Voda, Ne Nado!
Trip Start
Sep 30, 2005
1
10
20
Trip End
Ongoing
Armiansk,
Ukraine
Friday, January 6, 2006
water in our apartment is under remont (repair). Being lucky during
training, I had running water everyday. Even though I didn't have an
actual shower or running hot water, the warming up of water on the
stove for the bucket bath was a daily ritual that I grew to get used
to. Okay, let this be the hardest thing I have to deal with.
Then later that evening, the water reappeared, however, I decided to
wait until morning to shower being that I didn't have to be anywhere
at any specific time because of the holidays. Then I could take my
time as everyone else would be out and I wouldn't have to worry about
spending too much time in the bathroom. I could even blow dry my hair
and not have it get all messed up after sleeping on it. I'm not sure
why I haven't learned that planning ahead in the FSU is an exercise in
futility…the next morning; I woke up, went to the bathroom, and
discovered that the water was not working. Again. Frustrating.
Let this be my largest annoyance living in Ukraine, and my PC service
should go well. Nevertheless, running water (or not running as the
case may be), something that is so seemingly basic to have is not. I
sometimes wonder, as do some of my colleagues, the necessity of peace
corps in a country like Ukraine which is so seemingly developed
compared to many of the other countries that Peace Corps serves in
around the world. I guess you have to take into account what the
definition of development is and what stages that entails, but I think
that's a larger discussion for another time. I go to Kiev, walk by a
fancy mall with a Bentley dealer in it, located across the street from
a TGIF Fridays, splurge on a 2 UAH (Ukrainian currency) Georgian
pastry and a 20oz bottle of Coke Light, and wonder, why I am here…But
then I board a 12 hour train to Armiansk and see another side of
Ukraine. You don't have to travel 12 hours outside of Kiev to see
this, my training site was a 2 hour commuter-train (or electrichka in
Russian) ride away, and you could have seen it there…. The huge
disparity of wealth between Kiev and its Bentley dealership to the
shabby Kruchev flats, bounty of stray cats and dogs (the chickens that
were so prevalent in my training site I guess taken due to Bird Flu
paranoia), and unpaved roads carrying soviet style cars that look like
a negative glance in their direction would make them stall out here in
the north of Crimea is quite startling.
I know PCVs all over the world and we all face different challenges-
heat, tropical diseases, freezing temperatures, fish/sheep heads for
diner, unreliable (if any) internet/communication/electricity access,
public transportation woes, lines at the post office and bank,
bats/bugs/rodents, troubling cultural aspects of our host country
(alcoholism, male chauvinism, spousal abuse, racism), unrelenting
poverty and epidemic, economic decline/stagnation, corruptness, and
loneliness just to name a few…
Even though some of these seem harder to deal with than others, in the
end we are all serving one common purpose (three actually) and that is
that our host countries have invited us to work and live amongst them
in an effort to assist them develop. No matter if you serve in "Posh
Corps" or "Beach Corps", this is applicable: the challenge is to find
your own individual niche in all of this and to serve your community
as best you can with what you have available.
Ok, now to check if the water is back on…
