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.
Anka in Kyiv 