Ukraine: The Trivia Game

To get an early jump on PC's third goal (to teach Americans about the host country and the host country culture) and to celebrate TDAD's much belated 2nd birthday, I have devised the following questions about Ukraine. The Answer Key is in the comment section. Leave a comment if you want to let me and others know how you scored and how much work I need to do when I come home. Good luck!

1. The population of Ukraine is approximately:
a) 25 million
b) 40 million
c) 30 million
d) 2 million marshrutkas

2. The capital of Ukraine is:
a) Kharkiv or Kharkov
b) Lviv or Lvov
c) Odesa or Odessa
d) Kyiv or Kiev

3. The national food of Ukraine is:
a) borsch or beet soup
b) vareniki or stuffed dumplings
c) haluptsi or stuffed cabbage rolls
d) vodka

4. Ukraine is comprised of _____ oblasts and the Autonomous Republic of Crimea
a) 30
b) 24
c) 13
d) 50

5. Ukraine's flag is made up of these colors:
a) yellow and blue
b) red, white, and blue
c) red and yellow
d) yellow, red, and blue

6. Ukraine's national language(s) is(are):
a) Russian
b) Ukrainian
c) Ukrainian and Russian
d) Ukraine does not have an offical language

7. The president of Ukraine (at least as of today) is:
a) Victor Yanacovich
b) Yulia Tymashchenko
c) Vladimir Putin
d) Victor Yushchenko

8. All of these countries boarder Ukraine EXCEPT:
a) Slovakia
b) Belarus
c) Bulgaria
d) Poland
e) Russia

9. Ukraine's money is called the:
a) ruble
b) bucks
c) lei
d) hryeevna

10. All of these are rivers in Ukraine EXCEPT:
a) Dneister
b) Don
c) Dnipro
d) Danube

How Hot was it?

A week ago I received a phone call from a PCV in the oblast to the south. "Uh, I heard that a nuclear reactor went off in N-- [my site]. Do you know anything about that? Is there a fire in the sky?" I glanced up and scanned the visible sky. "Nope. Just a beautiful sunny day in N--. People are out and about without any cares or worries."

"Besides, I added, "my city does not have a nuclear power plant. The facility is located in another city further to the north." While it seemed preposterous to me, I did inquire a few other PCVs about it, but surprisingly none of the volunteers around me had heard about a nuclear meltdown or witnessed a fire in the sky.

Thankfully, I was going to Kyiv the next day to meet with Administration, who would know more about any possible situation. It was brought up immediately by our safety and security fella, who said that he had received numerous calls from other PCVs worried about it, but that all his sources (both national and international) told him radiation levels in the area are normal (whatever that means). Again, this was not a surprise since we have all been informed about the Ukranian rumor mill, and the lack of facts on which it operates.

What did surprise me though was the explaination for the rumor our S & S advisor provided. He claimed that the recent heat wave in Ukraine had people speculate that there was more radition in the air, which lead to paranoia and rampant gossip. So, I suppose there is yet another cultural difference: in the US or Western Europe, a rise in temperature is always blamed on global warming, but here in Ukraine, when the thermometer goes up, a nuclear explosion is the culprit. Perhaps the difference is because neither the US nor Western Europe have experienced such a catastrophic event as Chernobyl, only then to have their government lie about it.

Anyway, it's still hot as a nuclear meltdown here...

The Zoo

There is one thing my city is known for and that is its zoo. Locals proudly proclaim that it is the best zoo in all of Ukraine. A clustermate of mine, who is a zoo afficionado, has wanted to see the zoo since we each arrived at our respective sites. She came over a few weekends ago and my other clustermate decided she'd come down too.

Those of us with littler interest in zoos were skeptical about this Ukrainian zoo experience. I had been there once before, as well as to the Kyiv Zoo. I don't like zoos in general on principle, but those two zoos made the Franklin Park Zoo look like a wild safari ride.

We ended up going though, and it wasn't as bad as I had remembered. The habitats were a little nicer (perhaps due to more visitors and more dough coming in), and some animals seemed not as depressed, but others seemed bored or listless or maybe even just plain nuts.

Most of the animals looked like they had problems with their fur and skin. On the chimps, parts of them were bald, which seemed unusual to me.

It was fun though to feed the bunnies and we saw tons of them (and itty-bitty baby bunnies). We watched other people feed elephants and bears (like it was the circus or something) and we looked at snakes, birds, monkeys, ponies, camels, and a hippo that had some sort of unexplainable medical problem. Probably because of this, she was the most interesting animal for us, since we spent a lot of time trying to figure out what could possibly be wrong with her.

Despite some of the conditions of the animals, we all enjoyed the trip. It is also something that I later thought would be a necessary visit for any visitors to my site--the zoo, probably better than anything I could say or give them to read, demonstrates Ukraine's socio-economic situation. Having the animals is one thing, but maintaining them seems to be more difficult and beyond the zoos current capabilities or perhaps even desire.

The Grant

One of the many good things that PC offers is the potential for volunteers to start small projects at their sites. These ideas should be community-based and help some sort of need your community has.

