October 18, 2002
Dear All,
You haven’t received any of my ‘official’ updates for three weeks. I have been busy. My work has picked up its pace. I continue working on the overview of the grain marketing systems, and began to look at the organization of cooperative banks and new generation cooperatives. It is the major research things I do. I have to admit I am learning a lot about the way the grain market operates. The New Generation Cooperatives are also quite interesting theme to research.
The highlight of the first week of October (Eirini – I do want to make you laugh) the delivery of watermelons to the Canadian embassy. We do have demo fields in Kherson. So, we distribute some of the harvested produce to maintain the positive relationships with friendly organizations. As a Canadian intern I was assigned to deliver the ‘seasonal’ produce, namely watermelons, to the Canadian embassy. So, freshly washed watermelon with attached sticker proclaiming that he was grown by the farmers of Kherson with the support of our Project was photographed in the hands of embassy’s representatives. They were happy. We got cute pictures. Watermelons were consumed during the pub night by Kiev’s Canadians.
The highlight of the second week of October was a trip to the State Committee on Standardization. One of the things we are trying to do is to collect and summarize information on grain standards in Ukraine. The absence of compatible with the rest of the world standardization of Ukrainian grain is a big predicament for local exporters. My, and one other guy working on the issues of the grain market, aim was to acquire the newest standards from the responsible state department. Acquire is an appropriate word since they don’t give you those standards for free. You have to pay for them. You can’t even look at them for free. To view 7 document, you have to pay 18 grivnas (3.4 US dollars). The only thing you can view for free is the list of act and document, from which you can guess which once are going be useful.
Anyhow, to get into the building I had to go through a security check where I to show my passport to receive a special pass which allowed me to enter the building. Middle aged woman with the eyes full of her superiority, who wrote my pass, explained that “this is an office of special regime”, which painfully reminded of some KGB organization. Inside the building did not anything like somber ‘regime’ organization of the Soviet Union. After crawling through the wires hanging off the walls (the building is under maintenance) I made my way into the little room where another women of pre-retirement age with the similar air around her gave me a lecture on the search of needed documents and the methods of obtaining them. Apparently to actually get the papers in hands I had to fill in the special request, after that I will get another paper that I can take to one specific bank, where I can pay. After that I have to bring the paper from the bank back to the office in the Committee. They will give me another paper that I have to take to another office, and in a day or two I can get a photocopies of the documents I requested.
Not being discouraged, I had the list of the documents in only two hours of search. It took the nice women in that office only another three hours to calculate how much I have to pay to those document. After spending all these time sitting on a rather uncomfortable chair in an office without heating, I gave up of the Ukrainian bureaucracy and got our office manager to do the rest. To my pure horror I found all these documents on Internet two days later.
The highlight of this week, the third week of October, was the power cut, few of them to be specific. These repeating events lasted from the bigger part of the day on Monday to few hours a day on Tuesday and Wednesday. Hence, my work of cut short. The power cut in my office means: no computer, Internet, heat, light, lift, water (the electric water pump does not work without electricity), and phone. As you can see, there is very little one can do sitting in my office without electricity. On a positive note, I was not sitting in the lift when the power went off. Imagine sitting in the cold box (1x1) without light with unfamiliar stranger/s from 1 p.m. till 9 p.m. (the hours we were without power on Monday), yelling once in a while “somebody get me out of here”. Even if you are not claustrophobic, you will become one. No one comes to get you out of the lift till the power is back on. Not doing any work in a cold office is still a better option. So, I consider myself lucky.
My social life was more settled than usual. The major event was the trip to my grandmother, who lives in a village on the South of Ukraine. All the trains in Ukraine are nicely scheduled allowing night travel to any destination. Thus, after work on Friday I boarded the train and left for Mykolaiv. Next two days was a blur of relatives and food, more relatives and more food. I have some twenty odd relatives living in the same town and few villages nearby. Since, they have not seen me for over 8 years, they all wanted to see me and do something nice, which essentially ended up being ‘Let’s feed our thin Lidia” weekend. I gained two kilograms, which currently I am trying lose (unsuccessfully). It was really nice to see everyone again. All my cousins have grown up so much, I could hardly recognize some of them. It was also sad to see my grandparents to age so much. Ageing is one of those things you know about but don’t want to believe in till it hits you close to home. I am glad that I got to see my grandparents because I can’t predict how long they are going to be with us. I returned on Monday morning to go straight to work from the train.
Party wise, we had two birthdays here. I organized one of the parties, which was nice fun event in a bar called Garage with live band playing. The other birthday party consisted of a trip to ballet and a nice bookstore/coffee shop. This trend is only coming to Ukraine and is very popular.
The last weekend I accompanied my supervisor on “The Ukrainian Tourism Exhibition”, which gave many ideas where I would like to go but did not help to find out how I can afford it. The purpose of our trip was to check all companies dealing with green tourism, and to see the representatives of ‘our’ Kherson region. On the way back we got lost, but eventually found our way. The day ended with nice housewarming party organized by one of other interns, which was taken further into some club, which happened after I already went home.
Sunday, I finally decided to cook a big meal that could be consumed for the duration of the coming week. My expectations did not materialize. Indeed I cooked mushrooms with sour cream, potatoes and meat. Have you seen that some people have sixth sense when it comes to food? Like the minute you cook something you have guests? I had three people in my house by the time I finished cooking. They came independently of each other and without prior announcement. At least I am happy that I have not totally lost my culinary abilities, since they really liked my mushrooms. (They are all still alive as well).
Cooking is also a nice way to increase a temperature in the apartment. We already had snow here. The temperature is around plus 5 right now. The central heating was suppose to start last week. I’ve been told it did. I also found out that the water distribution in the heating system of my house goes from top to bottom, meaning the hot water first goes to the top floor and then flows down the pipes. Unfortunately, by the time it get to my third floor, it is lukewarm. So, unless they radically increase the temperature of that water, I am facing rather grim prospect of very cold winter outside and inside of my apartment. On a positive note, I am getting a second heater, the cost of which will be discounted from my rent.
The two big upcoming events are a marketing training, where my organization is sending me, and the trip to Uman’, which I am organizing together with one of my Ukrainian friends. Both of these events will come in the next installment of “The Ukrainian Saga”.
I am very happy that you all appreciate my part organizing skill’s in London. I’d wish I was there to organize our post graduation party. I am actually thinking about coming to London, but it is still just a thought.
I have included few people in this mailing list who were not here before. Please, let me know if you don’t want to receive “My Adventure in Ukraine”.
Take care,
Lidia
©Lidia Bhaskar, 2003