The group

On Wednesday night, there was a gathering of friends at Maxim and Roman's apartment for prayer and dinner.  What a great group of guys.  HERE are a few pictures.

It is so good when brothers gather in peace!  The psalmist was absolutely correct.  I had some rather deep conversations with the guys, mostly about relationships and relationship problems. The evening sped by and before we knew it, once again it was after 11 and time to go to the apartment to stay up too late.

Tuesday - Declaration of Roman Day

I had a slow day on Tuesday, walking around, communicating by email with friends from the region and just walking around my neighborhood.  I'm fascinated by the variety of ethnic faces.  There are many kinds of people here and all are wonderful to people-watch.

Tuesday evening, Roman, Maim and I went to an ethnic Kyrgyz traditional restaurant.  It was crowded with people enjoying life and celebrations.  We were celebrating Roman.  He is a great guy and sometimes under-appreciated.  The restaurant was large and lively with a dance floor, already crowded with revelers.

We looked at the menu for a long time and then decided.  We ordered 300ml of vodka, enough to have three rounds of toasts in the course of our meal.  For appetizers we had a selection of sushi, and what's called "vodka appetizers".  The vodka appetizers were two kinds:  think round sections of horse intestines and horse meat sausage (a ring of half horse meat, half horse fat). We cleared the appetizers and drank our first toast.  Then we had a salad and our separate dishes:  Maxim got a steak, it was a porterhouse, Roman got salmon, and I got a Kyrgyz dish that was kind of like lo mein.  We drank a second toast.  Through the whole meal the music was bright and lively and we were all kind of dancing in our seats.  We finished the meal with a kind of chocolate cake with walnuts, not very sweet, and tea or coffee and had our third and final toast.

Roman was the man of the hour and got to make decrees.  It was a lot of fun.

We left the restaurant after 11 and once again, I was up till well after midnight.

travel day - to Bishkek

I was in the lobby of the hotel by 4:25 to allow time to catch up on email before the taxi came at 5.  The taxi came at 4:35.  I was at Sheremet'evo by 5:15.  I found a coffee shop and got a cappuccino - a large cappuccino.  The woman working the register and the barista were both really friendly for that hour of the morning.  The security didn't open until 6 so I waited with a bunch of people in front of the security gates.  When we got through, I set of the alarm because I hadn't taken my ipod out of my shirt pocket.  The woman was nice about it.

My flight to Bishkek boarded at around 8:30 and took off on time.  It was a three and a half hour flight.  The further east you go, the more different plane food is.  For breakfast, we had a salad with a piece of smoked whitefish, with a packet of mayonaisse for dressing, and an omelet with a piece of broccoli deep fried in batter.  It was delicious.  I'm getting used to fish turning up when I least expect it.

We got in a bit early.  We flew in over Kazakhstan and it was very dry and desert-like.  I cleared passport control and customs in minutes and looked for Maxim.  No Maxim.  I got a text from Roman welcoming me and telling me Maxim was running late.  I tried to find an ATM (Bankomat) but could only find ones that took Visa but I needed Mastercard.  I finally gave up and used my Visa credit card to get some cash.  I prefer to use my debit card.

Maxim came and we grabbed a taxi.  On the way into the city of Bishkek (about 30 minutes) the view of the mountains was magnificent. (The mountains are  the Kyrgyz Ala-Too range, an extension of the Tian Shan mountain range, which rises up to 4,855 meters (15,928 ft))

Maxim took me to the apartment he found for me.  It's right in the center and is light and airy and really clean.  The owner was there to get paid and give me the keys.  We went out to a market so I could stock up on essentials for the week, had tea, and then went to Max and Roman's apartment where Roman was preparing green borsch.  It was an interesting process to see so many good healthy ingredients go in.  The main green ingredient was sorrel, a green leafy vegetable we don't use much in the US.  The end result was incredible.  I've eaten green borsh in the home of green borsh (Lviv, in Western Ukraine) but Roman's was the best I ever had.

I took a taxi back to my apartment about 11 and was up till well after midnight getting settled, drinking tea and enjoying internet access.

Sunday - final day of conference.

Sunday morning was quite cool at the conference center and we had to get packed before events started for the day.  I met a small group at 8:20 for a half hour of morning prayers before breakfast.  There was oatmeal at breakfast - hooray!

Worship started at 10.  Bishop Vladimir decided to use long form for worship (Liturgy of St. Basil).  I persuaded him to turn the table we used as altar so we were standing facing the people instead of with our backs to them, and to have at least one woman reading scripture which isn't seen in the Orthodox churches here.  I also suggested having a Dutch minister preach.

After the scriptures, the Bishop went right on with the liturgy so I reminded him that we were having a sermon and we did.  After the sermon, we had the wedding of Misha and Denys.  I had spent an hour with them on Saturday evening when Denys arrived.  I showed them how to write their own vows and suggested that they not show them to each other before the ceremony.  They looked right into each others eyes as they read their vows.  Their sincerity and devotion to each other was so strong that there wasn't a dry eye in the house, including mine.

Then the Bishop went on with liturgy which took almost 3 hours by the time he was finished.  There had been two hours alloted for Sunday worship.

After a brief coffee break, we had our closing session and with lots of hugs, people began to scatter.  At 3 o'clock, those of us going back into Moscow got on the bus.  A reporter from the English language Moscow newspaper had been with us Sunday morning.  He interviewed me briefly and I couldn't place his accent.  On the bus, I found out that he was from Boston, grew up in Waltham.  We had a great talk about our home city.

