Ukrainian doctors might be the most stupid in the world

My hart was pounding and I tried not to cry in the middle of the street; trying to get a taxi, but they were ripping me off, so I decided to walk 20 minutes to the nearest metro. While being on the metro I had to take some tissues, and it might have been the most depressing metro-ride I have have taking. I just had left the poli-clinic where they had done an extra x-ray, after they found a suspicious spot on the roentgen from friday. And there it was again: a strange square spot, but it had move a bit.... They couldn;t tell me what it was, and I needed to make another appointment, but they told me, it could as well be a tumor. I already saw myself flying back to holland.

(as you can see in the picture, there is a square object on a rib on my left chest)

I needed to get back to the clinic later in the afternoon, so I decided to go home and make some phone-calls, asking my parents to call my doctor for some help, calling my health insurance, if I needed to be operated etc. My parents assured me they would arrange everything, and while doing so, I just randomly googled: 'x-ray chest object", and got all these images shown of people swalloing coins etc, but also an explanation on how to prepare before going into an x-ray:

Before the test begins, you will be asked to remove your clothing--usually just from the waist up--and put on a hospital gown. You also will be asked to remove all jewelry and any other objects containing metal (such as eyeglasses and hair pins). This is done because metal can block the image and interfere with the test results.

And when I read 'hairpin'..... I mean, you guys all know how I wear my hear,



and the stupid doctor forget THREE times to ask me to get my hairpin out, nor did all the doctors I have spoken so far did not think it was MY HAIRPIN which is the square object.... sigh. So luckily I don't have any strange object in my body ;)

Kiev, here I am

So I finally arrived in Kiev! Well, this wont be a long post, since I am tired, but most of all just very lazy today. So I arrived a couple of days ago in Kiev and I'll write down some of my first impressions etc.

I am studying russian and ukranian language at kiev economic state university for two semesters and I'll live for one year in a dorm. I was a bit afraid what to expect for 450 euro's rent for one year, but to be honest, the place is great! It's modern, new, clean and most of all, has a nice atmosphere.

Further, my classmates rock! They are all guys (that's a bit unfortunate, though positvely, due to ukranian bureaucracy, I am not allowed to live with a guy - can get that - or a ukranian in my room (?) - which means I have the 2 beds' room for myself for now :) ); my fellow students are from various countries: a chinese with american citizenship since he lived in Atlanta (georgia) for 8 years and studied politcal science undergrate, who still has a very much chinese accent, but is very sweet and looks very american :); a flamish (belgium) from Leuven, young guy, who just graduated in engeneering; a swedish lad, doing bachelors long-distance in programming, in love with the balkans (he knows serbian, I mean, he really does, he studied it in sweden, not kidding); an english economic, graduated in january, who got bored with working, and decided to come here and study russian; a turkish boy, just turned 22, wanting to work in ukraine in the tourist industry, like he did in anatalya, his hometown (he speaks good russian already); a strange indian guy with a ukrainian girlfriend who already lived here one year and is the only one not living in the dorm (he has to travel every day 1 hour to get at uni, while we all live at 1 minute from it); and that's about it: a funny combination, but all very good people i think.

So the dorm is literally ONE minute from our classroom at university, and that's the closest I have ever lived next to work/studies in my entire live. So far, I really enjoy roling out of my bed, into the classes :).

The lessons are really nice btw, our teacher Jelena is a darling and very patient, she also has one philosophy: you are not babies, you study because you want to, I can not force you, it's your responsibility; which makes me really want to work hard and study a lot (I mean, it IS my responsibility, and she is totally right, I want to study, so I should work).

And then Kiev: well, as far as I have been able to walk around the city centre a bit: it is absolutely GORGEOUS! Old trees, while we are entering fall, imaging the colors; old architecture, balconies (it is like Tbilisi, but than think of Tbilisi as a provincial city and Kiev as a World capital).

I hope to see more of Kiev soon, this weekend I'll have time; and I def hope to get some Ukrainian friends. That sure is my next goal, after getting my medical clearance (ukrainian bureaucracy....)

