Day 5, Saturday

Today we started the day with breakfast at Pizza Celantanos. We had omelets and crepes. Their food is less expensive than their drinks. Go figure. Good food, though. After eating, we stayed around the area and wandered all over their open market. It was super fun and we learned that lots of the vendors spoke English. Sweeeet. On our way up to breakfast, there was a HUGE bike race going on. There was quite the crowd and we took several pictures, all side ways. Oops. It was kind of interesting to see the variety of people participating. There were both genders, old to young, all walks of life, dressed in all types of clothing. Seriously, some of the women were totally decked out riding along with their super high heels. Kyiv is beautiful right now, the weather is beautiful, the sky, the landscape. We are very fortunate to be here right now while it is so picturesque. After our little walk through the market, we headed back to the apartment where we waited for Oleg, Natasha, and Oleg's son, Daniel. After they picked us up, we swung by the Presidential Offices. Their president doesn't live there, like our president lives in the White House, he just works in town. He has a lovely estate outside of Kyiv. Maybe kind of like Camp David, only closer? Anyhow, it was cool.

Ukraine just passed a law prohibiting the adoption of children ages 5 and under, unless there is a medical problem. Too bad for people trying to adopt younger children, but from what I understand it was quite difficult to get a child under the age of five in the first place. The problem, though is that included in this law, unprotected from the medical provision are children with Downs Syndrome and HIV. Can you believe that?! Those two things don't currently qualify for the exception provision. Oleg has spent a significant amount of time trying to have that rewritten. He told us that only .01 % of Ukrainians that adopt will ever consider a child with medical problems. And there aren't even that many Ukrainians who adopt! We hope that this addition is made to the provision to allow the adoptions of children with those medical conditions to be available for adoption.

After seeing the Presidential Offices, we headed to see Big Mama, as the Ukrainians call her. Big Mama is formally the Statue of the Mother Land. She is sort of like the Statue of Liberty for Ukraine. Side note, her sword was taller than the cross on the bellfry tower which is not customarily appropriate, so the government officials just had her sword hacked in half. I was impressed that they paid heed to that religious tradition when so many governments pay less and less attention to God in their dealings.

Next to the Statue of the Mother Land is the Museum of the Patriotic Wars. It was dedicated to all the wars in which Ukrainians fought in and had history from each one. It was very interesting to hear the Ukrainian impressions of WWII and what was going on from their side of things. Like our Holocaust Museum in D.C., it was a solemn, reverent place to be.

On our way back to our apartment, we stopped briefly at the Famine Memorial. I have read about this and was really looking forward to visiting it. My pictures aren't great and most of them are sideways, so I'll only post the one of the wheat. I just read a book before coming to Ukraine, the autobiography of a woman who lived through all of these events and her story and perception of things as a young child all the way to adulthood. The famine is an unbelievable nightmare that so many people didn't even know about. It makes me wonder about the atrocities that are taking place right now today that we aren't aware of as we hustle and bustle through our lives.

Tonight we had dinner in the underground mall. It was kind of wild to be in a two story mall that was all the way underground. And, of course, we had some ice cream:)

Tonight we heard fire works again. We have decided it is because they know we are here and are so happy:). We also did some laundry. It took way too long to figure out how to make our washing machine work. Hopefully our clothes are dry by the time we leave in the morning. I'm a little hesitant about this 6 hour car ride we will have. I've recently heard a road trip in Ukraine described as being on a rickety roller coaster. You know what the first thing that comes to my mind is-the white roller coaster at Lagoon. I hate that thing! I feel like I'm getting shaken adult syndrome when I ride it, so I'm hoping the car ride is not that bad! Either way, it is an adventure and I will be sure to let you know how it goes. We love and miss our girlies!!! Like yesterday, the caption for the picture will be underneath.

The cut wheat symbolizes all the wheat that was harvested and the bars symbolize that the Ukrainians were not allowed to have any of it resulting in a man made famine in which 7 million people died.

The Dnepro River and the 'left' side of Kyiv as it is known. I think it is beautiful!

Oleg, Daniel, and Natasha, our Ukrainian team in Kyiv. They rock!!

Huz and Wif in front of the Presidential Offices.

The bike race, side ways (sorry). It was very cool. Bikes and people for miles!!