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May 01,2008 (2)
Greetings ! We are obviously spending too
much time studying – time to catch up with the correspondence.
We do spend several hours a day trying to learn Russian. Most of
the time we think it is probably a lost cause. We are learning
to have a great deal of respect for people who learn two languages
– and many people we have met know more than two. They certainly
must have better brains than we do…
We think we mentioned in a previous letter that
inflation is a problem (14% the last three months). They are
trying to do what they can to get it under control, and banks are
now offering certificates of deposit for 16%. Loan rates have
also increased significantly in their effort to get people to not
put money into circulation. As for us, we have been watching the
exchange rates go down, and already our Peace Corps “salary”,
currently about $4 per day American, appears to buy less than when
we first came.
We have been doing a little more exploring of
the history of Chernihiv, and among other things we found a
building in their downtown now used by the history department of
the local university. During Soviet times however it was the KGB
building, and in 1991/1992 when the Soviets moved out and the
history department inherited the building, in the process of
cleaning out the basement they found the remains of many bodies,
and evidence of torture equipment .
We also found the local train station, a
beautiful large structure built by the Soviets about 40 years ago.
Zillions of tracks!! We walked out on an overhead pedestrian
walkway that goes over all of them. Inside the station we found
the schedule board. For about $40 U.S. we could hop on a train at
4:45 p.m. and be in Moscow the next morning at 5:00 a.m.
Unfortunately, we are forbidden by the Peace Corps to leave the
country for the first six months. They seem to worry that we
won’t come back. But we do intend to get to Moscow and St.
Petersburg sometime before we go home, either by train or plane
from Kiev. Aeroflot flies there from Kiev, round-trip is
currently about $250 American. As time goes on we are sure that
we will become quite familiar with the trains though as overnight
trains are about the only affordable way for us to get anywhere;
Megan’s train to Kiev for Easter weekend was 12 hours (plus a 2
hour marshrytka ride to Chernihiv) one way, and Eunice’s was 14
hours (plus 2 hour marshrytka) one way. First class on the
trains is a two person sleeping compartment, second class is a
four person sleeping compartment, and third class sounds like an
open free for all with benches. We do hear though that on first
and second class they give you sheets, so we may not need the
sleeping bags we brought (the Peace Corps had sent us a list of
what to bring – we brought sleeping bags but drew the line at the
tent).
We met John LaPlante. Famous local personage
from the last Peace Corps group, the one that came last fall. He
is 78 years old, has traveled the world and written books and left
his lady friend Annabel in California to join the Peace Corps.
He has not learned Russian, and expects everyone to speak to him
in either English or French. (They do.) He got to stay in
Chernihiv, and is assigned to a local “college” that also has a
big language school. His job is to wander into English and
French classes now and then and help. He just got back from China
- for some reason his publisher talked him into publishing his
latest book there, so he was there for the grand whatever it is
they do when you come out with a new book. Annabel met him in
China, and they also went to a wedding. He talks and talks and
talks and talks, but is fun to listen to and get his perspective
on what is going on (again, he doesn’t really intend to learn
Russian, he just wants to live here for a couple years).
Coca cola is everywhere here. No Pepsi,
Mountain Dew or anything else, but lots of Coke and coke
products. They do not have diet coke, but sometimes you can find
something called Coca Cola Light. It tastes like diet, but except
for the few American tourists it doesn’t seem to have really
caught on.
There is one McDonalds in Chernihiv, a really
big one that they built downtown. It seems to be popular, but it
is also beside a big bazaar (open air market) and is on a busy bus
stop. We haven’t eaten there so don’t know much about the
food. So far we have not found any other American franchise
restaurants or anything else for that matter.
We have yet to see or hear of a rain gauge, but
we are not surprised because since about April 15th it rains ALL
THE TIME. Especially noticeable because: 1) we walk almost
everywhere, and 2) a lot of the streets and walkways (going
through people’s yards is an accepted method of getting where you
are going) are not paved and are dirt. The street where we live
(Partizanska) is not paved. There are two ways to walk to Oila’s
in the morning; after it rains only one of them is really
usable. Reminds us of home and our road at Timberwoods before
it was paved.
Most afternoons we stop at the bazaar on the
way home and buy fruit for the next day’s lunch. The babushka
(think grandmother type) we tend to buy from uses an abacus to add
up our bill. If we buy both oranges and bananas, she will weigh
the bananas to get the cost, then weigh the oranges to get the
cost, and then use a small hand held calculator to add it all
up. We don’t think she trusts the calculator however, because
she will then use an abacus to re-add it. Then she charges us
whatever the abacus says. We have looked around the bazaars, and
most of the babushkas do use an abacus. Rather interesting to
watch.
There is beer and alcohol everywhere. Every
bus or trolleybus stop has a kiosk, with lots of beer and other
alcohol products, lots of cigarettes, and some pop. (These are the
kiosks that it took us about a week to figure out.) There appears to
be no age restriction to buying anything.
Okay - back to the homework. Please keep
sending us e-mails - it is always good to hear from you all !
Don and Karen
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