Finally, we have some time to fill you in on what we’ve been doing and what is has been like here. There is so much to tell!!
Here you go…
Sights
One evening we took the metro just one stop to a place called Hidropark (Hydropark). This is a really interesting place that is some kind of a cross between a typical beach boardwalk and a lush, green city park. Being there in the evening was nice, as that day the weather was fairly pleasant. Kiev is along a large river, the Dnipr and certain areas have little beaches. So Hydropark has beaches, canoe and small jet ski rentals, a bunch of amusement park type rides, pavillions for meetings and parties (several groups were having dances and the like), many cafes with live entertainment or karaoke style entertainment, kiosks selling drinks, ice cream, and lots of other items, there was a cool outside exercise area that had bars of all kinds and there were a lot of men there exercising, many of whom appeared to have gymnastic talents. Who needs to pay $35 a month to go to a gym when you can exercise in the beautiful outdoors!? The park part of it was lush green with flower gardens and walkways in all directions. We wandered them for awhile until it was near dark and finally got back on the metro (yes, it costs the equivalent of 10 cents per trip) one stop to our hotel. Such a lovely walk surrounded by Ukrainians enjoying the beauty of the summer and the joy of public parks.
Another day we had some time and we ventured downtown. We went to just see the city center and do a little shopping, but we stumbled accidentally upon Independence Square where the “Orange Revolution” took place. It is a beautiful plaza with fountains, a huge column, and impressive buildings all around. We wandered the streets and enjoyed the truly European feel of this city. I am really impressed with how far they have come since I was last here in 1997. According to locals, though, it looks better than the living conditions really are for the common person. Still, it is progress that is completely visible and I find it encouraging. Hopefully, the conditions for day to day living will soon be improved as well.
Independence Square
Another view of Independence Square
This same day, we took the metro to the Chernobyl museum. I had been there back in 1997 and wanted to return and also let Steve share the experience. It was still very powerful, but sadly it was almost empty, compared to being very crowded back in ‘97. Also, when we asked people nearby for directions, many of them did not even know of it. I think it got more attention when it first opened and has since become less interesting, which is too bad.
We didn’t have an English tour guide, so it was basically a visual tour for us. Fortunately, the museum is done in a way that it is mainly pictures, actual items left from those who were lost, examples of the types of equipment that was used, 3-d models of the land and facilities, and just overall is a very impressive graphical experience. When you enter, you go up stairs and hanging from the ceiling are rows of signs showing the names of towns. When you depart, you see the signs from the back and each one is now black and has a red slash across it. It is so powerful to see this and makes you feel the desire to weep for the magnitude of this tragedy.
At the entrance to the museum, there is a photo exhibit showing the after-effects of September 11, 2001 in New York. This was amazing to see and we felt honored that they paid tribute to our losses, though I think they can barely compare to an event like Chernobyl. Or maybe they can be compared… ??
One thing we have also been impressed with here is a really diverse collection of building architecture. There are a lot which are obviously “soviet style” buildings, but there is so much more as well. There are very modern high-rise apartment buildings as well as office-type buildings. There are completely unique buildings as well, that are new, interesting, stylish, and could easily fit into any major American city and be noticed. The newest apartment/condo buildings that are being built rival any contemporary urban apartment building in the US or Europe and evidently the prices are such that even a wealthy American might find them unreasonable. This is of course a sad reality. Beautiful, new dwellings that the common Ukrainian will not be able to afford for quite some time, if ever.
Food
We have really enjoyed the food here thus far. We honestly haven’t had any bad experiences or reactions to the food, and everything we’ve tried has been tasty. Steve totally loves the coffee, I’m enjoying the tea as drinks go, and as food goes, we’ve tried, meat dishes, chicken dishes, soups, many kinds of salad (including salads with meat), stuffed mushrooms, baked potatoes with salads or casseroles on top (kind of odd but pretty tasty!), and I’m sure that’s not all. The meals are not always as cheap as we’d expected, many city center cafe’s have prices that rival most fast food places in the U.S., but you get fresher and healthier foods for the cost, and we’ve so far always eaten Ukrainian except for one lunch at McDonald’s which was mainly for convenience sake… though isn’t that what McDonald’s is all about anyhow?
Time
Boy, being here has completely messed with our tense of time. We have only been here since Tuesday afternoon - it is now Saturday morning, but it feels like we have been here for two or three weeks. Some of that may be due to jet lag, but it is just a really strange feeling. Also, we do so much in a given day, that it feels like a week’s worth. And with the heat and humidity contributing to our weariness and sleep difficulties, it is just like being in a dreamworld, only we’re awake. Anyhow, we have lost all sense of time. We haven’t determined if this is good or bad, and maybe after a weekend of rest and recuperation, we will feel better and a bit more “balanced.”
