Understand Me

STRANGER #1Japanese DO THAT!

MADAGASCAR:not just a cartoon

JAN

UAR

Y 20

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QUEST:friendson request

Spy chronicles

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FACTS AND “FACTS“WHAT DO FOREIGNERSKNOW ABOUT UKRAINE?WHAT DO UKRAINIANS KNOW ABOUT JAPAN?

STRANGE LANDMADAGASCAR SEEMS TO BE NOT ONLY A FUNNY CARTOON

PHOTOGALLERYTHEY & US - STORIES OF ANIMALS ALL OVER THE WORLD

INTERVIEWWHO ARE 2W4H & HOW TRAVELLING CHANGES PEOPLE

EXPERIENCEQUEST: FRIENDS ON REQUEST -FINDING FRIENDS VIA INTERNET

SPY CHRONICLESTHEY “SPY“ FOR YOUTHEY HAVE SOMETHING TO TELL YOU

CONTENT

Everything has changed. A hundred years ago there was a huge distinc-

tion between people who travel a lot and the ma-jority – those who could spend their whole lives

without leaving their place of birth. Today we are surrounded by Strangers, everybody is travel-ling in this or that way: someone uses plane or

bicycle, someone – mobile phone or Internet. Also for many centuries there was

a segregation based on language and skin colour. No, I wouldn’t say that this distinction

has disappeared totally, but today no one will be surprised that your friend’s native language or

skin colour differs from yours. It is only understanding that matters:

understanding of your place in this world, understanding of the fact that you are

surrounded by billions of people with their own lifestyles, cultures, lan-

guages, religions, but same hearts and feelings.

“Stranger” is an example of such understanding. This magazine was created using social networks

and English language, which is neither native for me nor for the

majority of my interlocutors. None-theless, all the misunderstandings

in the process of communication, all the obstacles in the Internet usage

didn’t disturb us because there was something more significant: the pro-

cess of understanding a Stranger.

I hope that reading this magazine will give you at least half of the plea-sure I felt while creating it together

with all of you.Don’t be afraid of Strangers.

They come into our lives to be understood.

Alyona Pavlenko, Editor

EDITORIAL

These countries are mentionedIs your country

You can change the

PROFILE

in our January issuenot among them?situation next month!

6

Facts and ‘facts‘ about Ukraine

E

arlier I knew about Ukraine only that it is situated near Russia, it is mostly orthodox and it is very cold

in there. Now I have a Ukrainian friend and could tell for sure that Ukrainian language is very close to Russian, but they are different; you eat pepper same as Mexicans do, your capital is Kyiv and you celebrate Christmas on Janu-ary, 7th, and there are such good people as my Ukrainian friend Olya!

Fay Mencott, Mexico

I

know that Ukraine was in the USSR until the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Also I know that Ukraine is a

member of the European Union.Amandine Cabrio, Switzerland

I

don’t know anything special about Ukraine except the fact that it is an Eastern country which is a mem-

ber of the European Union Natasha, Côte d’Ivoire

Natasha and Amandina, we wish your words about our membership in the EU be-came the truth! Unfortunately, Ukraine is still not a member of the EU. Also, Ukraine remained a part of the USSR until it proclaimed Independence in 1991.

I

know that Ukraine is a socialist or communist country, isn’t it?Tejendra Thapalaya, Nepal

Next year in August, 24th we will celebrate the 20th anniversary of Ukraine’s independence, and also it will be the 20th year of the end of communism era in our country.

Very often we think that we know a lot about other countries, but in fact we are wrong too often, especially in the simplest things. In order to eliminate such mistakes and just to have fun, read what people said they think they know about Ukraine.

FACTS & “FACTS“

U

kraine is situated in Europe close to Russia. An Orange revolution was there not so long ago. Also there are some

good footballers.Joe Dalton, Guinea

By the way, Joe, do you know that the 2012 UEFA European Foot-ball Championship, or Euro-2012 will take place in Ukraine?

I

know nothing about Ukraine. I know that there are some mountains. The end.

Nicole Schmitt, BrazilAt least you know something, Nicole. You are right about the mountains, they make up 5% of Ukraine’s land. These are the Carpathian Mountains in the East and the Crimean Mountains in the South. The first place is great to visit in winter, and the second – in summer. Foreign tourists are fond of our mountains because they are really beautiful, and it is very cheap to stay in there.

I

know that Ukraine is a big country in Eastern Europe, it is not in the European Union yet, but it will happen in the future. The Or-

ange Revolution took place there several years ago. I know about Yulia Tymoshenko, Ukrainian woman-politician. She is very elegant and has a braid. Also I have heard about Chornobyl, which is very sad. Pauline Segouin, FranceReally, our ex-premier-minister Yulia Tymoshen-ko is said to be one of the most elegant wom-an-politicians ever. She was a candidate for a presidency in the last election but lost it and now she remains in opposition.

I

don’t know a lot about Ukraine. But I remember that when I watched a World beauty show, it was said about

Ukraine that women are very beautiful there!Alberto, Madagascar

Alberto, that is the truth. Just look at the cover of the “Stranger“ – Ukrainian women are really beautiful. And clever :)

JAPANESE

DO THAT!Reading the previous ar-

ticle, Ukrainians could have smiled at some of

the commentaries about Ukraine. It is always a bit strange to find out

that other people don’t understand main things

about your country. But it would be not enough to

show only the one side of the coin, and we decided

to perform an experi-ment. Several Ukrainians were asked about their

understanding of another country – Japan. Then

we have chosen the com-mentaries, that were re-

peated several times, and showed them to a native Japanese – Hitoshi Naka-mura, who has comment-ed on the most common misunderstandings. Let’s see what we have in the

result.

10

LEONID MATVEETS OLGA SNYADANKO

NATALYA KROT TARAS VIRNIYHITOSHI NAKAMURA

Japanese people are…

Stayers, stable, emo-tional, responsible, they know how to relax. Very respectful of traditions –

they do everything accord-ing to the emperor’s will.

Philosophers, reserved , non-emotional, very re-spectful of traditions,

patriotic.

I think Japanese people are enthu-siasts. Their dedication improves

quality of Japanese products. Strong feeling of morality in public such as punctuality is seen as a form of re-spect. According to a British historian Arnold J. Toynbee (author of “A Study

of History”) and an American political scientist Samuel P. Huntington (au-thor of “Clash of Civilizations”), Japan is lone, however one of the major civi-lization in the world. Japan is a unique mix of East & West; it has a harmony of traditions and technology.

Our Japanese and Ukrainian experts

FACTS & “FACTS“

Drinking traditions in Japan

Comparing with Ukrai-nians, I think Japanese drink less beer: maybe,

their beer consumption is around 10% of ours

I think they don’t drink at all. Maybe, just a little bit of wine, but no beer or

spirits.

I

don’t drink any alcohol. Though Japanese peo-ple enjoy a variety of alcohol. They drink sake,

whisky, brandy, champagne, vodka, etc. The most popular alcohol in Japan is beer. There are 5 beer companies in Japan: Asahi, Kirin, Sapporo, Suntory, Orion. The most popular beer in Japan is “Asahi SuperDry”, which you can buy here in Kyiv. Wine and cocktail are also very popular.

Actually, the idea that Japanese drink much less beer than Ukrainians is not correct. According to statistics*, one Japanese drinks 55 litres beer a year. At the same time, Ukrainians drink 50-70 litres a year , which means that there is no such a big difference in our preferences.____________________* www.nationmaster.com/graph/foo_bee_con-food-beer-consumption

Money in a family

I don’t think they have a shared budget. Probably, all the money in a family

is under the man’s control. He gives some money to his wife for household concern-ing goods, but all the main expenses are totally depen-

dent on his decision.

Husbands and wives have their own budgets, while

men pay everyday ex-penses

12

I

n Japan questions concerning mon-ey are at women’s control. Usually

a husband gives his wife all his salary and relies on her wisdom in spending money. There is no division in bud-

gets, money is common. Men some-times even have to explain their wives why they want to buy something be-cause they have to ask women’s per-mission to take money for that.

English language

Considering that their technologies are so well-developed, they have to know English very well.

They travel a lot, so they need English – not so many people in the

world know Japanese. I think their knowledge of English is better than in

Ukraine

J

apanese are not good at foreign language. Most of Japanese speak only Japanese.

