He's Back
I have officially returned from Kiev and finished one day of lessons at school (only 33 more days, but who's counting . . .). It was a great Easter break, a chance to recharge myself for the final home stretch of school. A quick recap:
The ride to Kiev last Monday was harmless – 18 dollars and only 8.5 hours on a bus, surprisingly do-able. We even went through the break-away region of Transnestria that is supposed to be dangerous but turned out to be amazingly painless; an 9 lei (40 cents) transit fee, four passport checks which involved nothing more than a guard stopping the bus, checking all the passports, and letting us off. At the Ukrainian border we had to get off and show our bags to two control officers, but being Americans they basically let us off easy. Actually, just getting to the Ukrainian side of the border took 2.5 hours of the time, odd because its only 100 miles. Once we hit Ukraine we all stopped to use the bathroom and we then took off for Kiev, not stopping once and rolling into the bus station at 5:30 in the morning. (This is a far cry from the return trip, when we were on the bus for twelve hours do to excessive amounts of stopping and time spent at the border. The distance between Chisinau and Kiev is about 300 miles, meaning that we averaged 25 miles an hour. It was a torturous, made worse by the fact that the guy in front of me put his seat way back, jamming me in).
Wanting to wait for sunlight, we started at 7:30 to walk to our hotel in the direction of the center of the city, directed there by a map in our Lonely Planet guide book. However, do to some mis-reading by me what we thought would be 30 minutes quickly escalated into 3 hours, all on foot with a vague map to guide us.
Having found the hotel, we spent our three days basically walking through the center of the city, checking out all the sights. Highlights:
- We made a beeline for the center of Kiev where all the protests over the governmental struggle are happening, and I can say with confidence that it's as peaceful of a protest as can possible – any talk of potential violence is merely hyperbole. Basically, all of the three factions are in a large square mixed together – all their flags are intertwined – and people just listen to speakers on a large stage. Speakers from one faction will stand up, give a speech, then sit down to applause from everyone. Then a speaker from another faction will give another speech, and again sit down to applause from anyone There's not so much as a 'boo' heard. In a way, it can be described as “social disobedience” without the “disobedience.”
- We ate at TGI Fridays, quite possibly the best 20 dollars that could be possibly spent (with one exception – see next). It was like a restaurant in America that was simply reconstructed in the center of Kiev – all the waitresses spoke English, as did half the patrons there.
- We also went to the ballet – without a doubt, it was the best 4 dollars we spent the whole time. We were debating between the ballet and the theater, but we figured that the ballet would be without words so it would be a more pleasant experience for everyone. As it was my first ballet experience, it was especially stunning for me.
- All of the volunteers who had been to Kiev told us that we needed to go to the Chernobyl Museum, which we decided to save for our last night. Unfortunately, we had no real idea where it was, as our book was old and the museum had changed locations. I though I had a vague idea of where it was so I led us to the appropriate neighborhood but after walking for a half hour with no luck (and after asking 4 people on the street, including 2 cops, where the museum was was, with no-one having an idea), we decided to just hail a cab, where I simply asked the driver if he knew where the museum was and how much it would cost to get there (5 dollars).
The museum was split into two parts, one about the disaster itself and what happened then and the other about the impact of the blast on the communities in the area, which was really powerful. The hole experience, actually, was amazing.
- For one of our evening we spent a few hours in the company of a woman – and her husband - who I was introduced to by my uncle, who used to work in Kiev often. She is an assistant to the Minister of Energy, and both her and husband were very kind in taking time out to walk us around, showing us various sites and landmarks. Turns out, her parents are in the diplomatic corps, having served both in the UN as well as the Ukrainian ambassadors to a number of nations including Belgium, Holland, and The United States, a revelation which certainly left us guests in awe of the host.