Airports and Airplanes
We flew intra-country yesterday and found the airport and airplane experience to be a pleasant and fairly typical one. The flight was on time, all our baggage made it easily onto the plane and to our destination, and the airplane was reasonably comfortable. Not as nice as US airlines, but still nothing awful. They gave us candy for takeoff and landing and served drinks once we reached cruising altitude, just like in the US. The only thing that was unusual is you don’t check-in until your plane is already here and ready for your flight. So check-in and boarding happens pretty much one after the other. And of course they don’t have jetways. You take a shuttle bus to the airplane, board using stairs, and exit the plane in the same way. Still, it works, and the shuttles are very modern and comfortable.
Train Stations and Trains
We took the overnight train back to Kiev, and I was quite impressed at the improvements made to the train stations. Granted, I haven’t been to a Ukrainian train station before, but I had been to several in Russia and Latvia, and these were similar to those only much more nicer, cleaner, or more modern. We had to go first-class, but maybe that was a blessing because we had air conditioning, and it has been really hot and humid here. We were quite comfortable and managed to sleep. Both of us like trains, so that certainly helped. When we woke up, the sun was just coming up and we opened the curtains to see beautiful fields of sunflowers and then little villages, and forests, and it was so beautiful! We then had a small breakfast and tea and coffee, and it was the perfect way to wake up (if you’re traveling that is). We hope we can use the train for our next referral because we really prefer it cost-wise to airplane travel, and we’d be content with 2nd class as well. Still, it was nice to experience this together, and we will be glad to do it again.
Beautiful scenery viewed from the train in early morning
Lovely villages viewed from the train
Dnipropetrovsk
I think it is safe now to inform you all that the region we went to was Dnipropetrovsk. This is kind of cool because this is where my friend Vlada is from (whom I mentioned here).
Vlada had given us her parents’ contact information, so we had contacted them, and they met us at the airport when we arrived yesterday. They have a car, which was a huge blessing for us! We had many places to go, and it would have been quite complicated to fit all 4 of us in a taxi, especially since we weren’t sure where we were going. These four were Steve, myself, Sveta (our translator), and Dr. Yuri the doctor we brought along to evaluate the child’s health and medical condition. Anyhow, so there ended up being 6 of us (the other two being Vlada’s mom and her father who was the driver) driving around together all day - 2 in front and 4 in the back. It was quite “cozy”, but we were so grateful that the car had A/C. It was another hot day, and much of it was spent in the car trying to find the various places we had to go.
Dnepropetrovsk is about 500 km southeast of Kyiv along the Dnepr river. It is about the same “footprint” size as Kiev but a smaller population. All in all, it was very provincial and inviting, and we both liked it immediately. We had to go first to the City Hall, so this of course brought us right into the center of the city. City hall then closed for lunch, so we went with Dr. Yuri to get some lunch and then to the internet cafe for a few minutes. All in all, this process of getting permission from the mayor took awhile, but we did eventually get it (after we showed up ourselves to show our passports).
Dnipropetrovsk City Hall
From there we had to go to the regional inspector to get permission to visit the child at the orphanage. It took awhile (more waiting on the sidewalk or in the car) but again we were successful in the end. From there we went to the orphanage, and this took us quite some time to find. We thought we’d found it at one point but discovered it wasn’t the right orphanage so back into the car we went.
By this point we’d been driving (and some walking) around since about 10:45 when we left the airport and by now it was getting close to 3 pm. Of course we had gotten up around 5:45 to pack, eat breakfast, and catch our ride to the airport, so you can imagine we were pretty wiped out. We were also trying to not be anxious about meeting the child, and somehow we managed simply because everything was always happening so fast. Those in the car were speaking to one another in Russian a mile a minute, and I was too tired to even try to listen in. For some reason the Dr. took over for awhile as translator and even translated Sveta’s words to us! LOL He was very western in style and speech, so his English was easier understood than anyone else’s.
Me with Dr. Yuri
At the Orphanage
When we finally arrived at the right orphanage, things happened rather quickly. We were ushered into the director’s office and several people made reports about the condition of the child. Almost none of this was translated for us (except that the child had negative HIV and other negative tests), but the Dr. was taking notes furiously. We waited patiently, assuming when everyone was done reporting they would explain it all to us. Instead, the door opened and in came a caregiver holding a small blonde boy! He was littler than we expected but very very darling! He had been born with a cleft lip and palate, and we had been concerned about this, but the surgery they had done to repair the lip was well done, and he didn’t look bad at all as a result of the cleft lip/palate issues. The doctor initially allowed the boy to remain in the lap of the caregiver and started his evaluation. First and foremost they wanted to determine if he could hear. It didn’t take long to discover that he has decent hearing, but he wouldn’t really respond to instructions or even to interaction. We determined the boy could hear because the Dr’s phone kept ringing, and his ring tone is the Mexican Hat Dance song. The Dr. moved the phone around to the left, right, up, and down, and the boy followed the sound with ease. This was the most response we ever saw from him. After that, it became obvious to us and to everyone else that this boy had some major problems. They put him down and the doctor continued his exam. The boy responded to almost nothing. He showed almost no interest in the toys and could not follow simple directions. He seemed most content with his back against the wall, rocking side to side and banging his head on the wall. It was not looking good. He also seemed to have very poor motor control, as his hands and feet both shook a little.
