In Kyiv, Catching Up!

We’re back with and I have so much to catch up on! To start, we are safely in Kyiv, with the children, waiting for their new Ukrainian passports (in their new names) to be issued. We are staying in a lovely apartment and spending the days bonding as a family, with the kids also bonding as siblings (they haven’t slept together under one roof for 3 years), and visiting all of the sights of Kyiv (that we did not get to see at the front end of the trip).

I have several blogs to catch up on and I don’t know where to start. John just got his computer working on-line on the internet connection at the apartment last night. After he finished working, it was too late to blog. Everyone is asleep right now, so “Mama” gets a chance to catch up on things other than laundry!

I had several topics I wanted to cover and just didn’t have the chance, but I have great pictures, so bear with me and I will get everything covered.

I had mentioned the open air market, often called a Reenok, or Bazaar in an earlier blog. In Gorodnya this is the only place to buy many goods. There is a fixed, fenced in area that is open most mornings until 2:00 that sells a variety of items and fresh fruit, vegetables, and meat. On Thursdays, vendors from Belorus (less than 45 km to the north) come in and crowd the streets on both sides of the local Reenok and the bazaar more than quadruples in size. We had planned on returning home for the 10 day after-court-hearing-wait, but our plans changed when we understood that things would move quickly and that we would have our court decree the same day that we were due to fly out the first time. In opting to stay and not change our reservations, we had nothing for the kids to wear – that suitcase is at home as we brought donations over for the “first” trip.

When you adopt from Ukraine, you are handed your child in pretty much the same state that God gives you one … only in this case you may get a free pair of underwear if you are lucky! Armed with a list of what we thought we would need to exist with the kids for 2 weeks, we hit the bazaar! Finding clothes for Misha was far more easy than clothes for Mari. Winter coats and shoes were also easy. Sox and undies were a snap. Pants for Mari was difficult and at this point she still only has two pair. We forgot a hat for Misha and mittens, even though his coat has a hood that we use we were given the evil eye by babuskas and mothers alike (who did not think he was dressed warmly enough for the cold 50’-60’ weather) until I bought him a hat, a scarf, and mittens. I am amazed that he does not fall over from heat exhaustion with how bundled he is at times! The first morning in Kyiv, he dressed himself in the requisite 3 layers of shirts at the Baby House. He doesn’t understand that one shirt will do and was wearing his entire wardrobe! He will learn that he is in a heated environment and moves to a heated car and that he doesn’t need all of his layers! He dresses himself morning and night and would wear his new Spiderman shirt everyday if allowed!

The one photo of the man with the small bathtub is a fishmonger. The bathtub was full of water and large live catfish (about 18-20” long). Once a housewife has selected a fish, the man removes it from the tub, sets it wriggling on a tray of fishheads, bonks it in the head with the side of his wooden cutting board and cuts its head off. I was sorry that I peaked over the shoulders of the crowd to see what was going on. We eat fish, even trout when camping, but I was not totally sure the fish was dead from the bonk – it definitely was with no head. There was a man in a small wheelchair that looked modified and low to the ground who was selling coffee from a box mounted on the front of his wheelchair. He had no legs. He was doing a brisk business. I could not bring myself to take a picture – he is making his way through life with grace.

We pretty much found everything we needed. We looked and looked for DVDs for the kids at the Baby House, but only found a few expensive (45 grivna each) DVDs for children in Russian that we picked up for them. Aimee was gracious enough to pick up 3 (15 grivna each, with 12 movies in Russian on each one) for our kids for home at her Bazaar in Mariupol, but we did not find anything like that at ours unfortunately. Thirty six movies would have kept the kids busy during the long winter. I will keep looking here in Kyiv and possibly mail them some videos from here. The fruits and the vegetables at the market are the least expensive and freshest in town. We loved the watermelon as it tasted better than ours. Something about the way we genetically engineer fruits and veggies so that they ripen quickly, are disease resistant, and produce a larger harvest has lost the concept that fruit and veggies should actually taste good. John loved the tomatos. I loved the peaches and watermelon.

It was a great opportunity to see how people live in another part of the world and they have to plan ahead for market day, rather than just running to the store to get something the way we do.

Thank you for hanging in there with us!