After the SDA appointment on Thursday we spent the afternoon with Oles. He took us back down to the Dnipro River to show us around. We had seen it the day before, but he was able to fill us in on some things we did not know or had not been able to figure out. He took us down into the catacombs at a church where the monks lived and died hundreds of years ago and are now laid to rest on display. The bodies were covered, but on some of them they left one of the hands visible. It was very different. I would tell anyone who came here that they need take time to go see it. Ladies, make sure you bring a hat or scarf as you will have to purchase one there if you don't already have one. And make sure you don't go in with toothpicks in your mouth! :-) Oles and the lady who took care of us had words. I had picked up the scarf I wanted; and she snatched it away from me. Then she yelled at Tim for his toothpick. Of course we had no idea what was going on. We just stood there like deer caught in headlights. The exchange only lasted a couple minutes, yet seemed like an eternity. In response to her harshness toward Tim & I, Oles was trying to get her to see the inconsistency between Jesus’ love and the Orthodox insistence on formality & ceremony. The churches here are so beautiful, but it is so sad to see how run down some of them are. Several are starting to be restored. Also, it breaks my heart to see all the poor people at the gates of the church begging for food or money, when these big, beautiful, ornate churches sit there. Tim & I discussed this the other day. I feel they should be taking care of the poor, instead of spending so much money on the buildings, but he says they spend the money to give their best to God. Somewhere there just needs to be a happy medium.

Once we were done looking around down near the river, we took a cab back to our flat; and Oles left to go to a meeting. Tim & I wanted to see Kiev after dark so off we went again. We stopped at the underground mall to eat at the food court. Then, we went out to take some pictures of Independence Square. It is very pretty at night. It was too cold to go walk very far, but I will tell you we could have gotten ourselves into a little trouble. Tim was taking some pictures; and the next thing I know, a young guy came up to me, and grabbed my hand, and put a white pigeon on it. I called to Tim, who turned around and took a picture of me. Then, the young man put a second bird on my other hand. He asked Tim for the camera and took a couple of pictures of me. Then he handed Tim a bird and took a few more picture of both of us together. Then a couple of only Tim with both birds. We knew there had to be some catch to this whole thing. When he took the birds back, he said we owed him 650 grivna ($80) for the SEVEN photos!! At that, Tim laughed and said we weren’t carrying that much money. The guy next tried to get us to pay 350 grivna. Again Tim laughed and pulled out his pockets to show him we only had 12 grivna, or $1.50. This went on for a couple minutes. Finally, he said, “I took 7 pictures. I guess they are for free.” Tim said, “I told you we have 12 grivna. We’ll happily give you it.” The guy took it, but wasn’t very pleased. Lesson learned: walk away from those kind of guys. I am just glad it worked out okay. After that, we went back to our flat for some fun on the Internet and talking to family and friends.

Friday, we got up; and I started to pack, as we were not sure what the day would hold. Tim did some work in the morning; and I played on the computer. We headed out about 11:00 that morning to go see some more sights. Oles called with great news early afternoon. He had been able to obtain us train tickets for the 10:00pm train; and the owner of the flat said we could stay in it until 7:00pm. We have had such had a great time with each other. We went to the SDA office at 3:00pm and met Yulia to get our referral papers. YEAH! We were the first in line. Everyone there is so nice and helpful. We waited a few minutes for them to open, but once inside were less than FIVE minutes signing receipt of our paperwork, then we were done. We did a little more sightseeing on the way back to the flat. By the time we got back to the flat my feet were killing me, but about an hour later we decided to go eat real quick so we would be ready when Oles came to get us. Everywhere you go in Kiev you are going up a hill or down a hill, but it seems like you are always on a hill. I wish I had known that ahead of time. I would have used the stair stepper more, at the gym. Oles came to pick us up in a cab. He told the driver to be careful, but the driver jokingly responded that he would drive like all Americans in the movies. Honestly, I thought he did real good. The train station is very beautiful architecturally, but the restrooms are not so aromatically lovely. It was the first time I had ever used a Turkish-style. With sore legs, it was quite interesting. I also had to use the bathroom on the train. MUCH harder than a plane. By the way, for those of you who are on the way here, the blue “WC” signs mean “water closet”, or bathroom for us Americans. I walked around for TWO whole days thinking I can't believe there is nowhere to go to the bathroom in this town. But there was. The other thing is you have to pay to use restrooms, anywhere from 2-4 grivna. If you want toilet paper, that is extra. So make sure you carry some with you. Theirs here is very rough.

We have made it to Odessa this morning. Oles’ friend picked us up at the train station and brought us to our flat, our new home until we leave to go back home. It is very nice. We will post some pictures soon. We took our first much needed nap this morning. I died! Well, there is no more news for now. We will post when we have some more news.

As always, please keep praying for the court system to move quickly and for safe travel for us as we will be doing a lot of that on back roads. Also, for Oles’ car, as at the moment it is broken down. Post any comments or questions you may have and we will try to respond to them if we know the answer.

Lynn