Mission: Chernobyl

I am a girl?

Yesterday was our average Sunday; an 80 years old man wanted to adopt me, an old lady thought I was a girl!, we met with a chief doctor, visited a contaminated village, spoke to it's people, ate their locally grown food!, did nuclear radiation measurement, found poisonous radioactive mushrooms and went fishing!! and oooh yeah, we also had Sunday tea and read the paper.

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Our guide on the trip is Dr. Vladimir Tykhyy, he is a Senior Research fellow at the Institute of Mathematical Machines and Systems, part of the Ukrainian National Academy of Science and has been working on the aftermath of the accident for many years. He has done a lot of research and knows many people that have to live with the consequences of the accident.

Dr. Tykhyy arranged for us to visit the town of Lugyny and the near by village of Stepanivka. Both are controlled contaminated zones. People are allowed to live in thse controlled areas, the government is supposely monitoring the radiation levels and paying attention to the inhabitants health.... Or so they say. The one but is that the local livelihood of growing produce and selling it is severely restricted ie you can grow it but you can't sell it.

The purpose of the trip was to meet the locals, to hear their stories and also practice in an area where the radiation levels were not so high as we had to spend the whole day there. Vladi was interesed in collecting samples in the village in continuance of his previous work in the area. And to us, this was a great opportunity to learn by doing. However, the experience unfolded so many great opportunities by actually experiencing things that we would have never experienced in million years.

So, for the sake of the training, we split into two groups. Rianne and I stayed the village to collect samples of whatever we could find and get, the main condition was that everything had to have been grown locally. So we asked people to provide us with what the grew in their backyards, ate and fed to their children and sold in local markets. The rest of the group, hit the forests for measurement and sampling.

We drove with Vladi knocking on people's doors asking them for their milk and apples for sampling. I have to admit, I wasn't sure what to expect, Vladi was sure that people would help, on the other hand, I was more sceptic. Everywhere we went people were just staring at us. We didn't know if it was just curiosity or that we were not welcomed.

The minute we started making contact, the whole experienced changed. The villagers, were the nicest people I have ever met in my life. The star was my old lady.

We knocked on the doors of this very small farm, it had a cow, a donkey and a lot of chickens - the chickens were huge by the way, lets hope KFC doesnt get their hands on them, you could make a whole family meal from just one chicken - and a few dogs that we could hear bark.

She was probably in her late 70s with the wrinkliest (warm) face I have ever seen. She wore the greenest colored scarf, I didnt even know that such a green existed. She walked towards us with this huge smile, her mouth was filled with golden teeth (golden teeth are all over the place here) but she had a silver molar.

You know how sometimes people are uncomfortable around babies, those who know me, know that I dont mind babies but I am very uncomfortable around old people (WHAT!!!I was born like that). I had a break through with my old lady. I loved her and she loved me. She kept staring at me and smiling while she was talking to Vladi, she never asked him any of those useless questions about who we were and why were we there. She just wanted to help and to keep smiling.

Imagine how sureal the situation was. We went to someone's home and in a way we said "hi mam, my name is Omer and I would like to have some of your cows milk to test it. There is a good chance that you are drinking radioactive milk that is harmful for you..And then I smile at her".

She gave us the samples, wished us good luck and asked us to come again. She then looks at the driver and asked him to tell me what a beautiful girl I am! I smiled and told him to thank her and not to say anything. I didnt want to embrace my old lady.

My old lady gets 10 grivnas (ONE EURO AND EIGHTY CENTS) from the government of the Ukraine a month as a compensation for living in a contamenated area.

Today, 250 people live in Stepanivka. The birth rate is 3-4%, the death rate is 14-18%. If the situation remains as bad as it is, only ONE man will be alive in Stepanivka by 2030. There is practically no economy in the village. No one buys their goods, the government doesnt really care about them (there are FIVE MILLION people living in the controled contamented areas, who cares about 250 old people), the government does not subsidise the agricultural industry, so farmers in villages like Stepanivka get no aid what so ever (I wonder how much subsidies are pored into the nuclear industry??, anyone knows!).

The other group came back from their excursion, they found poisonous (and possibly) contaminated mushrooms, they measured high levels of radiation in the forest surrounding the village and practiced a lot of the techniques we have learned in the days before. I on the other hand, was thinking about my old lady and what kind of life she led to reach a point in her life to be smiling to some stranger who wants to measure how radioactive the milk she drinks was.

My friend Hassan, texted me telling me about an article he has read in the UK Observer on tourists trips for Chernobyl. I don't know the whole story but my first reaction was "Oh, for F***S Sake!!!". But then when I thought about it for a minute, it is actually a great idea.

Lets organize trips to Chernobyl, we can take people to the Sarcophagus, Pripyat, the Grave Yard, the deserted villages and the Reactor. Lets show people the true ugly face of the nuclear industry, think of the trip as "back to the future" journey. Show the world that 20 years on, the effects of Chernobyl are still very visible. You can see them, touch them (not recommended) and most powerfully, feel them.

For an extra price, they can even meet my old lady. And hear her story. Lets take all the executives of all the nuclear energy companies to Chernobyl!! The Observer, if you are out there, I can even write you an I Have Been There Section. I could even add for free an Omer's recommendations list.

I regained my manhood at the end of the evening, we stoped at a local cafe/pub/bank/supermarket/casino kindda of place for a quick bite, the sexy in mini skirts Ukrainian girls went crazy over me, they took pictures and touched my hair. It was quite funny, William was quite jealous though. Sorry dear, an old lady could think I am a girl but those girls didn't. I doubt they were lesbians!!

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