kitchens. As much as I enjoy cooking, I also enjoy the time in the kitchen with friends or family. (MOM!! Stephanie!! Jules, Free!! McGill!!) I love how quickly I felt home in the kitchen, even before I had 5 words of Russian down. I love how Helena has a system of doing things in her kitchen, which of course reminds me of my Mom in her kitchen (although Mom has more complex systems set up in her kitchen!) and reminds me of Dona Christina in her kitchen in Puntarenas (Costa Rica) and reminds me of countless women I know and have known in their kitchens and also of a few select men, of which right now I can only think of Charlie of Chez Wicker. I think that for me, part of what I cherish the most from traveling and living abroad is finding human commonalities that transcend culture and borders. I’m not prettying anything up here, there are certainly differences and big ones between peoples, but I like to remember the similarities, too.
10 April 2003
Today my Russian class walked to the train station to do some “on the ground recon.” I realized as we walked around, dodging small lakes of muddy water, that I’ve been so coddled and protected since I arrived and have slowly begun to do more for myself. It’s such a different experience that what I was in Costa Rica, when I did everything for myself from the get go. That was hard, I’ll admit. I realize that literally, I’ve been barely looking up very much, partly because of ice, but also b/c it’s like there’s only so much I can deal with at a time. Everyday I look up a little more and see something new – a store here, the vast horizon of high-rise apartment buildings, huge fields of mud destined to be soccer fields in the summer. I realize this is just the tip of an iceberg that I hope I can explore.
The other funny thing is that every time I learn a new word or grammar structure in Russian, I hear it, then immediately think, wow, what a coincidence that people are saying that today, right when I learned it! Of course, I realize that they’ve probably been saying this all along and I just didn’t understand before. Our language training is imminently practical and I think I’ll be able to navigate after training. People have been complimentary about my learning, which is encouraging.
Today my Russian class walked to the train station to do some “on the ground recon.” I realized as we walked around, dodging small lakes of muddy water, that I’ve been so coddled and protected since I arrived and have slowly begun to do more for myself. It’s such a different experience that what I was in Costa Rica, when I did everything for myself from the get go. That was hard, I’ll admit. I realize that literally, I’ve been barely looking up very much, partly because of ice, but also b/c it’s like there’s only so much I can deal with at a time. Everyday I look up a little more and see something new – a store here, the vast horizon of high-rise apartment buildings, huge fields of mud destined to be soccer fields in the summer. I realize this is just the tip of an iceberg that I hope I can explore.
The other funny thing is that every time I learn a new word or grammar structure in Russian, I hear it, then immediately think, wow, what a coincidence that people are saying that today, right when I learned it! Of course, I realize that they’ve probably been saying this all along and I just didn’t understand before. Our language training is imminently practical and I think I’ll be able to navigate after training. People have been complimentary about my learning, which is encouraging.
9 Apr. 2003
Today we met again with the unemployment center to go over our project and also a timeline. We met with my favorite person there, Svetlana, who is super positive and business like and also I think so beautiful. The women here are just amazing beautiful. I mean, of course not everyone, but so many are really stunning. Some try to “enhance” this beauty with hair color not found in nature or nearly cartoonish makeup (I know, cultural judgment, not observation).
We are going to plan and present a workshop for center employees about using criteria to determine if a business idea and or plan is viable, with an emphasis on small scale market research. Svetlana told us today that she will invite people from other employment centers in the Kyiv oblast to participate. It’s exciting. I hope that this center will apply to get a PC volunteer down the road. I think it would be a great place to work and has lots of potential for development.
Today at the meeting, I was heartened b/c I understood many words. This is partly because I have reached a nice level where the language is gelling for me and also b/c they spoke in Russian and not Ukrainian, as they have in prior meetings. I got a lot, which I verified b/c of the translation. Sometimes I think I understand, then will find out that basically I’ve been making things up based on facial expressions, assumptions, etc. Some assumptions are quite humorous and fantastical and lead to funny situations. Wish I could think of an example right now, but alas.
It is very interesting to me how these languages are sorted out and that so many people speak at least 2 languages in their daily life. Officially, all government documents and meetings are required to be in Ukrainian and it is the official language. However, many people speak Russian as well and most people speak the mixture language, Dvoryak. I am glad to be learning proper Russian, as I think it could have good applications later and would allow me to go nearly anywhere in the former Soviet republic and be able to communicate a bit. On the other hand, I need to know at least niceties and some vocabulary in Ukrainian, as many stores, nearly all food and transport is in Ukrainian.