Yury had arranged a bus tour of Moscow from 5-7.  Our big bus dropped us off in the middle of Moscow with our luggage.  We were supposed to have another smaller bus immediately.  Well, it didn't come and didn't come.  We left some folks with all the luggage and found a coffee shop.  The bus finally came at 6:30 when it was too dark to take good pictures.  I left the group at the Kremlin because it was a short walk to my hotel.

I dropped my bag and went out to a good coffee shop in the neighborhood to get a cappuccino and a ham and cheese sandwich.  Then I sat in the lobby and caught up on email.  It was after 10pm by that time and my taxi was coming at 5 to take me to the airport on Monday morning.

Some photos of the conference and Moscow are HERE.

Saturday - another long day

We began the day with a half hour prayer meeting and then over to breakfast.  A group of 400 youngsters (early 20's) arrived which makes the dining room way overcrowded.  They are like a horde of locusts descending on a fertile field.  Being that young, they inhale their food and go as rapidly as they arrived.  It still makes finding room for our group of 40 a challenge.

We had workshops all day.  I skipped out on the workshop right after lunch so I could take a nap, which I did.  I rejoined the group for the 5pm workshop and have stayed.  I just ducked out a little so I can get this internet access then I'll go back to the singing.  A VERY talented woman arrived with her guitar to entertain us.  She has a pleasant voice and sings some very funny songs.

I met just after supper with Michael and Dennis whose wedding I will conduct during tomorrow's two hour morning worship.  They are such a good couple.  They both teared up during our discussion of the wedding and the ceremony.

Friday late afternoon - great conference

We had a full afternoon of workshops.  Willie from Holland, a Reform Church pastor, gave a wonderful workshop on Queer Theology and Reading the Bible.  It was clear and orderly.  there was good dialogue and excellent questions and comments.  I decided to skip the next workshop when I heard there was now hot water in our building.  I came back to my room and took a nice long warm shower and washed my hair.  Now I'm catching up on this blog.

There is only internet service from the main building.  I've been in withdrawal all day.  You know how I start feeling crazy when I don't know what's happening with my peeps!  Sometime before bed I'll go over and get online to post this blog online and put up some pictures from my walking tour of Moscow.

I have a workshop at 8pm on what church needs to look like in Eastern Europe and then there's a movie.  I'll probably skip the movie and seek an internet wifi signal.

Late Friday night.  Before I went down to supper, I put on my Orthodox cassock and outer cassock because I wanted to wear it for my presentation. It's raining lightly and isn't very cool out.  It's after 11 and we just finished our evening activities.  I gave my 8pm presentation to a packed room. It was a good session and well-received.

We all hung out and several groups set out display tables about their country and organizations.  a bottle or six of wine made way around the tables and several started dancing to various music.  It was so fun to watch.  A Ukrainian group presented me with a jar of home-made blackberry jam, specialty of Krivoy Rog.  A singer song-writer gave me his CD as a gift.  He will perform several songs tomorrow during one of our sessions.  I got to know several people I hadn't met before and couldn't believe it got to 11 so quickly.

It was a really good day, even if I am still in internet shock from not being connected.

Tomorrow promises to be a really long day too.

I walked back through the rain to my building.

Friday morning at the conference center

The food here is plentiful and varied, probably not to the taste of many who read this.  I had buckwheat groats for breakfast (hot cereal) not sweetened, eggs with hot dogs, a kind of pudding with raisins and sweet cheese and a roll with cherry jam, and, unfortunately, instant coffee.

The morning sessions were great.  We had introductory speeches, the first by a representative from the US Embassy who spoke lightly accented, very fluent, Russian.  I gave one of the greetings.

We had a brief worship service and then some ice-breakers.  We stood in two circles, the inner facing the outer.  for 15 seconds we introduced ourselves to the person in front of us and they to us, then a bell rang and the inner circle moved one step and we repeated with the new person.  It was really good.  We did other excercises that included movement and hugs and getting-acquainted exercises.

We had a sermon after that and broke for a walk before lunch.  I'll spare you the details of the lunch menu but it suited me fine, including the liver chunks in liver-flavored gravy.

I'm getting ready for the afternoon session.  Oh, we still have no hot water.

Thursday - Comedy of Errors

HERE is a link to the pictures I took yesterday.

While I was waiting to be met at the hotel, I walked down the street where I had seen a lot of coffee shops.  I found one whose name was in English called Coffeeshop Company and went in.  It was pleasant and clean and the waitstaff had black slacks and shirts with the logo and a banzai type headband.  I don't exactly know what look they were going for.

I had a large cappucino which was served in a glass rather than cup.  Then I had a second.  It was after noon and I hadn't had coffee yet.  The coffee machine in the breakfast room at the hotel was out of service.  I'll go back to this coffee shop on Sunday evening when I'm back in Moscow.

It turned out that the guy who came to meet me, Michael, was someone I knew.  In fact on Sunday I will officiate at his wedding to his partner.  There were three folks from Holland with him. Willie, Annemarie, and Diane, living in Holland but from Malta.  We walked to the Metro, took the train to our general meetingplace and waited for the private bus that would take us to the conference hotel, 30 kilometers outside of Moscow.  The group gathered to wait in front of the train station.  It was good to greet old friends as they arrived.  I was especially glad to see Bishop Vladimir and his friend, Ivan, who came by train from Kiev.

The bus was pretty nice but it was an endless stop-and-go trip through horrible Moscow rush hour traffic.  We finally arrived at the hotel which is in an area surrounded by country and trees.  Nice.  The air was fresh and nicely cool after a way too hot bus ride.

