Haggai's Walk

Poor Haggai froze on his walk - but luckily Alister had lots of room to accommodate him inside his jacket.

Merry Christmas

Had a wonderful Christmas with friends here in Kiev. Heading out for the weekend to visit more friends and play in the snow. :-)
Haggai got his first experience with snow this Christmas too - we took him for a walk - but he didn't enjoy it very much and retreated to Alister's jacket.

Laughs Made in China Pt 2

If you guessed the indispensable

"CLOTH SHAVE" you were right!


"Fabric pill remover in a convenient larger size shaves fabric surf acesto remove pills and fuzz from clothing. u'polstry, Much more !"

I have two sweaters that seriously need to be "shaved" and when I told Alister that I saw it in a 10 hreeven store he said - "great, I always wanted one." ??? He wasn't being sarcastic.

It works okay - the batteries don't really stay in - so its better to not "recover" and just hold the batteries in place as the machine "instantly move" and you shave away pills.

Hope you all got a laugh, or at least a smile from the English-ese.

Laughs made in China

All across Kiev are stores selling things for 5, 8, 10, and 12 hreeven. Inevitably the products are cheap. Really cheap. But sometimes you find something worthwhile. Like carpet and upholstery cleaner spray and vac. Try finding that in any other store in the city.
Besides the occasional find - you are always in for a good laugh.

Can you guess what this product is for? (Despite what you may think - the below text is copied EXACTLY from the box, spelling and grammar mistakes ARE NOT my own : ))

Product Explanation
"XXXX" will help to remove the particles on the surface faricles and dust in the fabrics,It will bring the beauty, softness, peace, and fashion back toyour lift.

The gist of using

• Remove the back hid,and put battery in it,then recover
• First take the protective cover when using.
• Push the switch and located in "ON" .instantly move

Any guesses? Answer to appear in 3 days

Ukrainian and Russian Christmas Music

Traditional Ukrainian Christmas Music for your holiday enjoyment : )

Christmas and worship music

Note - to make this STOP playing click on the very small STOP button at the top of the player


See also http://www.sparinsky.kiev.ua/rizdvo/titles_eng.htm

Also - you can't miss the original CAROL OF THE BELLS


About Ukrainian Christmases - will take you to brama site explaining a traditional Ukrainian Christmas

The indignity of bills

Every month the bills start trickling into the mailbox. First the Communali charges - heat, water, garbage etc. Then the phone. Followed by internet - and now, on a more sporadic schedule - the electric bill. All of these bills, are in theory to be paid by the 20th of the month. Unlike in the states, where you can pay by phone, automatic deposit, or the really ancient method of check - here you pretty much have to do it with cash.*

You can pay at any bank - but you get charged for it - sometimes as much as $5. If you don't want to pay for paying your bills you have to go to the Oshadni Bank or the Post Office. Sounds easy enough - but consider this.
1) Everyone has to pay their bills at this time and in the same way
2)No one wants to pay for paying their bills - its bad enough having to pay them
3) The same establishments also distribute all the pension and social help payments which come out at the same time as the bills. = Big lines of pensioners wanting money.

All of these factors equall HUGE lines. In order to pay our bills - it normally takes 5 tries. Just popping in and out of various banks in order to see how long the line is. If the line is longer that 10 - 15 people - I figure it is better to try another time or day. Sometimes though you just have to bite the bullet and stand in line.

A Note on Lines
Lines are never as long as they look. Normally theu are longer. People come, stand in line for a few minutes until someone comes behind them - then they ask them if they are going to stand in line and if they say yes - they leave and will later return to the line after doing whatever it is they do.

By the time you get to the front of the line - you and the people around you have been waiting about an hour. The front of the line is where all the arguments break out. Grannies pushing their way to the front, workers complaining that they are missing their lunch, or that clients are waiting - people yelling at others for cutting etc. Lets face it - they probably weren't in the best of moods when they started standing in line - and an hour of standing, pushing, shoving etc just doesn't help matters.

Back to the bills . . .
After a particuarly disheartening bill paying experience this summer - I tried to start finding ways that it wouldn't repeat itsself. (translation - Alister had to pay the next month). A friend told us really - you can wait and pay every 2 months for communalni. This sounded like a good solution because the elctric seems to becoming every two months anyway and alister found a way to pay the other bills online. (Leave it to an internet provider to create a way for you to pay online). So this month was the test - the elecric bill came and I gathered up the last two months of communalni uslugia bills and started circeling the oshadni banks. After three days - I took the plunge and entered the line.

3 people from the front - and a granny four people behind me cuts to the front of the line and starts asking people to let her in. The whole line is outraged and everyone is telling the she isn't right in what she is doing and she is indignatley saying that she is still in her place (four people behind me) even though she obviously has her money out and is trying to weasle in infront of everyone.

Finally I get to the window (1 hour and 15 minutes) (the granny is sulking on the other side of the window). I give the clerk my bills and she gives them back to me.

Blah blah blah - And I figure out that there is a problem and I can't pay them.
What's the problem?
Blah Blah Red ink blah only black or blue.
Well how am I supposed to pay my bill?
Get a new bill
Where am I supposed to get a new bill?
The same place you got that one
This one comes in my mail every month - So I wait till next month and pay three at one time?
The lady behind me - who was probably just trying to get me out of the way so she could pay her bills - asked if I could write over the bills in black. No - the clerk wouldn't accept that either. Could she white them out and then write on it. No, the clerk wouldn't accept that either.
I've stood here more than an hour, there is no way for me to get another bill, and you're saying there is no way for me to pay.
Yes.
Look, the lady behind me says, go home and white everything out -then make a photocopy and pay again.

Translation - I have to spend another hour or more standing in line after I figure out a way to make the bills payable.

Another incredibly disheartening bill paying experience. Here's hoping the internet revolution will eventually exceed to our communalni and electric bills.

*Recently, digital boxes have appeared around the city that extend the ways you pay bills - but not all bills are covered by it. For example, communalni and electric - at least for our building can only be paid at the Oshadni bank.

A history lesson

Trying to find ways to use my Black treacle, I ran across the most amazing fun history fact ever. The Great Molasses Flood. That's right in Boston 1919 a storage container of molasses burst and the "slow as molasses" mass picked up speed - cresting at 35mph and forming a 30ft tidal wave. 21 people died. It sounds like those trapped found themselves in a sweet smelling tar-pit.
If history books would insert facts like this every couple of pages - children would find more reasons to pay attention. What kid wouldn't want to imagine a huge tidal wave of molasses sweeping over a city? It's way better than a comic book. it's actually true.

In college, we read the Great Cat Massacre as part of History Methods. The point of the class - or maybe the reason why we read the book - was to show that history can be drawn from any event (original sources though if you please!)- it isn't dry facts. Its life - a big sticky tidal wave about to grab you and sweep you away.

I think that is the reason why historical novels and memoirs are so popular nowadays - the authors reinvigorate the event with all of the laughter, awe, drama, or frustration that originally filled the conversations of people during that day.

