Babi Yar

I've mentioned before that this country has some pretty incredible history. Strangely most of it is associated with World War II. (Why is it never written World War 2?) On this day in 1941, and also tomorrow (29th and 30th) there was a historical incident that occurred in Kiev. Babi Yar is known as the largest single execution of Jews in the history of WWII - 33,771 Ukrainian Jews according to the accounts by Nazi offers. Although perhaps graphic, here are the accounts of the incident according to Wikipedia ...which is always 110% accurate.

The Nazi's put up posters that led the Jewish people of Ukraine to believe they were being deported. This is what the signs said:

Kikes of the city of Kiev and vicinity! On Monday, September 29, you are to appear by 08:00 a.m. with your possessions, money, documents, valuables, and warm clothing at Dorogozhitskaya Street, next to the Jewish cemetery. Failure to appear is punishable by death.

The summary of what happened next is essentially that they were stripped naked and driven to the nearby ravine and shot. Over 30,000 of them. An account taken from a book written is this:

One after the other, they had to remove their luggage, then their coats, shoes, and overgarments and also underwear … Once undressed, they were led into the ravine which was about 150 meters long and 30 meters wide and a good 15 meters deep … When they reached the bottom of the ravine they were seized by members of the Schutzpolizei and made to lie down on top of Jews who had already been shot … The corpses were literally in layers. A police marksman came along and shot each Jew in the neck with a submachine gun … I saw these marksmen stand on layers of corpses and shoot one after the other … The marksman would walk across the bodies of the executed Jews to the next Jew, who had meanwhile lain down, and shoot him.

So yeah, there's your history lesson for the day.

I don't really need to shower

There seems to be no hot water today. I found this out as I went to take a shower. Instead I just washed my hair. I didn't really do anything yesterday that warranted a shower anyways.

Also, I was just drinking water from a water bottle and spilled it on my face and body. After looking around for a towel or something, the closest thing was a clean pair of boxers. Is it weird to wipe your face off with underwear - even if they are clean?

How to be a man

I've been busy working lately so there really hasn't been anything to write. Just a few little odds and ends - like a homeless man asking me for vodka or money while I was walking home on Friday.

I also made chili this weekend. One of the cans had a can opener built in to the top, one of those things you lift up and then pull back - sorta like a coke can almost. Well when I pulled it it broke. The logical solution, as most men would agree, would be to hit the top of the can with a blunt object until the can gave in and opened itself. After settling on a spoon - not exactly blunt but it was available - I went to work. After a few good whacks the can opened, and sprayed tomato sauce all over me and the kitchen. In hindsight I should have seen that coming.

Another interesting tidbit, is the fact that I am currently eating chili and spaghetti out of the pot I cooked it in. All of my tupperware is currently in the freezer with chili in it, and the only bowl I have looks like the plastic coating has started to melt off. So, the only other alternative for a bowl I had...was this nice metal pot.

Fulbright don't teach class.

I sent my 'boss' an email today asking for some clarification about something work related. In short, depending on what evaluation criteria I use, a center could be ranked as either very good or very bad.

He wrote back with a detailed answer, and at the end of the email, about 3 paragraphs complimenting the report I submitted for the Department of State the previous week. Among a few quotes:

In closing, I really appreciate your contribution to the interim report that we submitted to State last week. It was extremely well written and incisive, especially the report on the [redacted], which I specifically called attention to in the meeting.

Your report was also a nice complement to [name redacted] half of the report because you two are looking at the labs, necessarily, from two different metrics:

The points you made about the [Lab] in Armenia and the [Lab] in Uzbekistan which can attribute a lot of its success to its governmental connections were quite astute.

A few minutes later, I received an email from Miss Fulbright Parker who had this to say:

Thank you for including me on this exchange of e-mails. I am joining John’s words of appreciation of Michael’s input into our interim report. I think our analysis provides both programmatic and business perspectives on measuring success, which are very important.

I do not necessarily agree with everything in Michael’s analysis, but I still agree with most of it and value very highly everything that Michael wrote.

Kind regards,

Based on comments that we exchanged via the comment boxes in Microsoft Word, it appears she thinks I may be making assumptions based upon the information we gathered in the interviews we conducted. As I have a business degree, and she has a degree in statistical sciences and measurement, I can understand that she's much more uneasy about some of the conclusions I may "jump" to. Either way, if the boss guy was happy, then I suppose I did a good job. I get to continue writing more reports tomorrow, and for the next month. I guess I'm moving in the right direction.

Still not Kansas

These are the public toilets at the park. You have to pay roughly 25
cents to go into the bathroom. I have no idea how much athority the
lady guarding the entrance has though. Is that a city job? Does
whoever gets there first get to collect the money for the day? Does
she buy the toilet paper she hands out or is that government/city
funded?
Also, don't you think these people would be able to have some fun with
the situation and paint a bulls-eye or something around the whole.

Other happenings of the day

So besides seeing a dead person, there were a few other notable things that happened or that I saw today.

1) I saw a young homeless guy - the same young homeless guy I see most days. He was wearing the same jeans, shirt and shoes he always has on. And I'm pretty sure he uses the same McDonalds cup every day too. When I saw him today though, I realized that dude's actually got quite a gut on him. I came to a few conclusions:
a) He must eat at McDonalds every day, which explains the cup and the gut
b) Being homeless pays pretty well, because I don't think I've ever had a gut like this guy had, and I've been regularly fed for most of my life.

2) I went looking at shoes today. I found a pair that I really liked, and they were super cheap. Marked down from almost $110 to $30. I went to the cash register and the lady rang them up ...$130. I pointed out the price tag on the shoe. Apparently it was $30 the regular price, not $30 total. (I realize the numbers don't add up, I have no idea what the lady actually responded with in Russian when I pointed the price tag out, I just read the cash register.) I gestured that I only had $80 and was going to go to the bank. (It's worth noting that I know the word for ATM, so she understood me.)

Then I left the store. I didn't come back either. Just to be safe, I probably won't ever go into that shoe store again.



3) Normally at night I will get a small (or sometimes large) cup of hot chocolate at the cafe near my apartment and do a little bit of work. Tonight was supposed to be no different. I asked for hot chocolate, and a few minutes later the girl brought it to me. A large cup of hot chocolate syrup. Not the actual drink of hot chocolate that I've gotten maybe 7 or 8 times before. I went and got a menu and pointed to "Hot Chocolate" in the menu, and she confirmed that it was indeed what I got.
I have no idea how to say in Russian, "I don't know what the hell this is but it isn't what I normally get," or "Who the hell drinks an entire cup full of chocolate syrup?" So instead I had 5 or 6 spoon fulls of it, and then just worked for a little bit. I ended up spending $4.50 on a large cup of what was probably Hershey's Syrup.

I uh....just saw a dead person.

It looked like they were getting ready to put him in a body bag, that or they just had the bag out since they were eventually going to use it. Guy was probably 60, and based on the rather bloody spot on the side of his face, and what could have been a missing eye, I don't think he just fell over from "natural causes."

Have I mentioned that the driver's here are terrible?