How Georgia wants me to stay

When I opened my eyes and realized it should not be so light outside at 6.30 am I think I got a heart-attack. I ran to my phone, discovered it was 9.20 am, shouted multiple times ‘Fuck’, tried to wake up my friend who was supposed to bring me to the airport (which didn’t work all so well, as it seemed he was in a coma), got dressed faster than the guinnes book of records has ever encountered, stuffed the last things in my bag, and discovered from my friend that the check-in already had closed.
However, missing my flight and therefore postponing it with one day wasn’t the only sign of proof Georgia was not going to let me go. Sitting at the airport now, so at least I made it till the boarding part (free wifi at the airport ROCKS btw).
I was supposed to fly on the 18th, and had a place reserved on the plane. According to the lady from my travel agency I could come in any day to pay for it, and so I did, a couple of days later. Unfortunately, due to miscommunication, or the lady of the travel agency being stupid (the latter I do belief is somehow true, but that had more to do with the fact my last name is spelled wrongly on the ticket; how is it possible to write a four letter name wrong, Snip isn’t that difficult, but somehow, she came up with Spn.... oh, and not to forget my ticket says Mr Spn.... not even Mrs Spn), anyway, she laughed at me and told me my reservation was gone, since ‘everybody’ knows, you have to pay for it 4 days ahead max. When I told her, she did not inform me about it, she looked at me and said: ‘But it’s logical!’. Very logical indeed.
Nevertheless, I decided to swallow it and change the flight to another date, a more expensive one. First she told me the ticket would be only 20 Lari more if I would go on the 21st. I thought that was an oke price. I had to wait for some sort of confirmation while being at the agency’s office. And I waited, for 40 minutes, I waited for 40 minutes for her to tell me she was wrong and the ticket would be 80 Lari more. You can understand my frustration, so I asked her if she could check the price of the 20th; she did, at least I thought that she did so, however, after another ten minutes, she returned to me and said with a big happy smile she booked my ticket. Of course I told her that I needed to know the price before agreeing upon booking, and she said: ‘80 Lari more’, with again, a face: but-that-is-logical. I told her that normally when I book a ticket (which I always do online, now I realize again why), the price is different per day, and that is why I wanted to check, and I preferred the flight on monday. She stressed out, told me it didn’t work like that in Georgia (like Georgia is on another planet, right), and that she already booked it. I swallowed it, again, and left her office one and a half hour later, with a more expensive ticket on a date I didn’t want (I am such a pushover.....).
Anyway, I was supposed to fly on the 20th, but when after a crazy night of partying for my goodbye, I got home at six, and decided I could sleep for just 20 minutes. Just 20 minutes...

Karlo the Cowboy; and the story of a Chechen boy

http://evolutsia.net/?p=175


When we got stuck in High Tusheti, Omalo, because Karlo’s car stopped working, I thought I would be writing a semi-funny article on the collapsed roads, the freezing clouds on top of the mountain and Karlo’s quotes, such as ‘You don’t like weapons????’; however, that evening after a couple of chacha’s, Karlo told his story. Whereas we thought he was a Georgian from lower Tusheti, he turned out to be half Chechen, living in Grozny with his mom in 1993 at the age of 15 to pursue a career as professional judoka. Karlo, a big man, with the posture of a grizzly bear, told us how he and his mom locked themselves up in their basement, hiding for the bombings on Grozny, with no food for ten days; how he fled Grozny by foot, over the Caucasus mountains to Georgia where his father lived; and how he witnessed a young girl, walking in front of him, being hit by a bomb, how the cries of her mother still hunt him in the night.

The last couple of weeks the Northern Caucasus has again been in the spotlight of media attention due to an intensified spree of murders, suicide bombings and chaos. Although Grozny has been relatively quiet recent years, after Putin’s ‘restoration of constitutional order’ in 1999, currently the Northern Caucasus remains a bandit uncontrolled area, where the law of the mountainous people prevails any other law framework. Kremlin stating they are dealing with Muslim terrorist, however, when asking a regular villager in the Caucasus dealing with the mountainous people, they will all tell you the Chechens, Ingushetians and Dagestani are mountain people, and their mountain laws have been applied for centuries in the mountains.

Just before we got stuck in High Tusheti, I was in Almaty, 17 kilometers from the Dagestani border. We could see the top of the mountain pass, with a castle securing the border.


I wanted to go there, and watch over Dagestan and Chechnya. The villagers we were with arranged everything for us, and told us how beautiful it was up there, however, the evening before we would go, our guide got nervous. He said he would walk up with us, but we would have to walk the last 2 kilometers to the border ourselves, he didn’t want to be kidnapped by chechen rebels or being put in jail by Russian border guards. Apparently, the natural mountain border had been pushed since last year down in to georgian territory, and the mountain laws of the chechen and dagestani rebels applied on that region. Before last august war the people of Almaty would have frequent contact with the Dagestani and Chechens trading goods, but the attitude changed since the Russian guards secure the border more intensely and pushed it southern, after August 2008.

