Monday, September 27^th, 2010

DAY TWO - SDA APPOINTMENT

Today we took an early morning 2-mile walk in the brisk air. Many people were already up and off to work. A line of buses set up at the sidewalk to pick up passengers. Although, it seemed like everyone wanted to get on the same bus. Some bus lines were empty and others swollen with people. Women were on the curb selling milk, and other foods. We saw a few young girls with backpacks off to school as well.

Our morning passed slowly as we waited to be taken to our appointment with the SDA at noon. We waited in a stairwell for about 15 min. until we were taken into a small office. We met with a kind woman who asked a few questions and then congratulated us and said we could travel to Krivyi Rig to visit Inna. It was a quick meeting. They had Inna’s file with a few pictures of Inna. One was when she was 8 years old. It was very cute face shot. She was wearing a grey sweatshirt with a pageboy haircut. The other was more recent and very formal. The paperwork is being completed today and we can pick it up tomorrow afternoon before we take the overnight train to Krivyi Rig.

Following our appointment, we took some pictures by the St. Andrew’s Church that was next door to the Ministry Offices. The church was built in the 1750’s. Along the cobblestone road to the side of the church were numerous street vendors. We enjoyed seeing their Ukrainian souvenirs, dolls, linens and things. Many of the shops had a replica of an old club with spikes. It is considered a Ukrainian symbol of power. We thought of getting one for Tanner, but paused when we thought of how the spikes might feel on Bradley and Matthew’s back. J It would be an interesting Ukrainian Lego sword with much greater consequences. (LOL- Kaitlin and Josh!!)

Our driver returned us to the apartment to change clothes and then took us to the 3 story, “Dream Mall”. It was a high-end fashion center with high-end price tags. We saw everything from camping tents and Nike shoes to stiletto heals and leather jackets. We ate at the food court on the third floor and then had some chocolate, strawberry and caramel gelato as we left. We walked home and crashed. Did you know that Brad snores, a lot!! I have had fun teasing him. We are still adjusting to the time change.

We talked to Sister Robinson (a sister missionary in Kiev) and we will be attending a temple session tomorrow morning. Afterwards we may hang out with a member of the church that we met on Sunday. Oxsana speaks very good English and we would like to learn more about the people and culture of the Ukraine. I hope it works out!

Tonight we are going to cook the last of our Ukrainian dumplings and enjoy some grape juice. We may go walking again too! We send hugs and kisses to Tanner, Bradley, Matthew and Kaitlin (plus Josh). We miss you all!

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Day One in the Ukraine

Today we slept in and Brad made me breakfast, poached eggs on toast with grape juice and fruit! It was delicious!! We took a walk and explored the nearby church, open market spaces and people watched. The church seemed to be a branch of one of the Russian Orthodox Sects. It was being beautifully restored. It is interesting that nothing is landscaped. There are weeds and dirt everywhere with patches of flowers and manicured fences.

At the church, all the women covered their hair with wraps. One interesting lady was leaving and she turned and crossed herself, proceeded to the exit and turned and crossed and bowed again then turned and took off her wrap and climbed into her Lexus and drove off. Needless to say, Lexus’ are not common faire so she caught our attention. There were many families around the church. One older woman was placing good smelling pots out on a table. It looked as if she would be selling dinner to the exiting parishioners. There were a number of strollers, but most people had only one child. We could hear the chanting hymn like voices coming from the sanctuary, but we did not go inside.

When we arrived back to our apartment we had time to take a 15 minute nap before our driver, Sergei arrived to take us to the Temple and then downtown. Our driver understands more English than he speaks. He bought his van about 10 years ago and has been driving for others since. He is a very nice person.

At the Temple, a meetinghouse was next door. It was 1:30pm and Relief Society and Priesthood Meetings were in session. We met a lady named Oxsana who spoke great English. Oxsana married a Slovakian man, who had joined the church due to singing and traveling as a child. Oxsana introduced us to the missionaries. Elder Jensen was from Kaysville and Elder Obering was from Cedar City. (Our boys will be interested to know that Elder Obering is hoping to play quarterback for BYU when he returns from Kiev).