- Not to sound my own horn here, but it was great for my friends to travel with a person who spoke Russian (which turned out to be the more prominent language of Kiev, heard there much more than Ukrainian). While they would have been fine without me, it just made life easier. In most of the service industries people spoke English but they were far more comfortable speaking Russian (like at the hotel, where the woman greeted us in English, I responded in Russian, and we commenced to do the whole transaction in Russian). And at night the only thing open for water or food were little kiosks on the street, where with English it would have been tough to do anything but was a breeze with Russian.
- It was a very interesting experience to go from Chisinau to Kiev and back and to subsequently compare the two cities. In short, Kiev is what Chisinau could become in 20, 30 years time, with the biggest difference between the cities being the presence (and lack) of money. This is present not only in the types of cars and clothes that are seen but also in things like the shops lining the roads, the reasons being 1) History, as Kiev was the first capital of Russia and is over 1500 years old, and 2) Connections between Russia and Europe, as the political situation in Belarus (the logical choice) necessitates that most of the money go through Kiev, an influx of Westerners, and some of the advantages that comes with.
As a result, the people there are just different. The main example of this could be seen in the service sector, as people not only help you but are actually willing to do so and seem happy to be, a far cry from the common experience in Chisinau, where people are thrilled take money but seldom do so with more than a minimum amount of effort. The reason for this, I realized while talking to my Dad on Sunday night, revolves again around money.
In Kiev, there are a lot of restaurants and a lot of shops and a lot of people with enough money to spend at such restaurants and shops. As a result, people actually have to make an effort to please the customer, because if the customer doesn't have a good experience he/she can simply take his business elsewhere, at a loss to the establishment. It creates a different mentality in the minds of the attendant. In Chisinau, however, the lack of money means a lack of choices in places like restaurants and shops, meaning that the quality of service can be fairly low, the experience for the consumer less than ideal, but because of the lack of choices, the customer really doesn't have the ability to take their business elsewhere because there are no options.
Notes:
- Easter, the biggest holiday of the Eastern Church Calender, has come and gone here. The first Easter, on the 8th, was interesting. We all went to my host grandma's house at 9:00 in the morning for a big feast that broke the strict fast of Holy Week, the relaxed all day before going to a dance at night (which I left at 1:00 because of my early wake-up call the next day but which featured a massive brawl about 3:00 AM). The Saturday night before, too, I was told about a big event that was a fire on a hill near the village where they would burn tires and drink wine. Expecting much, I went and was met by one of the most over-hyped event's I've had here, as there was simply a small fire to which, when it shrunk enough, was added a small tire. Amazingly boring.
Then on Monday of this week was the day I was most looking forward – Easter in the cemetery, when people bring food and wine to the cemetery to memorialize the dead. I had actually heard about this a year ago from a blog I was reading at the time, and I was really excited about it. So on Monday morning I woke up early, got all ready, and stated to wait while the others were preparing themselves. But around noon my host mom came in and said, “Andy, were going to the cemetery,” which got me excited, only to follow it with, “But you'll stay here.” That was shocking – it was without explanation too (my theory – because the host father had been dead under a year, they wanted it to be a private thing, which I totally understand).
Maybe next year.
- Finally, we are told as Peace Corps volunteers that the quality of medical care in the villages is less that adequate and that, barring an emergency, we should get to Chisinau for our medical care.
I saw this medical 'care' first-hand on Friday when I returned from Kiev to the village. I was sitting and eating dinner when my host aunt came in and told me excitedly that I needed to go outside to help and that 'something happened.' I walked outside to see a group of people huddled around my host brother, who had fallen from a horse on his head and had thrown-up – he was huddled in a fetal position. The 'doctor' from the village came and her first reaction was to give him a shot and then, while my host mom was, through tears, saying that they needed to get to a hospital right away. The 'doctor', on the other hand, was saying that we should wait. It was stunning to watch, and if I knew how to translate “blunt force trauma to the head” I would have spoken up.
