rip offs in Ukraine

To whom ever it may concern.

Dear expats and others trying to make Ukraine their home. Recently I returned to Ukraine having spent many years living and working abroad (US, Canada). Although originally from Odessa, for lower cost of living and business opportunity reasons I decided to settle in a small Western-Ukrainian town of Chernivtsi. Still I visited my home town frequently. This is my account of the last six month in Ukraine.

Odessa. Some renovation work under way...recently became cleaner too, but for the city this large and expensive - nowhere near the level of economic opportunity or customer  / tourist service a westerner would expect. Crumbling facades away from the city center, average salary of $300-400m (monthly), total lack of adequate jobs... For all this time I have been sending out my resume (I had worked as a technical writer for IT company in US) - mostly no reply...two interviews where I was not even given a chance to speak English (and those were interviews for English teaching position).

I also was sick for a month, having to wait for about 1.5 hours to buy a train ticket at the railway station - the main terminal was not heated in the winter time. The culmination of my Odessa trip was when a security guard at the Roshen store (a candy place) punched me in the nose for telling him he will have problems for following me in the way is customary in Ukraine. Now, latter I complained and got a $100 compensation, but still ...

Chernivtsi: Small, picturesque town in Western Ukraine, where I was thinking of opening a language school and translation services business. The town has 250000 population, is reasonably well maintained with beautiful old architecture in the city center, with a history of mixed culture (many nationalities coexisting together for centuries). Chernivtsi also seemed to have a large number of well educated young people…nice university and other places of culture and higher learning…

Now contrary to all appearances people are no less self delusional and after foreigners’ money than in Odessa. Such words as personal responsibility and hard work are also not first in their vocabulary. There I toyed with the idea of opening a business, met a local partner, only to lose money in office supplies, the money that was never returned to me by the  local girl (my perspective partner). It turns out she did not want to register a business in her name (a common practice here, since to register and pay tax as a small businessman you have to be local and not just a citizen). Now keep in mind that is the beginning she was telling me all kinds of stories about how many people she knows and how much she can help getting things off the ground. Latter I learned that all she wanted was to be an administrator (secretary) with a stable salary and no risk attached.

It is true that people in Western Ukraine appeared to be poorer and simpler, may be more trustworthy, all telling me that they had no money. Still they also appeared no less wanting "all for nothing". Such words as gratitude also seemed to be missing...

Now, on the bright side Ukraine and Western Ukraine for sure seemed to be cheaper when comparing to other countries and other regions of Ukraine, albeit with few money making opportunities, and poor customer service. Also, for a town that small - I found Chernivtsi  (I guess many other towns and cities in western Ukraine are this way) to be fairly tolerant, with many civic and volunteer organizations , with people gradually  getting more and more involved... I think the country is gradually opening up to the world, people are warming up to others, things are improving. I for example volunteered at The English Club at the library, met many nice kids there (college students)- eager to learn and improve their lives. I also met many expats from different countries working for different organizations, trying to help out.

So there is hope, coupled with lower cost of living (mainly lower rent and utilities outside of Kiev), with growing awareness of our people about the rest of the world - I think things are changing.

The main thing is - don't make more of it than what it really is at the moment, don't hope for too much, don't get offended easily.... Just do what is right, do what you would anyway and I am sure you will always find that which is good and descent along the way.

PS. Not sure what “moderators here will do (as I had problems with them in the past), but you are always free to contact me directly. If there is anything I can help you with I will gladly do so. For me tolerance and democracy are paramount and I want to do all I can to contribute to development of my country… for that we need all people of good will, including people from other countries.

Ours might not be the best place to live, but this country is my home – so WELCOME  TO IT.