Winter has arrived

I obviously haven’t been able to keep up with the blog the last couple of weeks. So much for having internet access all day, every day! It hasn’t helped me to keep up the “pace” of writing I had going in Moldova. If I ever finish the essays I’ve been working on, I’ll post them.

For now, I decided to quit worrying about chronology and pick up with more recent events. Last night was the first of what we’ve decided will be weekly Sunday get-togethers for us UNVs – Cristina, the UNV Program Officer (who takes of all the administrative things for all the UNVs in Ukraine, both National and International Volunteers); Tomasso, who works with the World Health Organization (WHO); Hubert, a Czech guy just arrived a week ago to work on the HIV/AIDs project; and Alessandra, Mietek, Yugesh and me, from CRDP. I offered to host this week, and I had a fun and exhausting day cooking. I hit the market next door bright and early, crunching through the dusting of snow on the ground, the first snow of the season. I made eggplant parmesan, with homemade tomato sauce; a few salads (I cheated and bought a couple different salads at the market because they looked so good!); and apple crisp for dessert. We had five or six kinds of wine, plus cranberry vodka, which was better than I expected. It was fun to be back in the kitchen, cooking up a storm and preparing for a party. I have to admit, I very much enjoy having my own place again.

Tomasso brought along some other friends of his, 2 Spaniards who work at the Spanish Embassy, Packo and Nina, as well as a Danish student, Laurence, who’s here studying Russian. We pulled out every chair I could scrounge up, and everyone dug in. Being the host, I offered the first toast. I thanked everyone for joining me, and I told them a bit about the upcoming American holiday, Thanksgiving. Since I can’t be with my American family this year, I told them I’m very happy to be able to spend it with my new UNV family here.

A little later, Mietek gave the second toast, with his usual flair and style. The third toast, by Ukrainian and Russian tradition, is always to women. When it came time, all the men stood, looking and feeling a bit silly, rosy cheeked and giggly from the wine. I suggested that each make the toast in their native language, without realizing myself that each man was of a different nationality! So we were toasted in Czech, Nepalese, Italian, Danish, Polish and Spanish. It was really quite lovely.

They’re a great group of people and lots of fun. As is now the common practice, any get-together involves conversation in at least 3 languages. Last night, Mietek and Hubert could communicate via the commonalities of Polish and Czech. Cristina and Mietek speak German to each other, the rest of us speak Russian with him. With three Italians around, their side conversations inevitably slip into Italian. And English finds it’s way in with all of us. Last night even Mietek took a stab at speaking English, surprising us all with a better command than he’d let on.

As an aside, I did finally meet an American last week, the assistant director of Peace Corps/Ukraine, Helen. We had a very nice lunch together and she told me about some American ex-pat organizations in Kiev, namely Democrats Living Abroad, where I’m sure to find some like-minded Americans. For now, though, I’m content to know they are out there, but I’ve decided to invite my Ukrainian friends Igor and Olga, with their 2 kids, and Olga’s brother Sergei for Thanksgiving dinner at my apartment on Thursday. In some ways, they are my closest connection to home right now, as we met when Igor was a graduate student at Ohio State 12 years ago. They know Columbus, the University, and my family there, so I think it will be nice to spend the holiday with them, friends I’ve known for many years.

