Ukraine From A Different Perspective

Flat Stanley has been on quite a whirlwind vacation these past couple of weeks. During this time he traveled to some of the most interesting and beautiful parts of the country of Ukraine. Just to give some basic information, Ukraine was part of the USSR and declared its independence in 1991. Pronounced by the people who live here, OO-KRAY-EE-NA, is roughly the size of the state of Texas and is home to about 46 million people. The country has 24 oblasts (like states) and 1 Autonomous Republic called Crimea. It is NOT called “the Ukraine” since Ukraine is an independent country and not a region. Interestingly enough, the Russian language that is spoken by many people here (although Ukrainian is the official language) does not have a translation for the word “the”, so you couldn’t even say “the Ukraine” here.
There are many countries in the world where, even though English is not an official language, English is widely spoken. Stanley now realizes that Ukraine is NOT one of those countries, and finds it very challenging to travel in this country since his Russian is not great, but it is improving a little bit every day. Having lived most of his life in the state of New York he has met many people who are living there and trying to learn English. He never knew how difficult it was for those people to be surrounded by native speakers who they cannot understand until he became the person who was surrounded by people who only speak a foreign language. Some people find Stanley's accent difficult to understand, but with a little bit of patience and effort on both sides, communication is possible.

This winter was especially cold in Ukraine with temperatures and wind chills getting down to life threatening levels (-20’s and colder...that's minus 20 and colder!). As the weather starts to turn a little warmer (only in the +40’s) Stanley thinks it is time to take a vacation. First stop, the Black Sea on the southern coast of Ukraine. Most of southern Ukraine is bordered by either the Black Sea or the Sea of Azov and since Stanley is near the city of Sevastopol, he is visiting the Black Sea side. The weather was so cold this winter that for the first time in 30 years the Black Sea froze! The ice has since melted, but the water is still very cold. Some of the people he was traveling with wanted to take a quick swim in the sea, but since Stanley forgot his swim suit, he decided he was just happy to stand out on the pier that lays into the water from the beach and wave to the others.

The dip in the sea did not take long and before long he was on a bus to the center of the city. Some cities have subways or metros, but most rely on bus or tram systems. The buses cost between 12 cents to 40 cents (in US money) depending on how far the ride is (and which city you are in). Once he gets to the center of Sevastopol he heads down to the harbor. During the summer months this area will be full of people vacationing in this beautiful city. But since there aren’t that many people here today, it is easy for him to get around and see the things he wants to see. The city, pronounced SEV-ES-TOE-PULL has around 350,000 people in it and because it is on the water, it is home to Ukraine’s and Russia’s Navy. Until 1997, Sevastopol was called a “closed city” because only military personnel and their families had access to the city without permit. Today, it is open to everyone and there are no special permits required. Stanley thinks that the city is very beautiful, making it an attractive destination.

While walking past one of the city’s outdoor museums, Stanley decides to stop and check out a real tank, thankfully, today only used to remind us of military might instead of demonstrating it! This is just one of the many museums and sites you can see in this city. Because of Sevastopol’s military history, several of the museums and monuments around the city have to do with war and the people that were involved in famous battles on the side of Russia or Ukraine. One of the more interesting museums near Sevastopol is in a town called Balaklava which is a place where they built a submarine factory and repair place into the side of a mountain that rose from the Black Sea so that submarines could drive in and out without having to come to the surface and be watched by spy satellites. A few years ago an American could not get anywhere close to a Soviet naval base, but today he can tour the museum! So many positive changes have occurred in our lifetime and Stanley hopes for continued improvement in the relationship between our two countries. 

During a full day of touring around, Stanley makes it to another area of Sevastopol called Khersoness. Khersoness is the ruins of a Greek city that lies on the water. Being St. Patrick’s Day, Stanley met several other Peace Corps Volunteers to celebrate. Today, the country of Ukraine has more Peace Corps Volunteers than any other country in the world with about 450. The Peace Corps was developed by the order of President John F. Kennedy in 1961. After a long application and interview process any person older than 18 can be invited to join the Peace Corps. The Peace Corps currently operates in 75 countries around the world and the volunteer can be asked to serve in any one of them. All of their expenses for travel, food, and living are paid for by the US government, but other than that, the volunteer does not get paid. The volunteers are given a training course on the local language and customs, but most of the learning comes from living in the community that they are assigned to. This can be very difficult sometimes, but Stanley finds that most people are interested in what he is doing, since many people in Ukraine have never even met an American in their life! Stanley likes spending time with other volunteers from time to time, but prefers to spend his free time with the people in the town he lives in. Volunteers come from all areas of the US, all have different backgrounds, and though many are just out of college, the average age is 28. In this photo there is an accountant, a physicist, an international economist, a museum curator, an administrator for the City of Las Vegas, a human rights activist, a professional baseball player…and of course, a Returns Department manager at Trans World! 

