Reflections

This posting is a day late. Last night as I was working on my blog during a rain storm the electricity suddenly went out. I lost what I was working on. Bummer!

It was quite dark in the basement where we live at the TLC and the only light we had was the light from the cell phone. Mark and I took turns pressing the button on the cell phone to keep the light going as we brushed our teeth and got ready for bed. Once we got under the covers, voila! The lights came back on! By that time I didn't feel like typing anymore and besides that I didn't know Tanya's password to restart her computer.

This morning it has been a rainy and gray day. It is chilly outside, so it is a good morning for me to catch up on the computer. Tanya came and restarted it, and she is gone for the day, so here I am!

Yesterday was a gorgeous, sunny day and Mark and I walked to a beautiful Orthodox church that is not far from the orphanage. This is a more modern church than those in Kiev, but is ornate and huge all the same. It is built out of red brick and is a beautiful architectural style, with the traditional gold-topped, onion-shaped domes of most of the Eastern Orthodox churches here and in Russia. The church has elaborately carved wooden doorways and the lower section of the building is covered with polished brown marble, rather than brick. The church stands on a tall hill overlooking the sea, and at the back of the church stands a huge statue with arms outstretched. The statue is carved with traditional Eastern Orthodox clergy type clothing, so we were pretty certain it was a representation of some sainted person, rather than of Christ. The railing behind the statue is a wonderful place to look at both the sea and then back at the church. The view was spectacular!

Down below the hill are homes and gardens and a more rural neighborhood. It was fun to watch the people and the cars down below. We could see people wading in the sea, and we could also see ships far out in the distance. The Sea of Azov is a very small sea compared to all the others, but to us "inland, mountain people" it looks like an ocean. The temperate wind was soothing and the sun was shining on our faces.

The grounds around the church are lovely. There are so many flowers in bloom here now. The iris are still blooming (although they are starting to fade a bit now), but the peonies are just coming on. They smell heavenly! The pink peonies smell like roses. There were also aspen trees growing in church grounds, and blue spruce and other evergreens. There were small ground-cover flowers and mounds of 5 feet tall bushes with long branches covered in white flowers. I don't know what those are called. All through the town we see apricot trees bearing small, green apricots, and apple trees and lots of vegetables beginning to come up in people's small garden plots.

The Ukrainian people are intimately tied to the land and to agriculture. Vyacheslav Lypinsky, the Ukrainian historian and socialolgist, noted that, "love for one's land is the primary dynamic force for the Ukrainian." We've read that a quarter of the world's best, black soil, "chornozem" is in Ukraine. No wonder agriculture is so important here.

The small houses that we pass each day demonstrate that love for gardening and love for the land. According to one book we have read, Ukrainians say, "The "dacha" (garden) is not a hobby, it's a way of life."

And yet again, there is a disparity here in Ukraine between the love of the land and nature, and the Soviet mentality and new European way of life. We pass by all the small, lovingly cared for garden plots and there is trash thrown all along the way. We walk around liquor bottles and broken glass and numerous pieces of paper trash and wrappers and cigarette butts littering sidewalks and streets. To us this mentality seems as if it stems from the Soviet era when all the high rise apartments were built. The removal from the land and the lack of energy for making a difference in your own life or the lives of others is reflected in the lack of respect for your environment for yourself or others. It's a shame.

Well, I will close for now and write more this evening about the girls and how things are going. We will head out to the orphanage soon to see Zhanna and Ella. Tomorrow is their last day of school performance, so we look forward to seeing that in the morning. Our dear friends, Valya and Viki, and Valya's mom, Luda, are coming by train tomorrow and will arrive in the afternoon. We can't wait to see them and spend time with them.

So for now, "Pakah!" Bye!
Love,
Dawn and Mark