This is the second entry in the series I am writing about my trip to Ukraine – I didn’t have daily internet access while there so I recorded each day for later publishing.  And later is now.

Today was our first full day in the city of Krivoy Rog and since we were still suffering from jet lag (and lack of sleep on the steam-filled train ride) we took it easy – scouting out a few places we’ll be spending time at over the coming week.  Here’s a rundown of  some of what happened today:

• 

  went to boys rehab and watched a presentation they were putting on.  Wow!  Pretty creative stuff!  They welcomed our team and greeted each us with home made “Happy New Years” pins.

• In Ukraine New Years is a huge deal, and even bigger than Christmas (their Christmas occurs on January 7th)!
• We were given a tour of what we would be working on at the boys rehab (sink area, showers, and front entryway)  In Ukraine the front entryway of a building is the most important feature of the building.  The front entryway of the building is a “status” thing.
• We headed back to where we are having our meals at a small cottage behind the local pastor’s house (Pastor Gregory).  We had an awesome lunch of potatoes, salad, bread and meat, fish sticks and awesome potato soup with some sort of meat ball in it.
• After lunch some of the team went to observe McJoyful Christmas in action at the Krivoy Rog McDonald’s.  I went with others of the team to an orphanage Ed hadn’t been too yet.
• On the way to the orphanage we stopped at mobile phone place for one of the team members.  Pretty much everyone has a cell phone in Ukraine (reminded me of what it was like in Africa).  Ed pays 10c/min to anywhere in Ukraine, 20c to anywhere in the world – and ALL incoming calls are free!  Stink – North America (especially Canada) is WAY behind the rest of the world when it comes to wireless access and pricing.

• 

  The orphanage we visited is actually a shelter that serves as a temporary home for children found on the streets, abandoned or removed from dangerous homes.  These children stay at the shelter until they are placed at an orphanage or (best case scenario) adopted by a family in Ukraine.

• Number of beds crammed in one room that is about 24′ x 30′ = 20.
• At this shelter we watched another presentation being done by the kids and workers.  Ukrainians love to dance and act.  Very colorful and exciting!  What was cool is that they were so excited there were some visitors to watch them perform!
• The team all met together again for dinner and supper was a really neat chicken pasta dish, another type of salad and a neat desert.
• The team had a really good first evening sharing time after supper discussing what the next day would bring talking about the impact the trip was having.
• One of the team members talked about giving away clothing he brought.  Neat seeing how this is impacting folks.