Hangin in Kyiv

It's been a weekend of getting oriented in Kyiv: figuring out where the markets are, learning the Metro (including how to avoid vertigo when going down 250 metres escalators at 45 degree slopes), watching Al Jazeerah TV news channel (without doubt best news channel I’ve seen), touring some sights.

What are highlights of the weekend? (1) Meeting our facilitator and family and enjoying a dinner at their apartment. (2) Going to church as St. Michaels with a bishop officiating along with 6 priests and a dearth of deacons…those Orthodox priests must have a light workload over here (j/k). (3) Touring St. Sophia Cathedral and being able to touch a piece of the thousand year old floor of the original Cathedral. (It was built in 1017-31 to celebrate Prince’s Yaroslav’s victory to protect Kyiv from tribal raiders. Think about all the people who may have walked over that tile…) (4) Walking around Kyiv and enjoying its modern post-Communism environment and how it changed since Donna visited in 1987. (5) Settling in our apartment and catching up on some sleep even if we are waking up at 5 a.m. (6) Recovering Donna’s lost bag fully intact. (7) and Riders smoked the Eskimos (see Rider link on our blog).

Amusement for Sunday was provided by Murray. It was mid-afternoon, at Volodymyrsky market, hoping to pick up a few things, hop back onto the metro and have lunch, as we both were getting peckish since not eating since breakfast. And we were both getting tired after standing in church for 3 hours plus lots of walking/sightseeing. When we bought “4’ eggs for tomorrow’s breakfast we were surprised to find the lady placing each egg carefully in a thin clear plastic bag, to which she handed over to Murray while Donna paid the equiv of 40 cents. Why 4 eggs and not a dozen? We don’t know if we will be staying in Kyiv or for how long after the adoption appointment on Tuesday, so there is no point buying too much food at this point for the apartment. Murray was feeling quite tired by this time, and hungry, and as the temperature was getting warmer outdoors, his top two buttons in his shirt were undone, but his tie was still on, and one side of his shirt had come out of his pants. Needless to say by the time we hopped back on the metro to go back to our apartment, the people gave him strange looks as he looked more like an afternoon drunk carrying a bag of four eggs. It was a sight to see. (And the eggs made it home safely.)

But on the positive side, the “excessive drinking” seems to be helping Murray better pick up Ukrainian Cyrillic alphabet. He is getting pretty good at the Metro and station names especially.

We also had a visit at our apartment from a Doctor who helps support families in international adoption. He spent well over one hour with us going over the possible medical diagnoses we may expect in the adoption file for each child. He told us some things we already knew, and also other things that will help us to better understand what conditions could be treated, not treated, or not accepted by Canadian immigration standards. He also gave tips on what information to look for in the files that will be presented to us at the State Adoption Agency (SDA). He helped to assure us that in many cases the medical conditions could be dated and/or overly exaggerated in the files and that seeing the child(ren) would give much better information.

We have one more day of touring on Monday (Caves Monestary), before July 1 and our appointment. We haven’t been notified of the time of our appointment. So, as everyone is back in Canada celebrating Canada Day, think of us, and send your well wishes and prayers this way.