End of Week 1: That's a kho-lodda snow!

OK; it's really not that much snow. But I couldn't resist the linguistic pun: холод ("kholod") means cold. This was the first day that we had more than flurries. The snow started as I was walking from my apartment near National University to the offices of the Journalists' Initiative Association.

I took this picture after lunch: Selma and I grabbed some blintzes and salad at a nice cafe, called Delicat, a short but slippery walk from JIA. I saw a crew on the main street, Lenin Prospect, putting up a banner advertising Marlboro cigarettes. Despite my impressions, Selma said there is a lot less smoking in Ukraine than there was when she was a Knight fellow here in 1994-95.

What else did we do today? We met with the editor of a broadcast operation that feeds local news programming to three Kharkiv television stations. She is interested in training on how journalists can use the Internet, spreadsheets and other new-media tools to do better reporting. Next week, we plan to lock down on a date for such a workshop.

Ukrainian journalists (and Ukrainians in general) are pretty tech-savvy, but I think I can show them some Google hacks and other tricks (RSS, the power of spreadsheets) that a lot of reporters don't know about. For example, you can search blog postings for references to Kharkiv -- that could be good for getting story ideas or comments from people.

On the workshop front, we now have several projects in the air: the Internet training; a two-day program in Kremenchuk about civic journalism; and a roundtable in Dnepropetrovsk about media privatization. No firm commitments or dates, but Angelina Soldatenko said the Dnepro program probably will be in early February.

Meanwhile, Selma has taken the lead on working with students. She says, rightly so, that if we could help the next generation of Ukrainian journalists, we could have an impact for decades to come. Today, we met with Oleksandr Khizhniak, head of the Student Council at National University.



Oleksandr is interested in creating an independent, lively student newspaper. We might to able to assist the students with that project. Other ideas in the mill on this "student" front include: teaching beginning journalists about ethics, interviewing, reporting and other skills (and helping them publish in a local newspaper a monthly page of stories of interest to young people); working with high school students (perhaps at a secondary school near JIA where students learn English); and starting an "English club" for Ukrainian journalists who want to speak English.

That's a pretty ambitious agenda!

We worked til about 6 p.m., then headed home on the icy-slick streets. Selma showed me how to ride the trolley (a bargain at 30 kopeks). I got off around the McDonalds (ugh!) so I could walk to a bakery that Aleksey and Angelina showed me the other night. I bought a loaf of "khleb s lukem" -- bread with onions. Later, while IM'ing Aleksey, I realized that I probably asked for "khlev s lukem" -- which is pig sty with onions. No wonder the cashier at the bakery was laughing. ;-)