We hurried up to wait at reception.  Finally we got our room assignments and shlepped over to another building to wait some more before we got keys to our rooms.  I got settled in my room (three single beds but only me in the room).  We gathered in the lobby and walked to yet another building for supper.  After supper we went back to the building we were sleeping in and finished registration.  All of this hanging around gave me a chance to visit with people I didn't know.  A really nice young woman introduced herself shyly as Anna from Minsk, Belarus.  She spent a little while telling me why I had to come to Minsk next year.

After supper we went back to our rooms.  It was getting to be late.  We were so sooner in our rooms than we were summoned to the lobby.  It seems that there was no hot water in our building so we had to move.  So we took our luggage and went through the dark to another building - and waited.  After about half an hour we were told.  "Well, never mind, we should go back to the building with no hot water and they'd fix it in the morning."  So once again we gathered in a lobby waiting for our keys to be given back and then went to the rooms that had originally been assigned to us.  It took me two minutes to crash.  Someone knocked loudly on my door saying some incomprehensible thing which I decided to ignore and went to sleep.

What a day.

In the heart of darkness

Growing up during the Cold War really established some old tapes about Russia - the evil empire.  I never wanted to come to Russia and now, that I'm here, I don't know why.  It's an interesting city, not that I've seen much yet.

I didn't sleep well at all last night.  I was anxious about coming here.  Jenia and Kate were supposed to pick me up at 8:45 but really arrived at 9:20.  My flight was 11:25.  They got there, all happy and newly-married.  We got to the airport (Boryspil) at around 10 and by 10:15, I was all checked in, had gone through security/passport control and was at the gate.  I never flew Aeroflot before.

The plane was an Airbus A 321, kind of old, the seat cushions had gotten thin.  It was kind of a full flight.   As we were waiting for take-off, they piped in music.  I almost fell out of my seat.  All of a sudden I was listening to a very country-western version of the old hymn "How Great Thou Art."  Oy!

Lunch was a sandwich, a box of apple juice and coffee with milk.  The sandwich was on a roll and the filling was not tuna fish but salmon.  I've never had a salmon salad sandwich before.  It wasn't bad at all.  It wasn't great either.

The flight only took a bit over an hour and landing was really soft.  I made it off the plane, through passport control, through baggage claim in less than 15 minutes.  When I exited customs, I saw my name on a card held by Olga, who was kind enough to meet me.  We didn't communicate easily but first we took the train into the city, then two different metro lines and then walked to my hotel - Hotel Matreshka.  My room is the size of a closet, with no windows.  It's really small but clean.  I chose this hotel because Moscow is really expensive and I'm only going to be in this hotel one night.  I'm trying to find someone to have dinner with.  I will meet the crew tomorrow at 2 so have this evening and tomorrow morning to sight-see on my own.  I'm quite centrally located so the usual Moscow sights are only about a 10 minute walk.  I hope to get some pictures to post tomorrow morning.

It's quite a bit gloomier and colder than it was in Kiev but no big deal.

So, that's my travel day.

Almost time to travel

It's been a pretty low key several days.  Cool mornings and evenings, pleasantly warm days.  We had thunder and lightning just before light today and I realized that I haven't heard a lot of thunder here.  When it rains, it usually just rains.

I got a text just before 5 last night from my friend, Sergei, asking if I wanted to meet for beer and light supper.  I had just about enough time to walk to our usual meeting place at Metro Khreshchatek.  Instead of going to Shato, which I'm not really fond of because of all the people smoking, we walked up to International Plaza and went to Sunduk.  It wasn't crowded.  We caught up on what we've been doing and it was good to see Sergei relax after a hard day at work.  We ate a Ukrainian specialty.  You probably wouldn't like it.  Quite greasy potato pancakes, topped with fried onions and pieces of pork fat, with sour cream.  I'm almost hesitant to say that I like it a lot.  In the States, I would never eat pieces of fat; in fact, I always trim every piece of visible fat of of meat.  Here it tastes good to me.  Not sure how my arteries feel about it.

I hear that the foliage is approaching peak at home.  We don't much have obvious change of season in Kiev, except for temperature changes and more rain.

It's kind of a tense day among the LGBT community here.  Bill 8711 (which bans "gay propaganda" but which really is just homophobia enshrined into law) will be voted by the Parliament today.  Unless some ploy can defer it, we expect it to be voted into law.

Tomorrow I fly to Moscow.  I have so much cold war propaganda stuck in my head from growing up.  It's temporarily interfering with my pleasure in going to a remarkable city and seeing good friends.

Hope everyone is well.

unexpected pleasure

It started out a relatively uneventful day.  I rose at 5am  and spent the morning reading.  Shortly after noon, my friend, Anna, called to say she had given my name to two young people from Dnipropetrovsk who are part of an organization called "Chrome" - хром.  They are in Kiev for a few days audio-taping interviews on a variety of LGBT issues and wanted to interview someone about LGBT and Religion.  So, I met Katya and Stanislav at 8pm to share a meal (at Glossary, of course).  What wonderfully delightful young people.  We had a great time with the recorder in the middle of the table while we asked and answered questions and generally just talked together for almost two hours.  I walked (downhill) with them to the Metro station at Khreshchatek St.  They were laughing that I know Kiev better than they do.  After I left them, I walked home.  It was pretty far but it was a beautiful evening and I don't know how many more of them we'll have. They invited me to visit their city next year.  It is about 5 hours by express train from Kiev.