Working backward through the weekend… Saturday I woke to the first “sprinkling” of snow. It was half snow/half rain, making for a pretty sloppy day. In honor of the upcoming International Day of the Volunteer (December 5), many UNVs are planning events promoting Volunteerism. Saturday, a Ukrainian UNV organized a seminar for youth on the topic, and invited us to participate and share our experiences as volunteers, both as UNVs and in other capacities in our lives. About 20 teenagers and university students attended, braving the yucky weather and giving up their Saturday, which already gave me a good impression of them. As they took turns talking about their own volunteer experiences, good impression turned to respect. As the conversation turned to their thoughts on how Ukrainian society can benefit from increased volunteerism, respect became coupled with awe. We talked about why they like to volunteer, why they think it’s important, and why they think it’s not a common aspect of Ukrainian culture yet. Two of them had studied abroad in high school in the U.S. (on the American Councils’ FLEX program, the same program for which I taught the pre-departure orientation this past July in Moldova), and both reflected on how impressed they had been by the “culture of volunteerism” they saw in the U.S. As with the FLEX alumni I had met in Moldova, these two young women had returned to their home country enthusiastic and eager to make a difference here. All the kids talked about the importance of helping other people and the difference you can make in someone’s life with even the “little” acts of voluntary kindness – from helping an old lady cross the street to playing with kids in orphanages. One young woman used to volunteer at the Chernobyl museum here in Kiev, and of course Mietek, Alessandra and I were especially eager to talk to her at the coffee break. We invited her to our office, and we want to check out the possibilities of her doing some volunteer work with us. We have a couple University students who volunteer a few hours a week already, and one who already is very familiar with Chernobyl history would bring valuable experience and expertise to the team. Plus, we’d love to go to the museum with her and have an “insiders’ tour”!

Another IDV activity being planned by Ukrainian UNVs working for the United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR) is a festival for refugee children living in and around Kiev. I myself was quite surprised to hear that Ukraine is a destination point for refugees, and in fact UNHCR/Ukraine works with refugees from Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola, and other countries. The festival is planned for December 11, and I offered to help with some of the activities planning. I knew the Peace School teacher’s manual would come in handy here!

Tomasso is planning a huge event called The Volunteer Games for Sunday, December 4. He and his steering team have been contacting NGOs and other volunteer organizations all over Kiev to participate in a Treasure Hunt that day. Teams of participants will follow clues which lead them to different organizations throughout the city, with the goal of getting the general Kievan population acquainted with the numerous organizations and volunteer opportunities that exist right here. A great “find” was the volunteer and NGO resource center Dobro Volya (http://www.volunteering.org.ua/), which offers a variety of services from trainings in volunteer management to connecting prospective volunteers with organizations seeking volunteers. I was personally interested in meeting the director, Tanya, and she offered to help me get connected with some volunteer opportunities with women’s centers here in Kiev. I’d like to continue my involvement with anti-trafficking activities, which I was working on in Moldova.

Friday was one of the best days at work so far as we had a mini-retreat with all the staff. It was our first opportunity to learn more specifics about the Chernobyl project and what each person does. We also shared a bit about ourselves, our backgrounds, work experience, etc. Most importantly, we finally got briefed on the Chernobyl accident and the situation over the last 20 years. I’ll write up my notes in a separate post, as I learned a lot and want to share it with you.

Friday night, Alessandra, Cristina, Mietek and I attended the opening reception at the National Art Museum for a new exhibition of Goya drawings. Speeches were given by the Ukrainian Minister of Culture, the Spanish Ambassador to Ukraine, the director of the Spanish museum with whom the Kiev museum collaborated on the exhibition, and of course the director of the National Art Museum. It was a“see and be seen” kind of event, a bit too pretentious for our tastes, and we ended up wandering around some other halls open in the museum. The collection of early 20th century Ukrainian art is incredible, and we are all anxious to get back to the museum to explore and enjoy it more thoroughly.

After the museum, Mietek and I headed to a club called Art Club 44 (it’s trendy in Kiev to name a venue by its address, and even if the place has a “real” name, a lot of bars and clubs are known more commonly by their address, thus Art Club 44 is always referred to as just “44”, as it’s located at 44 Khreschatyk st.). Last weekend, a bunch of us had enjoyed the music of a fabulous French band at 44, and although we didn’t know who was on the schedule for Friday night, we decided to get a beer and have a late dinner there. A guy we’d met last week ended up joining us, as well. Hugo was born in Portugal but spent most of his life in Brussels and England. He’s an engineer by training, and a few months ago decided he wanted to try something completely different, and he landed a job as Marketing Manager for a Ukrainian company that does business trainings for corporation executives. He’s been here just a week or two longer than us, but the big difference is that he doesn’t speak Russian. By the way, he and Mietek communicated in French. We were only 3 people, but it took 3 languages for us to have a conversation together! (I’m really fascinated by this multi-lingual world I’m living in, as you can probably tell by the number of times I reference all the different languages.) The evening’s entertainment turned to be a mixed bag, the music was great, but the singer didn’t so much sing as he did screech into the microphone. Had the band performed minus the singer, we would have stayed. Instead, we left after 20 or 30 minutes and walked the bustling streets of downtown Kiev, slowly working our way home.

