Ed Has A Very Successful Meeting And We Take A Day Trip To The Lavra

The picnic we were going to have at the lake on Saturday was postponed because the meeting that had originally been scheduled for the previous Saturday was reset for this Saturday (the 19th). The meeting was held at the former KGB Building, which is now the Office of Internal Affairs. Ed said the building is just gorgeous inside - beautiful marble and stucco and wood - he's never seen such a lavish building in the Ukraine, including the hotels (of course we haven't stayed at any lavish hotels here!). He, Arkadiy and Gennady met with the Regional Director of Police in Kharkiv (there are 9 police districts in the city of Kharkiv - the region - or Oblast - is even bigger), who is a Major General, the Assistant to the Regional Director, who is a civilian appointed by the Minister of Interior, the Chiefs of the Police Stations from which the PD's office will get their cases (Kominternovskiy District Station and Chervonozarodskiy District Station), five of their Deputy Chiefs, the Co-Chair of the Civil Council, which is a civilian watchdog organization, and one other member of that group. All the members of the police (they are called militia here) were in full dress uniform. There was also a TV reporter and cameraman! We found out later that, indeed, Ed was shown on Ukrainian TV making his remarks to the assembled dignitaries. Good thing he wore a dress shirt and his suit trousers (even though they have a hole in the seat which has been patched, very badly, by the local tailor).

The meeting was unbelievably successful. This time Ed had a really good translator - Vicky, the woman who works for Oksana's father (the Vice Regent of the Law Academy), and that made things a lot easier for him. Ed had drafted an agreement that included all the things that the PD office would like from the police - for example, a procedure pursuant to which the police or investigators will inform the suspect of his right to a lawyer and the availablilty of a public defender if he cannot afford a lawyer, a procedure by which co-defendants who cannot be represented by the PD because of a conflict will be referred to a member of the bar for representation, and a procedure by which any waiver of the right to counsel is counter-signed by the public defender after meeting with the suspect (even if the suspect is not represented by the PD office because of a conflict). He included provisions allowing the Public Defender Office to post a sign in the police station informing the suspects of their right to representation by the PD office (with the contact phone number for the PD Office), as well as provisions giving the PD the right to get copies of all reports and other evidence compiled by the police or the investigators. He got everything he asked for!! The Major General began the meeting by saying the cooperation of the Regional Director and Police Chiefs had been ordered by the Minister of the Interior (this was news to Ed - he had asked Arkadiy to call someone at the Minister's office and to have that person call the Regional Director to pave the way for this meeting, and he knew that Arkadiy had been able to get a Deputy Minister to call the Regional Director to let him know that the program had the approval of the Ministry, but no order from on-high had been issued as far as Ed was aware). He went on to say that this program would be implemented immediately, and that everyone was to cooperate with the new office. All of the proposals that Ed had drafted were accepted, and Gennady was told that the PD office would start getting cases today (Monday). There is one big problem lurking in the background. If, in fact, the stations handle about 200 cases a month, which is what Ed and Gennady were told, there aren't enough lawyers to even begin to service the clients - there are only 5 PD lawyers!!! Ed's idea is that they will only handle those cases where representation is "mandatory" under the Code of Criminal Procedure. But he thinks it is better to begin by saying that the PD Office will accept all cases, and see what happens. If, in fact, the office is overwhelmed, he will consult with the Regional Director and propose they limit the PD's involvement to mandatory cases. If not, they will take whatever cases come down the pike. So, after all this waiting, and after all these delays, this project may actually be getting off the ground this week. I hope so.

After the meeting Ed, Gennady and Arkadiy were invited to visit one of the police stations by the Chief of that station. When they got there, the Chief had changed into jeans and a T shirt. He showed them around, and Ed saw a room that would be perfect for use by the PDs to interview their clients. He inquired about it, and the Chief agreed to let them use it. He even offered to let them staff it with a lawyer 24 hours a day, but Ed thought that this was probably a bad idea - sort of like embedding reporters with the troops - pretty soon, you get to really know these guys, your loyalties begin to shift, and your ability to serve your real constituency (in this case, the suspects - in the case of the press, the public) becomes compromised. They also met the "interrogation squad." Ed said they look like the defensive line for the Raiders!!