I also had a conversation this afternoon with a friend in Donetsk.  Because the leader of the LGBT Christian group there is seeking asylum in Holland, the group fell apart.  My friend is considering reconvening the group.  If he does, I will try to visit Donetsk towards the end of October.  My friend called me a bit later to say there are two women who want to marry there if I come.

As an aside:  I think I've mentioned that my apartment is on the 9th floor.  How the heck to mosquitoes get to the 9th floor? 

Jenia was not at Glossary, of course, since his wedding is tomorrow.   Vitaly was working in his place.  He was very attentive and took good care of me even if it wasn't the level of service Jenia spoiled me into getting used to.  I sms'd Jenia to tell him that Vitaly did a good job.

bells, bells and more bells

When I have talked about the Cathedral of St. Volodymyr, I haven't much described it.  It is in a little square of its own, just of one of the main streets of Kyiv - Boulevard Taras Shevchenko.  Behind the cathedral, there's a parking area and in front, there's a plaza with a few benches.  The bell tower is on the right side as you're facing the church and one can see the large deep-voiced bell and five increasingly smaller, increasingly higher-voiced bells.  Today, I visited the cathedral after lunch and after my visit, was sitting on one of the benches outside.  At 4:30, the deepest-voiced bell began tolling once every minute.  We were lucky today, there was a ringer for each bell and soon all the bells joined in the joyful announcement that a service would begin.   I just sat for the half hour of the bell chorus and listened and watched so many people coming and going from the church, making brief visits.  It brought me back over 50 years when churches were open and people would often drop in for visits.  We seem to have lost that in most places in the west now.  I went in when the ceasing of the bells indicated the beginning of the service and stayed for a while enjoying the singing and the service.  I then walked home.   It is a mild day today and it was a pleasure to feel the warmth in the late afternoon sun on my face.  It was a very pleasant half hour.

When I got back to my apartment building, I waited with a woman for our elevator.  It's an old elevator and if you don't mind literally rubbing elbows, there's room for 4 people in the elevator.  Elevator protocol is to announce what floor you're on (I'm on "dev'yat - 9).  The reason for this is that everyone can't just push the button for their floor because there's no memory in the elevator.  The lowest floor goes first, then the next person pushes a higher number, and so forth.  I hope the day doesn't come during my visit when the power is out to the elevator.  I can't even imagine walking up all the flights.

One other thing about my building, a common feature here.  One doesn't sort trash/garbage.  There's a chute on each floor behind the elevator.  You drop your trash down the chute.  Several times a week the trash person goes through all the trash sorting for recycling.  Not a job I'd sign up for.

And finally, today is the last work day for Jenia because of his and Kate's wedding coming up Friday.  Kate is getting a little anxious.  She has done remarkably well until now.  Jenia will be off for a week after the wedding.  They won't go away but have time off together.  The night before the wedding, they will sleep in separate apartments so Jenia won't see his bride until the ceremony.  As in many countries, there are religious and civil ceremonies.  The civil ceremony/registration is what makes it legal.  The relgious ceremony doesn't.   Jenia is always worried when he's not at Glossary that I won't be taken care of adequately.  Today he introduced me to Vasiliy who will work while Jenia's off.  I heard him instructing Vasiliy about how I'm to be treated.   And then he told me that I can always call him if Vasiliy isn't doing a good job.  Yeah, right.  I'll call him during his honeymoon to complain! Not!

things that caught my attention

I don't think I've ever been anywhere where they have more frequent fireworks.  All national holidays are a given for fireworks.  But then there are one or two nights a week where I can hear them and sometimes see them from my balcony.  I asked a Ukrainian friend why there are fireworks so often.  He looked puzzled at my question.  His reply: "Well, maybe is holiday, or someone's birthday, or a wedding.  Maybe just feel like it."  Good answer.

Speaking of weddings:  my dear friends Kate and Jenia will marry on Friday (weddings are only held Fridays and Saturdays) this week.  They are getting excited.  No drama involved which is refreshing.

As I was walking along the other day, I saw a sign  "Datining service"  when I saw the website listed with the word "wife" in the internet address, I called to mind that the Russian/Ukrainian bride market is a big one.  Sometimes it's women who want to get out of the country for a better life, sometimes, it's quite frankly sex tourism.  On my flight from Amsterdam my seatmate was coming to meet a woman.  It's a big mess.

Speaking of big messes, here's a picture of my favorite drinkable purne yogurt

More snippets...

So, I thought I'd share with you different things I saw in my wanderings today.  I have four photos to share.

The first is of Zoloti Vorota - the Golden Gates.  There used to be three different gates to the city of Kyiv.  The Golden Gates, now a museum, is the only one still surviving. It has obviously been restored. I like the iron gate and the log cabin construction.  It was built from 1017-1024.  It happens to be literally across the street from Glossary Organic Cafe.

As I approached Golden Gate, I witnessed an "action" which here means a public political demonstration.  Many young people wearing traditional Ukrainian costumes (the ones in white at the top level of the picture below) were demonstrating for the Ukrainian Language.  Although there are many native speakers of Russian in Ukraine, a parliamentary move to make Russian an official language alongside Ukrainian, has met with fierce nationalistic opposition.

On a nearby corner, work is underway to restore the facade of a beautiful old building.  Over the years, I've watched the progress and it always interests me.  Here is the current state of the renovations:

And finally, about two blocks from my apartment is this bank building that I really like:

Kyiv is really an interesting city.  It's full of wonderful architecture and, of course, has a long long history.  It is the origin of all the Rus and from here Christianity spread throughout the region.

Saturday morning rambles

Although it may seem like it, I haven't really done a catch-all post where it's mostly stream of conscious.  I feel like that today.