Host brother, it should be noted, is OK – he was in the hospital for 3 days but returned home yesterday, a little shaken and with a heck of a black eye, but generally ok.
The ride to Kiev last Monday was harmless – 18 dollars and only 8.5 hours on a bus, surprisingly do-able. We even went through the break-away region of Transnestria that is supposed to be dangerous but turned out to be amazingly painless; an 9 lei (40 cents) transit fee, four passport checks which involved nothing more than a guard stopping the bus, checking all the passports, and letting us off. At the Ukrainian border we had to get off and show our bags to two control officers, but being Americans they basically let us off easy. Actually, just getting to the Ukrainian side of the border took 2.5 hours of the time, odd because its only 100 miles. Once we hit Ukraine we all stopped to use the bathroom and we then took off for Kiev, not stopping once and rolling into the bus station at 5:30 in the morning. (This is a far cry from the return trip, when we were on the bus for twelve hours do to excessive amounts of stopping and time spent at the border. The distance between Chisinau and Kiev is about 300 miles, meaning that we averaged 25 miles an hour. It was a torturous, made worse by the fact that the guy in front of me put his seat way back, jamming me in).
Wanting to wait for sunlight, we started at 7:30 to walk to our hotel in the direction of the center of the city, directed there by a map in our Lonely Planet guide book. However, do to some mis-reading by me what we thought would be 30 minutes quickly escalated into 3 hours, all on foot with a vague map to guide us.
Having found the hotel, we spent our three days basically walking through the center of the city, checking out all the sights. Highlights:
- We made a beeline for the center of Kiev where all the protests over the governmental struggle are happening, and I can say with confidence that it's as peaceful of a protest as can possible – any talk of potential violence is merely hyperbole. Basically, all of the three factions are in a large square mixed together – all their flags are intertwined – and people just listen to speakers on a large stage. Speakers from one faction will stand up, give a speech, then sit down to applause from everyone. Then a speaker from another faction will give another speech, and again sit down to applause from anyone There's not so much as a 'boo' heard. In a way, it can be described as “social disobedience” without the “disobedience.”
- We ate at TGI Fridays, quite possibly the best 20 dollars that could be possibly spent (with one exception – see next). It was like a restaurant in America that was simply reconstructed in the center of Kiev – all the waitresses spoke English, as did half the patrons there.
- We also went to the ballet – without a doubt, it was the best 4 dollars we spent the whole time. We were debating between the ballet and the theater, but we figured that the ballet would be without words so it would be a more pleasant experience for everyone. As it was my first ballet experience, it was especially stunning for me.
- All of the volunteers who had been to Kiev told us that we needed to go to the Chernobyl Museum, which we decided to save for our last night. Unfortunately, we had no real idea where it was, as our book was old and the museum had changed locations. I though I had a vague idea of where it was so I led us to the appropriate neighborhood but after walking for a half hour with no luck (and after asking 4 people on the street, including 2 cops, where the museum was was, with no-one having an idea), we decided to just hail a cab, where I simply asked the driver if he knew where the museum was and how much it would cost to get there (5 dollars).
The museum was split into two parts, one about the disaster itself and what happened then and the other about the impact of the blast on the communities in the area, which was really powerful. The hole experience, actually, was amazing.
- For one of our evening we spent a few hours in the company of a woman – and her husband - who I was introduced to by my uncle, who used to work in Kiev often. She is an assistant to the Minister of Energy, and both her and husband were very kind in taking time out to walk us around, showing us various sites and landmarks. Turns out, her parents are in the diplomatic corps, having served both in the UN as well as the Ukrainian ambassadors to a number of nations including Belgium, Holland, and The United States, a revelation which certainly left us guests in awe of the host.
- Not to sound my own horn here, but it was great for my friends to travel with a person who spoke Russian (which turned out to be the more prominent language of Kiev, heard there much more than Ukrainian). While they would have been fine without me, it just made life easier. In most of the service industries people spoke English but they were far more comfortable speaking Russian (like at the hotel, where the woman greeted us in English, I responded in Russian, and we commenced to do the whole transaction in Russian). And at night the only thing open for water or food were little kiosks on the street, where with English it would have been tough to do anything but was a breeze with Russian.