(ps - I ended up making gingersnaps - but the treacle is a bit more potent than "regular" molasses)

From cheapest in the world to most expensive in the nation

While you all may have noted Tuesday, the 4th of November as a deciding day in the history of our nation - we in Kiev had other reasons to pause.

Tuesday, the 4th of November 2008 was the day that Kiev metro prices rose by 400%.

No longer will a continuous ride cost a mere 50 kopek (10 cents - and the same price it was when it first opened in 1960 - however - it then dropped (communism - to 5 kopeks) - now it will cost you 2 griven.

The morning the raise took effect, the metro wagons were littered with flyers that said "Kiev Metro - The most expensive in Ukraine" to protest the mayoral decision to raise metro prices.

I couldn't help but laugh. The Kiev metro had long been recorded as the cheapest in the world - and the fact that it is now the most expensive in the nation - a nation that has only 2 other small metro lines in cities where salaries and commuter traffic are also less - shouldn't be shameful or used as a reprimand. Over 2 million people use the metro system here - and it is built for 1 million people. Cars are increasing in the city by the hundreds and roads can't contain it. The metro needs to be expanded - but there isn't money to do it - in fact even at 2 griven per passenger the metro will still be running at a deficit that will need to be made up by selling advertising space. Moreover - the mayor - newly re-elected and desirous of please the public arranged it so that you could by a 1 year metro card for 365 UAH - which means that if you live and work in Kiev - riding the metro twice each day - you'll pay . . . that's right 50 kopek per ride. AND - the cost of the metro is shouldered by the working class because children, students, pensioners, and disabled all get ride either for free or at a reduced cost.

If you ask me - I say bravo for the increase - esp if it means that they finish the orange and the purple lines and let me travel around Kiev with traffic - free ease. And if you ask me again - I think you should add a few more stops to those two lines and connect them across the river with an interchange at Vidibichy and the new Dymiska station at the bus station.

Life's delectable pleasures

Today in Velika Kishenia I found a coupon for buy 5 Siriki and get 90% off. Talk about a coupon. Siriki aren't expensive anyway - and they are definately tasty --like bite size cheese cakes. My favorite are Fanny - with cherry syrup and a cookie crust.

Buy 5 for a fraction of the price? Don't mind if I do.

Columbia Crest

Walking thru the supermarket, I caught sight of something familiar . . . .

Columbia Crest wine is in Ukraine!!!

Ok - so the picture is awful - but really you can only expect so much when trying to take a covert picture on a cell phone.

I'm not actually a huge fan of Columbia Crest - It is ok - but not spectacular - but more, I am just proud to have a Walla Walla area wine being sold internationally to the everyday Joe (ok in Ukraine the price is a bit above everyday - but still . . .) And for those of you wondering about the numbers - its NOT dollars - but hreeven (pronounced grieven - like i'm a grieven for my lost dog . . .) At today's exchange rate - that makes the Chardonay a Washington wine bargain at $13 (In the US you can buy it for about 10 - but most of our wines are double that price) and the Shiraz converts to $22. Amazing that all the transport and tax only amount to a $3 per bottle increase.


(ps - sorry to not support the local economy - but when we splurge for wine - we normally go for the $5 bottle of Georgian Alazanskaya Dolina. Depite what you may think of how wine at that price should taste- its really nice.

Cats and Heights

We have almost given up trying to train our cat to stay off the tables, counters, and upper shelves of the bookcase. My last cat learn after two sprays of the spray bottle - but this guy I think sees the water as a bonus.

I have never seen a cat drink so much. Not only are all of our water immediate glasses targets (not coffee or tea - pretty much just the water), but in the morning he jumps up on the window sill and laps off the condensation on the window until he can see out. The he moves hown the window and does the same think all along the sill.
We even added vinegar to the water - but it doesn't work. Sometimes we have sprayed him as many as 7 times (with frustrated tsks and "bad cats" accentuating the ordeal) before he finally gets/ or is pulled down.
I tried putting saran wrap on the table. He responded by jumping up and falling asleep on it.
For the most part we are avoiding the problem by trying to keep him out of the kitchen unless we are there too - but still - as soo as our backs are turn to wash the dishes or put something in the fridge he is up on the table again. Any ideas?

Sbeet Apple Crisp

We had group last Friday and I bought 2 kilos of beets. I figured that it would be enough for salad and a few left over for Blue Cheese Beets. Well I definitely had enough for all that . . . and then some.

I also had some apples left over from chutney (My mother-in laws recipe - It turned out wonderfully!) and figured there would have to be some sort of apple/beet crisp/cobbler/pie recipe of sorts out there somewhere on the internet. Wrong - while I ran into apple and beet salad recipes - there was nothing for my sweet tooth that called for both apples and beets.

I tried searching beet desserts - and came up with a few more options - but by the time I ran into Beet Mousse I decided enough was enough and I was going to make my crisp - recipe or not.

The trick to making unusual dishes is to make sure that those who you want to eat it don't know what is in it until after they have tasted it. It worked in high school when I served Chicken Liver Pate and it normally works for me as well with Alister when he asks what we're having. "Something tasty", I reply.

My vague answer didn't serve me today though - he caught me in the middle of preparation. "I like beets, but in dessert?" He did promise to try some and I even said I would add whipped cream to sweeten the deal.

The crisp turned out FANTASTIC. I borrowed the idea of cardamom from the mousse recipe and also added allspice and about a 1/4th cup of white sugar and a dash of flour - coating my 3 chopped beets and 4 chopped medium apples. I didn't have any lemon, but if I had I would have added a tablespoon or two of juice. I threw this mixture in a baking dish and made my crisp topping. Flour, brown sugar, butter, oatmeal, allspice, and chopped walnuts mixed together and sprinkled over the top.
Half an hour later - the crisp was out of the oven and ready to be topped with whipped vanilla cream.

Obviously, if I'm putting it on my blog - it was fantastic. Alister actually asked for seconds. Not only are the colors beautiful but the flavor is delicate, tart, sweet, and woody (the nuts) all at once. When you throw in the beets' added Vitamin A, C, calcium and iron this dessert is one that you can even feel good about having seconds.

Budget Air is Here!!!!

This last summer, Wizzair opened up budget flights within Ukraine. Starting in January they are expanding.
You will be able to find flights to Ukraine from
London
Dortmond
Cologne
and Krakow

for as little as $50 one way (taxes included).

(You can also come via Italy on http://www.flyonair.it/index.aspx?lang=it or via Romania on http://www.carpatair.com/ but they aren't all that budget )

This is great for us, because it means that for Visa renewals and such we have a cheap way out of the country ($100 round trip to Krakow instead of $200 and 18+ hours by train), but also because we hope that you'll be more inclined to visit now that you can budget hop all the way to our doorstep. :- ) Did we mention that Euro Match 2012 is in Ukraine/ Poland ???

If you want to expand your trip possibilities - check out http://www.thebigproject.co.uk/budget/ or http://www.flycheapo.com/flights/. These EXCELLENT site lists almost all the budget airlines serving every european destination. They are fantastic travel tools!
Remember - the key to budget airlines is too book in advance - and BUY when you see a cheap price - it can literally disapear before your eyes.

