So long Oxtnpka!!!

Yes, that is the proper spelling (except the N should be backwards) Now you know why it took me so long to get the pronounciation. I'm afraid we've been in Ukraine so long, I actually am able to read alot of cyrillic. Unreal.

We've been in this town for 24 days and are looking forward to going back to Kiev...it's one step closer to home. The night before last, the ladies who work at the hotel came to our room and brought us some small gifts. It was very thoughtful. They wished our family good luck and all wanted to say good bye. I must say the service at this hotel is above and beyond anything else we've seen in Ukraine. We won't miss the town, but we will miss the new friends we made here. We did exchange email addresses, so we'll be able to keep in touch. I was just about to post a picture we got with the hotel staff, but at the last minute I realized Emma was in it....sorry about your luck!

Things with Emma are still going well. I brought Children's gravol for the airplane ride, so hopefully all will be good. If not, I have gravol for myself as well :)

Potty training is getting better. No accidents for about five days. We take her every couple of hours. We also have to wake her up and take her a couple of times in the middle of the night so she doesn't wet the bed. There has been a time or two when she has actually gone to the washroom on her own, so we're happy about that. We're heading in the right direction anyway.

We also spend a few minutes a day going over numbers, colours and alphabet. Right now we're just at the repeating stage. She can't take much, but hopefully spending time each day will help her to learn.

Our taxi to Kiev leaves in a couple of hours. Time to go eat before we leave. Not too sure what our internet situation will be when we get there. If you don't hear from us in the next few days, we'll see you all when we get home!!!!!:):):)

Safety First

I can predict what will probably be the biggest battle with Emma when we get on the airplane on Saturday and when we get home.....seatbelts. Cars in Ukraine have seatbelts, but you can't usually find them. They're usually tucked behind the seats. Every time we go in a cab with Emma, she is either sitting on one of our laps or laying across us. She'll have it no other way. And how do you explain to a six year old who doesn't speak English that she has to put a seatbelt on for her own safety and it's the law? Please pray!

Safety standards in this country sometimes make my jaw hit the floor. It's not even close to Canada. I guess it's because no one can afford to hire a lawyer to sue. There are huge holes in the sidewalks everywhere. Big, sharp pieces of metal coming out of the ground. And remember how I told you most people in this town ride scooters? We've seen three people squeeze on a scooter. If someone has a child, they just place them between their legs while they're riding. It's unreal. And, yes, of course, they are also on the highway. And helmets? I don't think they even know what they are in this country. I've held my breath many times on the highway on the way to the orphanage while our great big van passed these tiny little scooters with maybe a couple of feet between us and going 100km and hour. It's scary.

Oh, and car seats....what are those? The other day a car drove by and there was about a two year old standing on the back seat looking out the window. I guess to the Ukrainians, this is all normal to them. There have just been so many things in this country that are SO completely different from home....including banks.

For all of you at ATB, I've been meaning to write about the banks here for quite some time, just haven't had the chance. I know I had a conversation with Bissel before I left regarding whether or not we were going to use a bank to hold our money...the answer is no.

We've been in a couple of banks to try and exchange some money. And being a banker, I was curious to see exactly what goes on in the banks here. Well, the answer is NOTHING. The couple of banks we went in to were like ghost towns. Not a single customer. I asked our translator about this, and she told me that no one here uses banks. Why? Either they have no money and also, they don't trust them. Something happened many years ago (and I'm sorry I don't know exact facts) where the leader of the country changed and when this happened, everyone who had money in the bank lost it. It all just disappeared. This actually happened to our translator's mom and dad. People lost everything and were devestated. Since then there has been no trust. Same with insurance companies. We asked about insurance here and our translator told us no one pays for it because they don't trust the companies.

Here's some interesting facts on the economy of Ukraine. Inflation over the last couple of years has been 50%!!!! Crazy!!! Interest rates right now for a loan are between 15-20%. I imagine because inflation is so high. But here is the backwards part. Economists here advise citizens that when they make money, the MUST spend it immediately. They say that if they don't spend it right away, inflation will just keep rising and eventually they will not be able to afford anything. And the crazier thing is, that's the advice people in this country live by. Even our translator, who I think makes a decent amount of money compared to the citizens of Ukraine (average income per person is $200/month) lives by this method. We asked her about saving for retirement...she told us the kids take care of the parents. Pretty hard to wrap my brain around all this after just taking the IFIC course!! :):)

That's all for now. Like I've said, we've seen so many unbelievable things since we've been here. So many times, I've wanted to take a picture, but I really don't want to offend anyone here. I was able to sneak a picture a couple of days ago. I've posted it below. You will see a woman with a stick in her hand. At the bottom of the stick is a blade. She waves this stick back and forth to cut the grass. And she's not doing a yard....she's doing an entire field!!!!!

Mowing the Grass

More Stories From Ukraine.....

Let me tell you about my shower troubles a couple days ago.....It all starts with the electricity here. It goes out quite often. No rhyme or reason...just goes out, usually at the worst time. The hot water we get in our shower is not from a hot water tank..it is heated with an electric heater. So no power means no hot water. The other morning I was enjoying my hot shower (actually lukewarm-but I'll take that) when the power went out. Of course, I had a full sudsy head of shampoo and freezing cold water. I debated whether or not to ride it out to see if the power would come back on, but decided to continue in the freezing cold. Good thing, because the power was out for an hour.

Later that day, our toilet started having trouble flushing. By that evening, we had sewage coming up the shower drain and filling the shower. Talk about disgusting! We had to leave it like that overnight until somebody came to fix it. Yuck!! :(

Today was an interesting day. We are getting quite popular in this little town. Everywhere we go, we stick out like a sore thumb and people are getting used to seeing us. Most are quite friendly and will wave and say hi. Today we ran into a gentleman we met a little while ago. He insisted we come to his coffeeshop and have a free coffee. Even though we were in a hurry to get to the market and get home for Emma's nap, we just couldn't say no. He was so nice. Then he took us to the market and tried to get us a deal on our purchases. Not that it's necessary. All we needed was cucumbers. We got three big cucumbers for 1 hryvna (about 20 cents!) and then we were on our way.

The gentleman walked with us back towards our hotel, which happened to pass by his apartment. He insisted we come in and meet his family. So we did. He has been married for 10 years, like us. He and his wife have 2 daughters, 8 and 3. They were beautiful. His 8 year old daughter sings competitively all over Ukraine, so she sang us a song with a little dance routine. It was so precious! She was so good, she almost had me in tears. We also used his laptop to look up our house on google earth because he wanted to see where we lived. We had a very nice visit with them and they told us we are welcome anytime. I just couldn't believe the kindness of these strangers. It totally made our day!!

Emma is doing well. Everyday gets a little better. I'm quite surprised at the progress we're making already. I'm definitely not as scared as I used to be. I think I'm starting to enjoy mommyhood. In fact, I'm slowly climbing up my way up the totem pole with Emma. I'm still no papa, but I think I could be a close second! :)

This morning we played some music on our laptop. Emma LOVES music. She loved to dance and she always tries to sing along with the songs. We have one song that has the lyrics "hallelujah" over and over, so she learned that one right away! She wanted us to play it over and over because she knows the words. Only thing is, it sounds like she's saying Hallelu-yum! Too cute! :):)

Many of you have been dying to see a picture of Emma, so I have posted one below along with some other shots taken in town.

Enjoy....until next time!

Papa and Emma....LOL!!!!!

Emma's Homecoming (Our Hotel)

At the Town Market