English-speaking Japanese newspaper The Daily Yomiuri surveyed the reasons of a poor level of English in Ja-pan. Also they wanted to find out if English in the country is really as bad as it is said by newspapers, TV and politicians.The newspaper held series of English mini-tests at schools, universities, offices and even in streets. The results proved to be cheerless. The Daily Yomiuri came to the conclusion: not only don’t Japanese like English lan-guage, but also they “fight a war” against it. The researchers mentioned some culturological reasons of such behaviour:

Geographic farness and psychological independence from English language.• Confidence in the idea that there are only two sociocultural objects: Japan and the rest of the world.• Real Japanese speak Japanese language both at home and at work (they have interpreters).• If everybody speaks the Japanese language, then there is no need to speak English.• The Japanese can find all the needed information (in books, newspapers Internet and so on) in the Japanese • language. It means that there is no need to study other language because of hunger for information. The Japanese think that perfection is the absence of mistakes. That is why is there a need to make mistakes • while writing and speaking English?

FACTS & “FACTS“

Japanese in Ukraine

I think, there are not so many Japanese in

Ukraine. Probably, here are up to 20-30 thousands,

but no more than 50.

T

aras is right, there are not so many Japanese in Ukraine. But he was wrong in the numbers.

There are only nearly two hundred Japanese in Ukraine – all other people with Asian appear-ance are the representatives of other cultures.

Japanese way of greeting

They make hands pressed together, palms touching and fingers pointed upwards, in

front of the chest if they greet a very respectful person. If

their social statuses are similar they just make a bow and

shake hands.

I know about the gesture of Japanese greeting – it is when you press your hands together and make a slight bow. I’m as-sured this is a Japanese way of greeting. Maybe, it also could

mean “thank you”.

They press their hands to-gether and make a bow.

It is called “namaste“, right? I saw it in films about Japanese.

I

have already lived in Ukraine for sev-eral years. And I was surprised to real-

ize that Ukrainians don’t know the right way we greet each other. While greet-ing each other, Japanese make a bow. It is as natural for us as shaking hands

for people in the West. That is why people sometimes even make a

bow during the telephone con-versation. Also Japanese make a bow if they want to thank somebody or want to make

excuses. But we don’t press our hands together in front of the chest, as many Ukrainians think. Actually, in Japan this gesture is used only while praying at Buddhist or Shintoistic temple or near the body of the dead. This way of greet-ing is common in Nepal and India (there it is called “namaste”), not in Japan! You will never see such a thing in our every-day life. Why do Ukrainians think that it is our way of greeting? It is a great mys-tery for me.

14

“What a waste!” – may exclaim a thrifty housewife when she sees something good is spoiled instead of being used properly. In Japan similar exclamation will be “Mottainai!”, and it has much broader meaning that the previous one.

Mottainai is a Japanese term meaning “a sense of regret concern-ing waste when the considerable value of an object or resource is not properly utilized”. In ancient Japanese, “Mottainai” had various meanings, including a sense of gratitude mixed with shame for re-ceiving greater favour from a superior than is properly merited by one’s station in life. Buddhists traditionally used the term “Mottain-ai” to indicate regret at the waste or misuse of something sacred or highly respected, such as religious objects or teaching. Today, the word is widely used in everyday life to indicate the waste of any material object, time, or other resource.

The conception of “Mottainai” was recently popularized all over the world thanks to the Kenyan Wangari Maathai – the first African women and the first environmentalist, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004. Wangari considered this term as the equivalent of the 3R waste management strategy: reduce + reuse + recycle. From the Japanese point of view we could add one more “R” to this conception: respect, which means respect to the environment.

The idea of “Mottainai” is widely known and used in Japan. In 2004 there even was published a picture children’s book “Mottainai

grandma” with the slogan “Are you sure you are not doing anything mottainai?”

Despite the fact that the “Mottainai” conception is originated from Japan, the need for using this conception is still the urgent problem there, too. According to Japan’s agri-cultural ministry, 23 million tons of food was discarded in 2007, about ¥11 trillion worth, which is the mon-etary equivalent of Japan’s annual agricultural output. Moreover, it cost ¥2 trillion to process that waste. We could only wonder how much food and other re-sources are being wasted in countries where people haven’t heard of “Mottain-ai” conception.

How often are you doing something Mottainai?

In addition to our misunderstandings of common things in Japan, we also overpass less known but still remark-able aspects of this sophisticated east culture. Meanwhile, Japanese have significant tendencies – both positive

and negative – that now are spreading at home and abroad.

MOTTAINAI

HIKIKOMORICan you imagine a situation that leads a usual person to stay at home

(usually in only one room) for more than 6 months without any contacts with the outside world, friends and relatives except rare communications via Internet or even without them? Such people exchange their social activ-ity for the world of Internet, anime, books or other substitutes of real life without any visible reasons to behave in this way. There are many people like that in Japan. They are a growing problem of the modern Japanese society. And their name is Hikikomori.

The term “Hikikomori” literally means “pulling away, being confined”. Coined by Tokyo Psychologist Saito Tamaki, this label describes an increas-ing trend of acute social withdrawal amongst youths in Japanese society. Hikikomori emerged into public awareness as a social problem in Japan between the years 1999 and 2000.

The research group in Japan that in 2003 conducted a survey of 14069 cases of people that could be named “hikikomori”, provided us with such statistics. 76.4% of the respondents were males, their average age was 26.7 years old, and 50% had been suffering as hikikomori for over five years.

Still, the exact amount of such people is not known (for sure it isn’t easy to count people that want to live in isolation). The western countries have drawned attention to this issue after the series of reports of a BBC-corre-spondent Pheel Rees about hikikomori. They were under the high-sound-ing titles “Japan: the missing million” and “Hikikomori violence”.

Hikikomori tend to be financially supported by their parents, or by re-ceiving social assistance. They seldom work since job usually requires so-cialization. The process of their isolation is gradual, it starts from becoming shy and insecure, losing friends, which increases the burden of social pres-sure on such people and results in the solitude chosen for many months or even years.

Although “hikikomori” is seen as a new Japanese phenomenon, the idea that Hikikomori exist only in Japan is a subject to criticism of many re-searchers. The main idea of their statements is that the same behaviour is common in other countries, too, while it could be described using other terms such as “agoraphobia”. Still it is hard to understand the connivance of those Japan families that allow their children to have such a way of life and provide them with all the supplies without trying to interfere into the condition of isolation chosen by their child.

This topic is a good idea for researching in a scientific journal, while we will stop on this point in order to avoid incorrect conclusions on such an unsteady ground.

If you want to know more about Hikikomori – there are plenty of ma-terials about these people in Internet. You could even find such anime as «Welcome to NHK!», «Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge» and others about Hikikomori. Among films we could mention the horror-movie “Haunted room” (The main hero, which is a Hikikomori, finally becomes a creepy monster), or a French fantastic film “Thomas in love”. The last mentioned film was shot in 2000 and shows the life of an agoraphobic man, while many displays of Hikikomori life are presented, too.

Authors:Hitoshi Nakamura, Alyona Pavlenko

wHAT THEY REALLY D

16

Madagascar: not just a cartoon

Say “Madagascar” out loud. What is your first association with this word? Let me guess: if you can see and if you like cartoons, your first association will be the “Madagas-car” cartoon! But even if you don’t like car-toons, this association still may be in your head – pictures of the main characters of this famous animation are everywhere, so one can ignore them only if one is blind.

Ok, let’s forget about the cartoon and think of a real place called Madagascar. What? You don’t know anything? More than twenty million people and terrific variety of animals live in Madagascar, and you still can’t say any-thing about this amazing place? We should immediately improve the situation and read astonishing facts about Madagascar, because it is much more than just a cartoon.

M

adagascar is often described as the Great Red Island. It is easy to under-

stand, why the island is called “Great” – af-ter Greenland, New Guinea and Borneo it is the 4th largest island in the world. But what about the red colour? The 587,041 km2 of land were once covered with green rainfor-est, but the slash-and-burn techniques of the Malagasy farmers, later aggravated by commercial exploitation of the rainforest caused heavy erosion. The erosion caused the explosion of the laterite soil all over the island. Because of iron oxides contained in this kind of soil, it has a rusty-red colour. That is why Madagascar is now called the “Red Island”. National Geographic reports that “from space, astronauts could see Madagascar’s red earth bleeding into the sea. The remaining rain-forest is to be found in the northern part of the island and on the east coast.

