...I was staying at a hotel on Independence Square in Kyiv, which was the site of the massive Maidan protests back in 2014 where former President Yanukovych killed over 100 people before fleeing to Russia.
I had some free time and I decided to walk around the square. At some point, I was approached by a woman who told me she was collecting donations for a memorial for the protestors killed at the square. She asked if I could spare a few hryvnia (Ukrainian currency) for the memorial and in exchange I'd get a ribbon I could place at the temporary makeshift memorial that was there at the time.
Now, one thing about Ukraine then (and possibly still now) is that both that the cost of living is way, way below what is it is in the US, and the exchange rate is super favorable as well. It's roughly 25 hryvnia to a US dollar. And you can get an entire meal with drink and desert at a full service restaurant in Ukraine for about $5. So I exchanged part of the $200 cash I had on me for hyrvnia, but kept some greenbacks on me as well. So my wallet is absolutely flooded in hryvnia in 5, 10 and 20 variations. And I also have some $5, $10 and $20 bills on me as well.
So the woman asks me for a donation. She speaks good English. And obviously when I respond my accent tags me as an American.
I figure, what the hell, and I give her something like 20 or 25 hryvnia. That's about a dollar's worth and no big sweat to me, and a US dollar goes a long way, so I figured it would mean even more for her.
But as I open my wallet to give her the hryvnia, she sees that I also have US dollars in there as well. I think specifically it was a few $10 bills.
So she goes to me, "Oh you are American?"
I say yes, and she says, "My sister, she likes to collect foreign money. Would you mind if I could have one to give her?"
Now, I'm immediately very skeptical of her claim. And I could have very well told her no and just walked away. She was a small woman and it wasn't as though she was holding me up at gunpoint or anything.
But for whatever reason, I say, "Sure." And I give her a $10 bill. Which is something like 250 hryvnia, and given the cost of living is probably worth something like $50 over there.
She does give me a ribbon, though. And I do place it at the temporary memorial.
But after doing that, I couldn't help but wonder if any of the money--Ukrainian or American--was going towards any type of memorial. It probably went all towards her. But I really don't feel bad about being duped, either. As Americans, even us middle class folk have wealth we take for granted that people in some other countries certainly don't.
After all, during my trip there I had been benefiting by getting full meals and goods at a way cheaper rate over there than what I'd be paying here. And perhaps there was some inherent guilt I was feeling because of that.
So if I got scammed out of $10 by a little Ukrainian woman, so be it. Good for her.
= new reply since forum marked as read