The best part about winter

The best part of winter is that you don't have to wake up early to see the sunrise.

From the 14th story window: 7:15am

Nuts

Growing up, I remember a huge towering black walnut tree outside of our house. We never ate the walnuts. I remember that the husks turned a deep brown and that your hands were sticky and gooey after touching them. My Aunt Freda had a black walnut somewhere on here property where she lived in Idaho. Whenever we visited she would often have some super sugary walnut desert - and you knew it was black walnut because the dessert always bit back. At our hut - we also have a walnut tree - but this is a "Greek" walnut. A few weeks ago, I asked the guy we are buying the property from if they were ready - and he said - oh yes you can eat them but your hands will turn black. I tried my hand at peeling of the husk and it wouldn't budge and what little pit of shell I did reveal was smooth. I discarded the nut as a lost cause. The next week, the walnuts had "bloomed". The green husk had burst open and inside the walnut sat like an amber gem. I hung a bag around my neck and ran around with rake - knocking the nuts down. At home I washed them and then put them on the balcony to dry. Fresh walnuts are unbelievably tasty - so much richer, more vibrant than the "cured" nut. True, the first day that you crack it - the flesh is full and somewhat slimy - (alister said it looked like a brain and wouldn't touch them till they were farther along in the drying process) but the taste is unbelievable and well worth the minimal "slime" factor. I did have a little bit of a problem with the drying - there wasn't enough air circulation and so I had to finish it off in the oven which made the nuts a bit tough and black in color. If I had waited another week - the nuts would have dried on their own in the tree - hanging on as the leaves fell to the ground and drying in the fall breeze. (I know because I saw our neighbors tree. strangely - our tree is the only walnut in on our street that still has leave. All of the others are bare - except for the walnuts - like Christmas decorations adorning the ends of the branches. I can't help but think that the reason for this has to do with my earlier picking. Next year I will hold out a little longer.

Buying Water

We have running water in our apartment (most of the time) But it isn't considered drinkable. The reasons for this vary based on who you talk to.
The Ukrainians will tell you that the water is full of clorine and therefore unhealthy. The American's say the metals are to blame. And a recent article http://www.kyivweekly.com.ua/?art=1217601454 says that its a lack of sewage seperation. Regaurdless of the reason - everyone agrees that you shouldn't drink the tap water.
The solutions are the following:
Install filters in your home for drinking water
Buy water in the store
Refill water containers at a kiosk
Refill water containers at neighborhood "springs"
Have water delivered.


The cheapest of the above options is to fill the water at the spring. However, I have a problem with drinking water that turns green after a week of sitting in a container and also develops "floaty" things. I'd rather chance it with the tap water. Filters need to be replaced and maintained and Alister figured out all the costs and decided that actually it ends up being more than having water delivered - which is astually about the same price as buying it in a store too.
However - if you are willing to carry water yourself, there are normally water kiosks near most neighborhoods and they charge 1.20 uah for 6 liters of water vs 10 uah if you buy 6 liters of spring water in the store. The water that we buy is from a relatively new kiosk that uses reverse osmosis as the filtering method.
Except when I'm busy - I don't mind fetching water (makes me feel like a pioneer woman or something) - especially when I consider how much money gets saved by fetching water ourselves (When I lilved in Bradford, I normally walked the 3 miles to University for the same reason - why pay 1.50 GBP for the bus when I could walk and then use the bus fare to get a coffee?) During the average week, I think 18 (x2) minutes is a small price to pay for a 34 (x2) uah savings on water.

4.5 hours, 800uah, and 35 kilos later

Grocery shopping is an ordeal here. Not merely for the fact that without a car you can only shop for as much as you can carry by hand from the store front to your front door, but also for the sheer amount of time it takes.

Each week I normally fetch water from the kiosk twice - that's 22 liters of water and 18 minutes per trip.

I normally go to the grocery store two or even three times per week- weights vary. On a milk run I'll stalk up on about 8 liters of long life milk and try to avoid buying other heavy things like flour or meat and cheese at the same time.

If you go to the grocery store any time after 4:30pm - you can figure on standing in a very long line of people for at least 20 minutes. The standing in line is compounded by the fact that you never know really what line is shortest because the practice is to go, find a place in line behind someone - tell them you are behind them and then go run gather up some more groceries.

Today I visited Metro, the European version of Sam's Club or Costco. Metro is a once a year adventure for us as we don't have our own card and while not extremely far for us - it is a bit out of the way. The advantage of metro is that you can find some things there that are very hard to locate in other stores and some things will save you some money, but you do have to watch and calculate prices.

So I set out, hiking backpack, regular backpack and two grocery bags in tow. 3.45 hours and 800 uah griven later, I emerged with 35 kilos distributed between the bags. a 7 minute walk (amid stares) to the first bus stop (fortunately the end of the line so I could grab the out-of the way back corner. Then at my bus stop it was another 10 minute walk to the apartment.

Shh - just between us

Earlier in the summer my mom sent us a Meest package (the only reliable way to send things to Ukraine - my inlaws have been sending things post (no meest in the UK) and not even the marshmallows made it!) Among other things, the package contained a Betty Crocker 40th anniversary cookbook. Not only does it have great recipes (no more running back and forth to the computer to track down recipes) but it also has helpful hints and historic information inset above the recipes. The caption for apple pie read: "An apple pie without cheese is like a kiss without a squeeze" I told that to Alister and gave him a kiss and a squeeze and he was horrified - not at the kiss and the squeeze but at the idea of Apple pie with cheese.

I, however, had a broader mind - for years my favorite apple dessert growing up was Wenatchee Crumble - a scrumptious fall dish with a cheese, flour, and sugar crumble topping. In fact, Alister had probably even tried it, and liked it, when he came to Thanksgiving dinner with me at the Peace House in Philadelphia. Having been reminded of the joys of spiced apples and cheese - I couldn't remember why I wanted to make an apple pie in the first place, and quickly whipped up a Wenatchee Crumble instead.

And Alister like it.

From my mom's kitchen (via somewhere else) . . . .

Wenatchee Crumble

Wash, pare, & slice enough apples to fill a lightly buttered baking dish/pan about 2/3 – ¾ full of apples. (I make the slices across the short quarter of the apples, as it is easier to stir in sugar and cinnamon.

Sprinkle 1-1½ cups sugar, 3 tsp. cinnamon, and ½ tsp. salt over top. Add 2 Tablespoons lemon juice plus 1-2 Tablespoons water. (More lemon & less water if apples are like our delicious in the states.) Gently stir through apples. May cover & freeze at this stage.

Topping* – Stir together 1 cup flour, ½ cup sugar, ½ tsp. salt; add 1 cup Amer. Cheese (I use cheddar) and ½ c. melted butter. Mix all ingredients together. Spread evenly over apples.

Bake 30 - 35 min until apples are tender at 375F

*This amount is for an 8” or 9” square pan. Double for a 9 x 13 pan.

Most cheeses go well with apples. Swiss would probably be acceptable. Would advise against mozzarella.

Harvest

My balcony garden has been harvested.