Luckily, there is some cross over in vocabulary and I have no idea about grammar. I know the Ukrainian alphabet, and it is only 3 or 4 letters different from the Russian alphabet.
Another demarcation for the language is geography. Western Ukraine is more nationalistic and tends to speak Ukrainian. Eastern Ukraine identifies itself as Russian by ethnicity and speaks mainly Russian. These are textbook answers and I’m looking forward to exploring the nuances. Language is endless fascinating to me and this Russian/Ukrainian mixture is no less.
Do take all of this with a grain of salt, as I have been studying this all of one month.
Tonight I went to an aerobics class at a nearby gym. I can’t remember if I wrote about going to this gym before, but I went once and just did weights. The class, which they call, “shaping” (as in English just like that but pronounced w/ their accent) is taught by a super fit woman who emphasizes keeping ones shoulders down and back (great) and also moving at all times to the fast beat of techno with high impact motions (less great). Somehow (!) she knew I wasn’t from ‘round these parts and when I didn’t her instructions, she would come over and physically move me into position. I really liked how she seemed to know most everyone’s names and she helped the less fit people to do slower exercises or with lower impact.
The style of dress was interesting for me, in that I realize I’m so used to the US and everyone having lots of clothes for every occasion. One has outdoors clothes, one has workout or gym clothes, one has fancy clothes. The women had varying degrees of shoes and I must admit to worrying about a couple who were wearing ballet slippers. Worrying b/c I have become so brainwashed that one must have full space-age, polymer cross-training shoes or one certainly can’t work out properly. There also is, um, less emphasis on well-fitted jog bras. ‘Nough said.
It was funny too b/c one woman kept getting phone calls on her mobile, but the teacher did razz her a little bit for talking during class. In the same building as the gym is some sort of martial arts studio. There are photos of the people doing this art and it is really beautiful and they’re super flexible. There are swords involved, but it’s not the Japanese sword art whose name escapes me now. Kendo, that’s it.
As I got ready to go to class, I realized that what I needed to wear to class was the one piece of clothing with an American flag. Could I have been more conspicuous? No matter, no one tried to rip off my shirt and burn it or anything. I just think it’s funny b/c I really would never wear the flag on clothes, just not my style, but I didn’t even consider that when this shirt made it into my allotted 100 lbs. of baggage. I just thought, “good workout shirt,” not “obvious sign that I’m American.”
To be clear: I am a patriot, but I just find wearing the flag on my chest a bit conspicuous. I will never sew a maple leaf to my backpack or anything like that, but nor do I want to be walking around waving the red, white and blue and speaking English loudly. (Americans are, um, renowned for being very loud in public relative to other peoples)
At the end of class, our aerobics queen ordered everyone to hang suspended from a bar for at least 5 seconds. All in all it was very interesting and if I can walk tomorrow w/o a cane, I’ll be very excited. I learned a new word, “rukki” which I thought meant “march,” but afterwards I looked it up in the dictionary and it means “hands.” :-0 It was exciting to understand certain words, though, such as “right,” “left,” and “straight.”
Time for sleep. The upstairs neighbor has decided it’s time to do some construction; I’m still trying to figure out what power tool he’s using. This will be a good test of my earplugs. I love earplugs. They make me a good neighbor and a well-rested girl. Duje noch.
Today we met again with the unemployment center to go over our project and also a timeline. We met with my favorite person there, Svetlana, who is super positive and business like and also I think so beautiful. The women here are just amazing beautiful. I mean, of course not everyone, but so many are really stunning. Some try to “enhance” this beauty with hair color not found in nature or nearly cartoonish makeup (I know, cultural judgment, not observation).
We are going to plan and present a workshop for center employees about using criteria to determine if a business idea and or plan is viable, with an emphasis on small scale market research. Svetlana told us today that she will invite people from other employment centers in the Kyiv oblast to participate. It’s exciting. I hope that this center will apply to get a PC volunteer down the road. I think it would be a great place to work and has lots of potential for development.
Today at the meeting, I was heartened b/c I understood many words. This is partly because I have reached a nice level where the language is gelling for me and also b/c they spoke in Russian and not Ukrainian, as they have in prior meetings. I got a lot, which I verified b/c of the translation. Sometimes I think I understand, then will find out that basically I’ve been making things up based on facial expressions, assumptions, etc. Some assumptions are quite humorous and fantastical and lead to funny situations. Wish I could think of an example right now, but alas.