I was really glad that Ed had had such a good day. My day was not so good. I have been gradually sinking into a depression since I got back from Kyiv. Actually, I was sinking into to it before, but I was buoyed up by the prospect of the trip to Kyiv and the search for apartments there. I was a little bummed about having to go alone, but still, I got an awful lot done and felt good about it. Now that I was back in Kharkiv I was having trouble keeping myself amused (boredom leads to constant eating, which leads to feeling really bad about myself, which leads to more eating, and so on). War and Peace is terrific, but I actually find reading here a little difficult - there is no really comfortable place to sit and read - the sofa is pretty stiff and hard, and the bed is too low to the ground and a combination of too soft and too hard.

Anyway, I was as low as I have ever been on Saturday. My big adventure for the day was to go out to try and find a laptop carrying case. I found them easily at MKC, the big electronics and household appliance store here, but discovered that they cost more than twice as much here as they do at home! So instead of buying one I emailed Jodi to ask if she would bring one to me if I order it from Amazon. (I first carefully checked out the new carry-on rules from TSA, from British Air, and from BAA - this case is within the guidelines, and they now allow laptops, ipods, cameras, cell phones, etc., to be carried on.)

Ed tried to lift my spirits by taking me out to dinner at Puska, which is right across the street and looks sort of like a Bavarian cottage. (Oksana, the woman who's father is Vice Regent of the Law Academy, had told us about it.) We went in to a pleasant air conditioned room, decorated like a Bavarian farmhouse. There is a very large terrace in the back, surrounded by what is meant to look like a Bavarian village, where we decided to have our dinner. It's very cute, very reasonable and the food is good (but not fantastic). I had my usual (red caviar and blinis) and some sauteed vegetables (my first in Ukraine - really good, not overcooked and drenched in butter!), and Ed had chicken on skewers, cole slaw (with Roquefort instead of mayonnaise) and corn on the cob. This corn was good - sweet and juicy - unlike the corn I had bought at the market and made at home a few weeks ago. I felt better, and we had the road trip to Svyatogorsk planned for the next day.

We got up at 6 a.m. yesterday so that we could get ready (i.e., eat breakfast, have tea, feed and walk Belle) before meeting Gennady and Nella, and their friend Dima (who was driving us in his car) outside at 7:30 a.m. I brought a hat, a skirt and long sleeved shirt with me in case I had to wear them to get into the cathedrals at Svyatogorsk. More on that later.

Because it was so early it was very pleasant out. Ed and Gennady and Nella sat in the back. Dima drove and I sat in the front on the pretext of getting carsick in the back seat - actually not such a pretext under these conditions - I am prone to carsickness in the back seat, and when it's hot and crowded it can be particularly bad, especially if the road is winding, which this road was not, thank goodness). I brought the seat as far forward as possible so Ed could have every bit of space available, and got a taste of what Ed's life must be like all the time - my knees were touching my nose, and all I could think of was - if we have an accident, or have to stop short, my knees will be crushed as they smash against the dashboard, regardless of the seat belt (which I used - no one else did). Of course I had taken the MedJet plastic ID card from my suitcase and fastened it instead on the fanny pack I was wearing - just in case! I was able to keep my window open almost the entire trip (at one point Dima put on the air circulation vent and closed my window so that the air would come in through the vents - fortunately he realized soon enough that this was not sufficient), so it was actually pleasant with the nice breeze coming in as we zipped down the road at about 40 miles an hour. There was absolutely no traffic as it was Sunday. We passed both supermarkets I had been to by metro (Target - which, Oksana told me, has nothing to do with Target at home - it's an entirely different, unrelated company), and Post, where I had been with my Ukrainian conversation teacher, Yrena. We also passed a monument at a place that is very similar to Babi Yar - it is also Something "Yar" (yar means deep valley), and it too is the sight where the Nazis and Ukrainian police lined up thousands of Jews and shot them. Dima told me that his grandparents are in that place. I told him that my great grandparents may very well be there too, who knows. My grandparents made it out in the early 1900s when they fled the pogroms. I know that my maternal grandmother arrived from somewhere in "Russia" - which was almost everywhere in Eastern Europe at that time - Poland, Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Belarus, Romania, Moldova, Georgia, etc., etc. - in 1905 at the age of 17, alone. My paternal grandfather must have come from somewhere in the Ukraine because our name -Spivak - is Ukrainian, but I have no idea where his shtetl might have been, and I can't find anyone who does know.