Plant tally:
1 healthy stalk of cilantro
7 small, but yummy tomatoes
7 celery stalks

The celery here is differnt from american celery - it does grow big and fat - but rather stays lean and is a little on the tougher side, but it still added nice flavor to a pot roast I made the other night. The rest I'm putting up in the freezer.

I don't think I'll do the indoor garden thing again - maybe just for herbs.

Before . . ..

After . . ..

My Tomatoes	My Celery

Ukrainian Canning Supplies

After several more hours of fruitless searching I've concluded that there are no pictures to be had on the internet of Ukrainian Home Canning method.

Here is my pictograph 101 of Ukrainian canning Supplies

	Canning supplies and applesauce. Here you see the soviet canning keys and the canning jars. As well as a display of my yummy apple sauce that I really hope sealed
	Ukrainian canning key. This key works like a reverse can-opener. You set it on the lid and then wheel it around to clamp the edge of the lid to the jar.
	Kazakhstan canning key. Another form of canning key. Though not found in Ukraine, it seems to be easier to get your jars to seal. Here you place the key on the jar lid and pull the levers apart and down; clamping the lid to the jar to seal.
	A clamp on lid that should be used with the canning keys
	This is a screw on jar and lid - It should, in theory be easier to use since no clamping is involved - but the lid doesn't have a really visible "bubble" so it is hard to know if you achieved your seal.

Canning season begins

Fall is here - which means that Alister and I are stocking up for the winter. Yesterday he carried home 40 kilos of potatoes and 20 of Onions (not in one go) and today I started buying apples and also learning how to can - Ukrainian - or soviet style. My mother, master-food-preserver (actual title) though she is - has not yet imparted the art of canning to me - and even if she had - the materials available here are totally different. I can't find pictures of this Ukrainian method on the Internet - but basically you have this lid that you first seal to the lid through natural cooling processes and then clamp it on using a "key". Luckily - they are now starting to sell some twisty lids too - which will make it easier.
I also bought a "juice" maker - it really does more of a pulp and so the next few days i hope to find time to run apples and tomatoes through it for apple and tomato sauce (don't worry - they won't be mixed) .
Many thanks to the ex-pats here who have imparted knowledge and also the many women in the rinok who were willing to explain and mime the process. Here's hoping it all turns out.

Every cat has his quirk

After a few days of having Haggai - we began to suspect that maybe we got him a little too soon. Why? - well - he keeps looking for any bare piece of skin that he can latch onto and "nurse". At first he just tried to seek out milk in our hair - Well that makes sense - his mom was furry and our heads our "furry" and so you put two and two together and there should be milk somewhere in there. But lately - he has taken to latching onto our wrists, the palms of our hands, our forearms, and Alister's forehead. Aside from the excessive slobber - it doesn't really do us any harm - and he seems perfectly content - in ecstasy really judging from his purring. Still I hope he grows out of it as a grown cat latching onto ones arm will no longer be cute or understandable.

Elevators

We live on the 14th floor. Whenever we tell people this inevitably we get asked if there is an Elevator.
There are two: one small one and one for moving large objects.
Last year, they normally had the freight elevator turned off, except at the busy periods when people were coming home from work. This year, however, it has been working steady.

This summer, coming home from our travels - we greeted the doorman (Jolly - who was very happy to have us back) and then proceeded to the lift. We pushed the button for the floor - the doors closed but nothing happened - that's not unusual so I pushed the button again. The lights went out and we were STUCK in our freight elevator.
After awhile of banging - Jolly came running - but neither he nor we could get the door to budge - so the repair man was called. We did have some light - from our cell phones (which didn't work though they proclaimed "emergency use only" who are you supposed to call when you get stuck in an Elevator?)
More unusual was that after about 15 minutes the lights went on and the door opened - all by itself and without a repairman. We quickly hustled out and crammed ourselves and our suitcases into the smaller lift.
Since then, I've ridden in the freight elevator a couple of times and it seems to be working.

A new addition

Since spring - well probably at least since the mouse episode, I've been wanting a furry animal. Initially a cat (see mouse) - but then it metamorphosed into a bunny rabbit. I spent hours (okay days) obsessing and searching out bunny information on the internet - how to care for them, the types, etc. I even visited various pet stores to look at bunnies and did a cost/benefit analysis of Rabbit to Cat ownership.



I'm sure I drove Alister insane because every other day I would change my mind - we should get a cat - and then - We should get a bunny. And though I kept my eyes pealed - no homeless kittens appeared on the street so there wasn't a ready excuse. Alister was great, and since a bunny wasn't a dog, was really willing to get either as long as it was okay with the landlord.



After our string of summer adventures - I was in bed sick - a combination of dehydration, exhaustion, and I think food poisoning - but Alister isn't convinced. After laying in bed for 24 hours - I decided a rabbit was just too high maintenance - we were getting a cat (Alister was secretly relieved).



Still no kittens materialized on the streets - but a friend of ours sent us a link to a craigslist type website and we found our cat.



Haggai (pronounced in Sarah colloquial as Haggy-eye (ps - we had picked this name for a future cat ages ago when we were still dating - even then Alister liked to make fun of my (mis)pronunciations) was free, already litter trained, and seems like a good fit for us (playful - but not violent, affectionate - but not needy, independent - but not solitary). In other words - he fits Alister's criteria of being small and cute and mine of being furry and quiet. We are very pleased with our new addition.

Dirt, Manure, Wattle and Daub

So - I didn't really think there were any terrifically interesting pictures of Crimea to post - so we're skipping that and moving on to the Dacha Remont project in pictures. (click to enlarge)

This shows the process - from the state of the wall before -

to the making of the daub - you can see I'm up to my knees in it at one point -

and then the satisfaction of one daubed portion of wall.

Along the way we were helped by Natasha (pink shirt)

Pete - Blue shirt, brown hair

And Iura (blue shirt leaning over Alister at the wall).

We normally had a BBQ each day afterwards and I had promised Pete a Lemon Merengue pie for his Birthday and so it finally materialized during our work as well.

Picture insert - pt 5

Click on the picture to enlarge.
From top left and top to bottom:
Saftey poster from abandond school in Priput
Monument to the firefighters in Chernobyl town
Geiger counters - the difference between the air and the ground
Jeff going through the Radiation level detector - we all passed
Model of the damage inside reactor 4
Reactor four from the outside (one with monument)
Pictures of soviet leaders and heros - left behind in Priput
Ferris wheel at Priput

Picture insert - pt 4

Click on the picture to enlarge it

Picture insert - pt 3

Click on the picture to enlarge it.

Picture insert - pt 2

Click on the photo to enlarge it.

Picture Insert - pt 1

So we have a huge number of pics - and we are still trying to sort them out - but as promised here are a few.

