A very interesting first day

Do you remember my first post when I promised not to write any more mammoth blog entries? Well guess what….I lied. This one is probably going to be bigger than the first one. To all of you non-readers, I apologize. But whereas other people like to jabberjaw in person or on the telephone, I am a jabberjaw of the keyboard.

Feel free to fast forward through any parts that are too dull or verbose for you to read.

This is how the first day of our Ukrainian odyssey unfolded. Initially everything went as smooth as clockwork. We were promptly dropped off at the airport by “Mom and Dad's Taxi Service" and checked our bags in at the DELTA terminal. We did get held up a bit when one of our bags exceeded the 50LB weight limit by 5 LBS. I was ready to just pay the $80 penalty but Shirley would have none of it; there are better things to do with $80. She pulled out a book and several magazines and the bag’s weight dropped to 50LBS on the nose. I really can’t figure out how that made the airplane any “lighter” since the extra 5LBS of stuff just got carried on board with us as opposed to getting checked in. Regardless, we cleared that hurtle and proceeded to the next one - bag check security.

While snowplowing our suitcases through the check-in line, a guy behind us thought he’d get cute and made a wisecrack like “how long y’all gonna be gone for… a whole month?”. Then he laughs out loud. I just turned around and say “No…8 weeks”. His reaction was kind of funny. While still looking like he was laughing, he suddenly just froze without making a sound - as if I had a TV remote pointed right at him and pressd the PAUSE button. Nothing like making an idiot out of yourself while trying to make fun of someone else, right? I actually would have been happy to chat with the guy and give him our story but then our number came up and we had to move forward and get checked through security.

The flight to Kiev itself was uneventful but long. I hadn’t flown internationally in well over 25 years. In those days overseas flights were made in those huge 747s that more resembled flying ocean liners than airplanes. This 767 was not nearly that big but is still referred to as a “Jumbo Jet”. For good reason; it seats a ton of people. It was a smooth, quiet ride done mostly at night. The service was good; seemed like every few hours there was food or a drink dropped onto our tray tables. All announcements were bilingual - English and Ukrainian. Looks like DELTA wants to compete with AEROSVIT (Ukrainian National Airline) for this travel route. And there were a lot of Ukrainian nationals on board so DELTA must be doing something right.

Our good fortune seemed to end upon our arrival in Ukraine. Before we left The States we were instructed to look for a person holding a sign saying "ZIMNES". After we landed and deplaned in Kiev, we proceeded to passport control and saw no sign with our name on it. We continued forward anyway, got our passports stamped, got our bags from Baggage Claim, got checked out by Customs and finally we made it into the main area of the airport. During that whole time we saw dozens of signs with names on them but sure enough, none were ours. Needless to say the anxiety level is now rising to a feverish pitch. Good thing for this one Good Samaritan of a security guard. While patrolling customs he couldn’t help but noticed me as I was constantly leaving Shirley in line and wandering all around the security area. It was apparent that I was looking for someone. The Guard was obviously someone of authority. He was taller than my 6’1”, middle aged and of an imposing yet kind demeanor. When he wasn’t watching people he was constantly either giving instructions or getting information from other guards. When he approached us and asked if there was a problem, we told him our situation and he did his best to help us out. When we pulled out our Ukrainian contact list of telephone numbers, he was nice enough to get his cell phone and begin calling. As luck would have it, almost half of the numbers on our contact list were no longer in service and the ones still in service were not being answered. Now feeling totally helpless and ready to blow a fuse, we couldn’t think of anything else to do but phone home. The only place in the airport able to make international calls was at the airport's post office. But the post office was “manned” by a pit bull of a postal worker. This lady obviously did not like foreigners. When Shirley politely approached her and asked to make a telephone call the lady barked out something nasty in Ukrainian and shooed her away. This drove my poor wife over the edge and she burst into tears. A Ukrainian civilian watching the scenario from a distance now charged at the mean lady and tore into her, letting her have it with both barrels. At the same time the Good Samaritan Security Guard also showed up to check on Shirley’s progress and began giving instructions to the postal worker. Between the two of them coming at her, that lady’s mannerism took about a second to make a complete about face; going from mean tyrant to practically standing at attention. It would not have surprised me to see her start snapping salutes to both Shirley and the two men. As far as the phone call itself, it didn’t much matter anyway. Despite the fact that at this point we’d been in this jam for almost three hours it was still 4:30am at home and only a voice mail message could be left.

Persistence paid off and the officer finally got through to one of the phone numbers on our list. Once that happened things began to move in the right direction, and fast. To make a long story short it was a simple error in scheduling. Our facilitator and staff were expecting us to arrive in Kiev on Sunday rather than Saturday. Such an error could have been made by anyone and once realizing the simple mistake, Shirley and I found ourselves not at all angry; if anything we were just relieved that it was over. When our facilitator/translator showed up 20 minutes later he felt terrible and couldn’t apologize enough. Meanwhile, he packed us into his car and we were off to Kiev to get settled in.

Before we left the airport I made it a point to look for that security guard so that I could thank him for all of his help. But in the meantime more flights had arrived and he’d resumed his patrol behind the secured doors of Customs. There was no way to get to him or even get a message to him. I hadn’t even gotten his name!

After settling in our apartment in downtown Kiev, our facilitator wanted to take us to dinner. He kept insisting on going to TGIFridays and there is a TGIFs very close to where we are staying. But by the time we had gotten to our apartment and settled in Shirley and I were totally exhausted. There is a small grocery store three doors away from our apartment so we bought water, OJ, bread, sausages, pork and oranges to take back to our room. The “pork” here is similar to what we would call "ham" back home only it is a lot less salty but VERY smoky. The sausages are like Slim Jims only about 4 times as thick. And of course Shirley bought a few chocolate bars needed to satisfy her sweet tooth. I knew better than to even look at them.

Before going to bed I decided to check email and saw that there had been a lot of recent activity. Back home word of our scheduling fiasco had gotten out and my HOTMAIL inbox was suddenly flooded with inbounds. Diligent as ever I answered them all. And as always, thanks to everyone for caring.

So that sums up the first day of our odyssey. If it seems like a lot to read but trust me, it was a lot longer to experience; a memorable 20 hour day to say the least. Regardless, we are here, settled in and getting ready for our Monday Court Appointment.

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Thanks again for reading. God bless you all.