October 20, 2005
Arrival in Ukraine
At approximately 13:35pm, 8 Greenpeacers landed in Kiev International airport. The flight was very smooth; KLM lady at check in didn't make a fuss over our over sized aluminum boxes, our - many too many - pieces of luggage and our vagueness over what kind of equipment we are carrying with us. Even when we landed in Kiev, customs let us through very easily. The only annoying thing was this obnoxious woman sitting in the row behind me, excited about visiting Chernobyl as if it was bloody Disney Land. She was one of those people who looked for people to speak too (annoy in other words), I hoped that she will not start talking to me, until she yelled "hey curly, where are you from!!!!"
We missed blogging the first day's update, our laptops didn't work and there was no internet connection (there still isn't, how come I am sending you this then? it is a puzzle, send me your answers by the 28th of October:-) ).
Basically, our first day was as smooth as a first of any trip to the Ukraine for a group of Greenpeace Campaigners, Scientists, Specialist, and myself - could be. we went to the bank to change money, went to the supermarket and got the trip's groceries, and drove off to our camp, had dinner, had a meeting, and went to bed. . . Yes, I said we bought groceries, loads of water, coffee, chocolate and bread. You are probably wondering why the hell they went shopping!
Well, the closest village shop to where we are is half an hour drive!!
The purpose of the trip is to undertake an "on the ground" training; the team did a university course last winter on how to handle radiation. They are now official Radiation Safety Advisors (whatever that means!!).. ooh no, I do know what that means, they are a group of specialist who advice the campaign on any radiation related activities Greenpeace is involved in..... See William!! I did pay attention. The team is also meant to meet with Scientists, and to get inspired for activities around the 20th anniversary of Chernobyl..... I do have a feeling though that this trip will be more than that to all of us.
Today was very interesting, at least for me, you will probably hear this alot - at least for me - while I am writing this blog. Rianne and William briefed us in the morning on what we are meant to do today. "We are just going to test the equipment to make sure they were not damaged during the flight, we will drive around the 30km exclusion zone, so we are not going near anything that we know is really radioactive" said William. I gave him a look that he interpreted as desperate look to wanting to go out and play. William looked at me and said firmly "No Omer! we need to practice and make sure that we got our shit together before we go near anything dangerous!!"
Anything dangerous!! So far my radiation knowlcedge has been a mix of reading reports, some physics at school (I know what Gamma, Alpha and what's the third one, yeah Beta are!), conversations with campaigns and DIY kindda of learning. It seemed to skip my mind that we were now in the Ukraine... The Chernobly Ukraine.. Chernobyl, the world biggest industrial nuclear catastrophe ever.. The Chernobyl of the horrific images I have seen over and over of children born with disabilities, of Granpa's and Grandma's with fatal cancers.. And many horrors that I will be confronted with during the remaining 5 days of our trip.
My first thought to myself after hearing William's stark advice - "Anything dangerous!!!!! How can you define dangerous William? My Grandpa always said, ignorance is bliss"! Sorry Grandpa, on the contrary, this trip is going to be an awaking to me. . . . . Will let you know whether it's blissful or disturbing.
So, as William said, we loaded our gear into this 12 seater on this freezing morning and we hit the road. Did I mention it is freezing, the huts are not heated well and I am from the middle east, so you can imagine how shivering I am (fishing for sympathy here!!).
The landscape of the Ukraine blew my mind away. Everywhere we turned, there were hectares and hectares of forests. The leaves are a gorgeous shade of brown, yellow and red. As I looking out the window and listening to my Ipod, we started driving throw this village. In hindsight, the village looked like those in Hollywood movies people wish the grew up in. The trees, river, little bridges, blue sky, and a play ground. A receipt for a happy childhood... For a second I imagined myself living here, until I jumped to the screams of our radiation detection devices breaking through Norah Jones singing 'I Have Got to See you Again'. William smiled and said calmly " great, we know they work!". The timing could not have been better, the sounds scared the shit out of me and threw me back to reality. And what a reality it was. I looked out the window again and the village looked completely different.
The village was totally deserted, it looked like a war zone; broken glass, doorless houses, over grown trees taking over living rooms. And very high level of radiation!!
The village was soulless and very very sad. It was once a happy little village probably, even happier than the once we see in Hollywood movies, it was a home for someone like you and me. People who were awoken one day and were told that you are in danger. In danger because of something they do not understand and probably would never do, not because they are stupid or something but simply because it raises the inevitable question of why me!!
The village was one of the many villages and town around Chernobyl - outside the 30km zone - that had to be evacuated due to radiation level. It has been 20 years and the levels of radiation got our detectors screaming through the roof.
I couldn't take the village out of my mind on the ride back. I kept trying to think of it as just a block of empty buildings, just empty houses and that's all. I made the mistake (or maybe the right thing) of imaging the village with a soul, a soul that was taken away. Now its nothing but a spot on a map, the only people that come and visit are interested in finding out how "soulless" it is.
We go to Chernobyl tomorrow!
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