I've blogged before about how people walk in different countries.  Here, if people are walking in the same direction as you, it's all good.  But if they are walking towards you, it is a different scene altogether.  Imagine a cross between bumper cars and the Invisible Man.  People walk aggressively towards you and only yield the minimum space at the very last second and grudgingly.  It continues to be disconcerting.  Sometimes when faced with a stampeding herd aiming right at me, I actually just stand still, hoping the mass of people will flow around me instead of trampling me.  I know you think I'm exaggerating.  Please visit me so I can show you I'm not.

The insight I had this week is that people drive and walk the same way.  There are no lines or rules.  You aim instead of proceeding in an orderly fashion.  Crossing the street is often thrilling.  At some intersections, there are traffic lights and it's pretty ordinary to cross the street when the light indicates that it's your turn.  At other intersections there's a striped crosswalk.   You're never sure cars are going to stop when you start to cross.  In fact they won't stop at all unless you walk right out in front of them.  I love how daily life is an adventure.

I was in a restaurant the other day and two very fashionably dressed. came in.  One had a dress like I've never seen.  I don't think she wore a bra under it and her breasts were almost entirely visible.  I say almost.  I won't go into more detail.  I said to the waiter,  "I wonder what her mother would think about that dress."  He laughed so hard, he spilled most of my coffee all over the table.  He told me the women were prostitutes.  I'm pretty sure he was telling me the truth.  It was an area where many foreign businessmen are seen.

If you think this is one of the strangest posts I've written, you may be right.

Church Bells

St. Volodymyr Cathedral, Kyiv, Ukraine

So, I've been lying low since Sunday, mostly because my back and hips were incredibly painful.  I even took ibuprofen round the clock which is very unlike me.  On Tuesday, I decided I had to go out.  I was getting sick of the apartment and I needed to food shop.  I walked up to Glossary Organic cafe for lunch.  It did my heart good to be in familiar surroundings with friends who seem always glad to see me.

On Wednesday, I had lunch with my friend, Anna, who works for a German Foundation, for gender issues and women's rights.  She just changed jobs and is happy with her new work.  We ate at a Ukrainian cafeteria.  I had whole wheat berries boiled with meat and onions.  It doesn't sound very good, I admit, and is kind of heavy and plain food, but I really liked it.  I also had a bowl of Solyanka which is a kind of soup with various kinds of meat and sausage.  Very tasty.  I drank a glass of compote with my lunch.  Compote, in Ukraine, is water in which fruit has been boiled.  It is strained and served as a light and refreshing drink.  Very popular.  After we ate we walked around the corner to Glossary to have a coffee and continue our visit until it was time for Anna to go back to work.  I hung out a while longer and read and visited with Jenia and Chef Sergei.

Today, Thursday, I puttered around the apartment in the morning and did some laundry.  I also read and drank a fair amount of coffee (instant, I'm almost ashamed to say).  I headed out around 2 to have lunch at Glossary.  I noticed a large police presence on the street and asked Jenia what was going on.  He said that the President of Poland was arriving for a State Visit and would visit the Golden Gate which is across the street from the restaurant.

Around 5, I walked over to the Cathedral of St. Volodymyr. The picture is at the top of this post.  The bell ringers were up in the tower, vigorously ringing the bells announcing the start of a service.  Today the service would be Great Vespers for the Feast of the Nativity of Mary which is celebrated tomorrow.  Everyone was waiting outside the church and the clergy and servers in their vestments were waiting at the entrance of the church.  I never did find out what they were waiting for because at 5:15, the head priest must have decided that their expected dignitary wasn't coming.  Everyone entered the church for the beginning of the service.   I was fascinated listening to the bells and watching the bell ringers create the sounds.   Click here for a clip of the bells ringing.  I recorded it on my iPod.

Buses are not for the faint of heart

Once again, I slept like a rock at Techno Hotel.  I woke at 8, read a bit, showered and went down to breakfast.  Breakfast is included in the price of the hotel.  There's no menu, no one speaks English, and there's no indication of what's possible for breakfast.  I ordered coffee and an omelet. After a few minutes, the waitress came back and asked "a sausage omelet?"  I said "sure."  Now understand that there's no equivalent of breakfast sausage here.  This kind of sausage is mild and looks like a hot dog.  It is sliced into the omelet.  It was served with two slices of bread, not toasted.  It was very good and I was hungry.  I went back to the room and packed and then checked out. 

I waited on the steps of the hotel to be met by Julia, one of the LIGA staff, who would come to the bus station with me.  Andrii would have come but he had university classes and Julia kindly offered.  She waited with me at the bus station and even got on the bus to make sure I was settled.  While we waited for the bus, we chatted about our lives and ideas about Ukraine and the future.  She told me about her husband and 4 year old daughter and her satisfaction with her job at LIGA.  The bus came and I immediately noticed that it was a newer, fancier bus than I had arrived on.  Each seat had a small monitor with options for movies, music, television.  We even had a woman (I guess the equivalent of a flight attendant) who brought tea or coffee as requested.  The bus was only a third full.  All along the way, there were the equivalent of roadside stands.  I say equivalent because it really was a lot of individuals, sometimes four or five in a row, selling onions, potatoes, apples, hot peppers, and watermelons.  There were several selling different kinds of honey.  We stopped twice for brief periods to get out and stretch and walk around.  There's no way a bus trip here is pleasant.  Sitting for that long re-aggravated back and hip pain and each time I descended from the bus, it took a few minutes to be able to walk without wincing.