WARSAW

Above - WillaNov



Bottom 2 - Warsaw, old town. Now a world heritage site, Warsaw and its old town was completely destroyed in WWII







Lazy

The Baltic coast

Alister and BJ's Small group - talent night

Singing inside on a rainy day during free time

Sarah with her two "wards" - Wiktor and Bartush (Wiktor apparently started using a few Russian words during the week after the camp - poor kid, I probably totally messed up his linguistic development)

A summer series - pt 9

Last one - and then pictures - really (Alister's been downloading and editing them all day) :-)

After all our hard work at the hut - we needed a break - and where do Ukrainians go for a break? Crimea! - Where? Ok. Black Sea. Think Yalta conference - Stalin, FDR, and Churchill? Subtropical Ukrainian peninsula with semi-autonomy and which is claimed as part of Russia every year by the Moscow Mayor? Oh - that Crimea.

It's not a surprise that you might not have heard of it or thought it to be a booming tourist destination- while it is one of the most popular tourist destinations for Russians and Ukrainians - it would be incredibly hard to get around if you weren't in possession of a fantastic guidebook or if you didn't speak the language. Everything is in Russian. While everyone is very friendly and helpful - without the language I don't know where we would be - we ran into one tourist who was trying to find out where to catch his bus - he seemed to be having a great time but he was totally lost - he had come into the city on one of the last buses in - not knowing how that the buses stop at 10pm and not knowing his address or the way back to house so a taxi and walking were probably also out. We couldn't help.

Finding a place to stay - We stepped off the 1 hour 40 minute trolley bus ride (don't do it - take a marshrutka) and before you could say "I think that woman might have rooms" - we were SWARMED by laterally 17 women all offering us accommodation - needless to say with that type of press - its hard to make a good decision - we picked the wrong babushka - the 10 minute walk to the beach was a 15 minute bus ride on a bus that left every half hour - the warm water was in someone elses room, and the "domik" - little house - was a one room in a 4 roomed wall of shacks that made our mud hut look heavenly (ok - the shack did have electricity - a light and a refrigerator - it wasn't the worst place I've stayed - but it did teach us that we need to come up with a better strategy to deal with swarming babushkas - namely if the price is that much cheaper than people who seem to be offering less - there has to be a reason).

We were there three nights and overall it was a good introductory trip to Crimea - we learned where not to go and what not to do and also spotted some places to go "next time". We did see the White Castle where the "3" met to decide the future of the world and precede the role of the UN, we saw a somewhat overly re-modeled castle - the Swallows' nest perched on a hill above a pristine bay that was unfortunately a private beach for a hotel so we couldn't swim - we explored Yalta - tried some Crimean wines (mostly all sweet), but the best highlight was a one day excursion on a passenger boat to Novi Svet (New World), and Sudok (where there is a castle fort on the hill overlooking the beach). The two hours free time at both of these places was way too short - but the boat ride - on the way there for all of us was also part of the wonderful atmosphere - we saw three pods of dolphins. It was great. There were two that followed the boat for quite a ways - jumping in unison as they rushed to keep up with us. On the way home - the careful observer could also see a few dolphins - but for the most part they were sleeping (thanks Hawaii snorkel guide for telling me about dolphin habits) and so you had to watch for their dorsal fins and the occasional mist of spray as they rested at the surface of the water. I did however get to see one - I had moved to the brow of the boat and just looked down and there was a dolphin - right there! He made a couple of jumps and was quickly left behind - but he was the closest one I got to see - it was fantastic.

A summer Series - pt 8

Chernobyl'
We took a break from our hut work to visit Chernobyl'. Let me tell you - this is not an easy task - though we had made our reservation over a month before - we were told at the last minute that we could no longer go - we then had to hustle - calling multiple tour companies to see if we could get in on one of their tours. Supposedly you need to have 2 weeks notice because the security at Chernobyl' is such that they have to approve everyone who is coming into the zone. Finally we found a tour that was already scheduled for a day we could do and who let us on - even though there were less than 48 hours to tour-time.

We got very little if any history about Chernobyl'. Alister had read the Wikipedia article on the accident and he was giving us blow by blow accounts while telling us we should read wikipedia. But we got to see the site and the guide had his little Geiger counter out to show us the radiation levels. The highest we saw was over 2000 and that was on a patch of moss. In general the ground held more radiation than the air and whether it was actual or imagined - I thought my feet were tingling the whole time we were there.

What we did learn about the new sarcophagus being built. It will actually be built a few hundred feet from the sight and then slid into place onto a teflon foundation. inside everything will be automated and so they can monitor, dispose and all that stuff automatically. Apparently even today there is need to send people in from time to time. Only in 12 minute shifts. Can you imagine accomplishing anything in 12 minutes? I was also aghast to see pictures of the state of the roof of the current sarcophagus - just 3 months before our tour - It looked worse than our hut! The metal plates were full of rust and holes. The tour guide said that they had just completed a repair project that would give them the time they needed to make the sarcophagus. Water and nuclear disaster waste is evidently pretty volatile - so the holes are more alarming for the water they let in rather than the gasses they let out.

We also went to the river - where radioactive catfish have been swimming untouched for 20 years now. Catfish grow to be humongously large. Its no wonder ancient people drew sea monsters that looked like catfish - these things are not something you would want to encounter on a swim or a boat ride.

After the nuclear plant we went to a nearby town - Pripyat - that was evacuated 3 days after the explosion and has since become a haven for photographers staging drama and disaster shots initially (a teddy bear abandoned on a Ferris wheel) and now of desolation and the victory of nature as rust and plants creep in and slowly demolish the buildings and anything left by the looters.

The tour ended with a huge 5 course "quality guaranteed" meal. It was tasty so I guess it lived up to the guarantee even if we didn't get to see some things on the tour.

A Summer Series - pt 7

Kiev
Home sweet home :- ). We flew back to Kiev on the amazing and new Wizzair, (It still had a new plane smell!) One hour and a taxi ride later and we were back in our comfy apartment - well not quite so comfy - apparently we had arrived back just in time for the annual two-week cleaning of the water lines - which meant no hot water.

This was slightly uncomfortable - not only for the embarrassment of having to tell our guest that he would have to wash out of a bucket during his vacation - but also because we had been planning to go out and work on our hut during the next week - and had kind of counted on showers. Building with mud and Manure without a shower? - Not a fun prospect. But forge ahead we did. We rented a car - a small tiny thing - but through multiple trips managed to buy and transport beams, lime, brick, chalk, axes, and innumerable other building supplies to our wee potential cottage.

Remont didn't happen as fast as we would have liked - while Pete learned how to Wattle, Daub, Lime, and Plaster all in a four hour course - it took us four days of work just to be able to daub one side. As feared - a lot of the timbers - including supporting beams had rotten from extended contact with moisture. We had to dig out the house - bringing the outside ground level below the level of the interior floor - lay/ relay a brick foundation, hack out rotten wood, and replace it with new strong wood before we were able to even make a mud mix.

My job was battling ants. They had taken up residences all around the hut and were happily laying eggs and munching on the rotting wood. Armed with a shovel and some unknown chemical which advertised itself as "A treatment for the fight against garden and house ants" I set to work digging up anthills. I have never seen so many varieties of ants in my life - there were big black and red ones, tiny little red ones, and medium sized black ones. All living next to each other in organized colonies all around the rotting foundations of our house.