Great Red Island

Madagascar as it is seen from the spacephoto: www.redorbit.com

STRANGE LAND

When you arrive to Madagascar, immediately ask locals about

FADYF

ady is a complex of taboos that regulate everyday life in Mad-agascar and vary from one region to another. So if you want

to be well-treated by locals, ask them from the very beginning of your communication which prohibitions work in their place. They can forbid foods (pork, lemur, turtle), wearing clothes of a particular colour, bathing in a river or a lake and many other specific moments. For example, it is fady in some towns to hand an egg directly to a person. The proper protocol is to put it on the ground first.

Another important fady concerns treating animals. The pan-ther chameleons, which are prominent there, are protected by folklore and fady. If a man “touches” a chameleon, he is not al-lowed to touch his wife for three days.

Nonetheless, even if you didn’t follow one of the fadys by ac-cident, you may hope that locals will not be too offended – their philosophy Ubuntu should help you in such a situation.

If a man “touches” a chameleon, he is not allowed to touch his wife

for three days.

ubuntuU

buntu, which is a traditional African concept, could be roughly translated as “humanity to-

wards others”. In Madagascar most of the people follow the principles of Ubuntu, which are concen-trated on the importance of agreement or con-sensus, and give priority to the well-being of the community as a whole. The unifying worldview of Ubuntu is expressed in the Zulu maxim “um-untu ngumuntu ngabantu,” (“a person is a person through other persons”)

This conception isn’t so easy to understand for western people, but my adviser from Madagas-car told me: “For me Ubuntu means that I love all people around me”. So let’s hope that followers of this philosophy will spread their ideas all over the world and we will live in a paradise of understand-ing and support one day. But despite the fact it hasn’t happened yet, we could go to Madagascar and hope that Malagasy will use their philosophy towards strangers, too.

lemur landI

f to remember cartoon of the same name, the most important fact that we can say about the fauna of Madagascar is that there are a

lot of lemurs (which impress strangers with wild dances and a song “I like to move it”). Forget about the song, but take it for granted: Madagascar is really an Island of lemurs of all shapes and sizes. The smallest of them can be located on a palm; the biggest is as tall as a 4-year-old child. Lemurs are a key component in Madagascar’s biodi-versity. It is only because of Madagascar’s isolation that lemurs have managed to survive and flourish. And now they make people wonder at their amazing features.

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that attracts many travelers by its impressive cul-ture called “Savika” or “Rodeo” in Madagascar. The population is called “Betsileo” or “many and invincible”, a right name that can sums up the “Savika” or “Rodeo” men’s personalities: strong, brave and impressive. The capital of the region is Ambositra where arenas were especially built for Savika and makes it very famous there. Savika or Betsileo’s traditional rodeo is such a daring cul-ture that shows its player’s strength, speed, and courage; then, acclamation and suspense for its spectators.

The main idea of this competition consists of grabbing hold of the humps of zebu bulls when they are at their angriest. Spectators enjoy rais-ing the beasts’ ire by poking them with sticks; then, brave young men jump into the ring to face this dangerous play with the huffing and snorting zebu bulls. Impressive and dangerous as it seems to be, this risky game still attracts many players, not only villagers but some travellers, too. In-deed, it is said the Savika event is an opportunity for single men to charm women as it shows their manhood.

For instance, the indri lemur sings like a whale, and the lemur called “the aye-aye” extracts insects from tree bark using a long twig-shaped finger. But the most famous for its behaviour is Sifaka lemur.

H

aving found out more about this amusing animal, you will not think that the creators

of the “Madagascar” exaggerated a lot when made lemurs in the story fond of dancing. Sifakas are generally found on the trees as they are ca-pable jumpers, eating fruit, flowers, wood, bark and leaves, but they are best known for their “dancing.” Since trees in their habitat are often dispersed, sifakas cross open ground by sashay-ing on their hind legs with arms aloft. There are few animal sights more entertaining than wit-nessing a group of sifakas crossing a road.

A

nother animal that plays an important role in the life of locals is zebu – a kind of a humped

cow, which is not native for Madagascar fauna, but was brought from the outside. The man that doesn’t possess at least one zebu (which consti-tutes the wealth of the owner) won’t be seen as an eligible bachelor; many young men dare to rustle zebus in spite the fact that cattle rustling has become a dangerous and sometimes deadly criminal enterprise. Amoron’I Mania is a region in Fianarantsoa Prov-ince of central Madagascar which is a destination

Sifaka lemur looks like a professional ballet dancer

Savika it is said the Savika event is an opportunity for single

men to charm women as it shows their manhoodphoto: boogiepilgrim-madagascar.com

STRANGE LAND

T

here is a tradition in Madagascar which is often hardly under-stood by the foreigners. It is Famadihana – the ceremony of ex-

humation and reburial of the predecessors. Every year Famadihana takes place during the dry season, between June and September, to make a feast with the dead.

The “Zanadrazana” (descendant of the person exhumed at the time of the Famadihana) take their ancestors from the family’s tomb, and dresses them in fresh silk shrouds known as lamba before be-ing put back to the tomb. And, as the dead are believed to be alive on the day of Famadihana, everybody speaks to them, asking them for blessing. When the alive are finished wrapping the bodies of the dead, the Malagasy dance with them before burying them again. The “Famadihana” is not only a way to show respect to the dead, it is also viewed as the unique opportunity to unite all descendants of one family in joy and good mood.

Famadihana

Malagasy always maintain some relations with their ancestors. For them, the dead aren’t dead; they live in the shadow of life. In the Malagasy’s cosmogony, the ancestors protect and bless their descen-dants. The Malagasy are engrossed in the belief that “it is the dead who are the sole and inexhaustible source of all good things: life, hap-piness, peace, and, above all, fertility. Many Malagasy would spend a great majority of their income on their burial site and its decorations, they have to provide guests of the celebration with food and enter-tainment (the amount of guests often reaches several hundred of people), special musicians for the Famadihana should be also paid. Moreover, they should pay a tax to gain permission for exhumation from the local authority. These days Famadihana is held once in 5-7 years, dependent on the welfare of family that organizes it.

S

pecific musicians should perform on the ceremo-

ny of Famadihana. On such an event a hiragasy troupes are often present. The hira-gasy is a famous musical tra-dition in Madagascar. It takes its name after two words: “hira” means song and “gasy” stands for Malagasy. The hiragasy is a day-long spectacle of music, dance, and kabary oratory (a tradi-tional type of formalized and poetic speech incorporating proverbs), performed by a troupe. Typically troup mem-bers are related by blood or marriage and share the same rural origin. Competitions between two troupes often take place during the hira-gasy. The event has a specific structure and is held by the troupe leader who is often its oldest member. Hiragasy is not just singing songs, it plays an important educa-tional and moralistic func-tion in the Malagasy society.

Hiragasy

Authors: Alyona Pavlenko, Alberto Ravomanana

They & UsNot only people all over the world have various life experiences. Same animals in different corners of our planet have different stories of their lives. Despite the fact that we can-not understand the animal language yet, we may discover their unusual stories by observing them in their wildness and in their intersection with humans.

PHOTOGALLERY

They & Us

Brazil|HummingbirdPHOTOGRAPH BY RICARDO BARBIERI

Hummingbirds are very common in Brazil, especially in the Southern part of the country. There you can see these bright tiny birds everywhere, no matter whether you live in a village or in a big city. Brazilians call hummingbirds “Beija Flor”, which means “Someone who kisses a flower”. In Brazil there is a belief that it is a great luck to see a totally blue hummingbird, while a green bird means getting a big amount of money soon.

Proteins and sugar always should be in the ration of hummingbirds. Birds receive proteins eating small flying insects. Speaking of sugar, hummingbirds are able to assess the sugar for their bodies from the nectar, and they prefer flowers with about 25% sugar content, rejecting those with less than 15%.That is why when making the hummingbird food, it’s typically a sugar water substance.

In Brazil many people hang bird feeders around their homes, providing Beija Flors with additional source of energy. Meanwhile, some vets express concerns about such a way of feeding – they call attention to the fact that dirty feeders could cause hummingbird’s disease and even death. That is why they recommend replacing sugar water in the feeder at least each 3 days.

22

Switzerland|HorsesPHOTOGRAPH BY NOLTRANE (NOLTRANE.WORDPRESS.COM)

In Switzerland horses are no longer used for work: they are mostly leisure and sports animals. Horses are well-treated: during the drizzle, for example, one will find them covered with horse cloth. Picturesque sceneries with these animals grazing on a meadow are very common in here.

