Observing the Ukrainian Elections: Part II

And now, Ukrainian Elections: The Thrilling Conclusion:

Peter and Darka informed me that there was a meeting for the L'viv election observers at Darka's apartment at 10 am Saturday morning. In attempting to find this apartment, I got a little lost. Took the bus to the city center with no problem, but got on the tram going the wrong direction and ended up who-knows-where. Fortunately I got off with no harm done and found the tram going the opposite direction. On the opera house square, I was met by David, a Canadian election observer. He helped me find my way back to Darka's. A lengthy meeting then commenced, during which we received our assignments and were paired into groups.

The generals, Stephan and Russell, plan strategy in the war room. Interesting tidbit: Stephan is a lawyer who actually helped to draft the Ukrainian constitution. Pretty cool huh?

By the time we'd been over all of this, it was near 2 pm. Then, Darka decided, it was time for us to go out to some polling places. There was general grumbling amongst the group at this, since many of us had other plans in the evening (Russell and I were both planning to go to a Halloween party hosted by Charitie). Nonetheless, we headed out to Horodok, one of the regions we were in charge of covering.

Before we could head out, though, we had to collect the missing members of our team, Peter and Talia. So the rest of us waited at a convenience store for over an hour while our driver went back to get them. Thus began a long and frustrating excursion to Horodok. For all the frustration, though, that driver *was* awesome. He kept buying us candy and cookies and he insisted on helping me out of the van every single time (to the point where I was forced to announce to everyone that I was not, in fact, made of glass).

Voting booths at the DEC

Ballot boxes at the DEC. This was the most patriotic room ever.

We went to the DEC, the regional polling office where all of us would ultimately be escorting our ballots at the end of election day. We also visited several other polling locations, filling out forms about whether all the protocol had been followed in terms of no campaign propaganda, ballot boxes being sealed properly, cameras placed properly, etc. etc.

For example, this "Svoboda" sign was against the rules.

Darka wanted each of us to have a turn filling out a form, which meant that this process took forever and we didn't actually get back to L'viv until after 8, by which point it was really too late to go to the Halloween party. Instead, Talia, Russell, Peter, and I went out for pizza and then returned home. We were all annoyed at the long day, knowing that tomorrow would be even longer.

David brought the car to pick me up around 5:40 the next morning. He had brought with him not only a driver, but also a translator and a friend of his. So, crammed into the back of this car with 4 strange guys, I rode to Mostyska, the town on the other side of Horodok. Now, L'viv is pretty far west in Ukraine, Horodok is west of L'viv, and Mostyska is even farther west than that. During some of our excursions we were even farther west than Mostyska, so far out we were very near the Polish border. In fact, once when we stopped to ask directions I heard David say "Gencouya" and "Dobje" instead of "Dyakuyu" and "Dobre"-- Polish instead of Ukrainian :)

Oh, that was the longest day of my life. Our driver was from the area, so he felt it was very important to take us to the smaller villages, despite the state of the roads-- they were really more pothole than road. It also began to snow, and everything was cold and wet and muddy. I was very glad that I had worn my snow boots. In all we visited 14 polling locations, opening at one, closing at another, and visiting 12 in between. We interviewed the committee leaders, observed voting, and examined the stations. At several places, the poll workers gave us coffee and tea and offered us food from their potluck meals they had brought from home. It was all delicious, and I was so full by the end. At our last polling location, we were supposed to stay after they closed and the doors were locked, and to stay until every vote was counted. At our poll this took a really long time... we didn't end until about 5 am!

We escorted the ballots back to the DEC and had to wait for them to be accepted-- a process which somehow was expedited when we showed our IDs and told the police that we were international observers and we were in a hurry. It was all like something out of a Soviet-era movie-- being ushered through a crowd of waiting people by a couple of police officers into a noisy, messy back room where votes were being read, numbers called, and ballots collected. I can't say I approved of it, but thank God it let us get out of there such that I could finally get back to the dorm by around 6 and to sleep by 7 or so.

I have never been more exhausted in my life. I had been not only awake, but working, for over 24 hours. Not to mention the 3 crappy nights of sleep before that and all the stress generated by the trip. Now, I didn't want to sleep too long because I didn't want to miss the following night of sleep. So I napped until a little after 1 pm, which gave me about 6 hours of sleep.

It was around the point that I got back to the dorm that I discovered my camera was missing. I had been using it during the elections. The memory card had been filled, so I'd put it back in my purse, and I never saw it again after that. I don't know if it was stolen or if it just fell out somewhere. Either way, I'm really mad about it. Not bad enough I'll have to replace a $100-plus camera-- but I also lost all my pictures that I took in the villages and driving through the beautifully snowy hills! Major bummer. But at this point, I was pretty much too exhausted to care.

