I sit in my apartment, alone, at my kitchen table. It is Friday evening. It is pitch black outside as the darkness comes a few minutes earlier every night this time of year. As I leave work at 5:00 every afternoon it is already dark enough that I need to carry a flashlight with me, since there are no streetlights on my walk home. I could probably let my eyes adjust to the low light and make it, but frankly, the quality of the roads and paths on my route are not good enough for me to risk twisting an ankle or worse should I misstep. I choose to walk on the side of caution to see in the dark what I know is there in the light. In fact there is one street that I cross on my way to and from work that has a pothole so big near the crossing, that if people are waiting to cross and see a car coming (even at higher speeds) they know that the driver will have to slow to barely more than a crawl to get over it without major undercarriage damage and they proceed as if to step in front of a moving vehicle. The scenario plays out the same every morning. The weather has been starting to turn, cooler every day and colder every night. Living in the south of the country and only 8km from the Black Sea coast, we are supposed to have relatively milder winters than the rest of the country. I mean, some volunteers are already remarking of subzero temps (-10 in Lugansk today) and slippery conditions. I am not sure I have heard anyone here complain yet of snow, but I am sure it is just a matter of time, even here in Crimea. I have seen frost in the morning, but that is as bad as it has gotten for me so far. I’ll take it, since I hear that parts of New York and the northeast got hit with some heavy weather about a week ago (although it would be ironic if I came to Ukraine for better weather than home!)
We are into November now and people are starting to make holiday plans, including me. One of my clustermates, Patrick, lives and works in a larger city (about 1 million) called Dnipropetrovsk which is about 8 hours by bus/train from me. About a month ago he invited several of us to his place for Thanksgiving. Not actually sure if there is going to be a turkey or other classic dinner components, but having limited my intra-country travel in comparison to some of the other volunteers, I figured this would be a good time to break the streak and make the journey. With some of the people who have committed to go, it promises to be a good time. I will have to use some annual vacation time for the trip, but it can’t not be worth it. I got my train tickets yesterday and gave our director a heads up on the time off- more as a courtesy since I am sure she could care less if I am at the office or not.
Tomorrow I am going to join Erin in heading to the city of Lenino, near the city of Kerch. There are three volunteers there who are ending their service in the next week and they are having a “giving away our things party”. Erin knows them and I am just tagging along. Not sure who is going to be there, but it will be an opportunity for me to visit a new city and maybe score some new kitchen utensils. I’m bringing a big duffel just in case.
I have some potentially interesting projects on the horizon. First, December 1 is world AIDS Awareness Day and the library is sponsoring a couple of programs in conjunction with the Department of Education to make some presentations in the school- this time including the village schools which we don’t usually see. Also, I think I may have committed to giving an HIV/AIDS presentation on my own at the end of this month at the library- that will be interesting if I am to give a presentation without the constraints of the teachers in the school who forbid me from discussing condoms in our presentations at the school. Next, I am not sure what is going to become of this, but I was contacted by one of the Safety & Security directors at Peace Corps about the idea of training the local police department in English- in preparation of the Euro2012 Tournament. I didn’t really see any way (or reason) to say no, so I took the resources and am waiting for a call from the department who I admittedly did not have the greatest of introductions to. Maybe this could be a turning point, which would be good. Lastly, I have applied for a committee position with Peace Corps. I don’t know that I will get the job, so more on that if I do get accepted…but, let me just say that if I get the job, it could be very beneficial to my host organization. I won’t know until after November 18 if I have been accepted for the position. I am hopeful though.