On the other hand, don’t be surprised to see horse meat in a supermarket: Swiss people like this low-fat, slightly sweet and tender meat. It costs more than pork or beef and is especially popular in the French-speaking western part of Switzerland. On the contrary, in many countries horse meat is seen as a cheap substitute for other kinds of meat.

Eating horsemeat is a taboo in such countries as United Kingdom, Ireland, the US, Australia, In-dia, Brazil and others. Meanwhile, in South America, China, Japan, and in many European countries including France, Italy, and Switzerland, horsemeat is just as common on the dinner table as other meats. 5 million horses – this is an approximate number of horses killed and consumed each year by the eight most populous countries in the world in total.

PHOTOGALLERY

Australia|ParrotsPHOTOGRAPH BY ALEXANDER RADCHENKO

Early naturalists called Australia the Land of Parrots, and there is no single place in this country where you will not be able to find Australian parrots. The majority of the world’s 350 species of par-rots and cockatoos are found in Australia and South America, and in Australia alone there are 39 species of parrots. Today the export of Australian native birds (of course, parrots are among them), is banned under the Wildlife Protection Act, and penalties for smuggling is heavy.

The Rainbow Lorikeet is one of the most beautiful Australian parrots, but is so common that lo-cals often take it for granted. This parrot species is common in Australia along the Eastern coastline, from Queensland to South Australia and northwest Tasmania. Many fruit orchard owners consider them as a pest, as they often fly in groups and strip trees containing fresh fruit. The situations when parrots interfere in human’s meal are also very common. Locals say that even wild parrots let them-selves eat off people’s hands. Though one should be careful with these beautiful impudent birds: at any moment they can peck a finger or steal anything from the dining table.

24

Japan|MonkeysPHOTOGRAPH BY SHIZUKO MISHIMA

Do you like taking a hot bath? The Snow Monkeys of Japan like that for sure. They are the most north-living species of primates, able to survive temperatures of -15 °C. In spite of thick fur, these monkeys are not protected well enough from the severe frost. Therefore the animals found a bril-liant decision – they spend nights in the mountains, while in the mornings they go down to the Jigokudani Yaen-koen (which means Hell Valley) and for the whole day relax in the hot springs. Because of the monkeys, this valley became a famous tourist attraction. Tourists and cameramen from all over the world take photos of the most Northern monkeys in the world, some people even take bath together with these animals - they believe that hot springs ease headaches and nervous tiredness.

Author: Alyona Pavlenko

THE BEST THINGS HAPPEN

BY ACCIDENT2W4C. Whaaaat? What a

strange abbreviation? Ok, I’ll decode it for you, this com-

bination means “Two wheels for change”, and still… it

means nothing to you. Until you read the interview with

Anja – the girl from Ger-many who has been a mem-ber of the mysterious group

called “2 Wheels for Change” for 5 months. Now she can tell a lot about street music, living in the open air and travelling without borders

and schedules.

28

Yes, that’s the truth. Anja was a member of a team called “2 Wheels for Change” – a group of young people from different countries who de-cided to travel using only bicycles and trains and getting money for their journey on street per-formances. Moreover, during the journey these guys did not only perform on a street, but also spent lot of time with chil-dren from orphanages, teach-ing them acrobatics, playing music instruments and clownery. Moving from one place to another despite bor-ders between countries, borders between dif-ferent languages and cultures, 2wheels4change succeeded in their aim and reached Mongo-lia in September. Moreover, they’ve contin-ued their journey to Japan and far ahead, while Anja left the group because of studying.

How the journey started for you?Actually, we met each other by chance. I heard my friends

were talking about the project where people want to go by bike to Mongolia, and I was also planning to make a long trip during this year because I had a year gap between my school and studying at the University and I thought: “Wow!

It’s great! I want to go to this area, I want to go East”. So I tried to find out more about the group, if I have to be able to play music, and they told me that it’s an open group and anybody could join them.

You decided to travel with total strangers by bicycles from Germany to Mongolia. It sounds terrific… but what did you parents and friends say about such a decision?

In the beginning, of course, it was a very crazy idea, my parents couldn’t understand why I want to do this, but then we talked a lot, really A LOT! I’ve explained why it was impor-tant for me, and in the end they said: “Ok, if you think that it’s

important for you – do it.” Speaking of my friends, they just wished me the best. Some of them told me that they would be afraid to do a journey like this. Actu-ally, I also was afraid about quite a lot of things. I thought what if I lost my passport in one of these countries, or something else. I didn’t know what exactly might have happened, but after this journey I can just tell that most of the time we think that problems are much more ter-rific than they really are. Of course, we should be realistic and know where the dangerous situations are likely to hap-pen, but I would like to tell people who are thinking about travelling somewhere that most of the problems which occur on the trip can be solved. Of course, it is not always that easy, but a little bit of creativity, spontaneity help a lot.

Do you know about the fact that travelling changes people? Anja knows that for sure.Now she is studying Environmental System Sciences and Chemistry in Austria. Her demanding specialization is dealing with such global problems as climate change or economic crises. Could anyone be-lieve that in April, 2010 she had begun her craziest and most amazing 5-month journey from Germany to Mongolia simply on a bicycle?

A performance in Russia. You can find me playing the yellow and black accordion

Most of the time we think that problems are much more terrific than

they really are

INTERVIEW

Ecological aspect of the journeyWith this trip, we also wanted to show an example of liv-

ing in a more sustainable and ecological way. Anyway, dur-ing the trip, for me personally it was nothing special, it was just normal that we were going by bike instead of a plane or something. Also it was normal that we tried to buy food from the farmers instead of buying it in big stores, when it was possible. Have you changed a lot after the journey?

I think that I’ve become much more open-minded than be-fore, I got to know many new people and I was also forced to

Which things were the most important for you during the trip?

For sure, everything was important. But I can mention some most worthy points for me.

Living in a groupWhen you live in a group you have to

deal with everything together. We didn’t have anyone who decided for us. We had to discuss every problem and every decision. We wanted to be as equal as possible. It was not always easy to make decisions, but this group process was something really interesting, and in the end it was much better than in the be-ginning. It took us a lot of time to make decisions on the most important points. For example, the question going to Tur-key or to Mongolia...this was the hardest discussion; it took us around three days. But all in all, for me, equal group decisions are in general the better way than one person deciding over the will of others.

Doing street music on a street It was very important for me to learn doing music together

with other people. These spontaneous shows were very signif-icant for me. You have to go and perform, even if your mood is not so good. And also I was so surprised to see people’s re-action! They really liked us, although in my opinion our music wasn’t very professional.

Experiencing kindnessI was always interested in other cultures, but in the end

I realized that people are not so different. Of course, there are lots of differences, starting from the way people greet each other, but with time you see that there are much more things that people have in com-mon everywhere! There were some situations when people just came to us and said: “Do you want to have tea at my place? Do you have a place to stay? If no, you could come and make camp in my garden, or you could sleep at my place”. This was a really great experience because in the beginning I didn’t really know why people are so helpful, why people are so kind with us! Now I know better. After a long pe-riod of travelling I’m also happy to help someone who is travelling, no matter these people are my friends or some-one I don’t know. I think it’s just the thing about travelling.

The happy moment of reaching Ulan Bator, the capital of Mongolia

Kyiv. We are teaching children from the “Father’s house“ orphanage acrobatics. Later we had several performances together

30

talk to lots of different people in different languages, even when I didn’t know the language good enough.

I can’t say how all these things changed me, but they influenced me for sure. I learned not to plan so much. I learned that if you just let the things come, then unexpect-edly interesting things often come. Now I know that the best things hap-pen by accident. When your life flows in an unordered way during the travel there are much more chances for such happy occasions.

Also I learned how to behave in difficult situations. I learned to search for creative solutions instead of looking back or thinking that I could have done something better.

Another thing that I took from the journey (and I used it while looking for a flat to rent) was having much more energy in difficult situations. We had quite a lot of obstruc-tions during the trip. For example, we had to build up the tents even if we were hungry, and cook maybe for an hour in the rain. I think after all these obstacles I have much more energy than before. Was it hard for you to be in one place and then go to another? Were there some places that you didn’t want to leave?

