Transcript:

Working in the Ukraine during the "Orange Revolution."

My name is Kelly Dirkson and I was an intern through the Canadian International Development Agency in Ukraine for six months. I just returned in December 2004. I was working for an NGO called the SBEDIF Business Centre that was managed by the college that I went to. I did small business enterprise development, small business consulting, loan funds and marketing.

It was a little hard to get adjusted there—they don’t have many products yet, and they have very different concepts of competition and customer service. Western standards are very different from those in the former Soviet Union, so it was hard to adjust in the beginning. But the people are so nice.

I have learned not to take things for granted. For instance, sometimes the water and electricity would be shut off, whereas here we have all of those conveniences at our disposal. It was hard to get used to, but gradually you understand where it comes from, that this is a nation rebuilding itself. I saw improvements while I was there. It is growing tremendously. And during the elections the whole revolution changed everything.

The elections were very exciting. Everyone expected them to go back to the Russian-backed candidate. They thought that people wanted to go back to the Soviet Union. But I was in western Ukraine, which is trying to get closer to Western standards—the European and North American way of life.

After the first elections, it was very exciting. Everyone took to the streets. No one expected it. Suddenly everyone had so much passion and energy, idolizing the democratic way of life and wanting what they have never had before. It was amazing to see. You could hear them marching and protesting all day and all night. There were music concerts. It was all very peaceful. Universities, schoolchildren, families, everyone was out. People were camped out 24 hours a day.