It is very interesting to me how these languages are sorted out and that so many people speak at least 2 languages in their daily life. Officially, all government documents and meetings are required to be in Ukrainian and it is the official language. However, many people speak Russian as well and most people speak the mixture language, Dvoryak. I am glad to be learning proper Russian, as I think it could have good applications later and would allow me to go nearly anywhere in the former Soviet republic and be able to communicate a bit. On the other hand, I need to know at least niceties and some vocabulary in Ukrainian, as many stores, nearly all food and transport is in Ukrainian.
Luckily, there is some cross over in vocabulary and I have no idea about grammar. I know the Ukrainian alphabet, and it is only 3 or 4 letters different from the Russian alphabet.
Another demarcation for the language is geography. Western Ukraine is more nationalistic and tends to speak Ukrainian. Eastern Ukraine identifies itself as Russian by ethnicity and speaks mainly Russian. These are textbook answers and I’m looking forward to exploring the nuances. Language is endless fascinating to me and this Russian/Ukrainian mixture is no less.
Do take all of this with a grain of salt, as I have been studying this all of one month.
Tonight I went to an aerobics class at a nearby gym. I can’t remember if I wrote about going to this gym before, but I went once and just did weights. The class, which they call, “shaping” (as in English just like that but pronounced w/ their accent) is taught by a super fit woman who emphasizes keeping ones shoulders down and back (great) and also moving at all times to the fast beat of techno with high impact motions (less great). Somehow (!) she knew I wasn’t from ‘round these parts and when I didn’t her instructions, she would come over and physically move me into position. I really liked how she seemed to know most everyone’s names and she helped the less fit people to do slower exercises or with lower impact.
The style of dress was interesting for me, in that I realize I’m so used to the US and everyone having lots of clothes for every occasion. One has outdoors clothes, one has workout or gym clothes, one has fancy clothes. The women had varying degrees of shoes and I must admit to worrying about a couple who were wearing ballet slippers. Worrying b/c I have become so brainwashed that one must have full space-age, polymer cross-training shoes or one certainly can’t work out properly. There also is, um, less emphasis on well-fitted jog bras. ‘Nough said.
It was funny too b/c one woman kept getting phone calls on her mobile, but the teacher did razz her a little bit for talking during class. In the same building as the gym is some sort of martial arts studio. There are photos of the people doing this art and it is really beautiful and they’re super flexible. There are swords involved, but it’s not the Japanese sword art whose name escapes me now. Kendo, that’s it.
As I got ready to go to class, I realized that what I needed to wear to class was the one piece of clothing with an American flag. Could I have been more conspicuous? No matter, no one tried to rip off my shirt and burn it or anything. I just think it’s funny b/c I really would never wear the flag on clothes, just not my style, but I didn’t even consider that when this shirt made it into my allotted 100 lbs. of baggage. I just thought, “good workout shirt,” not “obvious sign that I’m American.”
To be clear: I am a patriot, but I just find wearing the flag on my chest a bit conspicuous. I will never sew a maple leaf to my backpack or anything like that, but nor do I want to be walking around waving the red, white and blue and speaking English loudly. (Americans are, um, renowned for being very loud in public relative to other peoples)
At the end of class, our aerobics queen ordered everyone to hang suspended from a bar for at least 5 seconds. All in all it was very interesting and if I can walk tomorrow w/o a cane, I’ll be very excited. I learned a new word, “rukki” which I thought meant “march,” but afterwards I looked it up in the dictionary and it means “hands.” :-0 It was exciting to understand certain words, though, such as “right,” “left,” and “straight.”
Time for sleep. The upstairs neighbor has decided it’s time to do some construction; I’m still trying to figure out what power tool he’s using. This will be a good test of my earplugs. I love earplugs. They make me a good neighbor and a well-rested girl. Duje noch.
09 April 2003
Today I saw a new weather icon: the sunny, rainy, snowy symbol. Yeah, don’t see that at home much! However, sunny, rainy, snowy pretty much describes the weather right now. Monday a.m. I woke to see a coat of fresh snow on the ground. It was pretty til the afternoon, when it turned slushy. Dan, fellow PCT, and I joke that we have one word for all the engineers here: drainage. It’s quite a gauntlet avoiding car-eating muddy potholes and the walls o’ water that the marshrutkas produce when ploughing through them.
It might sound like I’m complaining or despondent, mais non, mon ami. I find cheer in the small chickadees that hop around, sometimes providing the only color in the gray landscape, the yellow and green on their chests. I look forward to seeing my favorite street dog on his corner as I walk from class to the internet café each day. I also find humor where it comes and these days that is in many places. I’m warm and fed and thank god I have headphones and tons of music. Life is good.
