10-26-2004

I didn't send email last night, cause I got to the internet cafe about ten minutes before it closed.  I am using a different internet cafe, with a much slower connection speed.

I was able to talk to several of you using instant messenger accounts.   If you could email me at bgoldfield@tspartnersinc.com with your instant messenger name, I can add it to my buddy list and if you are online in the afternoon, I will try to talk with you.   This internet cafe closes at 10 PM which is 3 PM your time, so you have to be on line either late in the afternoon (like at lunchtime) or very early in the wee morning!

Yesterday was my NAC appointment.  My appointment was at 2:30 PM and I was the last person to be seen that day.  I actually waited outside since it was such a lovely day.  The weather here has been just perfect.   I have not worn my coat yet since I have been here.  It hasn't rained hardly at all, the sun is out and it must be about 72 degrees outside.  You couldn't ask for better weather!   Anyhow, about 2:20 I go inside, wait for about 5 minutes and then go meet Oxsana.   Oxsana is a very pretty, smiley girl.  Black hair, blue eyes very thin.   By the way, almost everybody here is thin.  There are NO FAT people in Ukraine.   I think we should forget about the Atkins diet, and go on the Ukraine diet.

When I meet Oxsona, she asks me to tell a little bit about myself.   So for about 2 minutes, I describe who I am, what I do, and why I want kids.   I am then handed some books to look through.   Now you have to understand that the pictures in these books are just awful.  Apparently, when the kids "check in" to the system, they cut off all their hair.  So, I cant really tell boys from girls.  I also think they take the pictures right after they shove a big fat needle in their butt.  Nobody is smiling!  

Some of the pictures are in color, some are in black and white.   All of these referrals are single sheets of paper, completely in Cyrillic Russian, gobbledygook to me.   Each referral is inside a plastic loose-leaf folder.  Most of the time a picture is attached.

The books I am handed are all sibling groups, since I asked for two boys.   The only way you can tell that is that many of the referrals are "kind of" paper clipped together.   Now this is not a very efficient way of doing this, since the attachment is haphazard at best.  

Sveta, my translator is with me to help me.   She identifies which kid is a boy and which is a girl.   It seems, all the cute ones are girls!   And of course, they are off limits to me.   If a sibling group has a girl, I am not allowed to look at them.  Sveta adds new rules.   If the children are in a "bad" region, meaning the region does not waive the 30 day period, or if the region will not allow single men to adopt, forget it.   You would not believe how many kids are in groups of six, seven and even ten.   Who would ever adopt ten kids at once?

Anyhow, after going through about 5 to 6 books, I have sorted out about 5 - 6 eligible sets of kids.  Remember now, I have not looked through the hundreds and I mean hundreds of other books.   Sveta tells me that almost 90% of the kids up for adoption are over the age of ten.   Many many kids are not healthy.  By the way, the most severely retarded or mentally incapacited are never shown to anybody.  They are not allowed to be adopted.

After a discussion with both Oxsana and Sveta, I narrow my selection down to the two boys from Kaniv.  Please look this town up on the map.  Kaniv is a very small town, about 150-200 kilometers (100 miles) below Kiev to the south, right on the banks of the big river Kiev is on.   The boys are in an internat which is the school for older boys.   I don't know much about internats, except that conditions in the internat are not as good as the baby schools or pre schools.

One of the cool things is that both boys (age 7 & 9) are in the same place.   I believe that the boys names are Evan and Vitaly.   They will not be their names for long.   The younger boy has apparently just been moved to be with his brother.   Both boys are supposedly very healthy, one has a single functioning kidney.

I believe that I will be going to the internat tomorrow (Wednesday).  Other than that, just hanging around Kiev. 

So, let me tell you about some other interesting observations.   They must not have many car accidents in this country cause all their cars are immaculate!   For example, Sergey, my driver is driving a thirteen year old car that looks just gorgeous.   There is not a dent on this car, or even a scratch.   I don't get it.  

You see all kinds of broken down cars along the roads, with drivers replacing tires, etc.   But the cars themselves look spectacular.    Not sure why that is.  

I was doing a lot of people watching from my apartment windows last night.   Again, I tell you if you see a fat person, they are NOT Ukrainian!  

Let me tell you about the heating system here in Ukraine.   The entire city runs on central heat.  What this means is that you don't have a thermostat in your apartment.   Certain times of the year.. it is just cold cause they have no heat (the city turns it off)  other times (like this week) the apartment is hot!  Last night, I slept with all of the windows wide open, cause the apartment was too hot.   Did you think I would be complaining about how hot my apartment was in Kiev?

I have large bay windows in my apartment and they open up directly onto the street.   My apartment is on Red Army road.   The only complaint I have is how much traffic is on the road.   Ukrainian cars do NOT have catalytic converters, or mufflers.. so the traffic noise can be quite bothersome at night.

I am not spending much money here.  For example, the internet cafe costs 6 grivna per hour.   The current exchange rate for US to grivna is 5.41 grivna for each dollar.  To give you an idea, I bought a pound of butter yesterday at the supermarket for 1.66 grivna.  

That's all that I can think of for now.   I will send more later.