Kiev Shock, Part One

I guess, to a certain extent, I had yet to comprehend how isolated I really was. Life in my town had become a routine. I had grown accustomed to its idiosyncracies, nooks and crannies. The world beyond was far, far, away, something about which I could fascinate on the internet or deify with my friends but very far removed from the realm of what is real.

Thats why my first trip to Kiev was, in many ways, an entirely different kind of culture shock, one that for me was incredibly jarring. As much as I claimed otherwise, I came to the Peace Corps with a certain set of expectations, or perhaps the lack thereof is a more accurate depiction. I expected to have no internet, no toilet, no electricity, no fucking clue what people were saying or what was going on. Anything above this basic level was a bonus, an unnecessary luxury. So even when I had to poop down a hole and hand wash my clothes and newborn pops were euthanized at the age of one day (see earlier entries) this was all still what I had signed up for, all still part of the deal. This past Thursday, however, my cluster and I took our initial foray into Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, an hour and a world away from the Ukraine I have come to know.

Kiev is a grand city, a cross between Warsaw, Vienna, and perhaps a Slavic man’s Paris. It has wide boulevards and beautifully domineering architecture. It is a Soviet City grappling with its new world identity, rife with new sky scrapers the locals hate and cheap vacant lots developers love. Our cluster didn’t have a long time to spend wandering the city that afternoon. We arrived around 4, and our first order of business took us to a local bank in order to take out or overwhelmingly large (read: meager) salaries, 2/3 of which goes to our host families. Not that I’m complaining, really. I have had more than enough to live on, and the relatively manageable cost of living in my town has staved off financial disaster.

After the bank we headed towards the Peace Corps administration office, a heavily guarded compound in Kiev. Here we had an incredibly interesting experience. We ran into another cluster of volunteers whom we hadn’t seen since our retreat upon arrival. The first moments were incredibly exciting, as if we were meeting up with our long lost friends. Then the harsh reality set in that we really didn’t know each other at all, that each of us had shared perhaps a few fleeting conversations, and all we really had to talk about was who had to shit outside. Upon leaving the PC office, we gave ourselves a sort of forced separation---we could have walked the city together, but it would have been awkward. We wanted to have more to say to each other, but for some strange reason, we didn’t.

We decided with the small amount of time we had left to head towards the Chrishatnik, Kiev largest street leading up to its famous Independence Square. This is the same area of the city where, five plus years ago, young Ukranians showed up in droves, camping out on this broad avenue protesting an unfair election, an orange revolution most Ukranians now deem a failure.

While wandering the square with my friends, watching street performers and young men selling fake watches and DVDs, I was reminded of a quick G-chat convo i had with my friend Jonah. He remarked, that in the age of the internet, it was as if I never left. I immediately thought, “it sure as hell seems to me that I left.” But wandering this massive place with massive buildings in the city know as the pinnacle of Soviet architecture, I truly did forget I was in Ukraine.

For dinner that night we had Pizza and beer in a tourist trap overlooking the square, and I shared my thoughts with my fellow volunteers. “Doesn’t it feel nice to feel like we could be anywhere, isn’t it great to know that there is so much more to this country than the small town we have come to know.”

As we left Kiev and headed back home that night, the rest of my cluster were upset that this trip ended so quickly. We had finally discovered this whole other Ukraine, one wwe had seen on wikitravel and now with our own eyes. As we rode on the train home, reflecting on our experiences, I couldnt help but be filled with a feeling of anxious anticipation. The very next night, for the Jewish sabbath, I was going to be attending my very first Shabbat at Kiev’s historic central synagogue. This was just Part one of my Kiev adventure.

Kiev, Jews, and my small Ukranian town...a convoluted triumvirate that I am only beginning to comprehend.


Part two to come in the next few days...