The good news was that we arrived 45 minutes early.  I had thought I'd take a taxi from the bus station, but for some reason, I decided without deciding to take the metro and then walk to the apartment.  Of course it was raining, lightly but steadily.  I guess I thought that the walking would loosen up my back muscles.  I was wrong.  I got to the apartment a little after 9pm, dropped my bag and backpack and went back downstairs to the market to pick up a few things.  Then I had a cup of coffee, a cheese sandwich and went to bed.  I slept restlessly and couldn't find a comfortable position.  The pain all seems to have settled into my left hip.  I'll soak in a tub of hot water before heading out today.  I want to stop into Glossary for a cappuccino.  Later I'll meet Sergei and we'll wander the city.

Last night, after I settled in bed, I hear fireworks.  I don't think I've ever been in a city where they have fireworks more often.  It's kind of cool.

A wonderful day in the neighborhood

I love Mykolayiv and the people I've met here.  Andrii came to meet me at the hotel around 12:30 and we walked over to the LIGA offices (it's the very well-organized LGBT organization in this city) and then we and Julia walked over to a nearby mall to have lunch.  I had pasta with chicken, quite garlicky and very cheesy.  We went back to the offices expecting the couple to be married to come at around 5.

I read for a little while then walked up to a local church to visit some saint friends.  I found my friend, St. Panteleimon, and talked with him for a while asking that he give me some relief from my really sore back.  I found it almost impossible to do correct metanias (bows) because I couldn't bend very far.  I know many people don't believe in this form of religious practice but I do very strongly.  Within an hour, my back muscles started to relax and I was walking much easier.  After church, I walked back to the mall where we had lunch to get a cup of cappuccino and people-watch for a while.  I find Ukrainian people endlessly fascinating.  Actually I find all people endlessly fascinating.  I can spend hours just watching how people walk, greet each other, interact in any way.

I went back to the LIGA office and read some more.  The executive director, his partner, and some visitors from western Europe were at Simferopol for meetings.  I was sorry not to see them.  Oleg, the Executive Director, and I have been friends since I met him in Romania in 2009.  He has everyone in Mykolayiv calling me "Jimmi".  My dominant images of him are full out laughing.

I met with the women getting married, and with Andrii's help translating, asked them several questions about readiness.  They'd been together for several years and really have a maturity of relationship that made me glad to be doing this ceremony for them.  It was a really joyful ceremony, small with just their immediate circle of friends and staff of LIGA.  One guest understood English and works as a seaman, away several months a year.  All their guests/friends were straight.  One couple asked if I could marry them next year.  I felt sad to tell them that, as a foreigner, I was not allowed to do that legally.  They were very impressed with the warmth and personal nature of the ceremony.  I have quite a few pictures of the ceremony which I'd be happy to share with you if you ask for the link.  Because of the difficulties that LGBT people have here, and because it's not legal for me to be doing these ceremonies, we are very careful about putting things publicly on the web.

A group of friends who work at LIGA walked me back to my hotel and said a vociferous goodbye with lots of hugging at the front desk.  I probably won't see them again until next May when I'm in Mykolayiv again for Rainbow Spring Festival.

Here's a picture of one of the last roses of summer from LIGA's garden:

Getting from here to there

Somewhere along the way, my back went out.  I wish it would come back.  It's been mildly sore for a few days but yesterday, just in time for my trip, it starting hurting with a vengeance.  The walk uphill to the metro station with a fairly heavy backpack and valise was difficult, very difficult.  I had to stop many times on the trek.  The Metro was really crowded.  Getting pushed and crammed into a train is an experience we don't much have in the States.  I had to go two stops and then change lines for five more stops to the station for the bus station.  It was also a very warm day so I was glowing, as they say.

I found my bus to Mykolayiv with no problem and fortunately, for most of the trip, I had no seat mate.  Ukraine was the 'bread basket' of the USSR.  As soon as you are outside any city, all there is to be seen are agricultural fields.  All along the eight and half hours' trip were newly harvested, newly plowed or ripening fields.  There were amazing expanses of sunflower fields, commercially grown for the seeds and the oil.  The fields were a unique shade of brown as the flower heads ripened.  I wonder how they harvest them.

It was, at best, an uncomfortable trip with numerous stops.  Twice we stopped for a half hour so people could find toilets and refreshment, usually in that order.  I had shopped before leaving to get bottles of water and stuffed breads for the trip.  I needed more water.  By way of comparison, the trip was longer than a transatlantic flight.  I took the bus because 8.5 hours seemed preferable to the 12 hours the train takes.  With a really sore back, it seemed much longer.  I got a few texts (called "sms" here); one from Sergei to make plans in Kyiv for Sunday.  One from Florin in Romania seeking information on a project we're working on.

We got into Mykolayiv only 10 minutes or so behind schedule.  I had received a phone call as we entered city limits from Andrii who was at the station wondering how far out we were.  I was very happy to see him.  We grabbed a taxi and went to my hotel.  Techno hotel.  You enter the lobby which doubles as a Mercedes showroom.  That was different.  Within minutes I was in my room and ready for sleep.  It's a bright, spacious, modern building.  The room is a mini-suite.  bathroom, living room, bedroom, all bright and sun-filled in the morning.  The bed is comfortable.  I woke Friday morning, read a while, showered and went down to the dining room to have a glass of water and a cup of cappuccino.  I wasn't up to ordering more and there was no menu.  Today I'll consult with Andrii about what to order tomorrow.  As I was getting back to my room, I got a text from Jenia saying good morning and asking how I felt and how the trip was.  He generally checks in every morning to make sure I'm ok even if I'm going to see him at Glossary later in the day.  My life is good here.  Actually my life is good wherever I am.