After visiting his friends in Sevastopol, Stanley gets on a train. Most people do not own a car and traveling by airplane is very expensive, so he, like most Ukrainians, travels by overnight train. Stanley has a meeting in the capital of Ukraine called Kiev (can be pronounced as 2 syllables KEY-EV, but those who want to sound smart pronounce it as the Ukrainians do and call it 1 syllable KEEVE). The train between Sevastopol and Kiev is 15 hours! Everyone on the train is assigned a bed instead of a seat and you get a set of sheets, a pillowcase, and a face towel included in the price of the ticket. The train costs about 15 US dollars (one way) for the trip. Stanley finds it difficult to sleep on trains since they are either too hot or too cold, but luckily he does not need to make the trip too often. As he got into Kiev, he passed by the new stadium. The reason this is important is that Kiev is a host city for the upcoming Euro 2012 competition. As Stanley found out early on, many Ukrainians do not know baseball or football or basketball. They are all about the soccer here. Stanley remembers a couple of years ago when the USA played in the World Cup of Soccer (in fact he knows that the USA even hosted the World Cup in 1994), so he knows how popular the sport is around the world. In June, Ukraine and Poland will co-host what is called the Euro 2012 which is a soccer competition only involving the countries of Europe. There are 4 host cities in Ukraine and 4 host cities in Poland, with this stadium in Kiev hosting the final match. There is a tremendous amount of excitement about this here, as Ukraine hopes the rest of the world will see what kind of a place it would be to visit. Stanley wonders if they will be ready in time!

Hungry after the long train ride and walk to the stadium from the station, Stanley needs to eat breakfast. He misses and thinks of home a lot and goes to find a place he heard about that will surely remind him of home. The languages used and spoken in Ukraine use what is called a Cyrillic alphabet. There are 33 letters whereas the alphabet used for English only has 26 letters. The language has what we call “old friends”, “new friends”, and “false friends”. “Old friends” are letters that look and sound the same in both English and Russian. Examples are К sounds like a K, М like and M, and Т like a T). “False friends” are letters that look the same, but have a different sound. These can be very tricky when reading. For example, В sounds like our V, Р sounds like our R, and Н sounds like our N. Lastly, “new friends” are letters you have maybe never seen before, but have sounds you know. Examples are Ч sounds like “CH”, Ц sounds like “TS”, И sounds like a short I,  Ж like “ZH”, and  Ю like “YOO”.
People have told him that this restaurant will remind him of home, but he is not sure why. He is given an address and told that when he finds it he will know why is will remind him of home. He finds it very easy to walk around in this capital city and also finds that he can buy many things he is used to in America that aren’t necessarily easy to find in many other cities in Ukraine. As he turns the corner he finds the address and reads the sign and instantly knows why people told him it would remind him of home. The restaurant is called КАФЕ НЫО-ЙОРК БЕЙГЛ. He sounds it out and reads:
КА = ka
ФЕ = fay

НЫО = nyoo

ЙО = eeo
РК = rk

БЕЙ = bay
ГЛ = gle

He goes in and gets one with veggie cream cheese and realizes that the people who sent him here were 100% right when they said it would remind him of home!

After breakfast, Stanley starts touring around Kiev for the day. There is so much to see and do in this city and if the weather is good, it is fun to just walk without a destination in mind. On this day it is a little cold, so he uses his maps to find his way around. This monument in the background that looks like a large, white candle is a memorial to the victims of the Great Famine of 1932-33 when the government of the Soviet Union declared that ALL food was to be the property of the government and that possessing any food was evidence of a crime. During this time an estimated 2-7 million people died of starvation. It is very sad to hear of such bad situations, but the reality is that even in the world today there are governments who do not treat their people humanely and lives are lost every day to wars, genocide, and other political turmoil. Growing up in the United States it is very difficult to understand the extent of human rights violations around the world and not being aware of these problems does not mean they don’t exist. People can learn more by visiting www.amnestyinternational.com.

