Ukrainian Liberation Day and Independence Day
Today is Independence Day in the Ukraine, but the celebrations are muted. The plane crash near Donyetsck (in Eastern Ukraine, near Kharkiv) of a Russian plane traveling from Georgia to St Petersburg (all on board died, including over 50 children) has resulted in a National Day of Mourning in Russia, and an unofficial day of mourning here. Everyone here is talking about it - the women who sell the things in the market I go to were talking to me about it (they brought it up - things were not busy at the market, and when things are slow they always talk to me - when it's busy though they don't have time to do that). I even got a call from Oksana, who is now back in Chicago, who told me that her mother was really upset as were all her friends here in Kharkiv.
Yesterday was the anniversary of the liberation of Kharkiv from occupation by the Nazis (of course, that began an era of Soviet occupation!), and all of the festivities were canceled. Ed and I went out into the streets anyway at about 7 p.m., and although Sumskaya was bustling, as usual, the huge speakers and bleachers that were assembled in Lenin Square were lined up and unused. They've wrapped Lenin in scaffolding and draped the scaffolding with the Ukrainian colors - but when the lighting is right, you can see him, in silhouette, standing there, pointing!
The festivities for the anniversaries of both liberation and independence are now scheduled to be held on Saturday. We had planned to go to Poltava for the day, but I think we should stay here and see what goes on in Lenin Square. Shevshenko Gardens is also decked out, with flowers on the base of Schevshenko's statue and Ukrainian flags on either side.
On Tuesday, which was, without question, the hottest and most humid day so far, I spent the entire morning trying to find things and striking out all around. First Ed wanted me to see if I could find a "portable" copier that the PD lawyers can take back and forth to the two police stations, so that they can copy the investigator reports and other evidence gathered by the investigators, as was agreed to by the Regional Director of Police for the Kharkiv Oblast. They can't just buy copiers and leave them there because they'll be taken by someone, or used by people to make their own copies, exhausting the toner or ink cartridges. But it seems to me that the PD Office could buy something and put it in a cabinet or a case and lock it up, or devise some system (like the ones they have in most U.S. law firms) where the copier won't work unless you punch in a code number. I wasn't very hopeful - the best bet would be a cheap plain paper fax machine that also works as a copier, but that won't do the trick because they must have a flat bed copier so that they can copy from books and things like that.
After checking online without very much success (no light weight portable copiers that I could see), I went to the huge computer store MKC, and found a copier that's cheap (about $125), light weight (about 2 kilos), and not too awkward to carry in a box with a handle (just a little awkward- let's put it like this, I wouldn't want to have to carry it more than 10 feet!). Not ideal (especially because it's an ink jet and uses ink cartridges rather than a laser, which uses a much longer lasting toner cartridge), but workable. I reported my findings to Ed (including another copier that is much heavier (about 9 kilos), but which is truly designed to be portable - it has a pop up carrying handle, flatbed availability, and it's very compact and much smaller than the other. But it's way too heavy in my opinion - also much more expensive. He said that he and Gennady would go to the store later that day and get the light weight machine.
Having not yet expired from the heat, I decided to try and find what I was told by Ed is a store called "LOOK" where I could get orange T Shirts that have a green map of Ukraine printed on them. I wanted to wear one for the Independence Day celebrations (at this point in time the plane had not yet crashed and the celebrations had not yet been postponed). Ed had been told by the printer of the letterhead and business cards (who had such a T Shirt exhibited in his "office") that we could get them at "LOOK" - he even drew a map for Ed showing him where the store was located. Ed told me it was on Sumskaya, next to the Opera House - but that didn't make any sense at all because there are absolutely no stores near the Opera House - it's all park on one side and, according to the printer's "map," LOOK would be in the park, and both the Opera House and LOOK were on the wrong side of the street - impossible. Nevertheless, I walked the entire length of Sumskaya - from Lenin Square to Rosy Luxembourg Square and never spotted it. But I knew I had seen it, and that I had seen it often, which led me to believe that it was probably on Pushkinskaya - and if I was right the "map" would make sense. So off I went to Pushkinsaya, and there it was, right next to our apartment building entrance! Or I should say, it was in the building right next to the entrance to our apartment. The first door I went into was some sort of medical clinic - Oh lord, please please do not let me get sick or injured here!!!
LOOK, it turns out, was sort of an office on the second floor, not really a store. I managed to communicate that I was looking for T Shirts but that I didn't think I was in the right place. But a young woman working there got up and took me next door, and there I saw the very T Shirt we wanted, hanging with a few others with different logos printed on them. I really had to work hard this time to get myself understood - turns out that they didn't really speak Ukrainian or English - just Russian. But between the four of us (three of them and one of me) I managed to find out that they had no orange T Shirts - every other color except orange. I made it clear that I only wanted orange (one of them nodded and said "Yushenko" - referring I'm sure to the Orange Revolution - and I said Tak, Tak - yes, yes). They told me to go to a store and buy an orange T Shirt, and that they would print the map on the T Shirt the same day for $3 if black ink was okay, and $35 if I wanted green! I said black would be fine. They told me the name of the store I should go to, wrote it down for me, and said it was near Sovietska Monument, which I know well - a standard meeting place in Kharkiv how many real estate agents had I met there when we first arrived????).
Despite the sweltering heat I set off again for Sumskaya and Sovietska to find the store and the T Shirts - I wanted to see if the concert season had started at Organ Hall anyway (I had already checked the Opera House - no ballet until mid September, by which time I hope we'll be in Kyiv), so I thought I'd kill two birds with one stone. I couldn't help noticing what a huge police presence there was on the streets - regular cops, with their huge caps, army types with AK47's or the Ukrainian equivalent, and paratrooper type guys in blue camouflage (what good does blue do if you're not in the water or falling from the sky?) with red berets and really BIG AK47s or equivalent. I assumed that this was all in preparation for the events that would be taking place on Liberation Day and Independence Day. At least I hope that was the reason!!
I went nuts trying to find this store - and it was getting hotter and more humid by the minute. I thought my head was going to explode because of the barometric pressure! I asked about a dozen people, and they all sent me in the same direction, but I just couldn't find it. Finally, on what I promised myself would be my last try, the woman I asked pointed over my shoulder - I was, apparently, standing in front of the store in question, although I still couldn't find the name of the place anywhere on the building. It was one of those really horrible stores they have here that are like the kiosks in the subway, only crammed into a building. Each little booth-type place was more awful than the next, and I as I got further and further into the store it got hotter and hotter. I finally thought I was going to pass out, and I still hadn't found the T Shirts, so I just decided to call it quits and go home. I honestly thought I might have to find a taxi - I really felt like I was about to collapse. But I made it home, finally, and then I collapsed.
It poured later that day, and that helped a bit, but I still felt awful - my neck was still killing me because of the message - my right arm was killing me because of the way my computer is set up here, and my knee and hip were killing me because of all the miles I had walked! I had a sinus headache because of the weather, and I just couldn't do anything but go into the "cold room" and go to sleep.
Ed and Gennady never did buy the copier. Gennady is convinced he can find something more portable. I am convinced that he cannot, but I do not say so. In fact, I researched it on google and sent him the links to all "portable" copiers (not the same as portable printers, which can be quite small and light), with my comment that they had the Cannon portables at the MKC store we had all been to, but that I thought they were too heavy for the purpose. He agreed that they were too heavy and, in the end, I think they are going to go with Plan B (which I had thought should be Plan A all along) of buying two computers, one for each station, leaving them there permanently, and either locking the copiers up when not in use by the PDs or having some sort of access code to operate the machines.
On Wednesday Ed told me that CEELI was having a seminar on cross examination and that they were paying for all the PD lawyers to go to Sebastapol (in the Crimea) for the seminar. Oh, I said, you should definitely go - you can make contact with the CEELI people (who are in Kyiv). Ed agreed, although he was more interested in hearing what the speakers would tell "our" lawyers, as he refers to the PD lawyers. In fact, this is the stupidest seminar and the biggest waste of money in the world - to cross examine witnesses you have to actually have a trial, and since all the defendants confess after they have had their "talks" with the militia, they never do have any trials. Besides, Ed's about the best cross-examiner there is, and if anyone should be telling them how to do it, it's him! But of course I'm prejudiced! It seems that all CEELI does is hold seminars - it doesn't seem to work on any projects that will have actual application (like setting up a PD Office) - at least that's what others in the Ukraine tell me, and that's what it looks like to me when I read up on what they are doing. I'm really glad that Ed did not end up taking a position with them - they have about 20 people working in the Kyiv office - and it's so highly structured, with 2 people in Washington DC overseeing the Ukraine office (and other people in DC overseeing those overseers), plus a Region Director and a Country Director - the OSJI project is much more Ed's cup of tea. I don't think he would have felt that he could make a real difference if he had gone with CEELI, and here I know he thinks he might.
But then Ed told me when the seminar iss being held - September 8, 9 and 10 - just when we are supposed to be in Kyiv with Jodi and her dad. Now I don't mind going to Kyiv alone for this trip, but it is Ed's birthday - I had bought ballet tickets and I was really looking forward to going with him for the first time (neither of us has yet been to the Opera House in Kyiv). I'm also having Jodi bring over a bilingual hard cover edition of Dante's Inferno, translated by Robert Pincus, that I know Ed wants (it's a surprise), and I was planning to give it to him on his birthday. Nevertheless, I told him that he should go to the seminar if he thought it would be worthwhile, but that he should consider flying back to Kyiv late on Saturday afternoon (he will have been at the seminar for two full days) so that we can go to the ballet on his birthday. He could then go back to Kharkiv on Monday morning, and I would stay in Kyiv until Tuesday afternoon. I asked him to find out the schedule of the seminars to see if this was possible - and then it dawned on me - are these cross examination experts Ukrainian or American? If they're Ukrainian, and I suspect they are, does that mean that all of the seminars will be in Russian or Ukrainian and Ed won't understand a word of them? Ed was going to call Gennady and ask him to call the woman in charge of this at CEELI in the Kyiv office, but I said that he should call the woman himself (otherwise it would take at least a day to get this done, and then he'd have to work through Gennady's translation, which is never easy)- I had read her bio at the CEELI website and knew that she speaks English fluently. So that's what he did - and of course the seminars are all in Russian, and there are no printed materials either in Russian or English. Ed was really upset because he wants to know what "his lawyers" are being told to do. I said he should just ask them to each write a brief report (as part of the seminar activity) describing what they had gotten out of the seminar - then if he disagrees with anything or has anything to add, he can do so.
So it's settled - Ed will definitely be in Kyiv with me, at least for the weekend part of the trip.
I've been trying to figure out when I should rent the apartment in Kyiv. We leave for the States on Sept 27 and won't be back until October 17. I'd like to avoid paying the rent for this period and start renting on October 17, but that means I have to store all the stuff we have in Kharkiv somewhere, which is a real drag. I'm also running out of our prescription meds and I have to get them out of one of the boxes we left at the Renaissance Foundation in Kyiv, which are very hard to get at unless you take them all out. I think I may have a plan though - I'm going to see if I can rent one of the two apartments I'm seriously considering for three of the nights we'll be in Kyiv, and the other apartment for the other 2 nights, look at more apartments if there are any, and if not, take the one I like best and rent it for six months . We'd have to pay about $1000 for the hotel room in Kyiv for those 5 nights in September, so if I have an apartment that costs $2000 a month, I think I'm better off. That way I can stay in Kyiv after Jodi leaves, unpack all the stuff that's in storage at the Foundation, come back to Kharkiv to collect a lot of the other stuff that's here and bring it Kyiv, and finally have Ed bring the rest with him to Kyiv before we leave for Boston. I've emailed and called the real estate agents for the two apartments to see if this can be done. Because of the holiday today I probably won't know until Monday (we may have lost the apartment that was beautifully remodeled near Planet Fitness anyway - it wasn't clear to me whether that one is still available). I'm anxious to get going on this - I've always regarded Kharkiv as very temporary, so I have made very little effort to make this my "home" and, while Kyiv will be temporary too, I look on it as a longer term temporary thing, and I am planning on making it ours, at least to a greater extent than I have done here. I'm expecting to invite people over, have a dinner party or two, things like that - something we never ever do here.
Today it really rained hard - it was dark and thundered, and now it's almost chilly out! I LOVED it. My headache is gone, my aches and pains are greatly improved, and tonight we have plans to have dinner with Vicki, the woman who acted as Ed's interpreter for the meeting with the Regional Director and who works for Oksana's father, the Vice Regent of the Law Academy. Her English is fantastic and I'm looking forward to talking to her about lots of things.
Yesterday was the anniversary of the liberation of Kharkiv from occupation by the Nazis (of course, that began an era of Soviet occupation!), and all of the festivities were canceled. Ed and I went out into the streets anyway at about 7 p.m., and although Sumskaya was bustling, as usual, the huge speakers and bleachers that were assembled in Lenin Square were lined up and unused. They've wrapped Lenin in scaffolding and draped the scaffolding with the Ukrainian colors - but when the lighting is right, you can see him, in silhouette, standing there, pointing! 
The festivities for the anniversaries of both liberation and independence are now scheduled to be held on Saturday. We had planned to go to Poltava for the day, but I think we should stay here and see what goes on in Lenin Square. Shevshenko Gardens is also decked out, with flowers on the base of Schevshenko's statue and Ukrainian flags on either side.On Tuesday, which was, without question, the hottest and most humid day so far, I spent the entire morning trying to find things and striking out all around. First Ed wanted me to see if I could find a "portable" copier that the PD lawyers can take back and forth to the two police stations, so that they can copy the investigator reports and other evidence gathered by the investigators, as was agreed to by the Regional Director of Police for the Kharkiv Oblast. They can't just buy copiers and leave them there because they'll be taken by someone, or used by people to make their own copies, exhausting the toner or ink cartridges. But it seems to me that the PD Office could buy something and put it in a cabinet or a case and lock it up, or devise some system (like the ones they have in most U.S. law firms) where the copier won't work unless you punch in a code number. I wasn't very hopeful - the best bet would be a cheap plain paper fax machine that also works as a copier, but that won't do the trick because they must have a flat bed copier so that they can copy from books and things like that.
After checking online without very much success (no light weight portable copiers that I could see), I went to the huge computer store MKC, and found a copier that's cheap (about $125), light weight (about 2 kilos), and not too awkward to carry in a box with a handle (just a little awkward- let's put it like this, I wouldn't want to have to carry it more than 10 feet!). Not ideal (especially because it's an ink jet and uses ink cartridges rather than a laser, which uses a much longer lasting toner cartridge), but workable. I reported my findings to Ed (including another copier that is much heavier (about 9 kilos), but which is truly designed to be portable - it has a pop up carrying handle, flatbed availability, and it's very compact and much smaller than the other. But it's way too heavy in my opinion - also much more expensive. He said that he and Gennady would go to the store later that day and get the light weight machine.
Having not yet expired from the heat, I decided to try and find what I was told by Ed is a store called "LOOK" where I could get orange T Shirts that have a green map of Ukraine printed on them. I wanted to wear one for the Independence Day celebrations (at this point in time the plane had not yet crashed and the celebrations had not yet been postponed). Ed had been told by the printer of the letterhead and business cards (who had such a T Shirt exhibited in his "office") that we could get them at "LOOK" - he even drew a map for Ed showing him where the store was located. Ed told me it was on Sumskaya, next to the Opera House - but that didn't make any sense at all because there are absolutely no stores near the Opera House - it's all park on one side and, according to the printer's "map," LOOK would be in the park, and both the Opera House and LOOK were on the wrong side of the street - impossible. Nevertheless, I walked the entire length of Sumskaya - from Lenin Square to Rosy Luxembourg Square and never spotted it. But I knew I had seen it, and that I had seen it often, which led me to believe that it was probably on Pushkinskaya - and if I was right the "map" would make sense. So off I went to Pushkinsaya, and there it was, right next to our apartment building entrance! Or I should say, it was in the building right next to the entrance to our apartment. The first door I went into was some sort of medical clinic - Oh lord, please please do not let me get sick or injured here!!!
LOOK, it turns out, was sort of an office on the second floor, not really a store. I managed to communicate that I was looking for T Shirts but that I didn't think I was in the right place. But a young woman working there got up and took me next door, and there I saw the very T Shirt we wanted, hanging with a few others with different logos printed on them. I really had to work hard this time to get myself understood - turns out that they didn't really speak Ukrainian or English - just Russian. But between the four of us (three of them and one of me) I managed to find out that they had no orange T Shirts - every other color except orange. I made it clear that I only wanted orange (one of them nodded and said "Yushenko" - referring I'm sure to the Orange Revolution - and I said Tak, Tak - yes, yes). They told me to go to a store and buy an orange T Shirt, and that they would print the map on the T Shirt the same day for $3 if black ink was okay, and $35 if I wanted green! I said black would be fine. They told me the name of the store I should go to, wrote it down for me, and said it was near Sovietska Monument, which I know well - a standard meeting place in Kharkiv how many real estate agents had I met there when we first arrived????).
Despite the sweltering heat I set off again for Sumskaya and Sovietska to find the store and the T Shirts - I wanted to see if the concert season had started at Organ Hall anyway (I had already checked the Opera House - no ballet until mid September, by which time I hope we'll be in Kyiv), so I thought I'd kill two birds with one stone. I couldn't help noticing what a huge police presence there was on the streets - regular cops, with their huge caps, army types with AK47's or the Ukrainian equivalent, and paratrooper type guys in blue camouflage (what good does blue do if you're not in the water or falling from the sky?) with red berets and really BIG AK47s or equivalent. I assumed that this was all in preparation for the events that would be taking place on Liberation Day and Independence Day. At least I hope that was the reason!!I went nuts trying to find this store - and it was getting hotter and more humid by the minute. I thought my head was going to explode because of the barometric pressure! I asked about a dozen people, and they all sent me in the same direction, but I just couldn't find it. Finally, on what I promised myself would be my last try, the woman I asked pointed over my shoulder - I was, apparently, standing in front of the store in question, although I still couldn't find the name of the place anywhere on the building. It was one of those really horrible stores they have here that are like the kiosks in the subway, only crammed into a building. Each little booth-type place was more awful than the next, and I as I got further and further into the store it got hotter and hotter. I finally thought I was going to pass out, and I still hadn't found the T Shirts, so I just decided to call it quits and go home. I honestly thought I might have to find a taxi - I really felt like I was about to collapse. But I made it home, finally, and then I collapsed.
It poured later that day, and that helped a bit, but I still felt awful - my neck was still killing me because of the message - my right arm was killing me because of the way my computer is set up here, and my knee and hip were killing me because of all the miles I had walked! I had a sinus headache because of the weather, and I just couldn't do anything but go into the "cold room" and go to sleep.
Ed and Gennady never did buy the copier. Gennady is convinced he can find something more portable. I am convinced that he cannot, but I do not say so. In fact, I researched it on google and sent him the links to all "portable" copiers (not the same as portable printers, which can be quite small and light), with my comment that they had the Cannon portables at the MKC store we had all been to, but that I thought they were too heavy for the purpose. He agreed that they were too heavy and, in the end, I think they are going to go with Plan B (which I had thought should be Plan A all along) of buying two computers, one for each station, leaving them there permanently, and either locking the copiers up when not in use by the PDs or having some sort of access code to operate the machines.
On Wednesday Ed told me that CEELI was having a seminar on cross examination and that they were paying for all the PD lawyers to go to Sebastapol (in the Crimea) for the seminar. Oh, I said, you should definitely go - you can make contact with the CEELI people (who are in Kyiv). Ed agreed, although he was more interested in hearing what the speakers would tell "our" lawyers, as he refers to the PD lawyers. In fact, this is the stupidest seminar and the biggest waste of money in the world - to cross examine witnesses you have to actually have a trial, and since all the defendants confess after they have had their "talks" with the militia, they never do have any trials. Besides, Ed's about the best cross-examiner there is, and if anyone should be telling them how to do it, it's him! But of course I'm prejudiced! It seems that all CEELI does is hold seminars - it doesn't seem to work on any projects that will have actual application (like setting up a PD Office) - at least that's what others in the Ukraine tell me, and that's what it looks like to me when I read up on what they are doing. I'm really glad that Ed did not end up taking a position with them - they have about 20 people working in the Kyiv office - and it's so highly structured, with 2 people in Washington DC overseeing the Ukraine office (and other people in DC overseeing those overseers), plus a Region Director and a Country Director - the OSJI project is much more Ed's cup of tea. I don't think he would have felt that he could make a real difference if he had gone with CEELI, and here I know he thinks he might.
But then Ed told me when the seminar iss being held - September 8, 9 and 10 - just when we are supposed to be in Kyiv with Jodi and her dad. Now I don't mind going to Kyiv alone for this trip, but it is Ed's birthday - I had bought ballet tickets and I was really looking forward to going with him for the first time (neither of us has yet been to the Opera House in Kyiv). I'm also having Jodi bring over a bilingual hard cover edition of Dante's Inferno, translated by Robert Pincus, that I know Ed wants (it's a surprise), and I was planning to give it to him on his birthday. Nevertheless, I told him that he should go to the seminar if he thought it would be worthwhile, but that he should consider flying back to Kyiv late on Saturday afternoon (he will have been at the seminar for two full days) so that we can go to the ballet on his birthday. He could then go back to Kharkiv on Monday morning, and I would stay in Kyiv until Tuesday afternoon. I asked him to find out the schedule of the seminars to see if this was possible - and then it dawned on me - are these cross examination experts Ukrainian or American? If they're Ukrainian, and I suspect they are, does that mean that all of the seminars will be in Russian or Ukrainian and Ed won't understand a word of them? Ed was going to call Gennady and ask him to call the woman in charge of this at CEELI in the Kyiv office, but I said that he should call the woman himself (otherwise it would take at least a day to get this done, and then he'd have to work through Gennady's translation, which is never easy)- I had read her bio at the CEELI website and knew that she speaks English fluently. So that's what he did - and of course the seminars are all in Russian, and there are no printed materials either in Russian or English. Ed was really upset because he wants to know what "his lawyers" are being told to do. I said he should just ask them to each write a brief report (as part of the seminar activity) describing what they had gotten out of the seminar - then if he disagrees with anything or has anything to add, he can do so.
So it's settled - Ed will definitely be in Kyiv with me, at least for the weekend part of the trip.
I've been trying to figure out when I should rent the apartment in Kyiv. We leave for the States on Sept 27 and won't be back until October 17. I'd like to avoid paying the rent for this period and start renting on October 17, but that means I have to store all the stuff we have in Kharkiv somewhere, which is a real drag. I'm also running out of our prescription meds and I have to get them out of one of the boxes we left at the Renaissance Foundation in Kyiv, which are very hard to get at unless you take them all out. I think I may have a plan though - I'm going to see if I can rent one of the two apartments I'm seriously considering for three of the nights we'll be in Kyiv, and the other apartment for the other 2 nights, look at more apartments if there are any, and if not, take the one I like best and rent it for six months . We'd have to pay about $1000 for the hotel room in Kyiv for those 5 nights in September, so if I have an apartment that costs $2000 a month, I think I'm better off. That way I can stay in Kyiv after Jodi leaves, unpack all the stuff that's in storage at the Foundation, come back to Kharkiv to collect a lot of the other stuff that's here and bring it Kyiv, and finally have Ed bring the rest with him to Kyiv before we leave for Boston. I've emailed and called the real estate agents for the two apartments to see if this can be done. Because of the holiday today I probably won't know until Monday (we may have lost the apartment that was beautifully remodeled near Planet Fitness anyway - it wasn't clear to me whether that one is still available). I'm anxious to get going on this - I've always regarded Kharkiv as very temporary, so I have made very little effort to make this my "home" and, while Kyiv will be temporary too, I look on it as a longer term temporary thing, and I am planning on making it ours, at least to a greater extent than I have done here. I'm expecting to invite people over, have a dinner party or two, things like that - something we never ever do here.
Today it really rained hard - it was dark and thundered, and now it's almost chilly out! I LOVED it. My headache is gone, my aches and pains are greatly improved, and tonight we have plans to have dinner with Vicki, the woman who acted as Ed's interpreter for the meeting with the Regional Director and who works for Oksana's father, the Vice Regent of the Law Academy. Her English is fantastic and I'm looking forward to talking to her about lots of things.
posted by Susan Spivak at 1:36 PM
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