Moscow

We left Kyiv at 7:00 pm on 25th and crossed the border into Russia, stopping for Immigration at 1:00 am on 26th. So we could have left a day earlier. Our best information was that if we left on 24th we would hit Russian immigration at 11:30 pm, which was 30 minutes before my visa was good on 25th. They could have refused me entry, kicked me off the train, if they wanted to be ignorant about it. Ignorant being the prime requirement for duty as an immigration officer in all countries, we decided not to risk it. Better a day late than kicked off the train.

We got to Moscow at 9:00 am, checked our bags and killed time till 1:00 when we went to meet our friend Galina who teaches English at an Institute near a metro stop so was easy to get to. After coffee, we went to her Institute and met some of her colleagues and students, then headed for the airport at 4:30, via Metro and Express train.

Moscow has a huge metro system with quite a number of fabulously decorated stops. It is a tourist attraction in its own right. But also complicated to get around on if you are not familiar with it. We took 40 minutes by non-stop train from the Metro to the Domodedevo Airport.

The last time I was in Domodedevo Airport was 1991 on my way to Kazakhstan with Tim Marshall, Sydney Palmer and several others on my first international venture. Tim had warned us about Domodedevo. Imagine a bus depot in the poorest part of a big city and you are close. Air and rail travel cost the same in Soviet times so planes were full and anyone who could get a seat could afford to fly. Bus depot, full of bus people. And a toilet to discourage anyone from any unecessary calls of nature. Imagine the worst outhouses ever and multiply the smell and filth by 10 or 20. Tim just laughed at us. There were no seats in the waiting area, so we sat on our bags. No plane, so we slept on them too. Five hours late we were finally in the air, about 4:00 am. Soviet flights were at night, so no one could see anything out the windows. Security you know.

Today, Domodedevo is a shiny new international airport of world standards and world scale. In all respects. Our plane left at 10:30 and by 7:30 am we were in Krasnoyarsk. Five hours flying and four hour time change. Valerie and Luda were waiting for us. It took an hour to get our bags, an hour to drive from airport to the city and an hour to get my presence registered by a hotel at the local OVIR so I met the terms of my tourist visa. Then off to Abakan.

off to krasnoyarsk

Got my visa to Russian yesterday afternoon at the Consulate in Kyiv
We found a cheap ($40 CAD) flat for the night 15 minutes from the railway station.
Tanya and I had supper without friend Natasha Zaitseva. She is such a sweetheart. (LynnieC you owe her an email even if it is three lines. Also if you are bringing Greg over to meet her, best hurry as girls like her don't stay unattached forever).
It is in the high 30's here in Kyiv and humidity in the 90's. Drenched is the feeling.
Our train to Moscow leaves at 7:00 pm. We'll be home July 9th.
Will check email from time to time, no promises of blogging.

You don't love me?

Tanya went to the market today to buy some tomatoes and a chicken to cook for supper. She was wearing a multi coloured print top and black pants that stopped half way between her knees and her ankles when she went into the market. When she came out about 35 minutes later carrying two bags, she was still wearing a multi coloured top and black pants that stopped halfway between her knees and ankles.

"You don't love me?" "Huh?" "You don't notice my new pants? If you loved me you would notice everything." This one is unwinable. They are different, as she pointed out, in fabric and fashion. Immediate surrender is the only option.

At breafast, I went to make some toast. The loaf is missing both ends, the edges, the top and the bottom. I look at what is left. I look at Tanya. The bottom slice is disappearing, covered with honey. "That is for you (indicating the rest of the loaf). You see what a good wife I am. I worry about you. You are old and don't have good teeth." Now how much more of a loving wife could I ask for?

Post script: At supper tonight I was eating ground beef and broke the side out of one of my molars. Sigh.

Document Crazy

Tanya got a bill the other day from the city gas company. Addressed to her Ex. That put her in her "Obyu Vsye" mood (Kill everyone), trust me. Today we went to the company office to put things right. Eventually. First we had to go and get a photcopy of our title to prove we owned the house. Next a photocopy of the document from the Village office testifying that two people lived in the house and that they were Tanya and I.