Good question. Very often we stayed in one place for only one day, and even if it was so nice, we still had the spir-it of going on and on all the time. Actually, I don’t remem-ber now if there were places that I didn’t want to leave. Of course, there were some places that we stayed at longer. For example, we stayed in Kyiv, Ukraine for almost a month,

we met lots of people and especially worked with children for two weeks. There it was a very special moment when we had to say goodbye to all these people who became so close for us. At the same time, we always had a wish to see other places, and this exact tension made me not to be

sad all the time we left for some new place. Each time I knew that I would not be staying in this place any longer. Maybe, that is the reason why I didn’t have big problems with leaving some place and going somewhere else.

How was it to travel with many different people, who continually joined and leaved the group?

When two people from Ukraine joined us,they couldn’t understand everything in English or German, and in the be-ginning communication was a bit complicated. But this was just the beginning, later we learned the other’s language better and also got used to translations. In the group you don’t choose which people there are, of course, there were people that I had better connection with, and also there were people that I didn’t talk so much to. It was not equal. But during the trip I never hated any person. If there would have been people I couldn’t get along with, I think I would have thought just about not going further.

But I believe that all the people who travel this way are at least open-minded and that’s why they are easy to com-municate with.

During this trip we had many difficult situations. And we were helping each other, solving all the group problems.

We just had to do this, because in a travel group you are dependent on each other. This rule works even if you’ve just joined the group, and you are not friends with everybody. Each time this decision to help other peo-ple was so natural and necessary. It was a normal behavior in the group. Which thing from the trip do you miss the best?

What I miss is a calmness of un-stressful travelling. We didn’t have any time pressure during those days. Of course, our visas could have ex-pired, but still there were no rush, no schedules – nothing that we usually have during working, during studying at University. In the end of the trav-el for me I thought: “Ok, when I go home I will take this calmness with me”. I decided that even if I have to go later somewhere at the fixed time I would like to do it in a calm way

Workers in Mongolia invited us for tea, we stayed with them and played music all the evening together. For such a communication

you don’t need a common language for understanding

What I miss is a calmness of unstressful

travelling

INTERVIEW

We have found a peace in the shade and eat lunch

During a concert next to a market in a Mongolian town. People were so curious that we had difficulties to get enough space to perform

32

with no hurry. I decided not to be busy all the day, if to be specific, not to be feeling busy, because very often we just pretend that we have lots of things to do. Right now I’m not running almost anywhere. Now if I’m late, I think: “Ok, it’s too late to run, so despite everything I should be calm”. Do you think that other way people should repeat your journey and travel the way you did?

Well, there were lots of situations where people told me about this project: “Oh, I would also like to do some-thing like this”. In this situation I think that people just can travel on their way, how they want to. People don’t need to go exactly by bike somewhere. If you want to know yourself, to know your limits, how far you can go, how lasting your energy is, you don’t need to do everything that we did, you just need to have your own aim. Speaking of our journey, actually, there were also quite a lot relaxing periods of this travel. What I know for sure is that any kind of travelling opens your mind; no matter you travel on bicycles or no, any

journey has lots of small difficulties that make you more experienced, and it’s worth it.What about the best surprise the journey gave you?

Speaking of the most beautiful situation, it is the one that happened with me in Russia. Actually, this one also happened by accident. I just was playing near the house of these people, and a man came to me and said: “Ok, it’s way too loud”. And he said that I was annoying and not playing good and it was better for me to to leave… Then I started to make excuses because I wanted to be friendly. Later we talk-

ed more and he told me a lot about history of former times, and I was really interested in his stories. Af-ter this talking he said that I could take his accordion (at that moment I was playing a small accordion of a

friend). He said that he has an old accordion which is much bigger, and it wasn’t used for nearly thirty years. Firstly I didn’t believe my ears, I thought that it was a kind of mis-understanding - we were speaking in Russian, and I thought that I didn’t get the right meaning. Then he showed me the

accordion and I still couldn’t believe that he would give me such a present. I didn’t know if I should take it without money, but the man insisted that it was a gift. This moment was so precious for me. Now this accordion is still with me. I’ve got to know people who are also street musicians and we played on a street together today. It was so nice.Some people of your group are still travelling. Why did you decide to leave?

Yes, I know that some people from 2wheels4change are in Tokyo now. When you travel in such kind of the groups you always think: “Ok, I could go ahead, I could go to Canada, to Japan”. But it’s not that easy. You just have to know what to do in your life. So I left the group when my study has started, because I’m also interested in the university life. When I left the project in September I felt that it’s time to try a new lifestyle again.

I am confident that one day I will do a project like this again. I think I will travel for a long distance by bike again, but it will be something new for me. You will never find a project that is absolutely the same.

Anja is speaking with the wife of a man who presented her the accordion

What I know for sure is that any kind of travelling

opens your mind

Author: Alyona Pavlenko

Photos: 2Wheels4Change

34THE FACE OF THE MONTH

35

I

nternet is my second world. I am not living there, but certainly I spend my time there. No, I think it never will

be more important than live communication. But several days ago I found a friend from Malaysia - in fact, in real life to get to Malaysia is more expensive than to enter Fa-cebook.

W

ith Skype I connect with people almost everywhere and even see or hear them almost for free! This is awe-

some! Wikipedia is my chance to know more without big books with numerous pages. I use Gmail for work and for fun. Letters and chatting are both available – I find it very useful. Finally, Flickr takes me to the world of talented people and their fabulous shots. Flickr helps me every time I need some specific picture or I need to show my photos or simply I want to look and enjoy.

B

ut Facebook is the most important for me. With this so-cial network I got a lot of experience – I found a boy-

friend there, lost him, found friend with whom we become very close, in spite he lived on another continent, lost him… and found again! I used Facebook against other people and they used it against me – you know, it is easy to get informa-tion from Facebook about somebody - where he was, what meetings he arranged, with whom he communicates. It was like Internet spy – stupid but interesting.

N

ow I take this network not so seriously, but still it is important for me, because in some cases it is the only

way to communicate with people from different corners of the world without travelling. Maybe, when I will have my own plane I will not need Internet, but now I am fond of such opportunities.

Ninel Omelyanenko, Ukraine

When I will have my own plane I will not need Internet, but now...

QUEST:friends onREQUEST

When we grew older we could only sigh and recall those sweet days of our childhood when you could come to an unknown boy or girl and say: “Hi! My name is ***, let’s be friends!”

Yes, it was much easier to find friends when we were small, but later such a possibility became something unrealistic… until the Internet services made it possible once again. I have a feeling that now everybody is looking for friends: we are adding them on Facebook, Twitter, different forums and blogs. No need to wonder at that – people always wanted someone to speak with and share their thoughts.

Turn the page – there are stories of three girls, each of whom is using her own way of looking for friends or friend-ly conversations among people all over the world. What if their experience will be worthy for you too?

38

The story #1:Learning language and something more

I was carried away with the idea of learning German language. I used all the possible ways for its perfection. Conversations with Germans were one of the possible options. I live in the

capital of Byelorussia, where there is no such a possibility to find Germans for regular communication. That is why I’ve decided to use online services. I went to one of the sites for finding pen friends, registered there and wrote basic information about me. After all, I started to look for people from Germany, who wanted

to become pen friends with others. In the list of found users Clemens was one of the last, but I

wrote him “Hello” too. He didn’t answer immediately, we wrote each other some general phrases: I said that I’m studying in Bye-lorussia, he answered that he’s a student, too, and he’s studying Informatics. On that point our conversation stopped. In a month we suddenly decide to speak again, and since that time long letters

to each other became a part of our lives. We started a conversation about Ayn Rand’s book “Atlas

Shrugged”, which Clemens advised me to read. That was his fa-mous author, and when I coped with two thousand pages of elec-

tronic text, we started to speak each evening.Every day I returned home after University and started my Ger-

man language practice. In some months I’ve told Clemens the real purpose of my correspondence with him, and this noble student of Informatics decided to help me through correcting my mis-

takes and inaccuracies in German language. Sometimes it was unpleasant and offensive to hear about my mistakes, but I tried to be patient and thanked him each time he

showed me a new mistake. We had sent each other postcards via usu-

al mail, shared our photos and other small things. In summer I won a month-long edu-cational trip to Germany and met Clemens.

