November 21, 2002
Dear All,
The new installment of my adventures has indeed been delayed by my busy schedule. Lots has happen and I will try to cover the major events.
The first social event worth mentioning was the Diwali party. Missing my husband and his Indian friends led me in search of something Indian in Kyiv. I found a community. It is certainly a tiny community compare to the one in London, but it is here! One of my newly found Indian friends brought me to a Diwali party. The festival of lights was celebrated by some 30 – 40 Indians and their Ukrainian wives. I have never seen so many mixed Indian-Ukrainian couples in one place. We had food, speeches, songs, dances and even threw few fire crackers on the heads of innocent bystanders at the central street of Kyiv. To make this evening even more memorable I managed to demonstrate my limited Malayalam vocabulary to present malayalees to leave them open-mouthed.
The amount of work did not allow many out of town trips. Still, we (meaning me and four other interns) managed to squeeze a day-trip to Chernigov. By sheer accident we picked a perfect day. When I woke up the whole world was cover with the ten inch blanket of snow. Chernigov is the second oldest town in Ukraine and home of 25 percent of its historical monuments. There is nothing more traditional than eight hundred year old churches covered in brilliantly white snow. It makes an absolutely stunning view. In addition we discovered a cave monastery undeservingly forgotten in favour of the one in Kyiv. Even though the Chernigov caves did not have any mummified monks on display, they were doubtlessly grander.
Unfortunately, Chernigov, as most other Ukrainian towns, has one big problem – nonexistent service industry. For supposedly tourist place it did not have any tourist facilities. It did not have decent maps, transport or cafes. At the end of the day we were happy, wet, cold, and hungry. So, on the trip back we went local and spend three hours of a minibus ride drinking beer with kolbasa (Russian sausage) and bread. As someone remarked – “The Snickers bar has never tasted so good”.
However, the grandest event of the social life had been The Marine Ball, the ball organized by the US Embassy in order to celebrate the anniversary of the creation of the US Marine Corps. Armed with a new dress, a scarf and a purse I decided than I should go all the way and do my hair as well. I had curls!!! After the cake cutting and the US ambassador speech, the stuffy crowd and the atmosphere of forced primness melted away. At that point I went home since I needed to get ready for a work-related trip to Kherson. I have to say that I feel genuinely sorry that I missed the rest of the party since everyone describes it as ‘the night to remember’.
My work life for the last three weeks had been centered around the upcoming (and now passed) seminar “Tendencies of Ukraine’s Grain Market Development”. It was supposed to become the pinnacle of my ‘grain involvement’. As the most junior member of the team I got stuck with the job of making 200 copies of the seminar handouts. Fortunately for me the office printer broke down at the last moment and this pleasant job fell on the Kherson office. The unlucky office manager in Kherson had to spend the whole weekend printing and binding those 180 copies. I did 20 of them in Kyiv, so I know exactly how miserable she must have been feeling.
The seminar had began without a single empty seat. The presenters were very interesting and knowledgeable. I have met a person who could be considered a very useful contact. Side note: Many people think that working here is a great networking opportunity. If one works in the UN or the UNDP or put in the position of the project management – than one might have an opportunity for networking. When one’s main activity is internet research, networking becomes an issue of personal courage and initiative. After a three months being here I can easily count all useful and/or interesting people I have met.
It was also very interesting experience of the public speaking. I made a presentation on the Canadian grain marketing system. I’ve been told I did a good job, and the Swedish participant (who is the biggest Swedish grain trader) asked if I used to work for a Canadian Wheat Board. I’d wish! I’d prefer to work for Cargill though …
After four days in Kherson, I feel the need to relax, which I plan on doing this weekend.
Let me know if any of you have any specific themes you want me to cover in the next installment, which should be coming in another 2 weeks.
The last announcement:
I am not coming to London for graduation. Manoj is coming here !!!! He is going
to be here till January 13 (I am doing little dance out here).
Now the side notes:
On service
I was actually thinking of simply leaving a few blank lines instead of writing anything to make my point absolutely clear. The concept of service hasn’t made it to Ukraine yet. The so-called ‘Soviet Style’ service has entrenched deeply and does not show any signs of surrender. The absolute majority of people working in service treat customers as a nuisance. They project superiority and look at you as if you have distracted them from some incredibly important activity. Often they are outright rude.
On Fitness
Since I came to Kyiv, one thing I have been missing more than my husband is the gym. Deciding that at least this is the one thing I can change, I went in search of a gym, an aerobic class or some other form of physical activity. I began by calling all fitness centres I found on the Internet. Three thousand dollars a year membership fee sounded way out of my league. The next step I checked was the newly opened fitness club near my work. The price was a bit more reasonable. ‘Only’ 100 US dollars per month for three one hour classes a week.
I figured that there must be something more appropriately priced to fit my meager living allowance. A friend suggested attending the modern dance class for only 80 grivnas a month for 2 one-hour classes a week. It sounded like a great deal, and I went. It took me one hour to reach a school building somewhere on the Left side of the Dnipro river in one of the so-called sleeping areas (areas of the city where people go to sleep. There is normally nothing other than huge apartment complexes).
The class took place in the hall of the school. Instead of the age group from 18 to 50 as the advertisement promised, the average age of participants was around 16. The modern dance was a hip-hop. It was something similar to “Romeo and Juliet of the West End” with the speed of “Riverdance”. On the positive note, it was a great workout. I could not move for two days after that. The class ended at 10 p.m., and after scrambling to get out from the area considered pretty dangerous even for locals I decided it was not healthy to come back for that class ever again.
Last week I thought that I finally got lucky when I found a ‘fitness’ class in the health centre right beside my house. Here I have to make a side note. When I used to study that one of the biggest problems in the Third World countries is the lack of information, I did not really believe it. I do now. No one volunteers information here. Any information about anything is difficult to obtain. I have been living near that ‘poliklinika’ (soviet style health centre) for almost three months and I had no idea that they are running the whole range of classes. It took me near one hour of very patient questioning of the office woman (mind you, I estimated her age to be around 90) to find out that there is indeed a general fitness class twice a week. She would not give me any details, but she did give me a phone number for the instructor. After getting that instructor on the phone I managed to sign up to a first free class. She would not give me any other info about the class though.
Last Thursday I went there. The age of the receptionist should have cautioned me. The instructor was not much younger if at all. Have you ever seen the aerobics class taught by the great-grandma? I have now. She could not move much since her knees were hurting. The music was of the late forties, and all her explanations ended with naming an exercise. Exercising on a cement floor using a ‘mattress’ thick as a cotton bedsheet did not improve the feeling of my spine. But the last straw was the yoga exercise. Laying on a dirty floor, looking at the gray ceiling, listening about feeling of happiness spreading through my body felt way to close to a mockery or a direct insult. I am certainly not going there again.
Another friend has asked if I want to go for a Latin dance class. All I can say is “to be continued … ”.
Take care and have a great time,
Lidia
©Lidia Bhaskar, 2003