The Voices of Ukrainians

As you may remember, Anya was able to leave the hospital and be home for the summer. She had a cast on her leg, but it was a light cast and she could walk.  Before we checked her out of the hospital, the doctor said to bring her back a month after she left, which would have been July 4th. If there's one thing we have learned about dealing with the medical system in Ukraine, its that you always call before you do anything. Sure enough, we called just before July 4th and the doctor was sick and wouldn't be back for awhile. We waited, then called again two weeks later. The doctor said to bring her on Monday, which was yesterday, and so we did. Though its frustrating dealing with this crazy system, I am glad this one time that the date got pushed back. The reason is because July 13th was Anya's birthday. It would have been a terrible way to celebrate turning 16. At least this way she was able to be with her family and friends, not some stuffy hospital. Since we didn't see A...

My second trip to South West Ukraine to help a family finish a children’s home for the orphans of Ukraine. The last time I was down in Chernivtsi helping Slavic work on their house, LifeBoat, I asked Slavic what his plans were for the roof.  He sheepishly told me he didn’t have any, he was just going to build the walls to a certain height and hope that every thing came together.  That night I called Janna and asked if it was ok for me to plan another trip so that I could build the roof for Slavic.  I recruited Petro to come with me again. He, like most kids who graduate from the orphanage system, has had a really hard time finding a job, even though he’s a hard worker.  I also got Vova and Dima to come with me.  They are both college students but don’t have any summer work.  They live in a transition home for kids from the orphanage here in Kiev, and their house “mom” told me that it would be a big help to her if I could take any of her boys to help me....