Both we made gifts for each other and were worried about our meeting. Later it turned out that there was no need to worry – in real life everything was easier. A cozy evening together only helped us in our com-munication. This summer I went to Germa-ny again and met Clemens the second time. Our third meeting we agreed to arrange in

Minsk – the place where I live. This person lives two thousand kilome-

ters away from me, but I’m absolutely as-sured that he is my faithful companion. We have a lot in common and he always helps me despite the distance between us. Not only did Clemens help me with German language, but also he told me a lot about Germans, their traditions and customs. And I have told him a lot about my country. Once Clemens confessed that before we met each other he wasn’t interested in Byelorussia at all, while now he thinks my country is very

beautiful and interesting.

If you are looking for pen friends, there are loads of services available for finding them today.

http://www.ipfeurope.comhttp://www.penpalworld.comhttp://www.penpalplanet.com

http://www.epals.com These are some of the most popular sites

for finding pen pals. And don’t be upset if you don’t find the

right person on your first try – speaking from my own experience, there are always inter-esting people on such sites, just make more than one try and you will find them.

Yanina Sedelnik, Belarus

Yanina and her German pen friend Clemens

EXPERIENCE

The story #2:How couchsurfing burst into my lifeA

re there still people who haven’t heard about Couchsurfing - a hospi-tality exchange network and website,

founded in 2003 in San-Francisco and since then spread all over the world? With over 2.4 million members in 245 countries and terri-tories, CouchSurfing is the largest and most visited hospitality service on the Internet. Na-talia Marianchyk uses it quite often and can tell something about the way she knew about it and started using it.

thing bad even at once, they will gain negative references and will be banned from using the site.

Actually, I don’t rely on this service as the source of habitation while I’m abroad. I’m more interested in using it as the source of com-munication. Using this site, I could always find people, who want to show me around, tell more about the city and spend some time with me. It is an invaluable service when you are in an unknown place for

the first time. If you are going to use the CouchSurfing in order to save mon-

ey while travelling, I won’t advice you to do that. I think it’s the worse way of using such an opportunity. When you come with such a purpose – people feel that. But if you need cultural exchange, communication

with foreigners – I advise it with a great pleasure.

Once I was abroad on a conference. There I’ve met a boy, with whom we spent some time and he told me that I should register in a social network for people who travel – Couchsurf-ing.org. He said that there I could find people where I may stay while travelling. Then I said that I’m afraid of such services and not so sure if really need it. But this guy took my photo-graphs from Facebook and made a profile for me without my permission. Later he explained me all the features of this network. Actually, this guy is a professional couchsurfer – for several years he’s using this service more than five hundred people stayed at his home, isn’t

it awesome?First I was really surprised but thanks to this

site I’ve travelled to Brazil and many other places. In total, I will say that most of the peo-ple who hosted me were very nice and friend-ly. I was positively surprised to discover that. They’ve met me with a car, organized a guide tour and hosted in their house. Of course, there are some other examples of not so friendly

people, but I was lucky then. When I’ve returned home I recalled

those friendly people and decided to allow travellers to stay at my home too. I had guests from Canada, the US, different parts of Eu-

rope.I don’t have any bad experience, but I’ve

heard that there are examples when men who are travelling this way take advantage of wom-en*. But I think that very often such situation

depend on women’s behaviour, too. According to the rules of this site any kind

of harassment in the address of your hosts or guests are prohibited. If a person does any-

Natalia organised a guide-tour for Jilber, her guest from France

*There is a precedent in the history of CouchSurfing, when on March 5th 2009 in Leeds, UK, a man named Abdelali Nachet raped a woman from Hong Kong who stayed at his place through the Couch-Surfing project. Nachet was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Today the CouchSurfing service has 99,844 percent positive member expe-riences.

More detailed information about CouchSurfing you can read on Couchsurfing.org

Natalia Marianchyk, Ukraine

40

The story #3:For those who like postcards

The idea of this service is simple. You create an account, write detailed information about your preferences and hob-bies, mention which kind of postcards and people you like, and then you receive 5 addresses of people who are also on this site. This is a kind of a lottery – you never know the ad-dresses of which countries you will receive, so there are no preferences or superstitions on this site. When you receive the addresses you have to write 5 postcards and send them via usual mail. When you choose postcards it is not a bad idea to read more about the people who will receive them. For ex-ample, in my profile I ask people to write on a postcard their

favorite quotations and names of the books/music they are impressed by. Af-ter sending postcards, the recipients fill the specific application on the website and mention that the exact person has sent them a card. When the amount of sent postcards is equal to the amount of received and registered postcards, a new list of addresses comes to you again, the number of addresses increases all the

time. This idea is good not only for shar-

ing postcards, but also for those who like lucky chances – you can always start more detailed correspondence with the person whose postcard you enjoyed most. Still, you have no obligations except sending postcards to all the ad-dresses, and could only collect postcards

that came all over the world.For me this service is a source is a

kind of guaranteed surprise. On the one hand, I send someone such a surprise, on the other – I win too. For example, I have a bad day but unexpectedly re-ceive from a person of a distant country! I read the words written on the postcard and always become happier, no matter which picture this postcard has or which words are written on it. Very often peo-ple ask me to write something in my na-tive language, for example, how people say “I love you” in Ukrainian and how it sounds, too. So I write a transcription and I know that someone in a far country will say nice Ukrainian words out loud

soon. Right today I’m sending postcards to

the US, Germany, Russia, Poland and Indonesia. The Christmas holidays are coming, so these people will receive my

warmest greetings from Ukraine.

Are you also keen to start sharing postcards with strangers? Then find out more about such a possibility on

www.postcrossing.com and let the usual mail again work as hard

as in the good old times.

Olga Snyadanko, Ukraine

Olga and her recent postcards all over the world

O

lga likes to send and receive postcards. She means real, pa-per-based postcards which you can collect and look through, those which have their own post stamps, their own smell and

travel story. Also Olga knows for sure that she doesn’t have to send postcards only to people she is in acquaintance with because there is a service postcrossing.com that allows people to communicate with people all over the world via sending them postcards.

Author: Alyona Pavlenko

Author: Alyona Pavlenko

This summer Iryna Naby-tovych has got a master’s de-gree in Journalism. She was supposed to get a job in some metropolitan media, but the girl chose a different way: she went to Indonesia.

Since August she has lived in Yogyakarta, one of the main cultural centres of the country.

Iryna (also known online as Stroberynka) notes down all the interesting things that happen to her into her blog. You can read some of weird and beautiful things she saw in the remote world in the fol-lowing extracts from her travel journal.

Travel Journal: Indonesia

44

I’m finishing the Starbucks I brought from home. There’s no grinded coffee here, the best thing you can get is the instant 3-in-1 stuff. They all drink it; they even order it in restaurants, warm or cold. People seem not to have the need for caffeine. I haven’t seen a coffee shop yet, and the tea is dissoluble here, too. It is the garbage-like stuff in teabags. This happens here, on Java and Sumatra, where most of the best tea and coffee is grown.

...I have found coffee only in the expensive shop with pathos name “Plaza” for VIPs and foreigners. Meanwhile, all the coffee was made in Indonesia.

In this culture skin colour is the second most impor-tant thing after religion. The whiter your skin is, the nobler your blood is. That’s why the girls trying to get married put light foundation over their skin, making their faces white, forgetting of their necks, hands and legs which usually betray them.

I went to Indonesia because I had been interested

in Asian culture for a long time, and I wanted to

learn a foreign language and to take a break from

real life.

Instead, I teach journalism in a national univer-

sity, meet hundreds of people with unusual stories

every day, taste new food, travel only by scooter

in well-ordered chaos of transport; I’m writ-

ing a book and travelling around Java. I

live the way I could only dream of in

Ukraine.

TRAVEL JOURNAL

I chose a room on the ground floor, 4 by 5 meters, with a high ceiling and a window almost reaching the floor. A Greek, who was a batik craftsman, used to live here,. The room used to be a studio, so there was hardly any furniture left. The boys (the neighbours. - Ed.) helped with buying a thick mattress and two pillows. There are no beds at all here. They brought a bam-boo carpet, a table and a mockery of a cupboard.

I was told I can do anything, paint the walls, make or fix the furniture, paint it any colour I wish, and the boys would help me. I decided that there’s nothing to regret about the walls, so I painted them. It’s a bit too pink, but it’s cosy and girly now.

The first time I’d been at the ocean, I didn’t taste it, I didn’t even touch it, actually. It appeared to be much saltier, and much mightier, and much warmer than the sea, even the Mediterranean or the Caribbean.

