Georgia, Republic of

I’m in Georgia (the country, not the state). Beautiful! Great food! Great people!

Adventures started with my very first steps in the country. When they saw my American passport at Passport Control, I was politely pulled aside and asked if I had been to Mexico or California. “No, I live in Kyiv!” I blurted, hoping they wouldn’t notice the New York stamp from 2 days ago. Yikes.

The August 2008 war is still very fresh in everyone’s minds and a topic in nearly every conversation. I was especially skeptical of all news sources last fall – Russian news had a very specific spin, Ukrainian news too (especially considering President Yushchenko is godfather to President Saakasvili’s child, or the other way around, I always forget), and the US was all gaga over Saakasvili because he can speak English and has truly mastered the American soundbite (and American journalists just ate it up!). We haven’t talked about the politics of the war yet, but I have heard some really frightening and heart-breaking personal stories.

Tamar, her husband and their small baby were coming back to Tbilisi from visiting relatives in their home village. They were stopped in Gori, about 50 miles from Tbilisi, by a group of armed men dressed in soldier’s uniforms. I asked if they were Russians, and she said they spoke Russian “but not like Russians” – they did not seem to her to be ethnic Russians, but she couldn’t tell what kind of accents they had. Her impression was that they were not real soldiers, but were more or less bandits dressed up in soldiers’ uniforms.

The “soldiers” forced them out of the car, which they ransacked. They stole everything Tamar and her husband had with them, including the car. When her husband started to protest, they made signs as if they were going to shoot him and Tamar intervened, screaming and becoming hysterical. For some reason, the “soldiers” backed off. Again her husband protested, asking how he was supposed to get his 5-month old baby home, almost ranting and raving. The “soldiers” finally gave them another car, god-knows whose or where from. Tamar and her husband took it , wanting to get away as soon as possible. To their horror, when they got in, they found it “full of blood.” She still has no idea whose car it was or what happened in it.

A few days later, she saw their own car on TV, in a report from Gori. She recognized their license plate. Today they have no idea where their car is. But they are happy to be alive. She told this story to me with some light-heartedness, some laughter even now – perhaps it’s awe at having even survived to tell the tale – but others told me later that she had been in a deep state of shock for quite some time afterwards. I am amazed that she can talk about it at all, much less with a smile on her face, even if it’s an ironic one. These are amazing people.

I asked if the people’s whose homes were destroyed in Gori and other parts of the country during the war were being helped by the government, if some kind of temporary housing was available. Tamar said those people had been given “tiny shacks” to live in, but nothing decent, nothing like what they used to have. This prompted a passionate outcry from her colleague Tina.

“But we got nothing, nothing, no help at all, when we had to leave Abkahazia (in 1991)”. Tina was 6 when her ethnic Georgian family was forced out, becoming part of the huge population of Internally Displaced People in Georgia – in essence, refugees in their own country. I asked if she can go back there now. “Oh no, I’d be shot,” she stated matter-of-factly.

I’ll take democracy on steriods (as I call the over-zealous constant call for elections in Ukraine) any day of the week. I am grateful to live in a country that is proud of its relatively peaceful revolution. Oh how I wish the safety and comfort I feel in Kyiv was a more common experience for poeple in other parts of the world.

Back in Kyiv

I got home yesterday afternoon, after a long and tiring couple of flights. Bummer I couldn’t get a direct NY-Kyiv flight on a Saturday. But I’m glad I didn’t spend the extra day in that assaulting city of New York – way too loud, way too crowded, way too much concrete for me.

I think this was the first time I’ve flown on Air France – aside from the stressful check-in at JFK, they were great. The vegetarian dinner was really good, with fresh rolls and good wine. Like on many flights now, each passenger had their own TV screen. But instead of one or two prescribed films, each person could choose their own movie from a pretty big selection. Since I’m so out-of-touch, I usually don’t know anything about the movies if they are less than a year old. I watched Marley and Me because I love Owen Wilson – he was good, but I still don’t understand what the movie wanted to be about and who wants to be crying on an airplane? Then I watched Revolutionary Road – great acting, but also not really what I would have thought of as first choice for a flight. I finally skimmed through the Comedy and Drama category – Nights in Rodanthe and a couple others I don’t recall right now but remember thinking “Lord, are there any movies without someone dying at the end?” But still, Air France was great.

It was a lovely 18C when I landed, sunny and beautiful. I sat out on our balcony for the first time, enjoying the sunshine and Sunday comics that Dad sent home with me – while Igor cooked up a batch of green borscht with the fresh sorrel he brought back from Korosten this weekend. With a dash of green Tabasco sauce – ah, the perfect blend of hot and sour! I enjoyed the food fest that is the US, but nothing beats Igor’s home cooking.