Foggy Days in Kiev

Kiev has been blanketed in thick fog this past week. My Ukrainian colleagues tell me it’s quite unusual, as is the unseasonably “warm” weather we’ve been having. To describe the past week as warm only makes me shiver to think how cold it must usually be, and how cold it inevitably will get! I was so grateful for my down coat these last days, and thinking of what’s to come makes me grateful for packing those wool pants and sweaters.

The past week is in a bit of figurative fog in my memory, as well as literally. The time flew by. I’m exhausted at the end of the day, feeling like I’ve been on the go since dawn, but not quite sure what I actually accomplished during the day. I guess I feel a bit like I did those first few weeks at site in Tvarditsa, when the simple tasks of day-to-day living really wore me out. In some ways, life here is a piece of cake compared to Moldova, but at the same time, it is exhausting in other ways. Being in the office from 9 to 6 every day in and of itself takes a toll on me. I’m simply not used to putting in a full day at the office! The constant sensory stimulation, from sharing a room with 3 other people to the regular high-speed internet access, makes it hard for me to concentrate and do anything productive. After 13 months with very little internet access and a heck of a lot of time spent by alone, I’m finding it rather draining to be online and around people so much.

In addition to the people contact at work, there seems to be something happening nearly every night of the week in Kiev. I’ve been trying to attend as much as possible in order to meet people, but I realize it’s wearing on me and I need a few quiet evenings at home alone. So, tonight is my night to myself, after a fun but exhausting week and weekend chock full of activity.

The highlights of the week included a couple of meetings and our first visit “to the field.” The first project we are responsible for ourselves will be to develop an activity that promotes volunteerism. December 5 is International Volunteer Day, and in connection with that UNV in Ukraine is sponsoring a number of activities. Cristina and Tommaso (a UNV intern working with WHO) are creating Volunteer Games, in which Kiev residents will participate in a scavenger hunt kind of activity designed to make them aware of the many volunteer organizations and opportunities in Kiev. We had a meeting one evening with the new director of Dobro Volya (http://www.volunteering.org.ua/), a resource center for NGOs in Kiev. One of their many services includes linking people who want to volunteer with organizations seeking volunteers. In addition to the relevance for our CRDP program and their participation in the Volunteer Games, I was personally interested in learning more about their services. I will complete their inventory form, and am looking forward to being matched with some volunteer activities that address some of my other interests, such as volunteering at an orphanage or a woman’s organization focusing on trafficking.

Yugesh, Alessandra, Mietek and I have our own volunteer promotion project that we are working on, which will be a high school workshop to be offered in a community in one of the Chornobyl affected regions that will help the students develop and implement a volunteer project for their community. We are using the UNV funding as a kind of seed grant to pilot the workshop, and if it is successful, we hope to expand it into many communities and schools next year.

Friday was our (we new UNVs) first visit to the field. The occasion was the opening of a new youth center in the village of Sukachi, about 80 kilometers north of Kiev. The project was co-sponsored by CRDP, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC). The ceremonies were very nice, although it was damn cold standing outside during all the speeches before the ribbon cutting! I was happy when the program moved inside! The village women’s chorus performed, as did some of the local children. Tours were offered of the new center, which is located in the same building with the mayor’s office. We saw the new computer center, with 3 new computers, a printer and a copy machine. In the basement a room was renovated for the recreation room, with a pool table, ping pong table, exercise equipment, and more. The center will be open until 11 pm most nights, providing a much-need gathering place for the village youth, an alternative to the bars and “hang outs.”