I learned to dive under the waves. It’s impossible to describe the feeling when a wave rolls over you with noise, bringing the sand and the shells, and you lie on the back waiting till it lies down.

There’s a gap in the wall of my water closet, just between the ceiling and the window of thick glass tiles, one may call it an airing. Sorry for the details, but imagine me getting up over the lavatory, turning to the window and seeing a huge grey and brown, red-spotted snake. It stared at

me, obviously trying to enter. I started screaming, and the boys came to save me. The snake appeared

to have legs and ran away before they came.

Last week in the university where I teach English and learn Indonesian I was offered a job I couldn’t refuse. Since tomorrow I will be teaching Journalism in

English eight hours a week. I make a plan of the course by myself, because even though the course was in the plans of study of the university for

many years, it wasn’t held, because there was no-one to teach it. Two groups, sixty students, and plan maximum: to teach my students to

write reports, essays, articles, editorial columns, take interviews, find experts. Plan minimum: to teach them to write

(in media style. - Ed.).

46

For many Indonesian girls it is a question of hon-our to make out with a white man at least once. The longer she stays with him, the more experienced she is considered to be. The girl tries to stay with a white man until she’s able to move out of the country and get some other country’s citizenship. They call the white men “bule”; it was once a disrespectful name of Dutch colonizers, which became a name for all the foreigners. The girls, specialized in white men, are called “bule hunters”.

It wasn’t the best idea to take a shower that day. Indonesian shower is a square bowl built into the wall. The attempt to turn the water on ended in breaking the faucet and a jet of water aiming for the wardrobe through the open door. Water flooded the apartment. I was made to wrap up with a towel and run downstairs. A girl running around half-naked in a Muslim country, trying to explain something in English which no-one understands…

I went to sleep in another, yet identical room, listening to the cacophony of cicadas and muezzin. All night long I dreamt of something creeping over me. When I woke up I realized it wasn’t a dream. An ant colony decided to eat up the mango I left on my bed before I went to sleep.

So you live nonchalantly for long and then once you find out that the mountain next to your house is not a moun-tain, but one of the most active volcano in the country. And that volcano is situated just 20-25 km from your house. Yog-yakarta is covered with hot volcanic ashes. Now I know how sulphur tastes, smells and feels… The city looks like after a nuclear winter. Wind gusts swirl and sway ashes around. It’s impossible to move around without a facial mask and glasses. And even those are not very helpful. People are in panic, especially foreigners. And when it comes to me… I promised my mom not to do anything stupid, and now heading to volunteer at the refugee camp.

On Friday midday there were two earthquakes, so in Yogyakarta the lighting was totally disconnected. Then there was a huge eruption, people say it was the biggest for last 200 years (actually, who would have counted that before?) The camps of earth-quake victims were replaced into 20-kilometer zone, to the borders of the city. Mean-while, the state of emergency was proclaimed in the city. My friends informed me that all the bus tickets (not saying about trains) were sold for many days in ad-vance. The closest island is Bali. There still were some airline tickets to Bali, so I calmed down that I will be in a safe place in an hour and fifteen minutes of flight the next morning.

TRAVEL JOURNAL

In India, just like in Indonesia, I’m always being

amazed at way too hearty friendship between men.

What would be considered totally gay in our country

is encouraged since early childhood here: hugging,

putting arms around each other’s waists, holding

hands.They eat out of one plate, what they don’t do with

women; they sleep together and piss on the same wall,

winking to each other playfully. Also, they massage

each other. I understand the last act, though.:)

In Ubud (Bali) I went out to explore some tourist attractions.

The Saint Monkey forest was one of the most famous places so I went there firstly. While going there, I

was imagining cute and curious animals jumping on lianas.

From the word “go” I understood that they are not so cute – actually,

I realized it when a nimble monkey made an attempt to steal an earring from my ear. It jumped from one branch

to another and then disappeared with the

same nimbleness. Neighbour boys are always here. They try to

catch a monkey and then take away the stolen

thing – it is a good business here. Then I saw

tourists trying to defend themselves from the pack

of greedy monkeys, clasping their belongings closer

to their bodies. Monkeys are firmly confident that

there is always hidden food in any bag, you just

need to look for it better. Also there are adver-

tisements everywhere, such as ‘Do not tease

monkeys – they could bite you and infect you

with rabies’. Such kind creatures!

Text, photos: Iryna Nabytovych

48

We are strangers in these lands. We came to observe… and tell others about the worst and the best things we have faced with in other countries. Find out what we, foreigners, think

about your native land!

Spy Ch ronicles

What upset me is the hardness for me as a for-eigner to find friends in Germany. The process of studying is very individu-al – you attend the semi-nars you want and not so often cross the same people. Local students usually have friends al-ready and are not inter-ested in making friends among foreigners. Some-times it puts out a lot.

I like German’s nation attitude towards health. They don’t spend their spare time sitting on a bench drink-ing beer (as it often happens in Ukraine). They joggle, play Frisbee, and in winter attend gym. It is a healthy nation. They have a very healthy nutrition; I can even say that there is a kind of healthy food cult. And you know, living in Germany I realized that this way of nu-trition provides you with a great portion of vital energy and good mood for the whole day. Of course, there are some people who don’t care of their health that much, but those are rather exception rather than a rule. Moreover, I figured that Macdonald’s in Germany is for the most part for foreigners, while Germans use them mostly as public conveniences.

Julia Gorodyska, UkrainianABOUT GERMANY:

What I can hardly stand in Australia is the extreme heat. There is no winter at all. Even in winter you can get sunstroke easily. You may get burned or even become ill with skin cancer here. Sometimes I miss Ukrainian climate here.

In Australia people always help each other. It turned out to be a surprise for me when I just came here. In our country there is a feeling that we have two groups of people: 1) those for who are ignorant 2) those who are angry. Here helping other people is a really common thing, complete strangers can spend a lot of their time helping you. For example, when we just came to the city, we couldn’t find a certain place we were looking for. So we asked a waiter from one of the cafes to show us the right direction. This guy didn’t just show the di-rection, he went out of the café and explained where to go, when we still couldn’t understand, he draw a map on a sheet of paper. Then my wife and I thought “what a kind man!”. Later we realized that most Australians behave the same way.

Alexander Radchenko, UkrainianABOUT AUSTRALIA:

SPY CHRONICLES

I was positively surprised to see the way Indian men spend their lei-sure time. In India alcohol is not widespread, so instead of drinking beer after work Indians go to local cafes and eat sweets. The most popular sweet is gulab jamun, and I could say that I have never tasted anything tastier before! This delicious ball-shaped des-sert is made of cottage cheese, flour and sugar syrup and is flavored with cardamom seeds and rosewater. One ball of gulab jamun costs 6 rupee (nearly 15 cents only!), so it is easy to buy it as much as you want… or as much as your stomach allows you.

Bogdan Penkovskyj, UkrainianABOUT INDIA:

I hate banks and stores here – nobody English at all! I found out that people here don’t like to speak English, they just say “No”. The older people are, the harder it is to communicate with them. I hope this problem will be less significant when I go to the capital of Russia – Moscow. At least there people should know English better.

I am studying in a medical university here, and this educa-tion system seems to be better than the one we have in Bra-zil. Just compare 10-15 people in a group now to nearly two hundred of group mates in Brazil. There a professor wasn’t able to pay attention to each one of us, we had only lections, while here we have seminars and practice, we can even ask questions, professors remember us and the process of study-ing is thus more personal. Of course, I was surprised to find out that here blackboards are still being used (in Brazil we have touch screens and projectors), but the system of edu-cation is really good and cheap. Compare: in Brazil you have to pay for medical education $ 24000 while in Russia it costs only $4500 per year.

Thaisa Leite, Brazilian ABOUT RUSSIA:

Swiss people know where work ends and where holiday starts. When they work they work really hard and run like clockwork. But if they have a rest… they are totally involved in it. When there is a holiday – everything looks like a Brazilian Carnival show. In the end of September there was a holiday of vineyards in the city where I am studying (Neufchâtel). This holiday was celebrated for three days (and nights), and in the daytime it looked very cheerful: bright colours, sweets, children in costumes…But you know, they cele-brated with too much wine and other alcohol. On the fourth day the city was left in a terrible mess, dirty and puked. Meanwhile, very soon everything was clean again and everything ran like clockwork again. All in all I realized: yes, actually I like Swiss distinction between work time and leisure time.