Helena keeps telling me that once April 15 hits, the weather will change and it will really be spring. We’ll see. I also remember that in CO, one can’t count on consistent weather til June.
It might sound like I’m complaining or despondent, mais non, mon ami. I find cheer in the small chickadees that hop around, sometimes providing the only color in the gray landscape, the yellow and green on their chests. I look forward to seeing my favorite street dog on his corner as I walk from class to the internet café each day. I also find humor where it comes and these days that is in many places. I’m warm and fed and thank god I have headphones and tons of music. Life is good.
Helena keeps telling me that once April 15 hits, the weather will change and it will really be spring. We’ll see. I also remember that in CO, one can’t count on consistent weather til June.
Here are the latest ramblings from this country we call Ukraine, borderland.
Since I last wrote, our cluster met with the Unemployment Center. We had a group of the 7 PCT’s, our translator, Natasha, her husband, Peter, an Australian, two of our Peace Corps Business Development staff, Victor and Vickie, and finally, Ira, my host sister. Quite a mess of people. We gathered a great deal of info about the center, such as how the help unemployed people, how they’re processed and registered as official unemployed, the amount of unemployment money they receive and finally that these registered unemployed can submit a business plan for a small enterprise and receive the full amount they would get for a year as unemployed as a lump sum. This money they don’t have to pay back, but the risk is that they aren’t eligible for more money if the business isn’t successful.
The Unemployment Center had 3 people representing their side. It was very interesting working with translators. Protocol is that one should speak to the people one is trying to communicate with, not the translator, which is difficult to do and sometimes I didn’t do it. We decided that we will work on two projects with them: 1. Provide and translate to the Ukrainian context an American business plan and 2. Provide training for center staff about how to access if a business idea is viable, with an emphasis on how to conduct market research on a small level.
Our Peace Corps Biz Development people indicated that the three women we’re working with at the center are a lot more forthcoming in asking for help than many unemployment centers that they’ve worked with before. They seem very professional and our group is excited to work with them. The center is in a very spiffy new building, apparently built with German money. It will be very interesting to visit other PCV’s once we’re all at site, b/c my understanding is that Kyiv gets the lion’s share of growth and revenue, while the rest of the country is much farther behind developmentally.
We’ll meet again with the Unemployment Center this Wed. 9 April to propose the above and see if there’s anything else they want from us during our remaining approx. 6 weeks.
Next Thursday, the Business Development group, all of our clusters, will go to Kyiv for our mid-training conference and then to visit our sites. I will not travel far to my site, but most people will be going at least overnight on trains. I must admit to being a tad jealous, but know that I won’t be when they are dealing with moving all of their things on said trains.
What else? I finally gave in and started taking antibiotics to properly kill a bug that’s had me in its grasp since arriving in Brovary. Nearly immediately after beginning a cycle, I’m no longer a snot factory (sorry, I’m sure this is TMI, aka too much info) and my cough has stopped coming from deep inside lungs. Hurrah!
It snowed today! Spring here is nearly as psycho as in CO. The locals swear this isn’t par for the course, but we’ll see next year.
Two of the trainees in my cluster were medevac’d to Kyiv this past week. They’re fine now, but lots of minor illness and accidents abound. One trainee in another cluster was mugged, but it was described to me by our Training Director as being a case of being alone in the wrong spot in his town. I’m safe b/c I don’t tend to leave the apartment after I come home at 4 or 5pm. I suppose after the weather changes (when? If?) I might venture out accompanied by friends, but I’ve little incentive with the weather as it is.
This coming Friday, Ira is having a party here for the PCT’s and some of her friends, most of whom speak English at least a tad. It’s been entertaining hanging out with youngens like Ira (20 yo) and some of the vocabulary I’m getting from them is very teenager, my Russian teacher tells me. Julia, said Russian teacher, says it makes her feel old the vocabulary I’m bringing in, as she’s all of 27.
Julia is such a wonderful teacher and especially so because she too is away from her family for three months while teaching us. She not only is our Russian teacher, but also our community liaison and cheerleader, patient professor and expert translator of cultural norms. We have a 20 minute tea break in between our 4 hours of class, which is held in her tiny flat, and she has instituted a Russian only rule. It at first was sort of a drag, as it made it less of a break, but now it’s fun and we try to creatively use the small vocab we have to converse. It’s actually amazing how much one can say when one tries to think only in known words and keep things simple, instead of thinking of complex structures and vocab.
