Waiting in kyiv

Life in Kiev

From the windows in our new apartment in Kyiv, we can see the domes of the Cathedral of Saint Sophia- the cathedral of the Holy Wisdom. It is more spacious and clean than our last apartment and has free wireless Internet so we don't have to hang out at the cafe and buy expensive coffee in order to be online.  It's a  blessing to be here instead of the other apartment for this week.

In Ukraine, people make do with less space in their homes. They have smaller kitchens than Americans and tend to eat fresher food by shopping more regularly. Shopping for food is a great pleasure with the cheap prices and high standards in all stores. The bread in an ordinary market rivals our  best bakery bread and costs almost nothing. There are little stands along the street selling fresh fruits and vegetables along with other stands for magazines, hot dogs, ice cream or small grocery items. The stand workers stay in their tiny booth and look out of a small window that just shows their head and allows them to sell the products. I guess they stay warmer that way. Yesterday Mark and I bought a beautiful loaf of fresh bread,  butter, and what we thought was creamer but turned out to be sour cream and all that cost about 2$. 

Each day we eat out one meal since it's so inexpensive and make do with bread, cheese and fruit for the other meals just because we do need to be careful since our time here may be long. Tuesday,  we went to the Ukrainian piccadilly - its name translates to "Fat House" - For eight dollars total we had a wonderful , fresh meal including salad, bread, soup, bottled water and pirogues.   Back at the apartment, Mark has discovered he likes the instant coffee here. It really is good and is what most people drink at home. I also bought some Earl grey tea. The cold weather makes hot drinks appreciated. Everyone buys bottled water, flat or mineral, for all drinking due to the poor quality of the tap water. 

Laundry is more of an effort here. Ukrainians also have high efficiency front loading washing machines which hold tiny loads and take forever to get the job done. They do not have clothes driers so everyone uses drying racks. You see the clothes drying through people's balcony windows including mine. The clothes are stiff of course, but not wrinkly! It makes washing more of a plan ahead job.

The bathrooms are small in these apartment but do have flush toilets and you can flush toilet paper. The showers are the hand held ones that never seem to stretch long enough for tall people but do force you to conserve water.  The towel rack in this apartment is heated. We use bottled water for brushing teeth and I use makeup remover pads to wash my face to avoid much contact with the tap water. 


We didn't bring enough warm clothes. It's been drizzly or rainy with temps in the 30's and 40's up until yesterday when the sun came out briefly and  it rose to a high of 51. We are cold a lot and wish we had warmer things to wear but wouldn't dream of buying something because the prices are very high. Mark's Levi jeans would be about $150 here  instead of $30 at home and sneakers like my $20 converse ones from target appear to be about $200. A warm coat would probably cost hundreds of dollars. It is amazing how well dressed everyone is considering the cost of the clothes. 

Kyiv has many cultural attractions which I imagine are subsidized. There are museums, many parks and a historic Opera House which has a different show, either ballet or opera, each night. Last night we walked to the opera and saw Turindot. It was a wonderful performance in the beautifully ornate opera house built in the 1850's. We bought mid range tickets which cost about $7 each.

Today we'll go to some art museums and shop a little.

Thank you for your prayers. We are praying each day for our hearts to be ready and open for "our" children and for God to prepare them as well.We get three tries but  if it doesn't work next time, it will be very hard on everyone. No one does all three tries I think. We hope that in His mercy and our obedience, it will work out next week. 

Here is the view from our kitchen window:
 

Our kitchen: