Ukraine Tidbits

Last Monday, one of my classes at the OLSC decided to do a potluck brunch. It’s the holidays, and the group comprises of adults- professional women. I was excited! I decided to skip breakfast and go straight to class expecting some nice biscuits or bread…maybe some fruit platters….Orange Juice…. Of course, I forgot that Ukrainians don’t really eat- so I ignored my grumbling stomach when I looked at the ‘spread’- a box of chocolate covered cherries, some chocolate chip cookies and tea. It was nice- but I was totally craving a nice American-style breakfast. Still- it was a lot of fun because after the official ‘class’ we ate and chatted and I learned a bunch of great tidbits about Ukraine that I hadn’t heard before:

• Apparently, there’s a huge underground economy. College professors accept bribes from students who want better grades on their exams. College deans accept bribes to enroll students. Police officers take bribes regularly to let go of speeding drivers. Doctors take bribes to facilitate and expedite health care. It’s a way of life.

• The tradition of gift-giving in the holiday season is the reverse of the way we do it in America. Over Christmas- there are no gifts given. Instead, there are presents over the New Year. And it seems that New Years is a much bigger celebration for Ukrainians [possibly vestigial from Anti-religion Soviet times.]
  
• There is a big competition between Odessa and Kiev. It's over which city is more cosmopolitan, warm, laid-back, gentile etc. People get quite animated over this.
  Finally- we had an interesting discussion about maternity leave.

It went something like this:

Me: So how much maternity leave do women get in Ukraine? In America, we get 3 months.

N: Oh, it is the same here!

Me: Really? That's surprising! Usually, the US is very low on benefits like that. Wow- so Ukraine only gives 3 months.... And it's tough on women because they're working until the last minute so they can save time for when the baby is born.

N: How much do you get after the baby is born in the US?

Me: Um. No- it's 3 months TOTAL.

N: What??! No, it's three months DURING the pregnancy. It's 3 Years after the baby is born!

Me: That's what I thought!!

N: Yes, and the government gives a sum of dollars for every baby that is born. And during the three months- the company does not give you any money.

Me: Well, yes, it's unpaid leave in the US as well. They don't give any money unless you get insurance.

N: Oh, but the government gives money right?

Me: No....

N: Well, here the company doesn't give you money... but the government does... of course.

Me: Yeah... of course.

Moldovan Sights

The sights along the road from Odessa to Chisinau were interesting. The road was this terrible bumpy mess that gave Lilia a headache. I'm sure Sasha was going crazy as well because he's an avid smoker, and we only took a couple of breaks along the 5 hour drive. I took these rest stops as an opportunity to photograph the countryside.

There is a clear, visceral difference between the standard of living in Ukraine versus Moldova. The homes slowly turned into shacks... the road got worse and worse... and the churches changed from Orthodox to Catholic Cathedrals.

When we got to Chisinau, there were a couple of things that shocked our Ukrainian friends. 1- the currency of Moldovan leis was equivalent to the Ukrainian gryvna. They were pretty disappointed! 2- the downtown was quite nice. There were a variety of stores, fancy hotels, and ethnic restaurants.

However, it was clear by the end of our 3-day visit that the downtown was really quite limited. It was maybe 10 square blocks of 'niceness' and we had pretty much covered ALL of it. More people spoke English in Chisinau- but perhaps because it is the capital of the country, and we were seeing the best and most educated. People were really, very kind and unpretentious.

One of the 'fun' things: their police cars. They were so hilariously old!

The main sights in the town included a gorgeous cathedral located in their main square, a beautiful park in their city center. There were statues of their leaders and numerous monuments.

More than anything, we enjoyed eating some meals with our friends. The first night, we had some local Moldovian fare. There was some polenta with sheep's milk cheese - this dish was called "Mamalyga". (The cheese was rather pungent, and I don't think I'll be ordering that dish again) We also had baked fish, and pork, calamari and potato fritters. All pretty decent stuff.

The next day, Arun and I had some sushi at a very fancy restaurant. Quite good.

And for dinner we had Italian. And that was the end of the eating marathon for me. I'm never having that ravioli again!

I'll end on a last couple of pictures from Chisinau: the Triumphal Arch and a sunset as we left Moldova and returned to Odessa.

Transnistria

Everyone who knows Arun, knows that he likes to visit odd places. His dream includes visiting North Korea, Syria, Kyrgyzstan. He wants to see rogue nations and see if media-representation is adequate- or spin. So of course he wanted to visit Transnistria when we went to Moldova. What is that, you ask? [I asked too] - it's an unrecognized territory that has succeeded from the rest of Moldova. It's on the Dnistr River and houses weapons and ammunition for Russia. It has it's own constitution, flag, national anthem, currency [see picture below/right] and government. They are protected by Russian 'peace-keepers' and the people feel more a part of Soviet society than Moldovan.

We researched crossing the 'border' into Transnistria. Turns out some people have some pretty harrowing stories of being hassled (taken into some back room while the border guards try to solicit bribes) and most people get sized up and wind up spending anywhere from 40-100 euros.

We decided to leave all our dollars in the hotel, and take only Moldovan leis with us. We negotiated a cab to take us there and back for about $30 [a decent amount for Moldovans] and headed out. It was about an hour and half drive to Tiraspol.

What winded up happening is that the border guard sized us up and decided our 'immigration tax' would be $10 each. So, of course, Arun tries to haggle, and the guard refused to budge [it is the holidays, afterall- he probably had some presents to buy] and we got off pretty easily.