By the end of the week - we had managed to completely dig out the back wall of the hut and daub one third of it. We still have a ton of work to do and will be thrilled if we finish 2 walls of the hut and repair the gutters to prevent future water damage.

A summer Series Part 6

Lvov
We traveled from Krakow to Lvov by bus. Don't do it. You can get to Lvov faster by foot. We sat 5, yes 5, hours on the border. I have traveled a lot - and crossed multiple borders that should have been difficult - Kosovo/Macedonia, Croatia/Serbia etc - none of them have ever left me anything to complain about in the way of boarder crossings (the longest crossing I had before this point was by bus between Croatia and Bosnia - and it was long because I insisted that the border guard stamp my passport because I needed recent entry validation to do my work documents). At the Polish/ Ukraine border we just sat, and sat, and sat some more - we weren't anywhere near the actual passport control check - but for some reason we just sat and sat and sat. Three and a half hours after our intended arrival - we reached Lv0v. There are numerous other options for getting to Lvov - Train, or a train marshrutka foot combo - all are better than taking the bus.

After the grueling entry - we really enjoyed Lvov - except that the rain followed us. Still we got to see the center - enjoy the cheaper prices (not just compared to Krakow - but even compared to Kiev), and beautiful architecture in a compact city where chances are you would run into someone you knew without trying. It felt like I was back in Zagreb - almost.

Our friend Olya showed us around and we had a great time walking through the city eating in yummy restaurants, climbing up the 271+ steps to the top of city hall, and touring the local Brewery. Unfortunately we couldn't get a proper tour - you need a minimum of seven people and we only had five and they would let us pay the extra ticket price to have a tour. I tried to get people from off the street - Hey do you have Half an hour? We need 2 more people in order to have a tour of the brewery - we'll pay for your ticket and you get to try the beer - but surprisingly there were no takers. Even two College students who were walking by said they couldn't because they had just finished testing at the university and they were tired. If you can't get tired college students to come try free beer then we figured it was a lost cause and we just looked around the museum and had a tasting.

A Summer Series Part 5

We spent another few days in Krakow after being joined by Pete (Alister's friend from university). We tried to make the best of the rainy days by touring the salt mines. The salt mines were a bit overpriced for what you got. But it was great to see the salt statues and even the cathedrals that the miners had carved out of the salt. The salt - a deep black in this mine - looked like polished granite on the statues - and especially in the cathedrals.
Pete had come to visit - not only for a vacation but also to help us work on our mud hut and he had even taken a special class on wattle and daub building during his short sojourn in the UK - we joked with him that now he would have to learn how to build with salt so that we could have "granite" floors in our mud hut.
We left Krakow by bus and headed towards Lvov Ukraine.

A Summer Series pt 4

I was hoping to get some pictures in here somewhere - but our summer adventures just keep going so you will have to wait for a picture "insert" at a later date.

From Lazy - we went to Krakow. We again took a night bus with 6 people in the coupe and arrived at the most wonderful hostel ever: Travelers in Hostel- not only were prices reasonable and the location great (5 min from old town and five minutes from the Jewish district) but the hostel was super clean, super friendly, and super accommodating - allowing us to slip in an extra mattress for our friend Pete for a small fee instead of a big fee for his own room and bed. A sign in the hostel says "60% Fun" but I give it 100% helpful.

Krakow was beautiful - but expensive. A cappuccino - normal ceramic cup size- costs min 9 zloty - or $4.5. Not nice.

The city is full of parks, old and new - and our hostel had free bikes and so we pedaled all over the place.

On a day that was supposed to be rainy - we caught the bus out to Auschwitz. We joined an English tour - which got us through Auschwitz 1 and 2 (AKA Birkenau) in 3 hours. In someways, that could be said to be too little time to spend in such a place - but on the other hand it was probably as much as our brains and feet could endure. Birkenau was the more impressive in sheer size - spreading out in front a whole field full of barracks, or the remains of barracks. We went into one of them - originally built to house 52 horses - each stall was converted into a 3 level bunk averaging 10 people per level 1,500 people per barrack - a place meant to hold 52 horses.

It was a lot to take in.

A summer series pt 3

Lazy - (Wahzy)

The first thing you notice when you see polish - are all the w's and consonants all crammed together. While everyone assures me it is easier than Russian - as Alister put it - when he sees polish he doesn't know where to begin in trying to pronounce it. I have no idea what the s's and c's do - but the l's definitely make a w sound - and most vowels seem to have a w sound before them too. W's actually are v's - so it can be a little confusing.

Lazy is located up on the Baltic Sea. It was sunny the first day we arrived and the day we left - the rest of the time it was rainy and cold - more like the Oregon coast. But people (not me) still swam (without wet suits). We arrived by night train - 10 hours in a 6 couchette wagon - which means there is no hope of sitting down - you have to lay on your bunk for the duration of the trip. The 6 couchettes also make it a bit tricky with finding a place for all of the passenger's luggage. The Ukrainian wagons are much more comfortable.

Lazy is a tourist town. For three months out of the year - the hotels and campsites are full- bursting with people. The rest of the time - the city lies deserted and open to the weather. Our camp took place at http://www.fala1.pl It was nice - and had rooms for the camp meetings and stiff like that - but it was weird that all the "campers" weren't together in one place/ building - but still there were fun get together times.

The camp was great. It was the first time Alister had ever attended a camp - and he loved it and is already volunteering us to go to every camp the church puts on. He preached and I looked after a couple of toddlers. Wiktor - the 3 year old was teaching me polish. It is not a good idea to try to learn polish from a three year old. Luckily - with Russian and Croatian I was able to communicate the words that mattered. - not good, good, you can, and then I learned the word come. The rest of our time together basically consisted of me repeating what he said and inserting "yes", "no", and "really" at random throughout the conversation. For the most part we got on well.

A summer Series pt 2

Warsaw

In Warsaw we stayed with the deacon of the church whose camp we were helping with. He lived in a lovely house on the outskirts near Willa Now (Villa Nov). It was a beautiful summer/ vacation castle that had just been restored - there were lovely parks and walk ways and even WiFi
The next day we explored the center. Sleepy, quiet, lovely, but expensive. Not only has the dollar declined in value - but the zloty has strengthened . . . a lot One dollar gets you 2 zloty - but it will cost you six zloty if you want an ice cream and 10 if you want coffee. Craziness.
Despite being a capital city - Warsaw apparently doesn't have too much going on. Alister Says that it and Brussels are reputed to be the most boring cities in Europe. Later when we saw Krakow - a club or concert on every corner - we understood how Warsaw could be so easily outshone.

A Summer Series pt 1

Leaving Kiev
The last couple of weeks Alister and left Kiev and went to Poland. Alister was lecturing at a camp and I got to tag along to help out.
We traveled by train (20 hours) to Warsaw. Polish trains are differnt from Ukrainian/ Russian trains. Rather than a coupe with 4 beds - the international coupe had three beds stacked on top of each other, a small sink, covered by a table, a medicine cabinet and a fold down seat. The three passengers in the coach could sit on the bottom bunk - but as soon as the middle bunk was made up for sleeping - no more sitting was possible - unless you wanted to end up looking like Quasimodo. Another perk to the ride was free coffee and a free chocolate crosant (the prepackage kind.) The border was surprising fast - considering they hand to change all the wheels to a differnt size - we were across in 2 hours. (versus the bus which later took us 5). All in all the ride was pleasant. We arrived in Warsaw at 7:30 am, had a short nap and then headed out to see the city.