After our guide got nervous, we decided not to go, as it would be a to big risk, and being kidnapped as a foreigner wouldn’t be good for diplomatic relations (and as my french friend said: why would Sarkozy care about some stupid french tourist). Therefore we decided to go to High Tusheti, and our friend in Achmeta introduced us to Karlo. Pointing at his Kolkhozniki, Karlo said clear and simple: ‘No car, Tank!’. That evening, stuck in Omalo (we were not nervous, Soviet cars tend to break easily, but are fixed just as simple), drinking chacha, eating meat dumplings, khinkali, listening to Karlo’s stories in the mountains and his Chechen history, the night falling. Karlo is no longer welcome in his hometown Grozny, he played a small role in the first independent Chechen movie, and has been denied excess to it by the Russians.

When in the beginning of the 90’s the Soviet Union collapsed, multiple regions seceded and became independent States. One of those regions which also called for independence was Chechnya. Immediately following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the new elected president of Chechnya – Dudaev – declared the ‘pursuit of freedom from the colonial oppressor’. The Kremlin did not accept Dudaev’s declaration and sent in troops, their attempt failed. President Yeltsin first encouraged the developments towards independence in the Chechen-Ingush republic, he later passed the State of Emergency Degree in Chechnya to delegitimize the ruling authorities. Furthermore, he tried to replace the president Dudaev. In the passing years since then several wars have occurred taken place on Chechen territory. And a few years later after gaining the de facto independence and creating a lawless bandit state, Putin decided in 1999 to invade the territory again and to restore the constitutional order once and for all.

Russia states that Chechnya has become a free haven for terrorism. However, the so-called ‘terrorist-attacks’ by Chechen fighters should be seen as a result of the war, and not, as Russia argues, as its cause. A primary fact is that in terms of the human toll cost of the war, over half of the Chechen population has dealt with death, injury, or displacement. Not only did these cruelties wipe out the foundations of Chechen society, also is the Chechen economy and infrastructure been destroyed, typified exemplified by Grozny, which is has been leveled to its very foundations by years of conflict. As a result, a generation of Chechens is are growing up either in destroyed villages under the constant threat of zachistki, or in refugee camps without any reasonable hope for a normal life in the future. Therefore it can be expected that there will be a higher percentage proportion of citizens among this generation of Chechens, which will be attracted to the radical Islamic beliefs of the Chechen militants and pursuing their own mountainous rules. As long as the war continues, this spiral of violence will go on, which will eventually lead to an increasingly radicalized Chechen population. Therefore, a strong argument can be made that the so called ‘terrorist-attacks’ by Chechen freedom fighters are not the cause of the ongoing war just merely the a result of it.

According to Karlo, Chechens have their own rules, and they have three main principals in life: courage, love and war. He knocks on his head and says: ‘they are stupid people, they have no education, they only fight’. The tragedy of a lost population can be found in this. For decades the chechens have been denied any form of society, and hence, a bandit region will continue to develop where the laws of the mountainous people prevails any other.

evolutsia.net

Yes people, finally we are online! Our newly created Blogozine on Caucasus politics, main focuss on Georgia has seen the light www.evolutsia.net. Together with my two friends Michael Cecire and Remy Gwaramadze we've been working hard last month to make this happen, and seeing the result makes me proud and happy. From now on every day we'll be posting interesting articles we find, our own anaylzes, interviews, podcasts etc.
So please follow us on twitter: wwww.twitter.com/evolutsia and ofcourse stay tuned on our blogozine www.evolutsia.net !!!

tensions in SO one year after war

The last couple of months there have been several analysts switching over from 'there will def. be war in august again' to 'it is absolutely clear there wont be any conflict this summer'. I myself, also, made that switch, multiple times. However, arriving in Georgia in the end of July just took all my worries away. Life seemed great, only parties, sunny weather with an occasional rain, and most of all: happy people; and when I attended a summer seminar of the highly respected Alexander Rondeli on Russia-Georgia relations, stating it was absolutely without a doubt no conflict would erupt this summer, I wasn't worried myself at all. Unfortunately, Russia posted a comment on it's gov website saying tensions in the SO area had arisen due to shelling from Georgian side, and therefore they put their troops in battle-position; even though these allegations could not be found proven by the EU-monitors, who are ironically praised by Russia in another statement. Anyway, I got a bit scared after reading that statement, and decided to call yesterday my friend Soso, who always knows everything, everywhere, always. I was glad to hear he thought nothing would happen, but underlined we never can be sure. Lets just keep a close eye on Russia's moves, and hope it will all blow over.