Pepette had another freak-out while I was gone. Her last one (and actually the first one) was in October 2007, also coincidentally when I was away on a business trip. She was hysterical, growling, screeching, acting like she not only did she not know Igor but like he was Enemy Number 1 who must be eliminated immediately. She actually bit him quite seriously before he managed to get her isolated in a spare room, where she spent most of the past week. She was calm when I got home, so I let her out for a bit when Igor went to the store. She’s still anxious and a bit nervous, and she seems hyper-sensitive to what are normal common sounds in our apartment – like water running through the pipes from upstairs neighbors. She was fine for awhile when Igor returned from the store, but when she did finally growl at him again, I herded her back into the spare room. We let her out again in the evening, and she even sat with me on the couch, snuggled under the blanket for a bit, but it seemed like she just couldn’t relax. When this happened before, the vet we took her couldn’t make any conclusions, and a friend who’s a vet in the US had three possible diagnosis: reaction to the drugs used at the pet salon when she was groomed, contaminated pet food, or good old-fashioned psycho-cat. We’ve done all the grooming since at home with no drugs, and changed her food and stuck to that brand only. Which leaves us with Psycho-cat. Demon-cat is more like it.

She’s purring on my lap at the moment, but we’ll see how things go when Igor gets up. We can’t live in terror of a small furball, never knowing if or when she’ll freak out. Both times happened when she was in heat, although she’s been in heat many more times with no freak-outs. But Igor suggested last night getting her sterilized, which is OK by me. I don’t know if it will help Psycho-cat syndrome, but our lives will certainly improve if she’s not in heat 2-3 times every spring and fall.

I leave tomorrow afternoon for my next trip – the beautiful country of Georgia. If all goes well, I’ll get to Batumi on the Black Sea for a day or two. It’s still on the cool side, so no swimming, but food extravaganza is guaranteed! Oh, and the steam baths… to die for!

The Big Apple, cont.

I had a good time in New York, made a not insignficant contribution to the local economy, and will try to pack it all up in one suitcase this morning. (Damn it, I knew it was a mistake to bring only one!)

I had a absolutely fabulous time with friends. We celebrated Emily’s birthday Thursday night, and it’s hard to believe a bunch of Peace Corps friends got together and only talked about toilets for a few minutes. I’m so excited to Emily and Chris again in June at their wedding – they are finally doing it! Joanna stayed the week with me in the hotel, and it was really fun to “come home” at the end of the very long and exhausting conference days and get to talk and talk and talk with her, like when we visited each other in our Moldovan villages. It was soooo great to see Dan and hear the gossip and updates about old friends and colleagues.

I found a great deli not far from the hotel with an awesome salad bar, which has been my best friend this week. Joanna finally asked me if we don’t have salad in Ukraine, after my request to get dinner there yet again last night. I didn’t so much make a salad, though, as glom together a bunch of yummy things that we don’t have in Kyiv – baby corn, alfalfa sprouts, chickpeas, artichoke hearts, avocado, sundried tomatoes, Ceasar-salad dressing, croutons. YUM! It’s also the end of winter, so I haven’t seen much in the way of fresh vegetables for about six months.

The hotel inspired me to update my Travel Notes page, so I won’t repeat the rant here.

The Big Apple

I’m in New York this week for a conference. The schedule is really packed, so not much time to just enjoy the city. But I’ll spend some time with Emily and Joanna, Peace Corps Moldova buddies – yeah! And I WILL be eating Mexican food as much as possible. YEAH!

I’ve got tons of work to do, but am feeling totally unmotivated to do it at the moment. Afternoon sluggishness is kicking in, and all I really want to do is curl up in bed and veg.

Happy (Orthodox) Easter!

Today is Easter in Ukraine, and for all Orthodox Christians. We spent the weekend in Korosten, and had a great time (as always). Our good friends Bill and Eileen joined us, which of course was a big hit with Igor’s family- fresh ears for all their stories, fresh taste buds to appreciate the fantastic cooking, and fresh hands to take a try at some preparing some traditional dishes. Bill and Eileen both love to cook, so we made a special request to Igor’s mom for a lesson on preparing pelmeni (meat dumplings) and vareniki (dumplings with non-meat fillings, we made them with potatoes this time). It was a blast.

