We spent the morning until 9am with the kids that were cleaning up after the party from the night before. I had no clue what they said to me but each time they would repeat it louder and louder like I had hearing problems. I do not have hearing problems I just don’t know Ukrainian.
After about 4 times the girl was getting impatient and her yelling reminded me of how much vodka I had drank the night before but I did manage to get my usual cup of morning coffee thanks to a pack of 3 in one coffee that I carry with me for just such an occasion.
10 am rolled around and Vlad came to pick us up for the meeting with the mayor. he was dressed in a freshly pressed blue shirt and dark patterned pants. I wanted to dress up too so I grabbed my good bandanna and we were off to meet the translator Tanya who would hopefully explain what the girl was yelling at me before I had my coffee this morning..
We met at the office of the UNDP where Tanya briefed us about what we will be asked. We proceeded the city hall where we were greeted I the main hall by the media and other important people. We climbed the stairs to the mayors office and entered the room.
we took our seats where we wanted around a large table with about nine people and the mayor at the head. I had positioned myself at his left and shook his hand. he was a diplomatic man who spoke with conviction. he seemed direct but you could see that in his eyes was a certain something that spoke louder than his voice. he had lines tat spidered out form the outer edges of his eyes which I took as a soft kindness. Kindness or maybe he had seen too much. There was a sort of sadness in his eyes. Anyway he gave me no reason to doubt or to be cautious, but there was a huge exchange of information which I will post on our site I another section later in the year.
i though to myself while he spoke about the town that I have had a lot of preconceptions about the town before we arrived. I took careful notes as Tanya translated every word he spoke. in one instance when the mayor said that there is a high percentage of people who have serious medical problems due to the disaster, Tanya in a soft moment of sadness and self-reflection jumped out of her professional role just for a second to say "and me too".
i realized in this short moment how big this problem actually is. Here was a town with a fair population of people going about their days but behind the positive looks and day to day life that just seemed to continue was a dark shadow that hung upon everyone’s head. It wasn’t like I expected at all. Korosten seemed like a normal town with 14 schools and 2 universities with a total of 9000 students and a total population of 50000 people. There are libraries and an infrastructure that would put most towns the same size in usa to shame. The mayor explained to us that the town was burned four times: once in war, once by a really mad princess who was widowed due to some complications in political instances. (the legend says that she sent pigeons to burn the town)
It was also attacked due to its geographical position because it is a major junction to Belarus and Russia. The last time was the hardest and lingered for the last 20 years. It remains to this day a zone 3 community because of the Chernobyl accident.
But life goes on here....
After the press conference we had the chance to see Stalin’s bunker which was only opened in the last couple of years. We had a private tour even though it still wasn’t renovated yet. a network of 400 bunkers lie under the hillside just across from princess Olga’s bathing pool. The whole structure is situated under 15 meters of hard granite and still has an old phone line directly to Moscow in a couple of rooms. I tried o call but no one answered. Anyway there is also fresh water well with water that only has 2 or three bacteria.
Later after the tour we went to tour the orphanage that was set up and run by the Red Cross and supported by the organisation. There is usually 13-20 kids and serves as a drop in centre for anyone who needs it. we had a chance to meet the staff and talk to the kids but they just looked at our lips move as they did not know English.
After we went for lunch and I had asked our new friends where they were when the disaster took place. They both gave us a shocking story that seemed like it was it was out of a disaster movie. Every time I have told a story from my life I have been met with the same expression and discomfort that I had felt at this moment. It’s funny how the world works.
We talked for about an hour and the waitress brought our desert 4 times then we proceeded to the community centre of foccus in the centre o town. They were great as expected and showed us how the centre worked and all the different programs available for anyone who needs it. Plus they showed us how the information and stats were stocked and transform into usable information that they could make available to the people in other centres and the community. We had also seen the display that foccus had sponsored with models of the disaster which has become quite famous. It was quite impressive and really touched me and Emmanuelle.
After finally seeing the foccus centre we went to tour the rest of the park where we relaxed and took it easy for a while. The park had beautiful statues and a little river running through it.
I gathered enough information for one day and will post it all in another section later on the site, there is just too much to write and I gotta get some sleep.
Oh yeah we drank wine in the park while Larry strummed the guitar and sang Ukrainian folk songs.
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