That evening I went out with the L'viv Fulbrighters as well as a couple of the election observers and my Ukrainian friend Mariana. We went to (probably the only) Tex-Mex restaurant in L'viv, which is owned by an American guy. What an interesting time. The food wasn't all that great, though it's possible we just got the wrong dishes. In any case, the corn bread WAS really good, and I promised Mariana I'd teach her how to make it :)

I was really glad I had made the decision to stay that extra night in L'viv, because it would have been a million times more stressful if I had to leave on a train that very same day. Instead I was able to get a night's sleep before heading back to Vinnytsia.

The train ride back was the best one I've had so far. My coupé was shared by an older Ukrainian couple who were from Yalta. The woman especially was really nice, chatting with me despite my terrible Russian and offering me some of their homemade dinner-- it was so good, especially because I hadn't had time to stop and grab any food on my way out of L'viv and I wouldn't get back to Vinnytsia until after 4.

The next morning I got up to teach Tanya's class. It was Halloween, so I talked to them about this holiday and how we celebrate it in the U.S. They all know about it, of course, since they watch many of our television shows, but they really enjoyed the pictures I brought and my descriptions of carving Jack o' lanterns and so on. Then, fortuantely, I was able to relax for the rest of the day until I went over to Tanya's for dinner. She had picked some pumpkins from their garden for us to carve, and I brought The Nightmare Before Christmas to show to her and her husband. Of course I had to sing along :)

Tanya and her husband were so excited I was there to show them how to take part in this tradition :)

Yesterday Tanya and I went on a shopping trip, on which I finally bought some good boots of the kind that Ukrainians wear, and a nice gray wool coat. I am so happy with my purchases-- they were expensive, but worth every kopeck. I am sure I will get a picture sooner or later-- perhaps when I actually have a camera again.

So, tomorrow I teach the high school students again, and then Sunday I am back off to Kyiv AGAIN for the Fulbright ETA orientation. I am getting so sick of traveling!!!! It will be nice to stay in one place for a while once the orientation is over. I can't wait!

Observing the Ukrainian Elections: Part I

Far too much happened within the past week to be condensed into a single blog entry, so I will have to make installments.

I'll start at the very beginning, it's a very good place to start. :)

I had signed up months ago with the Ukrainian Canadian Congress (a Canadian organization for Ukrainian diaspora) to join the hundreds of international observers monitoring the Ukrainian parliamentary elections on October 28th. After working with this organization, I don't mind telling you that it is the worst-run, most disorganized group I have ever worked with, and I definitely would think twice about working with them again. But hey... tse Ukraina.

(After they changed the date 3 times,) I knew our orientation would be at 8:30 AM on October 25th. I did not yet know in which city I would be observing the elections. Twice the UCCA had sent me forms to fill out about my preferences for where to be sent, whether I would need accommodations and train tickets, etc. etc. Twice I had completed these forms: twice I told them that Vinnytsia was my first choice, L'viv my second, and beyond that I didn't care; and that yes, I would need accommodations unless I was in Vinnytsia, and yes, I would need train tickets.

By the day I was to leave for Kyiv (Wednesday the 24th) I still did not know for certain where I was to be placed. I'd emailed them to ask; they hadn't answered. Jack (the other ETA) had called them and they'd told him they hoped to send me to Vinnytsia, but then they sent me an email the next morning saying they hoped to send me to L'viv. Then the final list was sent out (but not to me, Jack had to forward his), and it listed me in Vinnytsia. I thought probably this meant I was coming back home to Vinnytsia, but I packed an extra set of clothes just in case. Anyway, I was more concerned that I had not heard any word of where I was meant to be staying that night. Starting to panic, I tried to find a hotel in Kyiv, but many were full. I finally got ahold of UCCA to ask whether they had made arrangements; they had not, but they assured me they would. I was literally about to board my train when they finally called to inform me that they had booked me a room at Hotel Ukraina... for 800 hryven (about $100) that night. Expensive! But I was glad to have a place to stay, at least.

After that harrowing afternoon panicking about not having a place to stay, I finally arrived in Kyiv, took the metro to the hotel, and secured my room around 10 pm. Hotel Ukraina is very nice... a Soviet high-rise at the very center of town, right behind Maydan Nezalezhnosti.

See? Right behind the freedom monument.

So I was annoyed they couldn't have put me up someplace cheaper, but glad the place was reasonably nice.

My room on the 10th floor of Hotel Ukraina

What really made the place almost worth it, though, was the view from the balcony!

View this one full-size. I promise it's worth it! I am really pleased with how well the pano came out, and at night no less!

I didn't sleep too well, however, because the room was hot and there was noise from the street, and I was still feeling a lot of residual stress from all that had happened that day. All in all I only slept maybe 3 or 4 hours. I got up around 7 for breakfast at the hotel, then afterwards got back on the metro to Kyiv Mohyla Academy at Kontraktova Ploshcha for our orientation.