We also passed the old huge plants that had dominated the Kharkiv region during the Soviet era - the bicycle plant (which had been the largest in the Soviet Union), the milk plant, the beer plant, the sputnik plant - monuments to cosmonauts, monuments to the war dead, the Soviet markers for the entrance to the city of Kharkov (the Russian spelling) erected in 1954. There was a building called the Coliseum, which was quite nice looking and which houses the steam baths. There was also a building called the Cultural Center. Apparently during the Soviet era there was a cultural center for each plant, where they had their own ballet companies, opera companies, theater companies, and sports teams (which competed with other plants' sports teams) And then we passed the housing that had been constructed by the Soviets to house all the plant workers - it was called Rogan and it was huge - like Soltava - so huge that they have to have a tram system just to get you from one building to the next.

The drive was mostly through the countryside though - vast fields of sunflowers (raised for oil), and corn. There were very poor villages along the way and occasionally people selling their produce from baskets on the side of the road. Dima works as a radio engineer (he and Gennady and Nella had all met at engineering school - we passed that school too) and we saw a radio tower in one of these towns, the construction of which he had overseen. Before that Dima had worked as an engineer on the gas pipeline, at the main office based in Siberia. I tried to find out how things had changed for him after 1991 - he had stopped working for the Soviet owned enterprise, but I still can't quite figure out who he is working for now - whether it is for himself, or for a company, or what.

The drive was 200 kilometers and took about 2 1/2 hours. Towards the end of the trip it began to get very hot with the sun beating down on the car. As we approached the Lavra (a Lavra is a special status granted to only 3 monasteries in Ukraine - the one in Kyiv which is very famous, one in the Ternopil region, wherever that is, and Holy Assumption Cathedral at Svyatogorsk - and apparently one of the things that comes with this special designation is the strict enforcement of a rule that women must wear skirts - no trousers allowed!) there were billboards on the side of the road with pictures of Holy Assumption Cathedral and the words "Listen to Your Heart". This is apparently a very holy place. That doesn't stop the souvenir sellers from lining up on the path to the monastery that you access after you park your car! They sell all sorts of crap there, including the batteries that we bought after we discovered that our camera batteries had run out of juice. Well, these "new" batteries must have been so old that they were already out of juice - after putting them in we still got the same message on the camera - change the batteries!). I'd post a photo of all this now, but we had no batteries for the camera!

We did manage to take a few photos before the old (and then the 'new') batteries ran dry. Here you see me (before I wilted) standing on the bridge over the Donets River leading to the Lavra, with Holy Assumption Cathedral on my right (the lowest cathedral) with the blue bell tower next to it, and then a series of monastery caves in the chalk cliff leading to St Nicholas Cathedral, which is built into the chalk cliff and stands above it towering over the Donets River.

We got to the entrance (after passing women with signs asking for a halt to business enterprise at this holy place) and Nella and I were blocked from entering because we didn't have skirts on. (I hadn't taken mine from the car because Nella was sure we didn't need to wear a skirt - I was pretty sure we did, but I wasn't going to challenge a native on this point!) What's really funny about all this is that most of the men there were wearing T Shirts, almost all with slogans and other things on them, including English sayings such as "shit happens" - and that's fine - and all the younger women are wearing teeny tiny mini skirts with spike heels - and that's also okay. But tasteful long pants on a woman - "Neh Mozhne" - FORBIDDEN! Nella tried to reason with them for a while and then she and I and Dima went back to the car - I thought I would put my skirt on over my pants (a lot of women had shawls or scarves draped around their pants) and that I would give Nella my shirt to wrap around her pants. We went back to the entrance (this entails about a 1/4 mile walk back and forth to the car in SCORCHING heat), and I was admitted, but not Nella. So she had to go back and buy a scarf from one of the vendors on the path to the Lavra. You can only visit the Cathedral during services in the morning or late afternoon, so we were anxious to get in while the service was on (turns out it goes on until about 11:30), so we told Nella to meet us there. We approached the Cathedral doors and my path was blocked by two Ukrainian Orthodox priests (or monks?) in long black cossacks and high hats with veils (how come they don't pass out from heat stroke? God must protect them!!) because my arms were bare. And Nella, who was now back on the path, had my shirt. So I waited outside, and when Nella came back, I put on my shirt and went in with her. It was HOT AS HELL in there - there were masses of people, and for some reason it wasn't naturally cool like most churches I have visited in Europe. And I was basically wearing two layers of clothing and a hat, which is great in the sun, but is just hot inside a church! I saw the iconostasis (a word I now know thanks to our visit to the Kremlin with Bob and Dian and Emlen), watched the priests for a few minutes, listened to the women and priests singing for another few minutes and left to wait outside in the shade, where I was able to remove my second shirtand my hat. There was a fountain with "holy water" in it, and we all splashed some on our faces, each of us had his or her own reasons for doing so(mine was to cool off), and then watched as the procession of priests (or monks?) - there must have been about 50 of them - left the church, followed by the pilgrims and other worshipers. They all marched into a hall next to the Cathedral. A man standing nearby heard us wondering in English what they were doing, and told us that they were going in for a communal meal. We asked him how to get to the caves, and he told us, but also told us that they were closed to the public until September. We then asked how to get to St Nicholas, and he told us that too (the main way was closed and we had to go around the back way). I told Gennady that I had read that you can't visit St Nicholas except at 10 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. (it was now about 11:30). He thought that the man who spoke to us didn't know what he was talking about but was just acting like he knew the way (and I think he also thought that I didn't know what I was talking about either), but he checked with some official and confirmed that the caves were closed, that St Nicholas would be open in another two hours, and that we had to go there the back way.