simsalabim and the story of the blue-eyed blond girl

For twenty six (twenty six!) hours I was in a train, a partly air conditioned trip. From Ankara till Erzurum the train stops only three times and the landscape stays the same: yellow hills, no houses, no people. For twenty six hours. However, it seemed that a small village had arisen in the train, people were sharing food, drinking raki, kids were playing in the hallway and a train compartment further you could enjoy the kitchen of a genuine restaurant. The first part of my trip I had the pleasure of the company of a turkish mother and her 4 year old boy who had broken his leg: Mohamed. And being on the train for 6 hours can be boring when you are 4 years old, but with broken leg even more, so he enjoyed the foreigner effect and was trying to get my attention non-stop :). But young boys get tired too and after we shared some food together (they gave my bread, I gave them grapes) he fell asleep, and so did I. When I woke up another girl and a young boy had joined, apparently it was the mothers niece and the niece's child. In the evening they all got off the train and I had the couchette for myself, until 10 o'clock when I got worried they did not get on the train to travel, but to move: the couchette was stuffed with huge plastic bags and after a while a young lady and her grandfather joined. The fact that a man joined a women couchette turned out to be somewhat of a problem when the conductor came to check the tickets. But when I make clear in my unbelievable good Turkish (I only know merhaba and found out that yolk problem means something as no problem) the trip continued. After the grandfathers evening prayers we decided to have some sleep and the next early morning the grandfather and young lady left the train, with all their stuff. For 8 more hours I was on the train and I decided to have some breakfast at the restaurant. To be a foreigner going to East-Turkey is already an interesting fact for most turkish travelers, but a blond girl might be even more. There were no people at the restaurant, just the waiter and the cook, who desperately tried to talk to me, but they didn't know english or german, and as I said before, my turkish consists of two words. When the guard came to join us for a turkish coffee and also the conductor thought it was a good idea to have a rest at the restaurant I had the time to enjoy my breakfast :). Though one comment has to be made here: why carrying a AK-56 as a guard in a train, how can that be a usefull weapon IN a train?
I got off the train in Erzurum where I hoped to get a minibus straight to Hopa, near the Georgian border, but when i got at the bus station they told me it would go at 6 o'clock in the evening, meaning I would have to spend 5 hours in Erzurum; with too much luggage and a twenty six hours traveling, Erzurum just is a place where you don't want to spend 5 hours. I got my map, showed the ticket salesmen I wanted to go to hopa, even if that meant transferring buses and he sold me a too expensive ticket to yusufeli. In a stuffed mini-bus we left for the Georgian valleys, as this region is called since Georgia ruled over it in the 10th century. Twirling roads, splendid views, waterfalls, giant rocky mountains and 3 hours later we arrived in Yusufeli where I transfered to Arstvin. A bit broken and definately tired I wanted to get as soon as possible to Georgia, which really didn't make any sense, since I had no plan whatsoever to be doing when crossing the border at Sarpi, especially not since I would arrive late in the evening so I would have to find a hotel in Batumi at twelve o'clock in the night. But I had decided it, and I am a stubborn girl, so I had to get to the border. However, arriving in Arstvin they told me no bus would go there anymore. It was the first time of my trip I was so frustrated that I almost started to cry (I still am a girl) and when they saw my moisty eyes and my desperately look they told me they could bring me for a louzy 50 euro's, which again was way too much, but I accepted it. Being stubborn...
They dropped me off at the border and I still had no plan. The trucks were waiting impatiently to cross the border, but a blue-eyed blond girl always gets first in line, and that's how it happened i noticed a mini-bus that said: Tiflis (Tbilisi). I just asked the first man I thought belonging to the mini-bus if it would really go to tbilisi. And when he said yes and that I could join I was incredibly relieved and happy, not realizing what kind of trip it would be. After one and a half hour everybody from the minibus had crossed the border and we left, finally, i thought. And even before the mini-bus drove away, they turned on their sound-system. And what a sound-system it was. I guess from that point on it was clear it would be one loud night, and so it was. Not to mention the amount of stops we made to drop things of, or to take stuff in. And ofcourse, as proper Georgians, when you travel you need to stop somewhere to eat. As I was hungry myself, I kind of liked the idea of eating, sitting at the table with the drivers eating my very first khatchapuri (unfortunately they didn't have the Adjaruli Khatchapuri, but the Imeruli was fine for the moment too).
Arriving early in the morning at Ian's, my British friend living in Georgia, I could only sleep, traveling non-stop for 45 hours sure makes a blue-eyed blond girl a bit tired.