There is a "twist" to this photo, and it's not just the shape of the
potato kabob:
<https://www.flickr.com/photos/24844563@N04/35664244563/in/dateposted-public/>
The young woman may appear to be enjoying her lunch, but actually, she
is working. I took this picture on our way up the Prague "Castle
Steps." When we came back down several hours later, she was still
there. She spoke Ukrainian, so Katya could talk with her. The economies
in Ukraine and some other former Soviet republics are so bad that many
people repeatedly get four-month visas to work in a more prosperous
nearby country. They do low-level service jobs like working in hotel
and restaurant kitchens, cleaning hotel rooms, or, in this case, being a
living advertisement for the food kiosk nearby.
We heard similar stories everywhere we went in the Czech Republic. A
middle-aged woman at one of our hotels told us she was an office
manager, but she could make far more cleaning rooms in Czech hotels than
she could at her real profession back home. Her daughter is a lawyer in
Odessa, but has to work a second job at a "beez-nez" to make ends meet.
On a more cheery note, here is another Prague night shot:
<https://www.flickr.com/photos/24844563@N04/35664246733/in/dateposted-public/>
Enjoy,
--Peter
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