Olga Kurovets, UkrainianABOUT SWITZERLAND:

50

One thing that made a big impression on us was the huge di-vision between the rich and the poor in Ukraine. We were certainly rich, com-pared to most Ukrai-nians, and it made us a little uncomfortable and embarrassed. We never quite got used to that.

Things I didn’t like: all the spit on the sidewalks, men blow-ing their nose on the street, public drinking, grumpy cashiers demanding exact change. The huge gap between the super rich and everyone else. Corruption and the absence of rule of law. I did like overnight train rides, the Kiev subway, marshrutkas (the name for local buses here) (especial- l y how people pass money up by a human chain from the back seats to the driver: that would NEVER happen i n the US), babushkas selling fresh fruit and vegetables on street corners (the best fruits and vegetables we’ve ever had), and the good humor and stoicism of Ukrainians. And also the Ukrainian ice-cream and sweets – they are much tastier than ones in the US.

Daniel Charles, AmericanABOUT UKRAINE:

Brigit McCarthy, AmericanABOUT UKRAINE:

I think that Italian’s attitude towards the importance of family is some-thing that should be adopted by all other nations. Italians take family very seriously, carefully and tenderly. If they only have such a possibility – they get together at table and have a dinner together. Even if everybody is busy they still meet at the family dinner table at least once in a week, on the weekend. This tradition really unites a family, I suppose.

Albert Kozinin, UkrainianABOUT ITALY:

Sofija Sagir, UkrainianABOUT CANADA:

There are two main points that I am fond of in the Canadian society. Firstly, democracy is not a mere name in here. If Canadians don’t like something – they get together and fight against it, and finally score suc-cess! For sure, the protesters express the opinion of the whole society not all the time, but it is a good indicator that common people here have authority.Secondly, I respect the position of volunteers in here. Many people are ready to work and help others free of charge. The volunteer activ-ity starts from cleaning the streets (or even bays – they get out tons of garbage) and ends with organizing cultural events. We often complain about our state that ignores our needs, while here people don’t wait until somebody helps them. They organize everything by themselves. I am a member of Salvation Army in Canada, and I think that it is a right thing to help someone especially if you have willingness and spare time for that.

Author: Alyona Pavlenko

Blue are the hills that are far from us

Better job or education, a decision to change everything in your life or something else - there are many reasons

to leave for another country. No matter where people go, most travellers face the

basic difficulties of immersion in another cul-ture. What are these obstacles and how do othersdeal with them? If you are planning a long journey for the first time - read this ar-

ticle and know what to be prepared to.

52

The first and the most obvious difficulty is the in-ability to speak the local language. What will help is the command of English—you will always have a pos-sibility to speak with young people, not only in diffi-cult situations, but also in everyday talk. English as an international language will help you to feel less lonely and will be your the bridge for creating new friends abroad.

But be prepared for the sad but true situation: very often older people are not so good in foreign languag-es, or even may take you negatively if you don’t speak the language of the country you came to. That is why knowing at least several phrases in native language can play an important role in your communication with lo-cals who speak only their own language.

Brazilian Thaisa Leite, studies in Russia

I’m studying medicine in the Russian university, and despite the fact that education is in English, there are some teachers whose English is very poor. So when there is a lection, they are well-prepared even in Eng-lish, but when I come to them with additional ques-tions… Oh, these moments I regret that I don’t know Russian language so that we could understand each other better.

Ukrainian Olga Kurovets, studies in Switzerland

When I went here I knew that my French wasn’t per-fect. Now I’m progressing, but there has been so many stressful situations when I couldn’t name elementary things in the supermarket. I had to say “Pardon?” too often, and I felt really bad then.

This point is especially important for those travel-lers, who arrive in a country with a totally different cul-ture. When Russians come to Ukraine or, for example, Canadians—to the US, they don’t see such a big dif-ference in their traditions and mentality. But when you mix East and West, be ready for a huge gap in your understanding of local way of life. In this situation the best decision is getting to know more about the culture of the country you are going to visit before actually go-ing there.

Basic information about customs and traditions, as well as attitude towards global issues (family relations, religion, treating of foreigners etc.) will help you avoid possible stupid situations in the future. And also don’t forget to be patient, try to take every display of local culture as something absolutely acceptable.

Ukrainian Albert Kozinin, lives in Italy

The main thing that I have understood living here is that you have to accept the circumstances you are in. You have to understand new people because it is not them who decided to interfere with your life, it is you who came to their country instead of staying at yours.

Try not to deny everything that happens around you, and then it will be easier for you to live in a new place.

Nepalese Tejendra Thapalaya, studies in Switzerland

In our country if you are invited to someone’s party you don’t need to bring anything with you. But here if you come empty-handed, it would be an awkward situ-ation.

Also I don’t understand this European tradition to hug or kiss each other while greeting. In our culture we could just say hello or use welcoming gestures, while physical contact is acceptable only between the closest people. So I was embarrassed with such a tradition here and didn’t adopt it in spite some people may think that I am rude. That’s the difference in cultures!

Language Culture

STRANGE PSYCHOLOGY

Don’t forget about the climate differences and well in advance prepare yourself for other temperatures. Read more about the climate of the country you want to go to, ask people who were there about clothes that will be needed, and don’t try to save your dressing habits if they are not appropriate in the place you are in. First of all – think of your health!

Ukrainian Alexander Radchenko, moved to Australia from Ukraine

When I just came in here, I didn’t wear shorts at all because I didn’t like them. But in some time I realized that all the men around me are in shorts and flip-flops are not because they want to show others their legs, but because it is too hot to be in trousers and shoes there. Now both shorts and flip-flops are a part of my every-day clothes, and it is really convenient.

Nepalese Tejendra Thapalaya, studies in Switzerland

Now I could say for sure: before going to another country, especially for a long time, you have to know minimum and maximum temperature there. In our country 32°C is a normal temperature, so I absolutely wasn’t prepared for cold winter in Switzerland. You should be aware of that, especially now, when all the information is so easy to get.

If you come to a country where people’s appearance is significantly different from yours, be ready that peo-ple will stare at you just because you are different. In the countries where there are many foreigners, people are used to another nationalities, but still there are some countries where you could become an “artifact of the day” only because you looks different. In this situation

Climate

Difference in appearance

Loneliness… at the beginningFinally, be ready to the feeling of loneliness that will

start after first days of your arrival, when first emotions connected to changing of your life fade. It is an abso-lutely normal situation, which is described by many travellers.

You will overcome this feeling of being out of place as soon as you start communicating with people around you, start meeting interesting people and understand the main principles of living in this exact place. Then be ready for another, the most interesting period: the time when you will gain amazing experience of diving into another culture and becoming more open-minded through understanding life’s rich tapestry.

you couldn’t change anything, so take it as it comes. Actually, haven’t you ever stared at some exotic ap-pearances without being noticed?

Vietnamese Tran Si Bui Trung, studied in Ukraine for 5 years

There were some problems when I first arrived to Ukraine. This is a European country, and people here are significantly taller than we are. Firstly, I got staggered because of that a little bit, but later I acclimatized and I felt absolutely alright. The only problem left is that it is not that easy to play football with my Ukrainian friends.

Author: Alyona Pavlenko

WHAT WOULD “STRANGER“ DO WITOUT YOU?

Yes, we did it! And we did it together. You may be proud of the first “Stranger“ - our first-born seems to be not so bad.

Special thanks:Olga Snyadanko

Leonid MatveetsOlga Kurovets

Sergey PavlenkoMykola Kovalchuk

Iurii PaninNinel Omelyanenko

Olga Novak

Hitoshi NakamuraAlberto RavomananaRoksolana MashkovaAnjaIryna NabytovychAlbert KozininYanina SedelnikAlexander Radchenko

Also big thanks:Amandine Cabrio

Bogdan PenkovskyjBrett Kelly

Brigit McCarthyDaniel Charles

Fay MencottJoe Dalton

Julia GorodyskaKocherzhinskaya Lyudmila

Natalia Marianchyk

Nguyen Duc Lan Anh Nicole SchmittPauline SegouinSofija SagirSvetlana ArcharovaTaras VirniyTejendra ThapalayaThaisa LeiteThuy Anh Tran Si Bui Trung

Natasha

Alyona Pavlenko, Editor

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WHAT WOULD “STRANGER“ DO WITOUT YOU?

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