- It was a very interesting experience to go from Chisinau to Kiev and back and to subsequently compare the two cities. In short, Kiev is what Chisinau could become in 20, 30 years time, with the biggest difference between the cities being the presence (and lack) of money. This is present not only in the types of cars and clothes that are seen but also in things like the shops lining the roads, the reasons being 1) History, as Kiev was the first capital of Russia and is over 1500 years old, and 2) Connections between Russia and Europe, as the political situation in Belarus (the logical choice) necessitates that most of the money go through Kiev, an influx of Westerners, and some of the advantages that comes with.
As a result, the people there are just different. The main example of this could be seen in the service sector, as people not only help you but are actually willing to do so and seem happy to be, a far cry from the common experience in Chisinau, where people are thrilled take money but seldom do so with more than a minimum amount of effort. The reason for this, I realized while talking to my Dad on Sunday night, revolves again around money.
In Kiev, there are a lot of restaurants and a lot of shops and a lot of people with enough money to spend at such restaurants and shops. As a result, people actually have to make an effort to please the customer, because if the customer doesn't have a good experience he/she can simply take his business elsewhere, at a loss to the establishment. It creates a different mentality in the minds of the attendant. In Chisinau, however, the lack of money means a lack of choices in places like restaurants and shops, meaning that the quality of service can be fairly low, the experience for the consumer less than ideal, but because of the lack of choices, the customer really doesn't have the ability to take their business elsewhere because there are no options.
Notes:
- Easter, the biggest holiday of the Eastern Church Calender, has come and gone here. The first Easter, on the 8th, was interesting. We all went to my host grandma's house at 9:00 in the morning for a big feast that broke the strict fast of Holy Week, the relaxed all day before going to a dance at night (which I left at 1:00 because of my early wake-up call the next day but which featured a massive brawl about 3:00 AM). The Saturday night before, too, I was told about a big event that was a fire on a hill near the village where they would burn tires and drink wine. Expecting much, I went and was met by one of the most over-hyped event's I've had here, as there was simply a small fire to which, when it shrunk enough, was added a small tire. Amazingly boring.
Then on Monday of this week was the day I was most looking forward – Easter in the cemetery, when people bring food and wine to the cemetery to memorialize the dead. I had actually heard about this a year ago from a blog I was reading at the time, and I was really excited about it. So on Monday morning I woke up early, got all ready, and stated to wait while the others were preparing themselves. But around noon my host mom came in and said, “Andy, were going to the cemetery,” which got me excited, only to follow it with, “But you'll stay here.” That was shocking – it was without explanation too (my theory – because the host father had been dead under a year, they wanted it to be a private thing, which I totally understand).
Maybe next year.
- Finally, we are told as Peace Corps volunteers that the quality of medical care in the villages is less that adequate and that, barring an emergency, we should get to Chisinau for our medical care.
I saw this medical 'care' first-hand on Friday when I returned from Kiev to the village. I was sitting and eating dinner when my host aunt came in and told me excitedly that I needed to go outside to help and that 'something happened.' I walked outside to see a group of people huddled around my host brother, who had fallen from a horse on his head and had thrown-up – he was huddled in a fetal position. The 'doctor' from the village came and her first reaction was to give him a shot and then, while my host mom was, through tears, saying that they needed to get to a hospital right away. The 'doctor', on the other hand, was saying that we should wait. It was stunning to watch, and if I knew how to translate “blunt force trauma to the head” I would have spoken up.
Host brother, it should be noted, is OK – he was in the hospital for 3 days but returned home yesterday, a little shaken and with a heck of a black eye, but generally ok.
posted by Andy Buchanan at 7:50 AM
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