My "community" (my university) has needed a TV. The current one we have is shared by our ajoining school and is probably smaller than the computer screen you are reading this on. In addition, it is one of those two in one deals, meaning it has a built in VCR. But who uses VHS tapes anymore? I found one library in Kyiv where I could borrow English films to show in my courses, but abandoned that last year because it was so annoying between the size of the TV (imagine now sitting 10 feet away from your computer screen and trying to read subtitles) and the pain in the arse it was to trudge all the way up to Kyiv to get and then to return movies. It'd be like having your Blockbuster in downtown Manhattan when you lived in Oklahoma. Time consuming and expensive. And in either case, just not practical.

My coordinator was particularly interested in getting a high tech flat screen TV and a DVD player, bringing the University up to speed with any higher education facility in the US. Unfortunately, I could not see the folks at the SPA committee or Uncle Sam doling out the $1000+ it would take to fund such a purchase and instead opted for a 29" TV and a DVD player that would play any type of formatted disk. And also because I knew the committee would not be interested in funding such equipment so students could view films like Mandy Moore's flick about being the President's daughter (despite how high quality a film it is) we talked about bringnig socially revelant films into the classroom. Films that would demonstrate social problems in English speaking countries, issues like racism, sexism, discrimination, and the like. With all of this in mind, the grant was written, approved, and apparently highly received. I was in HQ when the committee was meeting to decide on which grants would be funded, and people on the committee I didn't even know would compliment me on it. It's interesting how writing a relatively intellectual grant with a pretty simple idea will make everyone think that you are a pretty active and successful volunteer at your site. I am by no means going to argue that I'm not, but I'm also by no means the active crusader sort of volunteer that will have their communities talk about them for years to come and where everyone will name their first born child after them, in addition to having a yearly parade in their honor even after they are gone.

I am more typical, I think. I do the work asked of me, have a few clubs in town with other volunteers, and otherswise mind my own business. But if other volunteers want to view me as otherwise, who am I to tell them differently?

But of course, all of the acknowledgement could have simply been due to the fact that I had brought home mounds of Belgian chocolate and promised them that if my grant was funded, they could get some. Who knows?

"I'm In My Prime"

As might be remembered, back in January I tested "questionable" for tuberculosis. I had made arrangements with the doctors that after I arrived back from Europe I would stay in Kyiv for the necessary days to get retested, and if all went well, by Thursday I'd be on my way back to site to teach that Friday morning.

Sadly, that did not happen. In fact, I did test positive for this disease and hence was kept in sick bay for an extra night in order to obtain an x-ray of my lungs and to take a blood sample before putting me on the medication, which is to last no less than 270 days, or 9 months.

On that Friday, after getting my xrays done and talking to the doctor further about just what tb is and how it operates (only 5% of people who come into contact with the disease ever develop the fatal kind) and that it is not contagious, which I was asked numerous times by Volunteers in the office, I was unable to secure a train ticket home or anywhere in the vicinity of home or to my clustermate's site either. I was stuck in Kyiv.

The prospect of doling out an extravagent amount of money to spend the necessary two nights before being able to go home (no seats could be found until Sunday, as it is the Ukrainian spring holiday season--May Day and Victory Day falling within a week of each other, everyone and their babushka was heading out someplace more glorious than Kyiv) was even more devastating than the news of getting tb. Fortunately, I plead my case and was able to secure two nights at the hotel without worrying about the cash. Having a big red bump on my right forearm and a purplish-bluish-redish mark on my left didn't hurt either (one from the positive result, the other from the doctor extracting a blood sample).

From there I proceeded to visit my clustermate and a linkmate who also came down for the purpose of one last consumption party before consumption took it's hold on me. I made one of the most extravagent purchases here in Ukraine in the form of a 0.5 liter bottle of Malibu Rum and a 2 liter bottle of Coca-cola. Imported liquor is incredibly expensive here, so unless you want to drink anything but beer and vodka, it's pricey and tends to just sit on the shelf of your local grocery store or prodyctki, unless the occasion should arise.

I have already started taking the medication, and have rewatched the Hollywood Film "Tombstone" so that I could perfect just how someone inflicted with this disease should act and behave. Thankfully, just like at the turn of the 20th Century in the Western United States, Sanatoriums are still all the rage here in Ukraine, especially in Crimea. Perhaps I too can lay out in one all summer long, expecting visits from such prestigious guests like a former US Marshall. Or Sting. Or Bono.

In the meantime, I will attempt to fight lawlessness to the best of my ability, using my sharpshooter skills and sardonic wit.

Back in the [former] U.S.S.R.

"Been away so long I hardly knew the place
Gee, it's good to be back home
Leave it till tomorrow to unpack my case
Honey disconnect the phone
I'm back in the USSR
You don't know how lucky you are, boy"

After various pitfalls and stalls, I finally made my way back to N-- some days ago and have been readjusting to my life at site, mostly by sleeping and reading Theodore Dreiser, who honestly, hates America.

I have yet to do some important things, like go to the post office or buy potatoes, mostly because I've been so exhausted. And I have enough Belgian chocolate to keep me alive for some time yet. I will try in the following entries to retell some events and happenings from the past few weeks.