At 1, I'll go over to the LIGA office and at 5 we have a wedding of two women (the purpose of my visit).  It will be small, with just family and close friends.  The political and cultural context right now requires secrecy and security around anything relating to LGBT issues.

I'll try to take some pictures to day for you to see and I'll also try to decide whether to return by bus or train tomorrow.  The train trip takes much longer but I could lie down or walk around.

Time gets away from me

I don't know how it got to be Thursday or how it got to be so many days since I've blogged.  I've walked daily and feel good.  I've settled into the rhythms of Kyiv.  I've seen a few friends.  And time still flies away from me.

I've carried my camera with me without ever pointing it at anything.  I've easily settled back into my easy way of life here, remembering that things we take for granted in the States take more effort here.  For example, procuring tickets for train or bus.   I am leaving in a few hours for Mikolayiv where I have a wedding tomorrow.  I was going to go by train until I found out that the train takes 12 hours and the bus takes 8 and a half hours.  Deciding to go by bus, I found an online site and arranged round trip.  I found out a few hours later that my trip had been canceled.  No explanation.  I checked with my bank to see if the problem was a declined card.  My card is fine.   So I found a different online site and successfully got tickets.  I received confirmation vouchers which still required that I go to the main bus terminal to exchange voucher for tickets at Cashier Window 6.  I took the metro to the terminal and found that Cashier Window 6 was unoccupied.  I went to Window 5 but was told I had to go to Window 6.  I waited for about 15 minutes and the woman from Window 5 took pit on my and moved to Window 6.  She issued my ticket to Mikolayiv but told me I had to get the return ticket in Mikolayiv.  I failed to mention that I had to put the voucher documents on a thumb drive and then find a print/copy shop to have them printed.  It cost one Hrivnya (12.5 cents) for the two pages.

On Tuesday, I met Zoryan and Bogdan for lunch at Glossary.  They both just started new jobs at Amnesty International.  It was good to see them.  Zoryan is an old friend but Bogdan I had only met once before, coincidentally on my birthday last October.  I hung around at Glossary for a while more and drank cappuccino before heading back to my apartment.

Something about the kitchen of this apartment inspires me to cook. It could be that it's so clean and has usable cookware.  Good knives does not appear to be part of standard kitchenware so I'll shop for one at the mall across the street.

When I post this, I'll tidy the apartment and shop for bus food.  The excellent market downstairs has some nice baked goods.  My favorites are the stuffed breads: flaky pastry filled with good things.  I think I'll get one bread stuffed with caramelized onions and one stuffed with sauteed cabbage for the trip, plus a big bottle of sparkling water.  That should tide me over.  The bus will probably stop twice for about 15 minutes along the way.   We don't leave Kyiv until 3pm and are supposed to arrive at 11:35pm.  I don't know how the roads are.  I'm in seat 21.  There are two "types" I hope I don't have as seatmates.  One is a little old lady with many bags with her or rabbits or chickens.  The other is a large sprawling sweaty hairy man who will sleep and snore and fall asleep on my shoulder.  It would be kind of nice to have an intelligent conversation with someone who speaks a language in common with me.  We'll see what the reality is.

Andrii will meet me at the bus station in Mikolayiv and take me to my hotel.  I'll return to Kyiv on Saturday.

A running joke I have with Jenia is about shoes.  He keeps shopping for shoes for the wedding but still hasn't found the perfect wedding shoes.   Watching the preparations for his and Kate's wedding on the 28 has been an eye-opener for me.  The attention to details is great.  Through it all Kate shows no sign at all of any tendency to being Bridezilla.  She is happy and excited and smiling through it all.  They are a great couple.

OK, I have to make the bed, do dishes and shop a little.  Til Later.

A bright, sunny, cool Sunday morning

It's a gorgeous day, this Lord's day, in Kyiv.  It's in the low 50's but will warm up the the high 60's - very comfortable.

Saturday was uneventful.  After a pleasant lunch at Glossary, I walked back to the apartment, had a Skype conference call with two colleagues in Chicago, went downstairs to the market to pick up something for supper (it ended up being pork chops), read and tried to sleep.  I had developed a scratchy sore throat over the course of the day, probably something I got while flying.  Planes are incubators of all kinds of nasty bugs.  Whatever it was got exacerbated at a smoky bar on Friday night.  It worsened during the night and feels like it's resolving this morning.  Thank God for an active immune system!

Click here are a few photos from the windows of my apartment. 

Back in my body

Traveling across multiple time zones does something odd inside my head.  I feel displaced/dislocated as though part of my spirit hasn't caught up with me yet.  Fortunately, I got to Kyiv in the evening so it was almost normal bedtime anyway.  I slept fitfully Wednesday night and finally got up around 10 Thursday morning.  I read and did email and thought I should be hungry but I wasn't.  Somewhere around 2pm, I got hungry so I went downstairs to the supermarket and stocked up on staples.  When I got back up to the apartment, I made a sandwich and prepared coffee (instant - it seems that I drink instant in my apartment here.  I can't stomach it when I'm home.) and when I went to pour milk in it, I noticed that the milk seemed thick.  When I looked at the label, I realized that it wasn't milk, it was a kind of cultured (read "sour") milk.  I thought briefly of drinking it anyway but decided that would be disgusting.

