8 November

Since the last time I sat down, I have been through a Halloween party and visited a different country. Also stopped by an English class for Forest Institute grad students, met them at a party a week later, had no email (so sorry if I haven’t replied to any) and met a bunch of volunteers from my group. Put it that way and my time seems to be fairly busy. If I could only convince myself of that on a daily basis that my life is busy, at least I go to bed exhausted every night.

To try and organize it in a chronological order lets back up to Monday, still back in last month, with the forestry institute. I got a call from a fellow volunteer that he had been invited to speak at this institutes English class, basically to just allow them to hear some other English speakers and he saw it as a way to expand the tree planting project that I have been working on. It worked out well because the teacher, a senior Fulbright scholar got not one, not two, but three additional Americans to come and speak at the class. Since Cameron, a guy who trained with me was in town. It was a major jump forward with my grant project, since I had heard that they money would be available and now I had volunteers to help me with more of the technical information, it was a pretty darn cool.

So that Halloween party, I will have pictures on my Flickr site soon, so you can see a first-hand account there, but the basic story is my younger English club in Dobrotvir wanted to have a Halloween party, so I helped them organize it, they did most of the work and I made sure to support them. We had games, like bobbing for apples, a mummy wrap, pictures from that are hilarious, food and a lot of candy. Think there is quite a bit of it left over, not sure. But it seemed to be a hit and everyone walked away happy that night, I had two other volunteers there too, and they had just as much fun. I can’t complain.

The next big event was Cameron’s and my trip to Poland. It was classic Ukraine travel experience. To start it off, we knew that the bus left at 11 a.m. in a different town and the only way we could get there was to catch a bus from my town at 7:30 a.m. The next left about 10:30 and wouldn’t get there in time. So we got to Chervonograd. A charming (not so much) city constructed around coal mining and isn’t the safest or cleanest place. I enjoy comparing the bus station we waited in to the spaceport Luke Skywalker went to in the first movie. A dingy place with a lot of shady characters. Thankfully the cold weather kept most of the beggars at home. To add the adventure we tried to buy tickets for this bus not knowing how many people might be going and were told that we needed to come back later. So we did and were told the same thing. The last time we asked was about 10:30 and was told the same thing, yet again. My personal philosophy, which has served me well in about 90 percent of cases, just get on the bus and pay the driver. That way I know I am at least going. So Cameron and I walk out to the bus and are securing his luggage under the bus when I get asked if I have any cigarettes. My only reply was I don’t smoke, but my buddy has some. As Cameron tried to offer him a cigarette, he completely ignored it and was eager for me to take a box of cigarettes across the border for him. Only I didn’t figure this out until about 5 minutes later after about three other people had asked me the same question. I was getting to meet the (in) famous cigarette smuggles I had been warned about. So after I said I had already promised another guy I would carry some they lost interest until they heard we were Americans living in Ukraine and single. It gave a group of middle-aged ladies something to talk about for the entire trip. Not that I paid too much attention, mostly just caught snatches of my town name, my name and American. Probably trying to think of a good woman for me. Common problem.

So we take off and the bus is not full, maybe half full, but the excitement was just getting underway. I’m seeing piles of cigarettes and alcohol when people are only allowed to take across two boxes and a little bit of alcohol. Taxes are a lot lower in Ukraine so it can be profitable to carry stuff across the border and sell it again. People are hiding cigarettes in nooks and crannies in the bus, stuffing them into black nylon stockings and hiding them under seats when smoke starts pouring into the bus. We are sort of looking around in disbelief as the cabin is filling with smoke when Cameron pipes up with, “I think we have a problem.” That brings the place down and as we pull over to the side of the road windows are being opened to try and vent out the smoke. Our bus caught fire. As the driver gets out, the problems stems from the heater. We had boarded the bus still being able to see our breath and the heater was a nice touch to warm up my cold feet. Unfortunately it was too good to last, of course, and after the heater was turned off we got back on our way, the smoke eventually cleared.

Once we got to the border the pace of hiding cigarettes got really frenzied. After we all skated through the Ukrainian side without issue. The only question I didn’t understand was if I had any books. Then the only sound I heard was the ripping of scotch tape and people hurrying around the bus stashing their last bit of contraband. I was also handed my package of cigarettes and booze to carry across the border. So once we had our passports stamped we all bundled out of the bus for the Polish authorities to play the who has too many cigarettes and alcohol game. There was a cursory check through our bags (they didn’t bother us Americans too much, probably not smart enough to try and smuggle something), and then got to the real game of hide-and-seek on the bus while we all watched on the outside. The officials then came back with a bag of their seized contraband and we all re-boarded the bus. In a moment Cameron and I didn’t really understand the smugglers immediately started looking in their hiding places to see what had made it through. Cigarettes that had been hidden around us didn’t seem to do too well although other people did better. What we didn’t understand was here we were still parked in the Polish border check and people are running all over the bus to see what they were successful in hiding. Amazing…
After a trip like that, Poland itself had a lot to live up to for entertainment. Our running joke was Peace Corps volunteers look forward to vacationing in more developed countries. Poland was definitely that. One of the first things we noticed was better roads and better taken care of buildings on the whole. Another difference took a little longer to notice, but Polish people don’t use plastic bags as much to cart their stuff around. In Ukraine if you don’t have your packet with “Hugo Boss” emblazoned on the side or some other bag of a random company you stand out. I stand out because I use a backpack to cart my stuff around. In Poland people used backpacks and suitcases to carry their stuff. I even saw a garment bag, it was amazing. The transportation system where we were was a bus system running on Natural Gas, amazing, although I prefer the Ukrainian system of waving down an oversized van and piling in, they are easier to figure out, and I don’t have to try and figure out a payment system based on distance when I don’t know exactly where I am going or how to say much more than thank you, yes and no in Polish.

The other predominant thing I noticed in Poland was it was cold, although it was and is cold in Ukraine as well, I was hoping to spend more time outside, not running from one place to another. From the pictures you can see we visited two different castles and it was snowing. The second one we saw was in a town called Lancut (sp?). It was more of a mansion, from my guidebook it once was owned by one of the wealthiest people in Poland, who fled before the soviets in 1944 or so with a huge amount art to Liechtenstein. But there was enough left over to make it a museum. We planned to go inside until we found out it was 21 zloty per person. Or about $7. A little much for my budget. So we looked at the snow covered grounds and called it a day.

The trip back to Ukraine wasn’t nearly as interesting, but wasn’t completely normal. Shortly before the border we stopped to pick up a guy who hauled a lot of bags of something heavy on board and started stuffing it behind the driver’s seat and in some hidden compartments. To Poland the driver didn’t seem as involved but this time the driver was fully involved, but this time around we hardly blinked an eye, just curious what it was they were hiding. Cameron thought it might be clothing or shoes. I just saw plastic bags. But this time going across the border into Ukraine the entire search of the bus was a couple of soldiers walking down the aisle stopping to ask one woman if she had any products and tapping on panels. We all got to stay in the bus. I wasn’t very scared.

So there you go, international travel Peace Corps style, much more exciting than normal and really not any more stressful.