Hello everyone,
We received a telephone call early this morning and thought that maybe it could be exciting news regarding an SDA appointment. But it wound up being an eviction order to move to a new apartment. We had less than an hour to pack and be out. Nothing like ample notice, eh? I guess when it is to their advantage, people move fast here in Ukraine. But Shirl and I have become such experts at living on the go, that we were not only packed but sitting around sipping tea when the driver showed up to haul us and our belongings away. What took you so long, Ivan!?!?
Our new apartment is more towards the South but still considered "downtown" Kiev. Anytime we relocate, one of our first priorities has always been to find a grocery store. Here we managed to find something called "Mega Market" that resembles a Walmart. Not only is there an ample grocery supply on the first floor but go to the 2nd floor and we can shop for other neccessities - like replacing our worn out socks. We'll take Mega Market over those little convenience stores that are always running out of stuff or "forgetting" to give you your change (another story for another time).
We are fairly near an opera house and "Republikansky" sports complex. Our street is literally lined with shops. We even have a fresh produce stand sitting right outside of our building; very uplifting since fresh fruit is something the local convenience stores always run out of.
A favorite hobby of Shirley's is window shopping, she always liked the fact that browsing is free. This street has plenty of shops for clothes, purses and shoes; needless to say that this locale will keep her busy.
There is a car dealership that sells Jaguars right here close to our building. Car fanatics would be in 7th heaven right now. Jaguars are beautiful cars but right now I'd settle for our Kia back home.
Within a few hours of moving into our new abode, our facilitator paid us a visit. He has been faithfully going to the SDA every day and camping out in front of their office. Here in Ukraine, the saying "the squeaky wheel gets the oil" is like the Cardinal Rule. Our guy knows how to play the system; he has been doing international adoptions since the 1990s. Unfortunately there is again no news but he continues to be confident that we will have an appointment soon and that the selection of referrals will improve. Shirley is still steamed at being lied to last week by that previous SDA official that sent us on our wild goose chase, then just shrugged her shoulders and smiled when confronted about it. Any government official back home would have been fried after doing what this girl did to us.
Because we were in the mood for pizza we found a nearby Italian restaurant for dinner. They offered menus in either Russian or Italian so we took our chances with the Italian. I never thought that reading Italian would seem so easy but after weeks of trying to decipher Russian hieroglyphics, Italian was a snap. We wanted mushroom pizza but that meant guessing that "funghi" was Italian for mushrooms. Our waitress, although perky and pleasant, spoke vitually no English so there was no point in even asking her. Rather than take a chance we just went for pizza with "salami" (asking for "pepperoni" may bring you a pizza full of banana peppers). Salami was pretty fail-safe. I never realized how many Italian words have been assimilated into the English language.
This afternoon we made telephone contact with another family looking to adopt from Ukraine. We've both been following each others' blogs. They came to Ukraine shortly after we did and have been experiencing the same Ukrainian run-around that we have. They just returned to Kiev and will be here until at least Tuesday. We've located our mutual apartments on a map and they are very close to where our last apartment was; too bad we're still not there. Wouldn't it be exciting if we could get together and share war stories!! We've both had cravings for American food and TGIFs is roughly in between us. I guess that figuring out where to meet is a no brainer.
Since its now the weekend there will be no news regarding an SDA appointment. But I'll try to post daily anyway. Hope all is well out there in blog-land.
Steve
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2 comments:
I love your on-the-spot reporting and am faithfully reading and eagerly awaiting *each* appointment you have. (Isn't it pathetic you've gotten to the point where we can speak of the numbers of appointments in terms of multiples??) *shakes head and sighs*
It's good to hear you have a faithful and persistent facilitator!!
Oh I so remember being in TGIF and we were DESPERATELY looking for other adoptees but never found any! If you head towards the circus across the street from it is a big mall. On the top floor of the mall is a movie theater (I believe once a week they show english movies) and they have a restaurant that is buffet style and very cheap food and drinks. We ate there almost every day.
It would be the street across from TGIF up the big hill and pass the park on your left then down the big hill and continue straight until you see the circus building about a mile later on your right.
Have a good weekend and prayers to a better week~
Your fellow buckeye
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