An Hour In The Park: Writing Non-stop For One Hour

The next item on the list of 6 exercises was to take a book to a park and sit for an hour. Today is June 22 and is a holiday (the day that the start of The Great Patriotic War (WWII) started). As such we were cut loose from work a little early...around 2:30. I decided to make a stop on my way home. I have marked this time to sit on a bench in the park near my house and write in my journal for the next hour- reporting if I happen to see someone I know. It is 2:30 on a hot workday, so I don't think I'll see anyone I know- they are probably working or at the beach, but I have certainly seen my share of people at the strangest times and in the least likely of places. I chose this park because not only is it the closest to my apartment, but also because I have been meaning to go through it to see how my fellow community members treat it. As I arrive: poorly, is the only word that comes to mind. I have written before about the discotheque in town and how the owner of the outdoor, no less, disco takes a lot of heat from the community for making it difficult to sleep in the early hours of the weekend nights, as well as for bringing drunk people to this side of town where they cause social problems. I can easily see both sides of this coin, but the fact is that you cannot put the responsibility of all of the problems in this park on any single person. He does take on some of the responsibility for beautification, but it appears to go sharply unnoticed as his good deeds do not seem to outweigh the bad elements that are a byproduct of the reason he is here in the first place. 

the playground installed from the disco owner own money

Also, who else would people blame if the disco owner was able to absolve himself from the problems in the park? I have been involved in the cleaning of the park and taken a little bit of personal pride in the improvements made during my participation. I  have worked on trash removal, bench repairs, garbage can installation, and other general improvements. As I go through the park today I am sad and confused. The good news is that the benches have lasted. The wood plank seats were replaced just before in October. It is good to see that the wood was able to withstand the harsh winter. 

Sadly, the garbage cans did not fare as well. Litter is such a huge problem here. Specifically in Razdol'noye, but in Ukraine as a whole, as well. So much so, that many programs that are geared towards environmental improvement, skip discussing recycling at all, and focus rather on promoting the use of garbage cans and dumpsters. Just this would be a tremendous improvement. 
Breaking news: I just had my first shout out as a group of kids just walked by and gave a quick "hello" and a wave. This is usually strange for me. I know several of the kids in town, but the thing is that kids of all ages will say "hello" in English as they walk past even if they dont know me. I am not sure if they are just testing the little English they do know, or trying to show off to their friends that they know "the American", or if I really know them and just dont recognize them at this moment. Anyway, a quick "hell-O!" and a half hearted wave when I aknowledge them is usually all I get unless the kids have spoken to me before, then I can get a conversation.
So, last year the Department of Education got a grant to install 14 new, cement garbage cans in the park. At the point I learned of the project I suggested a metal frame designed to support a garbage bag. I had seen them in a nearby beach town last summer and mentioned them as a low cost, easily installed, solution to our problem. I was told that the grant specified which kind of cans we needed to buy.

I asked if the grant said the money would be used to buy garbage cans, or did it say the money would buy cement cans from a specific retailer? I was told that I didn't understand how the grant worked, and they were right. The cement cans were installed just before the 9th of May holiday and added a nice aesthetic to the park. Sadly, cement cans are easily damaged. As I walk through the park today, I see several that have some major defect from broken sides, but still  retain their shape, to others that lay on a pile having transformed from garbage can to just a pile of garbage.

I can't help but think about what a waste of money it was to buy these cans. The rationale for them is that they couldn't be easily stolen. Right you are...no one wants to steal a pile of concrete shards!

I mentioned the 9th of May as it is one of the big 6 holidays in Ukraine and every town, including ours pulls out all the stops to make the best presentation possible. In the days just before the holiday, there was a fresh coat of paint applied to the Lenin monument in the park. It gets a new coat every May whether it needs it or not, because that is what makes the best impression. This year, in the weeks just after May 9, someone decided that some black spray paint was just what the pure white monument needed. Obviously it is a wicked eyesore, courtesy of the hoodlums in town.

I am also a little confused as I sit here. On one end of the park I see the town crew working on installing some sort of thing in the flower bed. Not sure if it will be a statue, a fountain, a light? I don't know. But I can't understand why they would install something new without addressing the Lenin graffiti at least at the same time. I guess, they will just let it sit as is until the first week of next May when it will get a fresh coat of white paint, just in time for May 9th.
Well, my hour is almost up, and my journal almost finished. I will probably just take a quick bike ride through the park and stop to see if I can find out what they are building in the flowerbed. Surely, something that can be destroyed by the people who use the park after hours. (The workers had quit for the day when I walked by, so I still have no idea what they are building here.)