We rented a car to make the trip easier (and because I don’t trust any public transportation on a holiday), which meant I was the designated driver and had a good excuse to not drink the requisite obsence amount of alcohol. We arrived on Saturday at lunchtime, which was fantastic and overwhelming. Eileen’s mother and step-father live on a farm, and apparently have a lot in common with Igor’s parents, so it was fun to talk about the things familiar and the things different. We went to the village house to take a basket of goodies to Igor’s father, who took it to the middle-of-the-night mass to be blessed. He’s got the whole she-bang now out there – 5 sheep (one lamb born not too long ago), 2 pigs, rabbits, chickens, and his cow recently had her first calf, a beautiful cappucino-colored little guy.

This morning, Easter Sunday, started early, as always. Igor’s father is the religious one in the family, so he went to church at 2 am. I picked him up from the village at 7 to bring him to town for the traditional big Easter meal. He’s been “fasting” (as they call it) for 40 days, which means no meat or dairy products. And he was on total fast (ie, no food at all) since Good Friday. So by the time Easter finally arrives, he is SOOO ready to eat! They had slaughtered a pig and a turkey last weekend in preparation for Easter, and the table was full with meats in various forms – multiple kinds of homemade sausages, baked turkey, potatoes baked with pork (which Eileen said was like a stew), and of course the beloved Ukrainian salo (pork fat). It’s still too early for the most vegetables, but the green onions were ready in the little greenhouse in their yard. We had lots of fabulous salads – radishes and green onions, boiled eggs with green onions, Chinese cabbage with green onions… all utterly delicious! And of course the traditional Easter eggs and Easter bread.

Today was a bit tiring for me – it’s kinda boring to be the only sober person in a group of really drunk people, but it’s exhausting to be the only translator in a multi-lingual group. I love being part of the cultural exchange, don’t get me wrong! New guests always ask interesting and different questions, and I love being part of the dialogue. But when they get all excited, and everybody wants to talk and ask questions and give answers, it’s hard to keep up and I get really tired and grumpy. I had a few moments today that I regret, when I snapped at Igor’s family and at him, but I hope they understand that it’s hard when everybody wants me to translate for them at once.

I just have to pause to say the sky is absolutely gorgeous tonight. For all the things we dislike about where we live right now, one good thing is that we are up high (10th floor) and have a fantastic view of the setting sun. It’s like a giant rainbow out of my window right now – from indigo to cranberry. Just gorgeous.

And back to the weekend. Igor’s college roommate and best friend Sasha called yesterday from the hospital to tell Igor that his daughter had just been born. Igor is godfather to Sasha’s first child, Viktor, who is about 1 1/2 years old. So we made a quick stop at yesterday to buy presents for all involved parties, namely the newborn baby and her older brother, which were delivered today after the feast in Korosten.

In short, it was a great weekend- extreme calories (although we decided any foodstuffs blessed at church were calorie-free), lots of booze, great friendships established, lots of hugs and invitations to visit again.

Tomorrow I’m off to New York for a conference. It’s a quick trip, just a week, with no visits to Ohio. But two Peace Corps friends are in New York and we’ll be celebrating Emily’s birthday together. It’s hard to believe we were last all together four years ago, in Moldova.

Speaking of which, Anya and Grisha called today to wish us a Happy Easter. Anya was again in charge of voting in Tvarditsa and with great satisfaction reported to me that the recount of her district had the same results – that is, no errors under her leaderhship. Who would have expected otherwise?!

The sun has set now, it’s been a long day with lots of adventures and impressions. I’m ready to curl up with a good book and call it a day. Tomorrow is an early start and a long day. Hard to believe I’ll be in the motherland tomorrow night…

Moldova chaos

I spoke to Sasha in Chisinau again tonight. Western news has repeatedly reported that internet was cut off in Moldova, but I was skeptical since I’ve personally been emailing with friends and there is plenty of blogging from Moldova. Sasha said that external internet traffic had been shut down (ie Facebook, vKontakte, etc), but internal traffic had been and continues to be “on”, although overloaded by excessive demand. I’ve exchanged emails the last couple of days with friends in Moldova, so apparently not all external traffic was cut off- maybe just access to websites but it doesn’t seem like email was affected.

There has been a “Romanian” flavor to the demonstrations – the protesters took down the Moldovan flag and raised the Romanian flag. But as Sasha put it, only a bit sarcastically, no part of Moldova has been under any particular government for more than 30 years. For sure a big part of Moldova has no interest in “reuniting” with Romania. The not insignificant ethnic Bulgarian population, for instance, still feel intense loyalty to Russia for the refuge the Tsar gave them 180 years ago when they fled Turkish-occupied Bulgaria. The Gagauzians, Ukrainians and Russians living in Moldova are also not at all interested in joining Romania. The minorities may seem small in number, but in a country of 4 million, any population is significant. While I feel little sympathy for Russian-language fanatics in Ukraine (I mean, if I could understand 50% of Ukrainian the first day I set foot here just because I spoke Russian, and now after just 3 1/2 years in Ukraine I can understand 90%, I just don’t buy it that life-long Russian-speaking residents don’t understand Ukrainian), I feel immense sympathy for the Russian-speaking population of Moldova in their alienation from the majority Romanian-speaking population. Different alphabets, different language families – except for a few cross-over words, there’s really nothing in common to help one with the other. The Russian speakers are really isolated and cut-off from the majority’s experience.