Learning has been a bit of up and down for me. I’m so enjoying the classes and being in a structured learning environment, and especially enjoying the satisfaction that comes from studying something and then hearing it on the street or using it at home. However, I’ve found myself quick to be despondent when I can’t think of a word or grammar and quick to think that I’ll never learn the language.
When I’m more rational, I feel pretty good about how much I’ve learned in a month and confident that I’ll be able to learn a great deal of Russian, a bit of Ukrainian and perhaps speak Dvoryak, the combination of these two languages that most Ukrainians speak. People have been encouraging about my growing ability, particularly those who first met me in the early grunting/pantomiming stage.
One thing that’s funny to me is how sometimes I’ll mix Spanish in with the Russian. Some things are difficult, like “ya” is “I’ in Russian, and “already” in Spanish, but used frequently in conversation. Or “nada” (nothing - Spanish) means “need” in Russian. Little things really, but sometimes hard.
Saturday was our one month anniversary in country. It was funny to me that that was a particularly hard day. There is a set model of stages of culture shock, but like any model, parts may apply to a person, while others might not and likely one’s own schedule may be different than the model. I had a “Stage 2” day - blaming and finding fault in everything, impatience and grumbling. Missing home terribly. Some days will be like this and I hope that most won’t. I mainly am happy about how few days I have like that.
Since I last wrote, our cluster met with the Unemployment Center. We had a group of the 7 PCT’s, our translator, Natasha, her husband, Peter, an Australian, two of our Peace Corps Business Development staff, Victor and Vickie, and finally, Ira, my host sister. Quite a mess of people. We gathered a great deal of info about the center, such as how the help unemployed people, how they’re processed and registered as official unemployed, the amount of unemployment money they receive and finally that these registered unemployed can submit a business plan for a small enterprise and receive the full amount they would get for a year as unemployed as a lump sum. This money they don’t have to pay back, but the risk is that they aren’t eligible for more money if the business isn’t successful.
The Unemployment Center had 3 people representing their side. It was very interesting working with translators. Protocol is that one should speak to the people one is trying to communicate with, not the translator, which is difficult to do and sometimes I didn’t do it. We decided that we will work on two projects with them: 1. Provide and translate to the Ukrainian context an American business plan and 2. Provide training for center staff about how to access if a business idea is viable, with an emphasis on how to conduct market research on a small level.
Our Peace Corps Biz Development people indicated that the three women we’re working with at the center are a lot more forthcoming in asking for help than many unemployment centers that they’ve worked with before. They seem very professional and our group is excited to work with them. The center is in a very spiffy new building, apparently built with German money. It will be very interesting to visit other PCV’s once we’re all at site, b/c my understanding is that Kyiv gets the lion’s share of growth and revenue, while the rest of the country is much farther behind developmentally.
We’ll meet again with the Unemployment Center this Wed. 9 April to propose the above and see if there’s anything else they want from us during our remaining approx. 6 weeks.
Next Thursday, the Business Development group, all of our clusters, will go to Kyiv for our mid-training conference and then to visit our sites. I will not travel far to my site, but most people will be going at least overnight on trains. I must admit to being a tad jealous, but know that I won’t be when they are dealing with moving all of their things on said trains.
What else? I finally gave in and started taking antibiotics to properly kill a bug that’s had me in its grasp since arriving in Brovary. Nearly immediately after beginning a cycle, I’m no longer a snot factory (sorry, I’m sure this is TMI, aka too much info) and my cough has stopped coming from deep inside lungs. Hurrah!
It snowed today! Spring here is nearly as psycho as in CO. The locals swear this isn’t par for the course, but we’ll see next year.
Two of the trainees in my cluster were medevac’d to Kyiv this past week. They’re fine now, but lots of minor illness and accidents abound. One trainee in another cluster was mugged, but it was described to me by our Training Director as being a case of being alone in the wrong spot in his town. I’m safe b/c I don’t tend to leave the apartment after I come home at 4 or 5pm. I suppose after the weather changes (when? If?) I might venture out accompanied by friends, but I’ve little incentive with the weather as it is.
This coming Friday, Ira is having a party here for the PCT’s and some of her friends, most of whom speak English at least a tad. It’s been entertaining hanging out with youngens like Ira (20 yo) and some of the vocabulary I’m getting from them is very teenager, my Russian teacher tells me. Julia, said Russian teacher, says it makes her feel old the vocabulary I’m bringing in, as she’s all of 27.
