Travelling back in time to the days of the Kyivan Rus can be an elusive goal. There is one small town that hasn’t quite lost that Kyivan Rus feeling…Novhorod Siversky. 180 km east of where I am in Chernihiv, the Spaso-Preobrazhensky Monastery, a complex of wood shingled buildings and green domed churches surrounded by 19th century country houses and perched over the banks of the Desna River should prove to be a treat…looking forward to the trip there this weekend.
Later,
Mike
CHERNOBYL / 25 YEARS LATER
A quarter of a century ago, people here in Chernihiv had no clue that a most disastrous event had happened only 40 miles west in the village of Chernobyl (about the same distance from St. Charles, Illinois to Chicago). People were unaware that every breath of fresh spring air contained harmful radiation. It was a sunny day and the sky was blue. The explosion at the nuclear plant in Chernobyl was not known to the people in Chernihiv for over a week. The deadly accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant on April 26, 1986, released huge amounts of dangerous radiation into the air, contaminating millions and leading to the relocation of more than 300,000 people. Thousands of children were born with birth defects or complications such as genetic cardiac disease and scientists expect that thousands more could still die from radiation induced cancer. Chernobyl is still surrounded by a 18 mile exclusion zone where people are forbidden to live. Transparency was not on the agenda in Soviet-era Ukraine when the Chernobyl disaster struck. Information was not available as the government in Moscow was more concerned with protecting its reputation rather than its citizens. In the early days after the explosion, the authorities did their utmost to cover up the immensity of the disaster. The lack of information lead to an intense paranoia here in Chernihiv and even in the city of Kyiv, 60 miles to the south. People here relied on foreign media to find out about the event. High levels of radiation where detected in Sweden.
Meanwhile, rumors circulated about the best ways to deal with radiation contamination. Parents would slip iodine into their children’s food as a treatment but that proved to be largely inefective. People were drinking red wine believing that it was cleaning the system because they heard that Soviet submarine sailors were given red wine as part of their daily diet to clean their systems of radiation. Unfortunately, some people took this further and decided that any alcohol could do the job of radiation cleansing. The authorities eventually aired television segments which pronounced that small doses of radiation were actually beneficial to health!
People sent their children off on trains with notes that said here is the name of my child, please take care of him. It was a sad time in Soviet Ukraine and how the Chernobyl event was handled was one of the factors which lead to independence in 1991.
Early Easter morning, starting at 4 am, a solemn procession of thousands were in the streets of Chernihiv headed for the churches with baskets of food to be blessed for, some with lighted candles. It was incredible, actually, to see this event. Then according to tradition, all headed back home for an early morning feast and, maybe, a little vodka (all before 7 am on Easter morning!) The architecture of the churches is, generally, a Ukrainian Baroque and has had a vast influence on all of architecture in Ukraine. The church I have gone to dates from 1036 but others have been virtually rebuilt since being destroyed in World War Two.
Pysanky are decorated eggs which are an ancient Slavonic art surviving here in Ukraine. They are beautiful handcrafted works of art and not
just made for Easter.
Greetings from Chernihiv
It is with grateful excitement that the Peace Corps in Chernihiv has been invited by the Mayor to a special presentation on Friday afternoon at the Chernihiv Academic Ukrainian Theatre of Music and Drama (in photo attached with horse rider in Red Square)
to celebrate the twentienth anniversary of the independence of Ukraine from the former Soviet Union. We are to receive a special letter of invitation from the Mayor. Looks like this is a big deal. It is scheduled to last for 2 1/2 hours. I’d better wear my best tie for that event! It will be a priviledge to attend.
Otherwise, today was a grueling 3 1/2 hours of regular Russian classes, a half hour of technical language training (for example: У меня есть работы в архитектуре, и дизайне строительных проектов…yikeski!) and 1 1/2 hours of one on one tutoring from Natasha (my brain is going to взрывать!).
Today, also, our class of 5 spent an hour at the bazaar buying stuff for stuffed cabbage rolls we will make tomorrow – a cultural training and language exercise (think survival!). The carcasses in the meat market were очень интересный! (very interesting!) and the skinned rabbits still had their furry little feet (not so lucky rabbit’s feet!)
