Ukraine trip part 2 - Day in Kyiv and Trip to meet M

The next morning, Saturday, I was met at my apartment by BF Staff member, Sasha. He offered to show me around Kyiv for the day and take me shopping. We first went to MegaMarket - a Western-style shopping center.....kinda. It was in a two story brick factory looking building - the sign at the road was very obvious, but the enterance to the building was not....down an alley and around a corner to a small unmarked set of sliding glass doors. There was grocery store downstairs and a department type store upstairs. There was an "L" shaped area around each of these main shops that had flea-market type booths, each rented by different types of vendors; one sold nice men's dress clothing, another sold automatic weapons (eek!). This store had everything - BUT selection within a type of item was small - they had hair-dryers, but only 2 to choose from, not 10 like we are used to in the states. Since my luggage had still not turned up, I needed to replace my gifts for Marina. I think I spend about $75 USD (they took my visa debit card too!) and I got her: a insulated down coat with rabbit fur trim, a long sleeved shirt, pink heart slippers, a pink poodle stuffed toy, a Barbie doll, a Barbie coloring book, a think Disney anthology of Princess stories, and thick stockings. While we were there Sasha and I took down prices of various items, requested by the US sponsors, to update the BFC online shop. He also took me to a neat little book shop, right across the street from my apartment - I got 3 of the Harry Potter books in Ukrainian! All three cost less than $20 total. Since he doesn't have a car, we took public transport - the shuttle buses were neat and the metro was beautiful! Each cost less than a quarter to use. He took me to Independance Square and we walked around there a bit, the underground Western-style mall, and then we walked to some of the nearby cathedrals. They are so gorgeous! Light blue walls with big golden domes! We found some street vendors around one of the cathedrals and I did my souvenier shopping. "TAK!" scarves, matryoshka dolls, little hand-sewn dolls in traditional Ukrainian dress...Exhausted from all the walking, Sasha dropped me off at my apartment and I went right to sleep. The next morning I had blisters LOL :)Sunday: Dima picks me up bright and early - its still dark outside. I go to get in the jeep and there is an unexpected person with Dima! Vladimir doesn't speak a word of English and he is what most people would think of when they think of a Russian man...olive skin, black hair, very Russian looking mustache and beard, thick build etc. Dima says that Vladimir is coming along to "make sure the doors of the orphanage are open..." uhhh....okayyyyy. So he's our thug for the day? LOL Nice enough guy though - or at least he seems that way...I don't speak Russian and he doesn't speak English, but he seemed like a pleasant guy. Very diplomatic while he was negotiating our way into the orphanage and when asking for directions etc. So, after a long drive, we make it to the city of Kirovograd. Still, we have no real idea of where the specific orphanage is and this is a good sized city...we only know the name of the orphanage and the director's name. After driving around in circles for a bit, we arrive. There are little kids playing in the snow inside the safety of the orphanage fence. Dima speaks a bunch of Ukrainian, confirms this is Barvinok and Mila is the director and we are ushered inside. We go up to a classroom and they begin bringing little girls named M out to me - I guess its a common name and the teachers don't always know their last names. I'd say "no, that is not her, she is 8 years old, here is picture of her..."etc. Finally one of the teachers knew who I was talking about and send some of the kids to fetch the correct M. I'm coming down the stairs and this little girl comes running up, bundled to the ears in snow clothing....They ask "is this her?" - its hard to tell with the hat and scarf and all....so they motion for her to pull off her hat. And there she is...my angel! I think they tell her I'm here to visit her, and she smiles, takes my hand and starts to lead me to her classroom so she can take off her jacket and such. I guess I walked too slow since she and her little friends take off at a run down the hall, chattering the whole way. I catch up and she is stading in a little locker room taking off all her snow clothes. She goes into the main classroom and starts playing with a broken music box with two of her friends. She seems shy at first. Dima explains that I have gifts for her and I start pulling out the things I bought at MegaMarket. She seems so happy, but still shy. She nuzzles in the rabbit fur of her new coat, letting it tickle her nose. Soon, a crowd forms around M. Everyone is passing around her gifts and looking at them. Thankfully the locket we had bought and had our pictures put in had been safe in my carry on bag, so I gave that to her - I put it around her neck and clasped it, and then opened it for her to see the photos. I told her "Mamma and Pappa". She brightened up at this and kept showing her friends her necklace. I doubt many of the kids there have golden lockets from their parents. I just hope it doesnt get stolen. I gave her a photo album with pictures of her room, our home, our family...and a postcard book of Atlanta. All the kids seemed to like these things the most. I just sat back and watched her with her little friends. Then it was lunch time and time for us to go. M said thank you (spaseeba) and was being all shy as we went to leave. Just as we got out of her classroom into the hall, she comes running out and hugs my legs! I squat down and hug her back and kiss her cheek. She keeps saying somethingin Ukrainian over and over....I have no clue what it was, but I think she was happy. I found out her birthday had been a week before (January 21, and now she's 9), and this was probably the best birthday she had had in a long time - they don't get gifts or parties at an orphanage. We left Barvinok, and headed out of the city. We stopped for lunch and to visit with Dima's grandfather's friend, then back to Kyiv. The airport called on the drive back and said they had one of my bags. We stopped by the airport and picked it up (after much arguing with the customs clerk).Next morning Dima picked me up and dropped me at the airport. My trip home was uneventful - thank God!