Julia is such a wonderful teacher and especially so because she too is away from her family for three months while teaching us. She not only is our Russian teacher, but also our community liaison and cheerleader, patient professor and expert translator of cultural norms. We have a 20 minute tea break in between our 4 hours of class, which is held in her tiny flat, and she has instituted a Russian only rule. It at first was sort of a drag, as it made it less of a break, but now it’s fun and we try to creatively use the small vocab we have to converse. It’s actually amazing how much one can say when one tries to think only in known words and keep things simple, instead of thinking of complex structures and vocab.
Learning has been a bit of up and down for me. I’m so enjoying the classes and being in a structured learning environment, and especially enjoying the satisfaction that comes from studying something and then hearing it on the street or using it at home. However, I’ve found myself quick to be despondent when I can’t think of a word or grammar and quick to think that I’ll never learn the language.
When I’m more rational, I feel pretty good about how much I’ve learned in a month and confident that I’ll be able to learn a great deal of Russian, a bit of Ukrainian and perhaps speak Dvoryak, the combination of these two languages that most Ukrainians speak. People have been encouraging about my growing ability, particularly those who first met me in the early grunting/pantomiming stage.
One thing that’s funny to me is how sometimes I’ll mix Spanish in with the Russian. Some things are difficult, like “ya” is “I’ in Russian, and “already” in Spanish, but used frequently in conversation. Or “nada” (nothing - Spanish) means “need” in Russian. Little things really, but sometimes hard.
Saturday was our one month anniversary in country. It was funny to me that that was a particularly hard day. There is a set model of stages of culture shock, but like any model, parts may apply to a person, while others might not and likely one’s own schedule may be different than the model. I had a “Stage 2” day - blaming and finding fault in everything, impatience and grumbling. Missing home terribly. Some days will be like this and I hope that most won’t. I mainly am happy about how few days I have like that.
02 April 2003
Of Black Swans and Pigeon Livers
Yesterday, Ira took me to see “Swan Lake” at the National Opera and Ballet Theater in Kyiv. We went in early to hang out and also to see if I could get a transformer at Tsum, the enormous department store that I think is somehow related to the “Gum” megastore in Moscow.
Getting ready took much of the day, what with baths, hair and manicures. I also had to study, so even though I got up at 8am to run in the park with my fellow cluster mate, Larry, suddenly it was 3pm and time to go.
We ran into other cluster mates Chris and Maria at Tsum. After unsuccessfully looking for a transformer, Ira and I bid Chris and Maria goodbye and wandered around Kyiv for a while. I was able to avoid going back to the 3 story underground mall that Ira loves and reminds me of parts of modernity that I dislike. Next time, we’ll go there, in deference to Ira.
This time I got to see some beautiful parts of the downtown area, including a monument to a cat that saved its owners by alerting them to a fire. The city has many ornate buildings (I’m sure there’s a predominant style, but I’m woefully uninformed about architecture) and much has been restored, some well done and many done then painted in what I consider gaudy colors. Nevertheless, the city has a strong European feel, with many cobbled streets and squares, and many spots that Ira kept pointing out as spots where cafes will open later in the spring.
Ira gets really excited when she hears other people speaking English and hastens to point this out to me. I’m rather a curmudgeon and usually grunt and change the subject.
We ate at the coolest cafeteria. It bills itself as Ukrainian home cookin’ and seems to really offer good food at reasonable prices. As such it was fully mobbed, but we were able to get a decent cappuccino and dessert and people watch.
Then, the theater! It is simply grand. Ira got us box seats and I felt rather posh sitting there. I realized how lovely it was of her to get the tickets and spend another whole day with me. An aside: I also realized on the metro to Kyiv that I’ve only been living here with Ira and Helena for two and a half weeks! It’s good to remember, especially to appreciate how well things are going and how close I feel to them and how comfortable I am here.
Anyway, the ballet was wonderful. I’ve only been before to the Nutcracker, also by Tschaikovsky, so I was unsure of some things. For example, I don’t know if it is universal ballet behaviour to clap after any good solo, during an act. I also was confused when the principles took a curtain call between acts 2 and 3, suggesting to me that the ballet was over. Also, at some points, the clapping changed to be in unison.
At the ballet, I saw our PCMO (Peace Corps Medical Officer), Nurse Linda. It was funny to be in such a big city and run into 4 PC affiliated people. There were many expats at the ballet and I’m looking forward to going again and maybe even venturing into opera.