The shopping list and menu:
cabbage, of course
rice
tomato sauce
ground meat
onions
black pepper
carrots
potatoes
eggs
and sour cream, of course!
Everything we needed cost about 98 hryvnya, 87 kopecks (or about $12.25 total for a meal for 5 of us!)
O.K., so now I need to have dinner and then study more Russian. Tetyana’s kitchen is calling with yet another great Ukrainian meal.
До свидания,
Майк
Have been in Chernihiv now for a week and am settling in well, eating well (lots of borscht and chicken, with tea). I have enjoyed staying in a nice apartment with my home stay “mom”. Actually, Tonya (Tatiana) may be younger than me. She is paid by the Peace Corps to prepare meals, help me practice Russian and introduce me into the community. Last Sunday we participated in lively discussions at an English Club at the local library. I did not participate in discussions about politics but did enjoy conversations about language learning and genetic propagation of plants.
My location here is close to some of Chernihiv’s great historic architecture. The city is on the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites. Its golden domed churches and towers of several cathedrals and monasteries come into view from the countryside on the approaching roads.
Today our small “cluster group” of five introduced ourselves (along with other groups), in Russian, to city officials of Chernihiv. The meeting took place in a magnificant city council chambers with a grand scale and intricate classical detailing. We hope to be working on projects with city soon and expect it to be a rewarding cultural exchange.
For now, Russian language lessons with cultural and technical training fill the days.
Пока!
Mike
Have been in Chernihiv, Ukraine, enjoying the culture and the beautiful transition from the countryside to a view of St. Catherine’s Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral as we approached by bus. We are staying at a hotel in this city of 350,000 before meeting our host families on Friday. Chenihiv is a beautiful historic city about 70 miles north of the capital city of Kyiv and about 40 miles east of Chornobyl. We had a Ukrainian welcome with servers in traditional dress with a beautiful bread to be dipped in salt.
Greetings to Mrs. Osman’s eighth grade classes at St. Peter School in Geneva, Illinois. I am happy to welcome the students to this blog site and look forward to your participation in my adventures in Ukraine. Its Tuesday, March 22 and I am in Washington, DC for “staging” with the Peace Corps in anticipation of the long flight this evening to Frankfort, Germany and on to Kyiv. Kyiv is the cradle of all that is Russian and is a beautiful city. Founded in about 1500, the city is rich in historic architecture…stay tuned for my reports and photos!
“Kyiv” is the correct spelling for the city often spelled “Kiev” in America. According to a “Resolution of the Ukrainian Commission for legal terminology, No. 5, Protocal no. 1 of October 14, 1995″ and on the basis fo expert analysis by the Ukkrainian Language Institute regarding the Rjoman letter correspondence to the language geographic name of Kiev…”Kyiv” is adopted as official, corresponding to the Ukrainian name Київ.
March 21, 2011…then starts the adventure. A 7:05 am flight takes me to Washington, DC for the Ukraine Staging Event. On Tuesday, March 22. a flight departs for Frankfort, Germany and on to Kiev, Ukraine to begin Peace Corps service.
Staging is a pre-departure orientation which is to be brief yet comprehensive and intense. It will be the start of a whole new world to be played out in the next twenty-seven months in the United States Peace Corps.
Stay tuned…
“It is not the level of prosperity that makes for happiness but the size of a man’s heart and the way he looks at the world. Both attitudes are within our power…a man is happy so long as he chooses to be happy, and no one can stop him.”
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Александр Солженйцын
Ukraine was the first successor nation of the Soviet Union to invite the Peace Corps to establish a program. Volunteers in Ukraine work throughout the country to help Ukrainians develop approaches to effect positive change and skills necessary for communication in the global community. Since achieving independence in 1991, Ukraine has taken steps toward representative democracy, political plualism and a free-market economy. Recently, a dramatic proliferation throughout Ukraine of small business startups and new community organizations signals a country on the move and a people increasingly taking advantage of their new freedoms. In response to Ukraine’s expressed needs, Peace Corps Volunteers work in areas of Community Development, English language education and youth development.
Mike Dixon
Peace Corps Community Developer/Ukraine 2011-2013