The official program was followed by the obligatory “table” for the special guests, which included those of us from CRDP. The food was plentiful (at least for those non-vegetarians) and the drink flowed. The food was relatively similar to the things served at similar events I attended in Moldova, bread with sliced sausage, meat and potatoes, fried fish, sliced tomatoes and cucumbers. There were a few items more specific to the Ukrainian table, though, such as salo, which is pig fat. Ukrainians absolutely love the stuff, they eat it by the slice on bread as well as cook with it. All I can say is “yuck.” I’ve never met an American who would even try the stuff, much less who likes it, and I gather from my new western European colleagues that it doesn’t appeal to their palates either. Another difference from the typical Moldovan celebration was the dominance of vodka over wine as the drink of choice. Although wine was offered, most of the men and the women toasted with vodka instead. In Moldova, I more often found wine (usually the hosts own homemade) and cognac, which is also locally produced, on the table.

The ritual of toasts seems similar here and in Moldova, too, although I don’t recall a specific order being required in Moldova. Here, as I understand it, the third toast must be to women, and we were honored with the third round of shots. I enjoyed watching the Head of the Village Council, who was acting as a kind of Master of Ceremonies for the meal. He made the first toast, and then every few minutes would introduce another person and invite them to make a toast. After six or seven toasts, it seemed to become a bit of a game, even, as he walked around the table, stopping behind one chair and began to make an introduction, presumably of the person in that chair but without naming them until the end, when he would surprise someone else with their turn to make the toast. It was really fun to see how proud everyone was of the successful project.

I was looking with sharp eyes for hints of the conditions in the village, being my first visit to such a community in Ukraine. Sukachi has a population of about 4000 and lies about 80 km northwest of Kiev, thus a little more than half way between Kiev and Chernobyl. The new youth center is located in the same building as the village council and mayor’s offices, and it was telling to find out that they don’t have running water in the building. Chances are it doesn’t exist anywhere in the village. Our celebratory lunch was held in a large upstairs room, and you can see from the photos that we’re all wearing our coats. As I encountered numerous times in Moldova, the expense of heating the building simply exceeds their budget. Although I was freezing and grouchy at the time, in retrospect I appreciate that they didn’t spend their precious kopecks to heat the place just for us. Better to save the money for activities and services that will benefit the residents of Sukachi.

Busy, busy, busy

Life in Kiev definitely moves at a different pace than in a Moldovan village! I’ve been so busy, I’ve hardly had time to write.

At work, we 3 new UNV’s still really aren’t “working” yet. Our project director, Pavlo, asked us to read a lot of reports and documentation about the program during the next week or so, and then we will have a staff retreat to plan for the coming year and how we 3 fit into the team and the work. Aside from this, our work days have been consumed with the various minutiae of getting settled here – forms, forms, forms for everything from getting an email address to receiving our stipends. I think I’ve signed my name more times in the last 2 weeks than in the entire previous year.

My favorite part of the work day so far is lunch, which everyone takes at 1pm. We’ve gone to a few different restaurants and cafes, but once we were introduced to a cafeteria for policemen just across the street, it is, hands down, our absolute favorite lunch spot. Why? It’s CHEAP! I ate lunch one day last week for 50 cents! The food is simple, but tasty, and the portions are hearty. The most expensive meal any of us has had there came to a grand total of $1.50. Fabulous!