A note about entrances:  my building is pretty secure.  First one enters an iron gate with a magnetic lock.  It requires a magnetic key to open (both coming and going).  When I was stepping out on the way to the market, I didn't notice that there was a bar at the bottom of the gate that I had to step over.  My foot got caught and I fell.  A young couple were having a smoke outside the gate and the man came running to help me up.  My foot was caught under the bar so halfway up, I fell again.  I could see the woman thinking "poor old drunk."  No harm done, very mildly scraped knee, dignity in tatters.  The second entrance is into the apartment building.  It requires a different magnetic key.  Then up a few stairs to the elevator.  I am on the 9th floor of a 9 story building.

About 4pm on Thursday, I decided I'd take a walk to begin learning my neighborhood.  I walked for about half an hour noticing that I felt much better than on my previous trip.  Less achy legs and shortness of breath.  On the way back I stopped at the market again and bought milk.

When I woke up Friday morning, I read for a while and had breakfast then went to see if I could find my way to my old neighborhood.  The first 20 minutes of the walk was sharply uphill.  When I got to the Opera House, and crossed Volodymyrska Street, the way was downhill to Khreshchatik St., the main street of Kiev where the trendy shops are. I stopped at an ATM (called Bankomat here) and my card was refused.  I found another bank's ATM and my card was refused again.  I had only 100 Hrvnia (about $12).  I stopped into McDonalds for a cappuccino and then walked back to the apartment.  I Skyped my bank and they promised to remove the "Ukrainian block" from my account but it would take 24 hours.  I no sooner had calls out of the way when I got a text from my friend, Sergei, asking if I'd like to meet for supper and beer.  I agreed and our meeting place was down by McDonalds.  So I repeated the journey feeling good to be getting so much exercise.  We went to a place we frequently go to called Shato, stress on the last syllable, and spent a few hours catching up and talking and laughing non-stop.

The walk home seemed shorter.  I read for a little while and went to bed.  I woke around midnight, read for a little while and dropped back off to sleep.  On one of my middle of the night trips to the bathroom, I walked right into the edge of a door - leading with my forehead.  I wondered as I fell back to sleep if I'd get a big bruise or a black eye.  I didn't.  When I woke up, I was surprised that it was 9:15.  I never sleep that late.  I boiled a few eggs and made a cheese sandwich for breakfast.  I got a note from my bank that I should be able to use my card in the Bankomat with no problem.  I'll walk up to Glossary in a bit to have lunch and see my friends who work there.  Jenia texted me this morning to remind me he was working.  I have to be back to the apartment by 5 for a skype conference call to Chicago.

Click here for a few pictures of my apartment: 

Back where I belong

I left Dalton on Tuesday afternoon at 3 and won't be there again until November 19.  I can only be away this much due to the kindness of my Pet Nanny, Naida Wilkins.  She goes down to the house (down because she lives 4 miles uphill from me) each day to take care of my indoor and outdoor cats  She also take me to the airport and picks me up.  I don't tell her often enough how important she is to me as friend, neighbor, and Pet Nanny.   Shout out to Naida.

As we drove into the city, it began raining, and then raining some more.  At times we crawled, for some probably atmospheric reason, the inside of her windshield fogged and all the way she had to wipe it.  Just before the airport, it lessened.

Weather was not the only initial hitch.  My flight was announced as delayed for half an hour.  No problem because I had a two and a half layover at JFK.  Then it was an hour.  Then an hour and a half.  we finally left at 8 or so and got to JFK around 9:30.  I got over to my connecting KLM flight which had already started boarding.  It was a totally uneventful flight, uncomfortable  but uneventful.  The seat seemed too small and there was no leg room at all.  My knees were against the back of the seat in front of me.  I don't remember ever feeling that cramped on a long flight.

I grabbed a cappuccino at Schiphol airport and settled in to wait for the three hour layover to pass.  I was starting to droop.  The flight to Kiev from Amsterdam was uneventful on Ukraine International airlines.  The seat was a bit bigger and there was a lot of legroom.  I was on the aisle of a three seat across row.  The window seat was taken but the center seat was empty.  My seatmate was a man who owns a restaurant in Minneapolis going to Ukraine to spend time with a woman he met online.  apparently that's quite an "industry."

In Ukraine, we don't generally have airports with moveable walkways that connect to the plane as we're used to in the States.  Instead a stairway is brought to the plane for passengers to embark and disembark.  Then a bus transports passengers to the arrival hall and passport control.  On my Wednesday flight, the plane was parked about 30 feet from the entrance to the hall but we still had to use the bus which circled the parked planes before winding around to the entrance.

Passport control was very simple and I was welcomed with a smile.  My baggage came quickly and I walked out through the Nothing to Declare line.  I looked for Jenia and Kate (my Ukrainian family) but they were not there.  I walked out of the airport and they were coming across the parking lot with big grins and big hugs for me.  They had worked hard to find a good apartment for me, cheaper than the one on my last trip and in a good neighborhood.  They are excited about their wedding coming up on September 28.  We got to the apartment, by which time I had been awake for 30 hours.  It's a great apartment on the 9th floor of a 9 story building (yes, there is an elevator).   It's very clean with a well-supplied kitchen.  There is also wireless internet.  The bed is king size and comfortable and it wasn't long until I was in it.  Of course, I did a few emails first.  So I am back in my city and it seems that I can breathe easier here and feel healthier here.

Dither and Yon

Why the title?  Well, to be honest, I wanted to call it Hither and Yon because I'll be going not only to Ukraine but also to Russia, Kyrgyzstan and Norway.  Unfortunately someone already snagged that name.  So, while I sat and thought, I decided I'd only change one letter of the title and it came out Dither and Yon which really is quite reflective of my style of bumbling around loving people.