My trip to Ukraine

So, things are finally settling down after my trip to Ukraine and I've had time to digest everything that happened....I am also now coming down with strep throat - a gift from the little orphans LOLMy adventure started on Wednesday January 25th when I arrived at the Atlanta airport in the evening. Bags were checked and I made it through security with no problems. Got some Starbucks and waited to board. The flight to Paris was long, but they had nice movies to watch and the flight was empty enough I could stretch out and sleep a bit. Arrive Paris - Thursday morning. By the time we landed and they bused us to the terminal, the flight to Kyiv had already closed! To top it off, there are no signs tellilng you where to go in Paris and there were no more flights to Kyiv that day. I was in hysterics on the floor. The French are very rude and have absolutely no concept of customer service. Thanks to two orthodox jews who were also trying to get to Kyiv, I got onto a flight to Prague, which would then connect to Kyiv that same evening. I had Andrew call Dima and let him know the change in arrival time. I get to Kyiv and they have lost both my checked bags with my gifts for the kids in them. Dima is waiting for me and takes me on a short driving tour of Kyiv and then we pick up the key to my apartment. I settle in and go to sleep, finally at my destination. Yura arrives at 7:30 am the next morning to pick me up and take me to the Big Family Chairty offices so we can get on the road to Pryluky. At the office I meet Sasha (cutie!) and we drink good strong coffee while waiting for Dima and Olesya to arrive. Once everyone was there, we all loaded into two cars, packed with parcels, and drove the two hours to Pryluky. We stopped at one of the only gasoline stations in Ukraine that has a mini-market. I get a Vanilla Coke, an Energy drink to bring back to the states for my husband (he lives on Monster energy drink), and three Ukrainian rock CDs (for my mom). I start filming the village of Pryluky, and the approach to the orphanage - I probably filmed the car seats as I was learning the buttons LOL. The playground was buried in snow and the enterance to the orphanage was unassuming - like many things in post-soviet Ukraine. The caretakers and director are there to greet us, and the boys begin bringing the parcels in to the lobby in front of the director's office. The caretakers then gather the parcels for the children in their classes and return to their classrooms. Olesya then gets permission to bring me to meet my angel, O . We go upstairs as her class has been merged with another groupa due to the lack of heat in her normal classroom. Standing at the classroom door, they call her out - up walks this TINY little girl with long black hair, pulled back in a pony tail, in a fluffy red sweater! Then she asks the most heart breaking question possible -"Are you going to be my Mamma and take me with you?" - I was almost in tears! I had Olesya tell her, "no, I wish I was your Mamma and could take you with me, but I'm not allowed to right now." On top of my luggage being lost, Big Family had mistakingly given O's December parcel to the kids at Borzna! So I had no gifts for O, except what I could scroung out of my backpack. Thankfully, I had made sure to put her necklace in there for safe-keeping! I also had a game-boy that I gave her. Olesya explained to O that the necklace symbolized my relationship with her - two hearts connected forever! O liked her gifts, and we went out with her caretaker to locate a jacket that we thought may have been from the misplaced parcel. O is a very stubborn and spirited child! Just like me...LOL. The jacket was not the one I had sent, but during the search I learned alot about O - no one is trying to adopt her, according to the caretaker. She also doesn't remember any parents and has no idea how long she has been at the Detsky dom - for as long as she could remember she said. I also gave my disposable camera to O and she loved taking pictures with it - I took the camera when she was done, and told her I would get it developed and send her copies of the pictures. I gave her tons of hugs and kisses and Olesya took tons of pictures of the two of us together. The kids then ate lunch and laid down for a nap. We all waited in the directors office, discussing the kids, and cataloguing the "all children" gifts. I then tried to video as many of the groupas as possible as they were waking up from their naps - but the camera died! I still visited many of the groupas and talked to the kids - to get impressions and stories to bring back to their sponsors. We all then said good bye, and went to the village for lunch.Olesya helped me order, and I got borscht and fried potatoes (hashbrowns). Dima also ordered Vodka. Sahsa played bartender, and Dima taught me the "proper" way to drink vodka - straight, chased by warm borscht! My eyes were watering and I almost coughed. I was tipsy the whole was back to Kyiv. Back at my apartment I watched Ukrainian news and music TV, took a bath in hot brownish/yellow water, and then went to bed. Continued in part 2.