And since Lori made a special request for posts about food, here is a description of my lunch today: one serving of grechka (a delicious buckwheat grain), one serving of beet salad (diced beets with a dollop of sour cream), one serving of tvorog (a sweet, creamy cheese kind of like ricotta), a poppyseed roll, and a glass of juice. (The grand total, by the way, was about 75 cents.) The cafeteria usually serves 2-3 kinds of salads (cabbage, beet, cucumber/tomato, or pickles), 1-2 kinds of soup, 2 kinds of meat (chicken, pork or beef cutlets), fish, 1-2 side dishes like mashed potatoes, pasta, or grechka, and something sweet, like tvorog and sweet rolls. So far, I’ve been very content with my salads and side dishes. Oh, and they serve fresh brewed espresso, too – 20 cents a cup!

The evenings have been filled with shopping, household organizing, and social activities. There seems to be an invitation to something every night! October 23 was the 60th anniversary of the United Nations, and although we missed the big, official gala event that day (since we arrived on the 24th), there have been, and will continue to be, various other parties and events in honor of the anniversary. There was also a Photo Exhibition and Reception organized by Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) about their HIV/AIDS program in southern Ukraine. Add to these the casual parties and get-togethers, and one’s social calendar can quickly and easily be filled.

The ex-pat community is relatively small, I am told, although I can say they are quite active. So far, I’ve met people from Spain, Bangladesh, Netherlands, Great Britain, Nepal, Italy, India, Canada, France, Ireland and Poland. The interesting thing is that I have not yet met another American. In general, I am very happy with my new circle of international friends, and in fact I love the diversity of the group. I wouldn’t have thought of myself as one who “needs” to be around Americans. But thinking about Thanksgiving made me realize that I really DO want to meet some Americans here. I suddenly felt very isolated when I realized no one I know right now will celebrate this holiday. So, this week I hope to visit the Peace Corps office and the American Embassy, both for business purposes as well as for personal networking. I am hopeful that PC/Ukraine has a Thanksgiving event for the PCVs, as we did in Moldova, and if I’m lucky, I’ll be able to swing an invitation.

In other news, both Mietek and Alessandra found apartments today (at last!). We decided it was a lucky day, as November 7 is the anniversary of the Soviet Revolution. 🙂 Whatever fates or guardian angels intervened, we are all overjoyed and relieved that this huge hurdle has been passed. By the end of the week they will be in their new homes, and life can really begin to settle down.

Getting acquainted

Life still hasn’t exactly settled down much, but I can see that some calm and routine are not so far off in the future anymore. I had some time on the weekend to do some shopping and to work on arranging my apartment more to my liking. I managed to get the immediate necessities (like silverware and sheets) and decided to take my time looking for some of the other items, like a coffee maker. There’s no rush, and I still don’t know the best places to buy decent things at a reasonable price.

Monday afternoon we headed to Chernihiv for the Chernobyl economic conference. All three of us new UNVs felt rather frustrated to not have any information beforehand about the conference, and really felt at a loss during the program. I just hate it when I don’t know the schedule, where to go or when. We asked numerous times and just couldn’t get satisfactory answers, or we’d get conflicting answers from different people. Overall, though, the conference was successful, and I found it very informtive on a number of different levels, not the least of which was just watching how my new colleagues operate, who does what, etc.

For the 2 hour drive to Chernihiv on Monday, I sat in the front of the mini-van with one of the CRDP drivers, Oleg. He’s 35, and Sunday celebrated his 1 month anniversary with his wife. In Eastern Europe, the honeymoon period is literally “honey month”, although newlyweds don’t usually take a honeymoon trip the way we usually do in the U.S. Oleg and I passed the time during the drive talking about all kinds of things, from his memories of the weeks and months following the Chernobyl accident to the post-Soviet changes in Ukraine. Oleg was about 16 years old in April 1986, living in Kiev with his parents. That spring and summer all the children in Kiev were sent to the countryside, to relatives or to summer camps, to keep them far away from the radiation. Oleg recalls those months as some of the best in his life, a kind of adventure; months spent away from his parents at camp, days full of games, and freedom from his usual household chores. His parents remember those months as surreal – a huge city completely devoid of children.