I have yet to read any news report that even acknowledges another point of view from the pro-Romanian one. Kudos to The New York Times for getting a reporter on the ground in Chisinau, but the flaw is still as strong as ever in their reduction of regional bureaus and attempt to use Moscow as their hub for Eurasia. How can a reporter even begin to understand the complex nuances of what’s happening in Moldova if they arrived on the spot a day after the shit hit the fan? What local expertise or understanding does a journalist have if they view the world from the lens of Moscow? Russia is at least half of the problem.

There have been reports of the government blocking all but state-run pro-government TV channels from the airwaves. How about the parts of southern Moldova that get their news exclusively from Moscow, and don’t even receive Chisinau channels? How about the 318 fully funded spots Russia gives to Molodovans (RUS) to study in Russia? Of the 2800 fully-funded scholarships for citizens of the former Soviet Republics, the second largest number of scholarships goes to citizens of a a country with the fifth smallest population of the 14 countries where Russia offers these scholarships. Only Georgia, with a slightly larger population, gets more free rides to study in Russia than Moldova. It’s a brilliant and subtle way to exert influence, if you ask me. I know one of the Moldovan kids studying in Russia on one of those scholarships – believe me, he thinks Russia is the best thing to ever happen!

Protests in Moldova

The Communist Party claims victory in Sunday’s Parliamentary elections in Moldova, and yesterday protests broke out in the center of Chisinau. There had been very strong campaigning against the Communists, who have been in power since 2001, but my guess is the opposition was split among so many parties that they defeated themselves.

I talked to two friends in Chisinau yesterday – one in her office right in the center of town, in the heart of the protest area; the other at work on the edge of town. The first told me there were reports of injured protesters being transported away by ambulances. Both said the protesters are overwhelming young people. Traffic was blocked in the center, but a few blocks away was supposedly running normally.

I am having a hard time finding good news sources on-line. The New York Times is reporting from Moscow, which to me means they don’t know squat either, their news is as much hearsay as the anything else. And since they have no facts to report, they published an article about the social networking aspects of the protests. Please. Give me some real news!!!

I’m trying to find blogs, there’s a lot of twittering. Moldovarius has some commentary and photos. Ah, and I see GlobalVoices just posted. OK, I gotta go read all that.

Winter hobbies

Spring is definitely coming out of hibernation these last few days in Kyiv. There’s such a feeling of relief each year when I realize we’ve made it past the hump, we survived another dark and dreary winter. I always stock up on something to keep me occupied during the winters, and this year it was cross-stitch and American TV shows. I watched the entire series of Homicide: Life on the Streets and The West Wing. I’d loved both series when they originally aired, but never saw the first season of Homicide, or the last couple seasons of either series. Can I just say, holy cow did West Wing ever rock! And talk about life imitating art – it was a bit freaky to watch the last two seasons of West Wing in the months following the election and inauguration of Barack Obama. Homicide was a great series, too, but it got under my skin to watch it so intensely, so many episodes back to back. I realized I needed to take a break when I started to see killers and rapists everywhere around me. Kind of like if you watch The Sopranos too much you start dropping F-bombs like there’s no tomorrow.

I also caught up to the broadcasts of Battlestar Galactica and Lost. It was bittersweet to watch the BG series finale last week, but frankly I can’t wait for Lost to wrap up too. Both series seem to get a bit lost (no pun intended) for awhile there, but BG pulled it together really nicely at the end. I’m gonna miss those folks. They had some interesting lessons to share, for both the business and political worlds.

And during all this TV watching, I’ve been making good progress on my cross-stitching. I finished two small projects then moved on to two bigger and more complicated ones. I finished the second of those last week (I thought it was never going to end!) and decided it’s time to try my hand at what I really wanted to be doing – a rushnik, or Ukrainian embroidered towel. It’s daunting to pick up the long cloth and start the first of what will be thousands of stitches, but it’s exciting. I honed my skills all winter long with this project as my goal, and with the new spring I start working on that goal -yeah!

The only downside to all this cross-stitching is that I haven’t been reading much, since the two don’t really go hand-in-hand, so to say (hence the extreme TV watching all winter long). I did read a few good books in recent months, but not nearly as many as in past winters. As usual, my reading list is on GoodReads.