Both the missionaries were very positive about their experience in Kiev. They said, “it’s difficult to figure out how it works because everything looks old and run down around the city, but the buses are on time and everything falls together and works.” They said if you send a 100 grevnas up to the front of the bus from the back, the exact change is returned every time. Wow! That is a complement to the integrity and honesty of the Ukrainian people!! We were able to get the session times for Tuesday and hope to be able to return to the Temple before we catch the evening train to Krivyi Rig.

Downtown was a party. Lots of people, lots of festive street vendors and lots of Police! It seemed there had been a concert the night before or even earlier that morning. The nearby stadium was filled with Soccer (football) fans. We saw polka dancers celebrating Oktoberfest and a talented Scottish bagpiper. We bought some gelato just off the main square and the lady spoke English to us. Brad remarked, “I guess we are pretty obvious!” We had lunch at an Irish Pub called O’Brien’s (shh, secretly – our driver told us they had English menu’s) J We were not very adventurous with soup, burgers and fries. Our waitress had spent last summer in San Francisco and spoke English well. We enjoyed visiting.

The day was beautiful, the sun was warm and I even got a little sunburned. I feed pigeons crusts of bread from my hand and I picked up some Russian pamphlets/advertisements I thought Matt might enjoy trying to decipher. It was a great day. We returned around 5:30 pm and fell asleep. We have connected our computers to the Internet, and we can get email, but our emails are not going out. Tomorrow we will try to solve that problem. Our appointment with the State Department of Adoptions is at 1:00 pm and then we will have some time with Sasha.

Arriving in Kiev

Saturday, September 25^th, 2010

We arrived in Kiev at 8:45 Saturday morning. We walked through the passport inspection area without much more than a grunt from the agent. As we approached the baggage area there were many men waiting to help for a fee. We surely looked bewildered and a man loaded our luggage said something about $30 and took us through customs at the front of the line and then waited for his money. Our person had not yet arrived and no one spoke English. We gave him $10 and said that was all we had! He was not happy that it was in US dollars, but $10 dollars is about $80 grevnas. Well more than $30 grevnas.... oh, well....

We called the US contact wondering what should be our next step, but then our Ukrainian contact arrived with our driver. We were glad to see a familiar face!! We were quite out of place in a land where we could not understand anyone. We loaded up the luggage and headed to the bank and a phone retailer. We exchanged currencies and picked up a Sims card and a modem for the computers. The phone is working great, but we have not had any luck getting the computers to interface with the Internet.

When we arrived at the apartment the landlord couple was there to show us around and to tell us definitively to take off our shoes!! Our apartment is in the middle of other apartment homes, all 10 stories tall with creamy yellow exteriors with varying degrees of grey concrete showing through. Every window has a different look from the shape of the window encasing to the and window coverings. The stairwells are cement, the hallways are cement, and the elevator can squeeze 4 people (at most) per trip. We are staying on the 8^th floor in room 204. The exterior makes one ask if the building is either under renovation or demolition. The interior is very nice and clean.

At the grocery store we bought some dark chocolate, bread, salami and cheese, plums and other fruit. We got some juice, yogurt and eggs for breakfast. Of course, we also purchased some bottled water too. Last night we cooked some meat dumplings for dinner. It was all very good. We walked about a mile past a McDonald’s and a beautiful church. Amazingly, we were able to find our way home. I say, amazingly because it is really true, almost every high rise looks the same. Brad jokingly said, “I can tell that one is ours because it has a unique creamy yellow color with a certain pattern of cement lines and dirt spots.”

We slept well last night and we were both so exhausted that neither of us had trouble sleeping. Jet lag was nothing since we had had so many late nights before we left. Sleep was a gift!!