The doctor continued for 20-30 minutes more to interact with the boy, and in the end, he gave us his conclusion: many signs of FAS and poor mental and emotional prognosis, possibly autism in some form. He said he did not recommend this child for adoption. Over the course of the next 20 minutes, it was communicated to us that the caregivers agreed that this boy was not healthy or right and the director also agreed. She seemed to like us and indicated that they had other children coming available and perhaps we would be able to come back and see another child. This made us feel good, and overall we have felt like we have been given favor with the officials we have met in Ukraine. Still, it is so heartbreaking to have to say no to any human being. Rejection is so painful. We were somewhat comforted in that this boy had absolutely no idea what was going on, as he barely even acknowledged the presence of any people in the room. He just stared at the ceiling or put blocks into his mouth (not uncommon for children overcoming cleft lip/palate issues) and rocked or banged the blocks on his head. Even before the doctor mentioned autism as a possibility, I recognized some of the symptoms and wondered if that was the case. We don’t know for sure, as it isn’t an official diagnosis, but it seems very likely. So that was that. We furiously wrote the rejection letter because if we didn’t get it turned in to the inspector on Friday we would have had to wait until Monday and then still return to Kiev. The inspector was not happy about having to work later on a Friday but did agree to wait for us. We were very grateful!
We thanked the orphanage director and headed out. We dropped of Dr. Yuri so he could catch a cab to the airport, thanked him, and went to the inspector’s office. After filing the letter and getting whatever return document was needed, we headed back into the city to investigate how we would return to Kiev. This is all still the same day, and we were completely exhausted! Still, we were hoping we might catch the overnight train, and after more than an hour of investigating and decision-making, we did decide to take the train. It was now about 5:30 pm, and the train didn’t leave until 10:45! Those 5 hours were some of the longest as we just wanted to crash, which is exactly what we did once we finally got on the train 5 hours later. The rest we already told you about.
Our Driver and Escort
I want to say just a bit more about Vlada’s mother Ludmila and her husband Vova (Vladimir). These two were just amazing! They had absolutely nothing to gain, they had never even met us before, yet they spent this entire day driving us around, waiting with us, starving themselves (we got to eat lunch but they didn’t, and I guess they didn’t get breakfast either!). They were so warm and supportive and never complained about all the waiting. They were willing to ask directions again and again or as many times as was necessary in order to find the places we needed to go. I truly can’t imagine how we would have done it without them!
Us with Vlada’s parents, Ludmila (Luda) and Vladimir (Vova)
Well, I think that is enough for today. We are now back in Kiev, having gotten in about 6:30 am off the train. There is an apartment being prepared for us, but it won’t be ready until noon or 1 so we asked to be brought back to this hotel, so we could have the advantage of using our own computer at the internet cafe. It’s just nicer that way. We are looking forward to baths, being able to do laundry, and this flat will have air conditioning!! Woohoo!
Thanks to all and blessings
It was so great to finally be able to sleep soundly and in a cool room and not on a train! First really good night’s sleep we’ve had here. This morning we woke up hungry, but the little grocery store nearby didn’t open until 10. We headed out about 10:30 and came home with everything we needed! We couldn’t believe how inexpensive everything was. Here is what we got: a frozen bag of pelmeny (meat dumplings), small carton of milk, 1/2 a loaf of bread, a tub of butter (or margarine not sure), 200 g of hard salami, 200 g of cheese, 2 containers of yogurt, a bag of cookies I hand-selected (4 different kinds), 4 eggs, a carton of orange juice, 2 large bottles of water (1.5 L ea), 2 tomatoes, and 2 bananas. All of the above cost us a total of somewhere between $8 and $9. Really amazing! We made sure we brought a canvas bag along to carry everything back in and it was just the right size (except for the water and juice, which we had purchased the night before), and we brought everything home and promptly made ourselves a delicious breakfast! Everything we selected was very tasty and we were so hungry. It felt like we were enjoying the fruits of our labors or something like that! Shopping in another country is not an easy feat, so we were proud to have managed it so successfully! I almost paid 7,73 for the bread when the price was actually only 73 kopecks! The lady was kind enough to make sure she didn’t take advantage of the misunderstanding. 