Once across, Arun was practically giddy. Yes, there was a big statue of Lenin in front of their Parliament building. [see picture on the right]

Their president- Igor Smirnoff owns many of the country's businesses under the name "Sheriff" so there was Sheriff Supermarkets, Sheriff Gas Stations, Sheriff Fast Food everywhere. [see picture at left]

It was freezing cold, and I decided to take enough pictures to satiate Arun before finally convincing him to head for the car and back to Moldova.

It was a tiny little downtown, with just a handful of 'sights.' Most people gave us strange looks, because how many tourists do they really get?


So, some facts and impressions:

• People seemed about on par with the standard of living in the rest of Moldova.
• The currency was actually stronger in Transnistria than in the rest of Moldova.
• People looked more 'Russian' in their features. Moldovans, in general, look more like Romanians.
• There is no doubt Russian support and protection is the reason Transnistria is around.
• People celebrate the orthodox Christmas (not Dec. 25th) because Christmas trees and lighting were still being put up.
• There is a lot of hype about the city being 'frozen in time during the Soviet rule' but really, it did not feel any different than anywhere in Moldova.

Another Adventure!

Christmas in Moldova

Arun and I wound up spending Christmas in Moldova- completely unintentionally.

Arun was supposed to go to Moldova for visa-related work. He thought he would be in and out of Chisinau in a day. Instead, he wound up stuck there for four days because the 'machine' was broken at the embassy.

When he realized he would wind up spending Christmas alone, he decided to have me driven over to Chisinau by Sasha and accompanied by Lilia.

And all's well that ends well because:

Unlike Ukraine, Christmas in Moldova is celebrated on the 25th, so we wound up feeling the festive season and seeing all the amazing lights and fireworks.

• Also- Chisinau is considerably colder than Odessa, and so we awoke to a white Christmas. So that was rather joyous, and a welcome surprise.

Ultimately, Chisinau is a much smaller city. The currency was favorable, but prices more expensive than Ukraine. And after a bout of food poisoning I was very relieved to get out of Moldova. So while it was a nice Holiday, I am glad to be home in Ukraine again!

Chivalry? It still exists!

This is a very familiar scene for me in Odessa- It's a view inside the Marshrutka.

What never ceases to amaze me is the chivalry and consideration in the marshrutka. Just about every time I've been on, I've watched a teenager give up his seat for a lady. Young women give up their seats for the elderly. Everyone jumps up for a young mother. It's remarkable!

When it's crowded, people pass up gryvna to the driver and give way to allow easy access to the exit.

In restaurants, men help women with their coats and pull out their seats. Waitresses, in turn, hang the coats up and retrieve them when it's time to go. Service is attentive, but not overly doting.

Drivers flying full-speed will always stop (sometimes a screetching halt... but nonetheless) for pedestrians.

Even with the poor economy- I have NEVER heard of anyone being cheated in stores or while shopping. They quote an accurate price, always return your change [even though language barriers could be an easy excuse to misquote a price] and they are incredibly helpful.

"Cпасибо!" is always greeted with "Пожалуйста!"

Overall, I see a great deal of kindness and courtesy in this country- Bravo!

New Haircuts

So one of the things that is rather enjoyable here is the amazing hair salons. To be perfectly honest, the salon we went to is probably out of reach for most Ukrainians, but at Supercut prices, you can get the royal treatment here!

I LOVE my new haircut! But I always wonder why it is that you can never replicate the salon style at home?

Arun enjoyed his new 'do too. He says it's just nice to not be asked, "What number?" and then get the razor-treatment.

One general comment about Ukrainians- they're willing to eat bread for lunch, but they generally don't skimp on their appearance. Most Ukrainians have naturally dark hair, but the number of bleach-blondes around never ceases to amaze me. I mean- that takes money and effort to keep up!

The same goes for nails. Women here LOVE getting their nails done.

So between the pleather boots, the bleached hair and the manicures- no wonder there's no money left behind!

Money, Money, Money

So! Let's talk money!

The currency here is gryvna/hryvna... and let me tell you- there is MASSIVE devaluation going on in the country right now. When I first arrived in Ukraine in October, the exchange rate was about a dollar to 5.8 Gryvna ("грн." (hrn.))

Now- it's up to 8 hrn to $1!

The salaries aren't going up, nor are prices decreasing; so it's a very bad state for locals. For us, the exchange rate is very favorable and we've been rather shielded from the economic woes of the country. That's not to say that we don't feel its effects.

Let me illustrate-

In order to create stability- many goods are priced in dollars. For example- we pay our rent in US Dollars. We also pay our gym membership in dollars. So imagine our surprise when we went to the bank to withdraw dollars and they flat-out told us that there's a shortage of foreign currency and so there was none available for us to withdraw! A few more visits to banks and we were told the same story over and over until we were finally able to find a bank with some reserves.

So what's causing this economic turbulence?

Debt: Ukraine has been racking up billions of dollars of debt to Russia for natural gas. Putin's been threatening to cut off supplies to the country so the situation is not promising.

Exports: The Ukrainian economy is largely based on steel-wheat-and energy exports and 2 out of those 3 are not doing so well. Steel prices are plummeting and wheat is out-of-season.

Political instability: There is a tug-of-war between Yushchenko and Tymoshenko (rivals for the 2010 election) over policies such as whether or not to allow the Central Bank to repossess homes and cars to pay off debts.

Arun's been commenting on how visibly this economic downturn has been affecting Ukrainians. "They used to eat some borsch and variniki for lunch...... now they're just eating a piece of dry bread!" And for anyone who knows how much Arun loves to eat- you can imagine his empathy!