Dying to dine

This last semester of Russian classes - I was translating texts into Russian. While the quality of translation was awful - I tried at least to pick interesting subjects - there was the Swiss flying man, the aquarium toilet , strange baby names, and the Harbin Ice Festival (if you're going to invest 2-3 hours of your life translating - the subjects should at least be a fun conversation starter) My fellow classmate caught the the bizarre trend and added her own article about a Restaurant in Germany that had no waiters - but rather your food was delivered to you on an automated system of tracks, like a roller coaster for food.

Well - if I was still in Russian Class - this next article would be what I would bring - here in Ukraine you can dine in a Giant coffin. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/2179867/Restaurant-built-inside-coffin-opens-in-Ukraine.html Flip through the pictures - Maybe they will start catering wakes as well.

Wattle and Daub: Surveying our hut

After a very long absence - Alister and I finally got out to the village to visit our Hut.

Winter was not kind to it and we found a bit more dilapidated than we left it - but still it was great to go out. The current owner has made all sorts of promises to help us fix it up, trim dead trees, and all that other stuff that needs to be done.

Actually - Alister and I have mixed versions of what he actually said and promised- The owner speaks a village mix of Ukrainian and Russian and we have problems understanding him - still the Ukrainians who came with us also had difficulties - so we don't feel too out of the loop.

What we discovered:

Wooden beams and wattle that has been left exposed due to deteriorating daub has rotted. Suggestion - Jack up house and replaces rotted portions while laying a concrete foundation.

Cracked and missing Daub - suggestion. Reapply daub using a dirt, straw and horse manure mixture. Must find horse manure - cow will apparently NOT do - not enough texture - the house will go splat.

The house needs to be whitewashed to protect the daub

We need to do some sort of temporary fix with the roof as next year we'll have even more repairs if we don't do something now.

We need to lay poison for the hundreds of ant colonies that have taken up residence on our property and might find our mud walls a cozy new home

we need to get rid of the (shudder) snakes that are slithering about in our house somewhere ( found evidence of two shed skins - quite bad manners I think to strip down is someones Else's house and leave your clothes hanging from a crack in the ceiling)

July 28 Is R-Day (R for REMONT!!) Alister's friend Pete is coming and so we are figuring out how and what to do with him. And how long we actually can stay in the village without water, and without electricity while up to our ears in mud and manure (not to mention the question as to whether we will be allowed on the bus back to Kiev)

Meanwhile - I've been e-mail every wattle and daub Specialist I can find in the UK and America to find out "What are we supposed to do and How do we start" I even called the ministry of culture here in Ukraine - I mean - In England they have an interest in the historical preservation of buildings - sure there should be something here - they have a whole outdoor archaeological museum of mud huts - so there ought to be some experts somewhere. I finally got through to someone who was very nice - but didn't understand what I wanted - but instead of getting upset and crabby he told me to come to his office next Tuesday - which is exciting and will hopefully produce some other people we can look to for help and advice.

Cherries

As mentioned earlier - fruit has flooded the market and there are cherries galore! I bought a kilo and we just ate it - but with so many cherries I figured that something should actually be done with them - but there was the obstacle of the pits.

I spent several days wandering around different markets - the tables crowded with the multipurpose things - clothes lines, batteries, fingernail brushes - hoping I might find "something to take the stones out of cherries." No one knew what the actual instrument was called - but they all seemed to know about that sort of "thing"
Eventually a helpful person informed me that those things are "rare".
A few more inquiries and someone finally told me that cherries don't have "stones" but rather "little bones". This knowledge greatly aided my inquiries and I soon found a man - who not only knew what I wanted - but actually escorted me to a store where I could buy a cherry pitter.

On the subject of kitchen gadgets - I should mention that growing up - we never owned a cherry pitter. My mom considered it a silly kitchen gadget and that a knife works just as well. Well, my efforts with a knife were far from quick and I decided that if I ever wanted to get a pie, jam, or even ice cream sauce out of the cherries - I would need a Cherry Pitter.

Not only did I get a cherry pitter - but the lovely apparatus includes a garlic press and a nut cracker! Three silly gadgets in one but taking up a 1/3 of the space - well worth it wouldn't you say?

I soon put the pitter to the test - pitting 770 grams of cherries. out of curiosity - I then weighed the pits and the stones - 120 grams! Meaning that cherries are 15% garbage. I'm sure glad i didn't have to pick them - between the picking and the pitting - cherries would take a huge amount of time - sure make me appreciate cherry pie more.

Baskets of Berries

It is officially summer in Ukraine - well maybe it was officially summer 3 weeks ago when the strawberries began appearing in mass. Hundreds of people walking around Kiev with baskets of Strawberries - even though they were often delicately covered with embroidered cloths - you could still tell they were caring berries because of the gorgeous strawberry smell that wafted out of the basket - it was particularly pleasant on the metro - the smell of berries filling the car rather than - well the various other odours that are sometimes present.

Currently in the market you can still find strawberries - though it is the very last of them and prices have started to go back up (at its peak they dropped to 8 uah per kilo - the highest price - right before they really started was 30 uah per kilo) Although the berries don't look too hot right now - being paler in color - the flavor is amazing - incredible sweet and better than the ones we bought earlier that were beautiful reds. You just can't tell by appearances alone.

Added to the strawberries - red currents, black currents, cherries (a huge assortment - but more on cherries later), some raspberries, mulberries (what do you do with mulberries?) and most excitingly - черники or huckleberries. I've decided they are huckleberries (The word can also mean blueberries and a few other random forest blueberry-like berries) because they are 1) collected wild in the forest, are small and a deep purpley/black color, and are sweet, but also slightly tart. However, I'm not an expert so who knows what they really are. They can currently be found for 8 uah per pint.

Anyway, the last few days I have been buying up the last of the strawberries and several черники and freezing them. I love our freezer - it even has a special quick freeze function just for mass freezing like this. I also celebrated by making a Blueberry Buckle - or rather a Черникa Buckle. We were never much for birthday cakes in my family - I normally fluctuated between pumpkin rolls and Brazilian chocolate mousse while Margaret tended towards Cherry Cream cheese pie (not to be confused with a cherry cheese cake - the pie has more cherry while the cheese cake has more cheese) So this year I opted for the blueberry buckle - Unfortunately - My mother's super duper recipe didn't make it through cyberspace in a readable format -
so I used this recipe and it turned out great - just not quite like mom's :-) Here is my mom's recipe that finally arrived in a readable format.