We decided to have lunch and walked back down the path towards the car. I was terrified that we would drive somewhere for lunch - the car would have to be at least 250 degrees by now! It was at least 97 degrees out, and in the sun it was just unbearable. (I keep thinking about those poor soldiers in Iraq, where it's over 120 degrees and they are wearing those heavy uniforms and boots and carrying heavy stuff - how do they do it????) But it turns out we were just going to the car to get the huge picnic Nella had packed. There was a nearby cafe where you could buy beer and water, so we went there and parked ourselves on a bench in the shade, bought the beers and water, and unwrapped a feast - a huge bowl of mesom and kapuska (meat and cabbage) perogies, a huge bowl of kapuska varenekies, a big jar of ratatouie, fresh tomatoes and cucumbers, delicious beef salami and bread, and breaded chicken cutlets. She must have been cooking for days. Everything (except the salami and bread) was homemade. We drank beer, and ate and ate and ate. And talked and talked and talked.

The talk was all about how bad things were in the Ukraine - the political situation and Yanakovich (which I completely agree with), and then the corruption (which I have to take on faith - I just don't know enough about the system here - and neither does Ed, really - everything we learn about the corruption is second hand at best - but it is impossible to imagine how we would ever witness it ourselves directly). Gennady, who spent some time in the U.S. - Cincinnati is the "sister city" of Kharkiv, and many people here (inlcuding Vicky, the interpreter) went as exchange students there, beginning about 10 or 15 years ago. He also saw a bit of the country while he was in Cincinnati - I know, for example that he went to NY. But he seems (at least to me) to have this impression that everything is wonderful in the U.S. and everything is terrible in Ukraine. For example, he will point to the souvenir sellers outside the monastery grounds and say, it's terrible, you would not have this in the U.S. Really? I don't agree, but I say nothing! He'll say that this business with the skirts in the Cathedral is completely arbitrary, and just made up on the spot, and that this would never happen in the U.S. Really? Again, I don't agree, but say nothing. I know that there are plenty of places where stupid arbitrary rules are applied - maybe not related to dress codes because we have become such an informal society (although there were at least two occasions when I was asked to leave the Metropolitan Club in NY because of the way I was dressed, and I still remember when, in 1969, I was wearing pants and a tunic top that came down to about 2 inches below my ass, and had to take my pants off to join my parents for dinner at La Cote Basque in NYC - no pants allowed - an unbelievably short skirt (actually a longish shirt) is okay, but no pants!). He'll remark on the cars parked on the river bank where it is not really permitted, and say that people in the U.S. would not do such terrible things. Again, I don't agree, but hold my tongue. I wonder if everyone feels this way. I really want to be able to get another point of view - I have to find some other Ukrainians that I can talk to about all this. Is everything really so corrupt here? Is there really no way to get on in life without bribing your way in? I don't think I'll ever be able to know first hand. I'm just going to have to talk to as many people as possible. I'm going to see if I can arrange to have lunch with Vicky - she seems to be a very informed person, and her English is great.

