Trip report fall 2010
Sunday November 7th
Pascal has finally arrived back home in Fribourg. The plane had a huge delay due to fog in Prague.
Saturday November 6th
Vika and Pascal drove to Odessa, where they arrived in the evening. They found a nice flat to spend the night.
Pascal will fly back to Switzerland on Sunday 🙂
Friday November 5th
Tom flew from Kiev back home to Zurich meanwhile Vika and Pascal continued their trip by car from Kiev to Zhytomyr, to inspect the kitchen equipment refurbishment that was realized in Novo Borova (an OBS project).
Thursday November 4th
After a short stop at Galina’s place we started driving back to Kiev (500 km). After 7 hours we arrived savely in Kiev, hungry and in due time for dinner. By that time it rained a little.
The roads between the 2 biggest cities of Ukraine are something else. Sometimes there is a brand new 4-line highway, sometimes its a bumpy road of incredible low quality. And always full of old and slow moving trucks that need to be overtaken 😉
Wednesday November 3rd
In the morning we first picked up Galina and then we drove to ZGO. We discussed their whishes and decided to go for the salt and mud bath project for handicapped children (we need to find sponsors for the donkey project).
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After lunch, back in Kharkov, we visited Natasha with baby Rosa and his father Liocha. We were impressed to see their little flat and their young family life.
In the evening we returned to our house at the end of a dirt road, were we had a nice BBQ, prepared outside in the cold on the open fire.
Tuesday November 2nd
We packed all our bags and started the long drive (500 km) from Kiev to Kharkov, which took all day. In the evening we met Galina and 4 teenagers from the VocEd program for dinner. It was the first time in their entire life they had dinner in a Restaurant and they were dressed up accordingly!
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More pictures here.
To spend the night we drove to a rented house in the country side, at the end of the world…
Monday November 1st
As Tom has never been to Kiev before, we took the opportunity to show Tom the capitol of Ukraine. In a city with 12 Mio. people there is a lot to see.
At the end of the day we were driving Stas and his nurse to their night train from Kiev back to Nikolaiev.
Sunday Oktober 31st
Tom flew from Zürich to Kiev where he met Vika and Pascal at the airport. The flight was ok. From the airport they immediately drove in their Mazda to the hospital, where they visited Stas and his nurse. The operation on one eye went well. Afterwards they went for dinner in a nice restaurant, just around the corner from where they spent the night.
Hanni unfortunately couldn’t come, as she was sick.
Saturday October 30th
Pascal and Vika have arrived in Kiev, a nice drive on another cold but sunny day 🙂
Friday October 29th
We spent the day getting things prepared for the trip to Kiev and for next week visits in Kharkov. Sun and blue sky are back, but it’s very cold and windy outside.
Thursday October 28th
Thanks to a reminder email from long time friend Robert Klose from USA and since nice weather was back, we decided today to pay a visit to Ochakov orphanage.
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Director Lydia Grigorievna was very happy to see us again and we learned a lot of news, the main one being that Ochakov shall welcome all children from Pervomaysk which is supposed to close.
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We will write more details and publish more pictures when we get back home and have more time, as we will need your help again !
Wednesday October 27th
As a matter of luck, we are in Nikolaiev this week and that’s exactly when NBH is celebrating its 90th anniversary. Of course, director Olga Ivanovna invited us officially to attend and we just did 🙂
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A very nice ceremony, with plenty of official visitors. It started with well self-made movie about the orphanage. Then rewards and presents for retired workers from the orphanage and very emotional testimony of one young woman who grew up there. All this combined with musical interludes of children singing. We were included in the VIP section and were also treated to what they call a “fourchette” after the official part.
More pictures here.
Tuesday October 26th
It couldn’t last forever 🙁
This morning we woke up with clouds and fog and it even started to rain at noon. Nevertheless, we stuck to our program. Brought the car for pre-winter check and tire exchange, organized trip to Kiev for Stas (Stanislav) and his nurse, paperwork chase across whole city and ended the day by driving Stas to his night train to Kiev.
[singlepic=796,250,200,,center]Stas & Vika leaving NBH
Tomorrow, he will have full examination and possibly operation to try to cure his blindness.
Monday October 25th
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Another bright day spent mostly at NBH. We had a long and interesting discussion with director Olga Ivanovna before wandering across the orphanage to check on finished projects (2 bathrooms this year) and children we are helping.
Adoption is slowly but surely slowing down as only around 50 “new” children arrived at NBH in 2010 so far (for the same amount being adopted). This doesn’t mean that the situation is ideal, but the foster family program as well as the monetary reward for not abandoning children seems to work for the time being. Let’s hope the financial situation of government may allow these programs to keep going, or a catastrophe is scheduled as soon as they’ll stop or reduce them 🙁
Sunday October 24th
Beautiful blue sky and sunshine in the morning.
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We even had breakfast on a terrace and prepared schedule for the next coming two weeks. Pascal had to move to another flat (this time with internet connection!), the one which was originally booked for his stay in Nikolaiev.
Saturday October 23rd
Very early departure by train from Fribourg for Pascal. 2 days before departure he was offered an upgrade seat to business if he accepted to leave one day earlier (reason was a group reservation on 24th) and he accepted it. Flight to Odessa through Prague was OK and he met Vika at airport almost on schedule.