One thing I felt while walking around Kyiv is that I really want to do whatever I need to do these next two years to learn Russian, get a masters in international development, whatever, in order to be able to live abroad and do interesting development work. I feel so lucky to be able to get this training via Peace Corps and in particular the language training.
In a couple of weeks, we’ll go back to Kyiv and have a mid-training conference for a couple of days, then have a 4 day site visit. I’m super excited to find out how far away my apartment is from work, as work is right downtown and I’d be really lucky to be less than 20 minutes from work. I could be as far away as 45 minutes via public transport. The metro here is quite nice and there are many marshrutkas (mini-vans that cost about $.25)
Back to Sunday, when we returned Brovary and the apartment at about 11pm, Helena was waiting up to find out all about our evening. I changed and then came out to find a small meal waiting, along with the ubiquitous chai (tea). Helena had made amazing blini (crepes) w/ a sweet cream cheese filling and also blini with grated apple. There was also a plate of something I at first thought was sautéed mushrooms and I began to worry, as I hate mushrooms. Then I realized it was some kind of meat and it didn’t smell good. I took a tentative bite and realized it was liver. I tried subterfuge by eating the blini, but soon Ira was asking me if I liked the other thing. I took a deep breath and said, “not so much.” I asked what it was, thinking it to be some kind of liver. At first Ira said chicken, then asked for the dictionary.
After a moment’s dictionary perusal, she said, “No, it’s pigeon liver.” Even though I felt guilty for not being grateful for whatever they give me to eat, I must admit to being happy I still haven’t eaten pigeon liver. I think maybe it’s a poor translation, and really it’s game hen or something, or maybe that’s what I tell myself so that I feel better at night. My cluster mate Larry asked somewhat seriously if I thought it was free-range pigeon.
Joking aside, people here live very close to near-poverty and as such, they eat what they have. Not eating something because they don’t like it isn’t a luxury many have. I sometimes forget this fact because people tend to be so well dressed and kempt and because I’m living in a relatively affluent suburb. Even so, there are countless babushka selling something on the street, sunflowers, pickles, gnarled beets and they do this to survive. There are also many babushkas begging and this is difficult to see.
It was a fowl day, full of birds one finds at the park, on stage and on the table.
Ring a death knoll for hot water: the word on the Brovary streets is that it will be officially turned off on April 15. Hmm, US tax day and the end of hot water. I feel lucky that at least I’ve had hot water during the cold weather this past month and at least the temperature is heating up now. Sort of. Anyway, I’ll take it like a Peace Corps Volunteer and pretend I got some really hard assignment instead of the Posh Corps like I did. Sponge baths aren’t so awful, right? Right?
Tonight, the babushka downstairs who is somehow related to Ira and Helena came up to ask me to try to find her friend that lives in America. She’s told me about this person every time we meet and tonight brought up a letter from 1999 w/ a name and address. With Ira translating, she asked me to find her, then maybe see if someone in America could phone her. I told her I’d try to find her phone no. and/or address online first. She hasn’t gotten a reply from this friend since ’99 and she wants to try to find the friend or her daughter to find out what happened. I tried not to promise too much, but it would be cool if I could find an email for the daughter, who apparently is a journalist.
Dobre noch - good night…
Yesterday, Ira took me to see “Swan Lake” at the National Opera and Ballet Theater in Kyiv. We went in early to hang out and also to see if I could get a transformer at Tsum, the enormous department store that I think is somehow related to the “Gum” megastore in Moscow.
Getting ready took much of the day, what with baths, hair and manicures. I also had to study, so even though I got up at 8am to run in the park with my fellow cluster mate, Larry, suddenly it was 3pm and time to go.
We ran into other cluster mates Chris and Maria at Tsum. After unsuccessfully looking for a transformer, Ira and I bid Chris and Maria goodbye and wandered around Kyiv for a while. I was able to avoid going back to the 3 story underground mall that Ira loves and reminds me of parts of modernity that I dislike. Next time, we’ll go there, in deference to Ira.
This time I got to see some beautiful parts of the downtown area, including a monument to a cat that saved its owners by alerting them to a fire. The city has many ornate buildings (I’m sure there’s a predominant style, but I’m woefully uninformed about architecture) and much has been restored, some well done and many done then painted in what I consider gaudy colors. Nevertheless, the city has a strong European feel, with many cobbled streets and squares, and many spots that Ira kept pointing out as spots where cafes will open later in the spring.
