There's No Place Like Home

I had hoped, when I envisioned this blog, that I would post updates daily, as I returned to my hotel room each night.

I had seemingly few events scheduled to attend and had somehow envisioned lots of downtime to write. Instead, each day stretched out in front of me, filled with compelling stories that I could not do justice to in the brief moments I had to write.

Stories that explain why, a girl with no indoor plumbing in a muddy shanty town, is one of the lucky ones. Lucky being a term I use loosely.

We come home armed with far more answers than we left with and a renewed appreciation for our group's mission.

Linda and I wandered through strange landscapes without the benefit of knowing the language and in the process, acquired a sort of faith that things would happen as they should. We were treated well by the people of Ukraine and Belarus who made sure we ate well, were met by a friendly face at every train and bus station, helped us haul around our copious bags of luggage, and that we met with those who would help us understand the needs and challenges of being a child in the Chernobyl Region.

If I ever had any doubts of the value of our program, they are now erased.

So, i will continue to blog long after we arrive home, in hopes of doing justice to the stories of the children and people we have met.

I had hoped to rely on a film crew for this purpose, but will instead, attempt to relay this information with our own voices and images.

See you soon Sonoma County!

Ruth

Dickens Revisted

I can't say we weren't happy to see the village of Schors in the bus's rearview

mirror. I won't be recommending it as a vacation destination anytime soon. I wanted to find it cute, I wanted it to be quaint but it is a dying town full of abandoned plants, buildings and run down houses. The biggest cash crop? Orphans perhaps.

We arrived in Schors Friday night. We had brought a suitcase full of small toys, gum, pen, pencils, art supplies and GFA's group had brought glow stick bracelets and balloons. The children piled into an empty gymnasium type room to see us. They were thin, pale and anemic. They had peered out the windows as we arrived. They crowded around our suitcase hopeful for something, anything. After all the goodies were handed out, we spent a great deal of time playing with them by batting around the balloons with our hands or heads. They would not let us stop.

Linda and I stayed at the one hotel in town, owned by the railroad company and we were the only guests. It was less than clean and lacked hot water but was otherwise suitable. We had to hit the local supermarket for a roll of toilet paper. Yes, a roll, it was sold by the roll. I think I miss paper products!

I will write more about our weekend later, but for now, let me post some pictures.

The Center of Kiev

Spent our first full day in Kiev. We did a bit of planning for CCP and I worked on my Press Democrat update. I need to finish before I go to bed as I may not have Internet access to submit it in Schors.

Tomorrow we will visit Schors Village and see Marina, Illiya, Katya, Irina and Veronika! We hope to tour the orphanage, the baking school and visit Illiya's home. We will be there until Sunday.

Tanya Kazrya

We visited Tanya last week in Belarus but were unable to blog about it then. I am trying to write a small essay for the

Press Democrat about our visit.

We were relieved to find her happy and well. She is going to college and getting good grades. She is happy to be home with her family but she misses the program and her host family, the Zapatas.

Here she is with her new kitten and her little cousins.

Can't sleep so just going to post some pictures...

The sign with the red slash through it means a village by that name once stood there. There were 80 such villages and most of them were bulldozed under. Many of them dating form the 12th century. Film crew in Chernobyl

Revisiting Prypiat

We were invited to dinner tonight at the home of our Ukrainian interpreter Liza. Her husband, Yuri, lived in Prypiat as a child and was 12 years old at the time of the accident. His father worked at Chernobyl until 1994. He showed us pictures he had taken of his home, school and the places they used to go before the accident. His parents were also at the dinner so Linda and I had an opportunity to ask them what it was like to live there at the time of the nuclear accident. It was a beautiful city to live in before the accident, good jobs and lots of young families. Here is a picture of Lize and her family.