I also got a bit of a Ukrainian lesson from Oleg. All advertisements are, by law, only in Ukrainian. Most of the time, Ukrainian is close enough to Russian that I can figure out the content. But days and months are very different, so I asked him to help me learn those. He explained to me that the Ukrainian name of every month reflects something happening in nature during that period. For example, the word for July is based on a particular kind of tree that blooms in that month, and from which you can make a delicious tea. And the word for “November” literally means “Falling Leaves.” Isn’t that beautiful?

At dinner Tuesday night I had the chance to get to know Nikolai better, one of the 9 Ukrainians on the CRDP staff. He is absolutely brillant and originally had plans to join the diplomatic corps. He is fluent in 7 languages (Russian, Ukrainian, English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish), and has studied in both Germany and France. He facilitated a press conference Tuesday afternoon with awesome ability. He actually reminds me a bit of Rob Lowe’s character from West Wing, that kind of super smart, super talented, “you know he’s going to do important things in his life” kind of young man. I told him I had visited Frankfurt for the weekend right before I arrived in Kiev, and he began to tell me all about the wonderful sites to see there, including all the important historical references for just about everything there!

I’m looking forward to getting to know the rest of the CRDP staff. They are obviously an impressive group of very talented people!

Day 4 – Thursday, October 27

We are all starting to realize exactly how ridiculous the housing situation in Kiev is. We saw a bunch of apartments yesterday, not one of which was either reasonably priced or in a decent enough condition that any of us would want to live there. Cristina and Alessandra are starting to consider sharing an apartment, and Mietek is considering living farther away from work. I decided to take the apartment we saw on Tuesday, and thus signed the lease this morning.

I liked the landlady, Larissa Ivanovna, immediately. In fact, she reminds a bit of Tamara Ivanovna in Ialoveni. She’s sharp, active and very business-like. This is the first time she’s rented out an apartment, and as it is my first time renting one here, we were both a little nervous and perhaps overly cautious about the details. I asked one of our CRDP drivers, Oleg, to go with me to make sure everything was on the “up and up.” He assured me the contract was standard and reasonable.

I was able to move into the apartment this evening, and I’m just delighted with it! It’s a 15 minute walk to the office, and on bad weather days I can take a bus or marshutka. Right next to my building is a large grocery store, and next to that is an outdoor market with lots of fresh produce, as well as other household goods. There are 3 metro stops within 5-15 minute walk from the building, as well as lots of cafes, shops, restaurants, and much much more.

I have what is called a 2-room apartment. This means that, in addition to the kitchen and bathroom, there are 2 rooms in the apartment. The living room is furnished with a new couch (which folds out into a bed), matching armchair, a cabinet/cupboard, television, and a table and chairs. Off of this room is a small enclosed balcony, with lines strung for drying laundry. The bedroom has 2 twin bed (which I’ve pushed together to make one large bed), 2 wardrobes, and 2 nightstands. Larissa kindly left me some sheets, blankets and pillows until I can buy some of my own. She also left me a few dishes, pots, silverware, and cups to get me started. The kitchen also has a small table with chairs. The bathroom includes a small washing machine. The entire apartment has been “updated”, if not completely renovated. It’s bright, clean, and gets lots of sunshine via the large windows. And did I mention it’s on the fourth floor, with no elevator? I decided the climb up and down the stairs would be good exercise for me. 🙂

In the few spare moments we’ve had during this apartment search nightmare, we are also trying to get acquainted with our new colleagues and the business of our project. The staff is completely consumed with preparations for an international conference entitled “Chernobyl affected regions in Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine – from recovery to new developmental approach”, to be held October 31-November 2 in Chernihiv, a city about 2 hours north of Kiev. In some respects, their preoccupation with the upcoming conference has been good for us, since we can deal with all of these details of settling in without worrying about trying to learn all about work, too. We will attend the conference, and I expect we’ll learn a lot, but thankfully we are not expected to do much more than just show up!

There are still a million things to take care of, but for me the biggest hurdle is passed and I feel so much better having secured my housing. Hurrah!