Ira gets really excited when she hears other people speaking English and hastens to point this out to me. I’m rather a curmudgeon and usually grunt and change the subject.
We ate at the coolest cafeteria. It bills itself as Ukrainian home cookin’ and seems to really offer good food at reasonable prices. As such it was fully mobbed, but we were able to get a decent cappuccino and dessert and people watch.
Then, the theater! It is simply grand. Ira got us box seats and I felt rather posh sitting there. I realized how lovely it was of her to get the tickets and spend another whole day with me. An aside: I also realized on the metro to Kyiv that I’ve only been living here with Ira and Helena for two and a half weeks! It’s good to remember, especially to appreciate how well things are going and how close I feel to them and how comfortable I am here.
Anyway, the ballet was wonderful. I’ve only been before to the Nutcracker, also by Tschaikovsky, so I was unsure of some things. For example, I don’t know if it is universal ballet behaviour to clap after any good solo, during an act. I also was confused when the principles took a curtain call between acts 2 and 3, suggesting to me that the ballet was over. Also, at some points, the clapping changed to be in unison.
At the ballet, I saw our PCMO (Peace Corps Medical Officer), Nurse Linda. It was funny to be in such a big city and run into 4 PC affiliated people. There were many expats at the ballet and I’m looking forward to going again and maybe even venturing into opera.
One thing I felt while walking around Kyiv is that I really want to do whatever I need to do these next two years to learn Russian, get a masters in international development, whatever, in order to be able to live abroad and do interesting development work. I feel so lucky to be able to get this training via Peace Corps and in particular the language training.
In a couple of weeks, we’ll go back to Kyiv and have a mid-training conference for a couple of days, then have a 4 day site visit. I’m super excited to find out how far away my apartment is from work, as work is right downtown and I’d be really lucky to be less than 20 minutes from work. I could be as far away as 45 minutes via public transport. The metro here is quite nice and there are many marshrutkas (mini-vans that cost about $.25)
Back to Sunday, when we returned Brovary and the apartment at about 11pm, Helena was waiting up to find out all about our evening. I changed and then came out to find a small meal waiting, along with the ubiquitous chai (tea). Helena had made amazing blini (crepes) w/ a sweet cream cheese filling and also blini with grated apple. There was also a plate of something I at first thought was sautéed mushrooms and I began to worry, as I hate mushrooms. Then I realized it was some kind of meat and it didn’t smell good. I took a tentative bite and realized it was liver. I tried subterfuge by eating the blini, but soon Ira was asking me if I liked the other thing. I took a deep breath and said, “not so much.” I asked what it was, thinking it to be some kind of liver. At first Ira said chicken, then asked for the dictionary.
After a moment’s dictionary perusal, she said, “No, it’s pigeon liver.” Even though I felt guilty for not being grateful for whatever they give me to eat, I must admit to being happy I still haven’t eaten pigeon liver. I think maybe it’s a poor translation, and really it’s game hen or something, or maybe that’s what I tell myself so that I feel better at night. My cluster mate Larry asked somewhat seriously if I thought it was free-range pigeon.
Joking aside, people here live very close to near-poverty and as such, they eat what they have. Not eating something because they don’t like it isn’t a luxury many have. I sometimes forget this fact because people tend to be so well dressed and kempt and because I’m living in a relatively affluent suburb. Even so, there are countless babushka selling something on the street, sunflowers, pickles, gnarled beets and they do this to survive. There are also many babushkas begging and this is difficult to see.
It was a fowl day, full of birds one finds at the park, on stage and on the table.
Ring a death knoll for hot water: the word on the Brovary streets is that it will be officially turned off on April 15. Hmm, US tax day and the end of hot water. I feel lucky that at least I’ve had hot water during the cold weather this past month and at least the temperature is heating up now. Sort of. Anyway, I’ll take it like a Peace Corps Volunteer and pretend I got some really hard assignment instead of the Posh Corps like I did. Sponge baths aren’t so awful, right? Right?
Tonight, the babushka downstairs who is somehow related to Ira and Helena came up to ask me to try to find her friend that lives in America. She’s told me about this person every time we meet and tonight brought up a letter from 1999 w/ a name and address. With Ira translating, she asked me to find her, then maybe see if someone in America could phone her. I told her I’d try to find her phone no. and/or address online first. She hasn’t gotten a reply from this friend since ’99 and she wants to try to find the friend or her daughter to find out what happened. I tried not to promise too much, but it would be cool if I could find an email for the daughter, who apparently is a journalist.
Dobre noch - good night…