Erin and I have just returned from our weekend of travel. I mean, the party was really fun and I am certainly glad I went, but the impracticality of long distance travel in this country is just mind numbing. Forget the language hurdles when asking the people at the train station for schedules of connecting buses and trains, but just the sheer amount of time it takes to travel between cities and towns just underscores why I don’t do it more often. Erin and I met yesterday morning at 8:25am. From there we walked to the bus station to get our tickets for the trip. The first thing we needed to do was get our bus tickets for Djankoi to Lenino. While we are in the bus station, as normal, taxi drivers come in looking to pick up a fare instead of deadheading back to where they are based. Mind you, some of these towns are far, but if they find themselves up in our town, it is obviously better to get a return fare even if just to cover the gas. So, if you go to the bus station and ask for a taxi to Djankoi, it will run you about 200 UAH, but if the driver is already there, he will do it for much less. One driver comes in and tells us “30 UAH to Djankoi”. Now I am a little confused. Does he mean 30 each, or 30 for the two of us who are together? The bus that we could buy a ticket on costs 27 UAH each. I try to confirm that this rate is for both of us together, but every time I ask “how much?” the driver keeps giving us the hurry up sign grabbing our bags to get them stowed and us on the road. As we ride along, I discuss with Erin what her thoughts are on this matter. Are we committed for 30 or 60? I say 30, she says 60. I say that if we took the bus it would have been 54, so anything less will be a deal and anything more will be unacceptable. After 1 ½ hours we arrive in Djankoi and she pays the driver 30. He then looks at me, so now I know he expects that I will pay 30 as well. I explain that I thought it was 30 for both and that I am not willing to pay him more than the bus would have cost us. I pay him 20 more for a total of 50. He did not put up a fight and accepted the money as a sort of compromise. (in this country I have never paid for a taxi based on the number of passengers, only ever by the car load. As many as you can fit in the car ride for the same price). We arrive in Djankoi around 10am and now have 2 hours to kill before our 4 ½ hour bus ride to Lenino that leaves at 12:15. Since leaving my apartment at 8:15 this morning, we arrive in Lenino a little over 8 hours later. Getting to Alisha’s apartment just before dinner we are actually the first guests to arrive. The others are staggered over the next hour and by 7:00 9 of us are sitting to a feast put on by our hosts Alisha and Jessica who are trying to cook up everything in their cupboards and fridge. This made for a fun potpourri of dishes. A lot of Mexican food (enchiladas, taco salad, and salsa), chili, fettuccini Alfredo, mashed potatoes, individual apple pies and cornbread, plus more. It was really quite a meal and everyone loved the preparations. As soon as dinner was done we started the free-for-all. Of the 9 of us, 3 are ending their service and were there to give stuff away, while 6 of us waited auction style for items to go “on the block” and we would just give an indication if it was an item we were interested in getting or not. If two or more wanted the same thing, we would make a quick argument for how badly we wanted it and the thing would go to the one who wanted it most. There was plenty of stuff to go around and everyone got something. Some had come looking for clothes, others kitchen stuff, others wanted the element of surprise and spur of the moment decisions of whether this thing you didn’t know about was something you needed. Everyone came with backpacks and they all left full. Everyone happy, but I must admit that I think I actually made out the best of everyone. Among many little things like cups or school supplies or a small box of nutmeg, I scored a vacuum cleaner, a 3G wireless modem, and an unlocked cell phone. Anyway, our hosts were awesome and made a fun night of it, happy to know that their belongings were going to be enjoyed by some new owner- just as they had inherited so much from previous volunteers at the beginning of their service. We all slept on the floor in sleeping bags at Alisha’s apartment, which, unfortunately, did not have any water for the entire time we were there. Nonetheless, conservation of the water that was in the apartment was key and we made it through. Erin and I left to catch a 10:55am bus to Simferopol. Waited for 30 minutes then got on the bus, pulling into Simferopol at 1:30. Then had to sit and wait 1½ hours for our connecting bus to Razdol’noye which was another 4 hour ride. We arrived home at 7:30pm to start unpacking and inspecting our winning items. It just sucks that we spent 17 hours traveling (or waiting to travel) to visit with people for just a couple of hours. In retrospect, again, I am glad I went, but will try to incorporate more substantial visiting time when possible, add on a Friday or a Sunday to my travel plans when possible, and attend as many “giving away our stuff” parties I can before I have my own.
Well, my central heat has just been turned off for the night, so before I find myself sitting in the cold, I will end here.