We had been through this previously with the electricity, water and garbage pick up. This time she is mad. She is threatening to write letters and go to the bosses. She realizes how stupid the document requirement is. All they need to know is to whom to send the bill for any given address. And if it isn't paid, then cut off the service until it is paid. Doh.

I told her that SHE can in fact change things in Ukraine. Get mad, write letters, encourage others to do the same, eventually things change. But if no one does anything, it will continue forever. Inertia is a powerful force in nature and in bureaucracy. Building civil society (or whatever the correct term is) in Ukraine is beginning and is the basis of true democracy.

Go get 'em, Tanyushka!!

IntelService Center for a Visa to Russia

Anyone contemplating a visit to Russia needs to know about this company and their website www.visatorussia.com.

IntelService Center is the most amazing user friendly company you could ever ask for to help you through the complexities of getting a visa to Russia. Without them, I would still be trying to figure out how to get the right documents and how and where to register once I got where I wanted to go. All the rules are clearly laid out; you can apply for and receive your invitation documents on line. Service was almost immediate as were responses to my email questions.

They have a 1-800 number for North America and staff with better English than mine.

They also help with visas to other FSU countries: Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan.

Further, they will find you cheap flights, book your hotel or apartment, and organize tours.

And they are NOT paying me to say this.

INTELSERVICE CENTER
29 Leninsky pr. office 401-408
Moscow 117912 RUSSIA
Tel.: +7 495 956 4422 ext. 127
Fax: +7 495 956 2244
Toll Free Tel.: 800.339 2118
Toll Free Fax: 800.305 5737
E-mail: tvisa@visatorussia.com
Web: http://www.visatorussia.com or http://www.intelservice.ru

Main Selection Centre of Ukraine

MSCU at Pereyaslav-Khmelnitsky was the elite cattle genetics farm in Ukraine under the Soviet regime. The Director, Irina Volenko, was an amazing powerful woman with a vision of where she wanted the farm to go and the political connections to make it happen. When Ukraine became independent the farm remained a State Owned Enterprise (SOE) while many of the other genetics farms were privatized.

At its peak, the farm employed several hundred people, milked 250 top quality Holsteins and ran about 250 beef cows of several different breeds. It had a bull stud of about two or three dozen bulls and sold semen to dairy farms all over Ukraine. It was in a joint venture with a Canadian genetics company which also kept bulls on site. The farm had a hotel and classrooms for seminars and often had Canadian and American specialists teaching dairy and beef production. Saskatchewan Trade and Export Partnership (STEP) delivered a CIDA funded Beef and Forage project through MSCU beginning in 1999, which is how I met Tanya.

Even then it was obvious to some, that the farm’s glory days were numbered, that times were changing. When Irina died, her oldest daughter took over as Director of MSCU, while her youngest daughter managed the joint venture. The farm lost money, salaries went unpaid for up to a year. Other directors followed at MSCU and the Canadian joint venture eventually dissolved into Ukrainian Farms, a genetics import and distribution company owned by Irina’s daughter. Good people left the farm for other jobs.

Today the farm milks maybe 140 Holstein cows, has 60 Angus cows, no bulls, sells no semen and is in the process of being privatized – sold by auction, I understand. Salaries have not been paid for several months. There were only three people left there whom I knew. My friends Artur and Oksana now work for Ukrainian Farms.

When Irina was Director she built herself and her two daughters, three big fancy houses. On a salary of maybe $500 USD per month. That was sort of expected of farm directors. However the former chief accountant allegedly built two houses for herself and her son and bought an apartment in Kyiv for her daughter on a salary of maybe $400 per month. I am told that she no longer works there but is currently building the house pictured below. Across the road from the office of MSCU where she used to work. Any questions?

Father's Day

Tomorrow is Father's Day in Canada but not here in Ukraine. I guess Hallmark didn't think the Soviet Union would be a big market when it invented the day.

So far I've heard from two of my kids but I KNOW the others won't forget. I even got an ecard from one. I am loved.