On Kontraktova Ploshcha... autumn leaves in the background, and the church on the hill...

The orientation was endless and frustrating. Everything was announced in English AND in Ukrainian, and the information was redundant anyway. On the plus side, I met up with some of the other Fulbrighters (click here to read about their projects): Russell, a journalism teacher from Penn State; Jack, the other ETA; Talia, a researcher working on the history of Jews in Ukraine; and Debra, who I hadn't met until this day but who was (supposedly) coming to Vinnytsia with me. At the start of the day she came up to me to say that UCCA hadn't found her accommodations in Vinnytsia like she'd asked (surprise, surprise), so I told her she could crash on my couch. They hadn't bought us train tickets either, though, so we spent the whole day struggling to find a good train back to Vinnytsia that evening. In the end we decided just to wait till we were at the train station and buy whatever was left, even if it meant getting in at 2 am.

The most (possibly only) interesting part of the orientation were the visits from the Canadian and United States Ambassadors. Unlike when we had met him during the Fulbright program, Ambassador Tefft had over an hour to talk and take questions, and we were allowed to take pictures. None of mine came out, though.

The orientation was supposed to end at 5 pm with us breaking off into our regional groups with our group leaders, but this did not happen until after 6. When the list of group leaders was read, guess what? There was no one for Vinnytsia. Debra and I went to ask... and were told that the leader for Vinnytsia, as well as the other four members of our team, had all dropped out. Either we could go and be the only people in Vinnytsia, or we could go someplace else, or we could go home.

WHAT.

Well, damned if I was going to go home empty-handed after sitting through that 10-hour orientation and paying $100 for a hotel in Kyiv... and Debra and I couldn't do it alone, since neither of us had any election observation experience... so I got sent to L'viv.

But I didn't have a place to stay in Kyiv that night, and I had no train ticket, no place to stay in L'viv either, I told them. And of course they hadn't made any for me. Panicking, I called my friend Taras at Ukrainian Catholic University who'd arranged housing for me on my last visit, and told him the situation. He found me a room in UCU's new dorm for 150 UAH a night. Acceptable. Then the UCCA people offered me a train ticket to L'viv they had already bought which left in a little over an hour. I bought it, but was worried about getting to the station in time for an overnight train and not having eaten dinner. This didn't turn out to be a problem, though, since the L'viv team's leader, a British woman named Darka, traded tickets with me since an unplanned meeting was called and she had to arrive earlier. This meant that I wouldn't need to leave until 11:30 pm, and I had time to go eat. Plus, another observer, a British guy named Peter, was also taking my train, so I would have help getting to the station and finding the train. Not that I really need it at this point, but still good to have the assurance since I seem to be very talented at messing up things I already should know how to do. Crisis averted.

In order to wind myself down from the panic attack nearly caused by all of this, Peter, Talia, and I went out for pizza and a few good drinks. After a tall glass of Chernigivske beer and a couple hours of friendly conversation, I finally began to relax. Oh, Ukraine. In the words of Svitlana, "This is Ukraine, where unexpected is happening every day."

After Talia went home, Peter and I moved on to an Irish pub for another beer. This pub had Halloween decorations everywhere-- spiderwebs, pumpkins, etc. It was so refreshing to see them, like being at home. :) Then we went to the train station, arriving about an hour early. We settled down in the waiting hall, but unfortunately the only seats empty were next to an extremely drunk bum. Peter, being a proper British gentleman, took the seat closest to him. Unfortunately he wanted our attention. He started talking to us in Russian, telling us (among other things) how pretty I was. Peter and I, of course, pretended not to understand him and carried on speaking in English. Then the bum tried to speak to us in English. Unfortunately (or fortunately, it's anybody's guess), the only words he knew were "Baku" "seven" and "thank you very much!" He repeated all these phrases to us in different permutations, and occasionally Peter would respond to him sarcastically. I felt terrible for making fun of this poor drunk man, but by the time we left for our train I was just dying of laughter.

Our train tickets, unfortunately, were third class, in separate cars, and top bunks. I barely slept at all during the entire ride, because it was noisy and the lights were shining directly in my eyes. By the time we rolled into L'viv around 8:30, I was completely exhausted. Taras called a taxi to take me to the dorms, and I checked in and went right to sleep for a few hours. I was too tired to do much else that day except go out for dinner with Charitie, another Fulbrighter who lives in L'viv. We went to a restaurant on Rynok Square called the Golden Boar and the food was phenomenal. I had Zeleni (green) Borshch and shashlyk (kebabs) made with mushrooms, cheese, and olives. Charitie had cherry Varenky (dumplings) which she shared with me. It was all so delicious. I'm definitely going back to that restaurant.

Before the actual election fun begins, I think I must take a break. You are starting to see, now, how insane these days have been, and I think you will understand why I am so glad to finally be back home in Vinnytsia, and why I need sleep! Part II to follow. :)