Blueberry Buckle Recipe
Ingredients

1/2 cup shortening
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
2 cups sifted all‑purpose flour
21/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
2 cups fresh blueberries
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup sifted all‑purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 cup butter or margarine

OVEN 350
Thoroughly cream shortening and 3/4 cup sugar add egg and beat till light and fluffy Sift together 2 cups flour, baking powder, and salt; add to creamed mixture alternately with milk. Spread in greased 11 x7xl 1/2‑inch pan. Top with berries. Mix 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 cup flour, and cinnamon; cut in butter till crumbly; sprinkle over berries. Bake at 350' for 45 minutes. Cut in squares. Serve warm

More on the medical situation

A recent article in the Kyiv Post highlights the growing problem with hospitals and medical care in Ukraine. In a former blog post I mentioned some of my impressions upon going to a Ukrainian hospital to visit - which is in high contrast to a private clinic - which I also visited later for a check-up when I was sick for a week. The private clinic was amazing, modern, clean, friendly - and reasonably priced compared to American clinics. In the state hospitals - you have to buy your own bandages, bring your own sheets, pay for someone to wash you, to feed you, to change your bed pan. On top of that you may have to pay additional fees to the doctors - for what should be standard patient care - but at a monthly salary of $150 (just $50 more than a pension payment) what do you expect the doctors to do - they are trying to live and support their families too. Compassion is a hard commodity to come by all over the world, but compassion in the midst of your own discomfort is even rarer.

From the Kyiv Post: http://www.kyivpost.com/nation/29162/
Health care deteriorating, physician shortage likely to grow
by Anna Poludenko, Kyiv Post Staff WriterJun 25 2008, 18:26
Health care professionals in Ukraine fear that a severe doctor shortage is imminent because of low wages and poor working conditions. They are calling on the Ukrainian government to improve the government-financed health care system before it deteriorates further.
Doctors have recently formed a new association called the Ukrainian Medical Union, which is aimed at protecting the rights of doctors and pushing for new working standards. So far, the group has at least 150 members.
“With present working conditions, it is very hard to do your job – sometimes even impossible,” said Volodymyr Zagorodniy, vice head of the Chief Administration on Health Protection of the Kyiv City Administration. “It is not a secret that medical workers have the lowest of salaries.”
The shortage could become particularly acute for specialists treating tuberculosis, one of the main diseases plaguing Ukraine, Zagorodniy said.
With 30 doctors per 10,000 people, Ukraine has the lowest number of doctors in Europe, according to the Ministry of Health. As recently as 2006, according to Ukraine’s State Statistics Committee, there were 48 doctors per 10,000 people.
With chronic low wages, young people living in Ukraine are turned off from studying medicine. Enrollment in medical schools has been dropping since 2005.
And some young talented doctors are leaving for more lucrative business careers, such as in pharmaceuticals.
Medical specialists say the nation urgently needs another 15,800 doctors and that the number could grow within the next five years in the nation of 46 million people.
Yuriy Poliachenko, a surgeon and member of the Ukrainian Medical Union, said political leaders need to take action. Being a doctor is no longer prestigious, Poliachenko said, noting declining enrollment in medical schools.
Enrollment has been dropping since 2005, he said, but he hopes the new union will be able to reverse the trend.
Currently, doctors in Ukraine get paid an average of Hr 711 ($153), less than teachers, who get paid Hr 855 ($184). Industrial workers get paid Hr 1,485 ($320). In March 2008, members of Parliament’s Committee for Health Care created a law that would, if passed, increase salaries by 25 percent. The law however, has not been passed by members of Parliament.
Such conditions have forced doctors to supplement their meager incomes and provide patient care by charging unofficial fees.
“We have a practice of bribes in medicine and that is not a secret, but starting from autumn this year, when we start using medical insurance, I think this will be the first step of fighting it in our society,” Poliachenko said.
But even the off­the­books income supplements apparently aren’t enough to prevent many doctors from leaving the profession.
“Their salaries don’t provide a normal existence,” said Ihor Oliynyk, health counselor at the World Bank’s office in Kyiv. “At the same time people have to study for eight years to get a degree — six years of university and two to get a PhD in medicine. A person has to spend eight years of his life to become a doctor and to work for that little money. It’s not even enough to survive.”

Financial woes not the only problem
Doctors in rural villages often lack proper medical supplies, said Yuriy Gaidayev, a member of Parliament’s Committee for Health Care.
Practicing medicine can also be dangerous in Ukraine, with reports of patients assaulting doctors. According to news reports, for instance, a doctor was shot in Donetsk by the boyfriend of a young girl being treated for alcohol poisoning.
The result, medical experts such as Poliachenko said, is patient care suffers – with sometimes fatal results – if treatment is refused because of lack of payment. Overworked or unskilled doctors also might misdiagnose health ailments, although Poliachenko said the nation keeps no statistics on the problem.
Oleh Musiy, head of the All­Ukraine Doctors’ Union, said that “all these reasons for poor social support of doctors influence drastically the level of treatment.”

13 cups

The first time I bought washing powder (AKA Laundry Detergent), there wasn't a single measuring cup inside for dispensing - but fortunately we had one laying about the place and so we were able to measure out our loads without a hitch.

This last time I bought washing powder, I opened it up, and right on top there was a measuring cup. Great, I thought and set it aside to wash it and use it for other things since the old one was actually better for pouring and not making a mess. A dozen loads of laundry later, and I find a second cup. Hmm. Well I suppose I can find a use for that too. Two loads of laundry later, I'm scooping up powder and hit something hard. A bit of digging and I pull out a tower of 11 laundry cups! I just hope that my weight of laundry powder wasn't significantly reduced by all these measuring cups. Meanwhile, I'm trying to figure out creative uses for 13, 250 ml plastic measuring cups.

On colds

So the last week has been characterized by hot, hot weather, cool breezes, and almost daily downpours. Raining buckets takes on new meaning.
The persnickety weather probably has helped contribute to a head cold last week which turned into a fever this week. Somehow I never learn to really take it easy and get well before I start going again. But if I had to pick a time to get sick - this would have been it - On Sunday, Alister asked me - "So what are your plans for tomorrow?" After Russian classes finished I had a whirlwind couple of weeks with a conference and some "culture" classes I was teaching to fill in for someone leaving on vacation - but as of Monday- all that busyness evaporated - In order to avoid illness, it is absolutely vital not to let ones guard down - the cold, flue, or distemper always knows when the rush of adrenaline and push to study or work eases up and it is then that it never fails to strike. I should have known better, the stuffy nose, hoarse voice, and slightly sore throat were more than enough to tell me that I was not yet into the healthy zone - but instead all I could say in answer to Alister's question was "I don't know - maybe I could finish cleaning the house, or copy out my Russian notes."
It turns out that I spent the first day in bed with a fever - sleeping at least 20 full hours, the second day in bed, still with a fever but able to sit up and read and eat and so I ploughed through 100+ pages of Brother's Karamazov (my "light" summer read - if anything Dostoevsky can build up suspense - pg 275 and still nothing "bad" has happened but we've all been expecting a murder or worse since, well basically the first sentence, which mentioned a "gloomy and tragic death").
Today I am feeling slightly better - though not quite 90% yet and so am continuing to read BK and am going to see how many spurts of housework I can accomplish.