Where’s Stanley? Well, he is actually in the photographer’s pocket. During his day of touring around he went to the offices where the President of Ukraine works. The President does not live here, these are only his offices. While Stanley was posing for the photo to show that he had actually visited the offices of the President (named Victor Yanakovich), a police officer came running over to tell Stanley that he could not have his photo taken in front of the office. Stanley explained as best he could that he was excited to be at the President’s office and that the people in America wanted to see pictures with him. Unfortunately, the police officer did not think this was a good idea and demanded to search the previous photos on the camera to be sure none had been taken. Stanley complied and there was no further problem. He learned a lesson that when people see something they do not understand they can be afraid of it. He is sure that if the policeman fully understood what he was doing, the policeman might even have jumped in the photo with him! [The sign reads: President of Ukraine] 

After Kiev, it was time for Stanley to move on. This time a 10 hour train ride to the southern port city of Odessa [OH-DESS-AH]. Odessa is the largest port city in the country of Ukraine, and like Sevastopol, lies on the Black Sea. Still groggy from the long train ride, Stanley jumps into a photo of the Odessa train station. Odessa is considered a beautiful city by many Ukrainians and it is said to have one of the world’s most beautiful opera houses. The nice thing about Odessa, Stanley finds, is that even though it is a fairly large city (Ukraine’s 3^rd largest), most of the interesting museums, architecture, monuments and points of interest are near the center of the city, making it easy to see many things with minimal effort. Stanley has been practicing his Russian, which is still predominantly spoken in many large cities. Ukrainian is the official language and even though most Ukrainians know one and understand the other, this is NOT so for Stanley. It is hard enough for him just to function in Russian. Ukrainian is still a foreign language to him. After arriving in Odessa, he decides to get some sleep before taking on the sights.

This is one of the most famous landmarks in Ukraine, and probably Europe. They are called the Potemkin Steps and they are something that Odessa is very proud of. They were designed in the 1830’s by an Italian architect to give the optical illusion that the stairs went up to form a pyramid. He did this by making the steps at the bottom 7 meters wider than the stairs at the top. There used to be 200 steps, but the bottom eight were cut off when they built the road at the foot. Sadly the view that standing on the steps once provided of a majestic port with lighthouses, now faces a series of freight cranes and a modern hotel. The view up is still kind of interesting though.

Just like the New York Bagel Café in Kiev, every once in a while Stanley gets hungry for a taste of home.Unfortunately, he could not find a New York Bagel Café in Odessa. He did pass by a very recognizable sign and decided to get his photo snapped here, but was able to hold off going in to get food. Some of the work that he does is to talk to kids in Ukraine about healthy lifestyles and making good food choices that will lead to longer and healthier lives. Because of this, he does not feel it would be appropriate to eat at McDonald’s. Ukraine does not have Burger King, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, or Subway. But, there are multiple McDonald’s in most major cities here. Stanley would also like to point out how great the food is in this country and wonders why anyone who could have Ukrainian vareniki (potato or cabbage dumplings) or golubsy (stuffed cabbage leaves) would even want to spend their hard earned money on American fast food? He decides to keep walking and finds a restaurant nearby that serves some of the best borsch (beet soup) he has had yet. Although he does not think that a Ukrainian fast food place would work in America, he hopes that Americans can someday taste soups and salads made from the freshest and tastiest ingredients. The difference is really remarkable- he says.  

After vacationing in Odessa for a few days, Stanley heads back home to Crimea in the south of Ukraine. On his last day he spends an afternoon with a bunch of kids at the local orphanage. The kids LOVE to take pictures and have their pictures taken (although you may not know it from the look on the face of Вера [pronounced Vera]). I asked them to take some shots with Stanley and Vera grabbed him and jumped up for the camera. We visit the kids once a month and sometimes we play games, sometimes draw pictures, and sometimes write letters to kids in America. The penpal project has been really interesting for the kids here as well as the kids in America who can learn a little more about what it is like to grow up, go to school, and use free time in another country. If writing letters to kids in Ukraine sounds like something fun please let me know and I can give the guidelines. The kids here are between 8 and 17 years and have just been introduced to American foods like banana bread, brownies, peanut butter, and chocolate chip cookies that they have never heard of or tasted before. They like many of the same music groups and know many of the same celebrities.

Well, I guess that is it for now. Stanley is really tired from all of the traveling these past couple of weeks. We hope there was something interesting in this story for the readers. If there are any further questions, please let me know as part of the Peace Corps mission is to let Americans know about Ukraine and its people (as well as telling Ukrainians about Americans). Stanley says, “Sim says “Hi” to everyone back home.”