Erin and I have just returned from our weekend of travel. I mean, the party was really fun and I am certainly glad I went, but the impracticality of long distance travel in this country is just mind numbing. Forget the language hurdles when asking the people at the train station for schedules of connecting buses and trains, but just the sheer amount of time it takes to travel between cities and towns just underscores why I don’t do it more often. Erin and I met yesterday morning at 8:25am. From there we walked to the bus station to get our tickets for the trip. The first thing we needed to do was get our bus tickets for Djankoi to Lenino. While we are in the bus station, as normal, taxi drivers come in looking to pick up a fare instead of deadheading back to where they are based. Mind you, some of these towns are far, but if they find themselves up in our town, it is obviously better to get a return fare even if just to cover the gas. So, if you go to the bus station and ask for a taxi to Djankoi, it will run you about 200 UAH, but if the driver is already there, he will do it for much less. One driver comes in and tells us “30 UAH to Djankoi”. Now I am a little confused. Does he mean 30 each, or 30 for the two of us who are together? The bus that we could buy a ticket on costs 27 UAH each. I try to confirm that this rate is for both of us together, but every time I ask “how much?” the driver keeps giving us the hurry up sign grabbing our bags to get them stowed and us on the road. As we ride along, I discuss with Erin what her thoughts are on this matter. Are we committed for 30 or 60? I say 30, she says 60. I say that if we took the bus it would have been 54, so anything less will be a deal and anything more will be unacceptable. After 1 ½ hours we arrive in Djankoi and she pays the driver 30. He then looks at me, so now I know he expects that I will pay 30 as well. I explain that I thought it was 30 for both and that I am not willing to pay him more than the bus would have cost us. I pay him 20 more for a total of 50. He did not put up a fight and accepted the money as a sort of compromise. (in this country I have never paid for a taxi based on the number of passengers, only ever by the car load. As many as you can fit in the car ride for the same price). We arrive in Djankoi around 10am and now have 2 hours to kill before our 4 ½ hour bus ride to Lenino that leaves at 12:15. Since leaving my apartment at 8:15 this morning, we arrive in Lenino a little over 8 hours later. Getting to Alisha’s apartment just before dinner we are actually the first guests to arrive. The others are staggered over the next hour and by 7:00 9 of us are sitting to a feast put on by our hosts Alisha and Jessica who are trying to cook up everything in their cupboards and fridge. This made for a fun potpourri of dishes. A lot of Mexican food (enchiladas, taco salad, and salsa), chili, fettuccini Alfredo, mashed potatoes, individual apple pies and cornbread, plus more. It was really quite a meal and everyone loved the preparations. As soon as dinner was done we started the free-for-all. Of the 9 of us, 3 are ending their service and were there to give stuff away, while 6 of us waited auction style for items to go “on the block” and we would just give an indication if it was an item we were interested in getting or not. If two or more wanted the same thing, we would make a quick argument for how badly we wanted it and the thing would go to the one who wanted it most. There was plenty of stuff to go around and everyone got something. Some had come looking for clothes, others kitchen stuff, others wanted the element of surprise and spur of the moment decisions of whether this thing you didn’t know about was something you needed. Everyone came with backpacks and they all left full. Everyone happy, but I must admit that I think I actually made out the best of everyone. Among many little things like cups or school supplies or a small box of nutmeg, I scored a vacuum cleaner, a 3G wireless modem, and an unlocked cell phone. Anyway, our hosts were awesome and made a fun night of it, happy to know that their belongings were going to be enjoyed by some new owner- just as they had inherited so much from previous volunteers at the beginning of their service. We all slept on the floor in sleeping bags at Alisha’s apartment, which, unfortunately, did not have any water for the entire time we were there. Nonetheless, conservation of the water that was in the apartment was key and we made it through. Erin and I left to catch a 10:55am bus to Simferopol. Waited for 30 minutes then got on the bus, pulling into Simferopol at 1:30. Then had to sit and wait 1½ hours for our connecting bus to Razdol’noye which was another 4 hour ride. We arrived home at 7:30pm to start unpacking and inspecting our winning items. It just sucks that we spent 17 hours traveling (or waiting to travel) to visit with people for just a couple of hours. In retrospect, again, I am glad I went, but will try to incorporate more substantial visiting time when possible, add on a Friday or a Sunday to my travel plans when possible, and attend as many “giving away our stuff” parties I can before I have my own.
Well, my central heat has just been turned off for the night, so before I find myself sitting in the cold, I will end here.
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