I wonder if this skepticism is the result of my experience with the spread over the internet of the story that photos depicting the damage in Lebanon had been doctored to create more sympathy for the Lebanese "victims" and demonize the Israelis. I got an email from a friend with a link to a video showing and describing in words all the doctoring that had been done by Reuters, AP and the NY Times (showing a rescue worker who had been photographed in earlier photos now "posing" as a victim being rescued). Now, I happen to know the father of a NY Times photographer, and I happen to know that he was in Beirut and Tyre during the war, and that he took lots if not all of the photos used by the Times. So I emailed Portis and asked if any of the photos were Tyler's. Well, I learned that ALL the photos were Tyler's, and that photos had been run in the newspaper the day before the website video montage that was cited in the web link, and that this particular photo had been correctly captioned (i.e., the rescue worker had fallen and hurt himself in the rubble and was not himself being carried out of the debris). Apparently, when the NY Times website put together the photo video show, they incorrectly captioned one of the photos (not properly identifying the "victim" as one of the rescue workers who had hurt himself during the rescue operation, but simply calling him a "victim" of the bombing). This was immediately called to their attention (as it should have been) and the Times issued an immediate correction, pointing out that the photo had been correctly captioned in the hard copy of the Times the day before. Of course, if I hadn't known that Tyler was in Lebanon taking photographs for the NY Times I would have believed every word of this link I had been sent because I wanted to believe it - because it supported my position and pre-exisiting opinion (i.e.,that most of the world and the world's press is biased against Israel). So my new motto seems to be "Don't Trust and Do Verify," at least to the extent you can. I've always felt that Roshomon says it all - you listen to one side, and then you listen to the other side, and all you can know for sure is that neither side has got it completely right. You sure as hell don't know what really happened, and you probably never will.

After lunch it was hotter than ever. I had decided even before the trip to be a good sport, no matter how hot it got, and do whatever was agreed upon by the group, but I sure was hoping the group would decide to go back soon and skip St Nicholas!!! We did decide to skip St Nicholas (mostly on Ed's urging - I'm sure because he knew I thought it might kill me), and walked down to the river bank, where lots of people were swimming and picnicking instead. It was hard to find a shady spot and we walked away from the bank for a bit, but the ground was just covered in litter and garbage. Nella was really upset that people would do this, and I must say it is very unusual to see this here. The city is remarkably clean. There are workers, mostly women in orange vests (clearly official city employees) out early every morning, sweeping the streets and sidewalks with twig brooms (here's a snapshot of them at work on the street below our apartment windows). So this was not at all representative of the general conditions here.

We finally found a spot near the river bank - on the opposite side of the Lavra, looking directly at it. Those little squares in the chalk cliff are the windows of the monks' cells that are built into the caves. I wish we could have seen the caves -they would have been quite cool - I think they maintain a constant temperature in both winter and summer - and walking up to St Nicholas inside the cave would have been pleasant. But we will thoroughly explore the Kyiv Lavra with Jodi and her father in early September, so all is not lost.

Nella had brought a blanket, so she and Ed and I lounged about while Gennady (who is incredibly fit - he loves both watching and playing sports, is an avid swimmer and ice hockey player and, I'm sure, runs and works out every day) swam across the river and back (he said the water was about 78 degrees), and Dima (who is quite plump and not at all fit) looked on. Gennady was all for going up to St Nicholas, but Ed vetoed that and suggested we go back because we had to feed and walk Belle. We gathered up everything, trecked back to the car, loaded it up, piled in (it was HOT in there), opened the front windows and drove off. I got to keep my window open the whole way back - even so, it was quite warm, but not killer hot. I dozed off a couple of times - we were all a little tired, and the heat and the noise from the open window really prevented us from talking very much. We got back at about 5:30 and Nella gave me a huge sack of perogi to take with us. It should last us at least a couple of weeks!

Ed and I were too tired even to read. Ed had a bowl of cereal, I had some fruit and sour cream (and as much chocolate as I could find). I saw on the NY Times (online) that there had been serious flooding and mudslides in Alaska, in Jason & Sandra & Allan's neighborhood, so we Skyped Jason & Sandra to make sure they were okay. Their phone had a funny sound, and I think it was out of order, so we tried the cell phone - but with no luck. We then Skyped Jed and Jenny (no luck there either, but at least I'm not worried about them), and Ed called his mother. I took as long a shower as the hot water permitted (about 3 minutes), and fell into bed (after I fed, and Ed walked, Belle). We both were asleep by 9 and didn't wake up this morning until 7.

Ed's off to the office to see if they can finalize arrangements with the police stations, and I'm happily engrossed in my Blog, obviously. But now I think I'll venture out to cancel my massage appointment for tomorrow (my head and neck didn't feel very good the day after the last one - she doesn't have that funny headrest that they use in the U.S. which allows you to put your head flat, face down, and still breathe, so I think I ended up doing some damage to my cervical spine - not permanent, but unpleasant for a few days). Then it's back to scrabble and War and Peace.