Rambling Thoughts and Observations

With time to spare, and only soccer to watch on TV, I thought I would take some time to write a journal entry that gathers together some thoughts, observations and ideas we’ve gathered from Ukraine thus far.

Clothes and DressIt appears most Ukrainians have two sets of clothes; those they wear around the house, and those they wear out in public. When you are out and about in town, regardless of the day or time, you will notice that people are generally quite dressed up. Women have skirts and blouses, or dresses, with sandals or often heels. Men wear slacks and dress shirts. Even young children are typically dressed up – girls have bows and ribbons in their hair and they are almost always in dresses, and boys also have “nice clothes” on. It doesn’t matter if you are going to church, to the local market to buy tomatoes, or just for a stroll through the park, it seems most Ukrainians put on their nice clothes when they go out in public.

As soon as they get home, however, they immediately change out of their nice clothes, and put on their house clothes. It seems that “house clothes” typically consist of one or two outfits that are worn consistently, everyday.

If you are going to be traveling soon to Ukraine, I would suggest that you take this into consideration, and pack accordingly. I packed several shirts that I could mix and match with pants, capris, skirt, skorts, and jumper I brought with me. Even though the shirts are nicer t-shirts, they are definitely too casual in comparison to most Ukrainians. A while ago, we were able to go shopping, and I purchased a skirt, two blouses and a dress, which have greatly complimented what I brought with me. At the apartment here in Ukraine, I wear a t-shirt and shorts. When we go out, I will wear that same t-shirt, or a blouse, along with a skirt. I haven’t even taken my khaki pants out of the suitcase after being here 2 ½ weeks! I rarely wear the skorts because they are too casual feeling. In actuality, wearing skirts is the coolest thing you can wear – so find a comfortable, cool skirt or two, some matching blouses, a comfy pair of shorts and you should be good!

A note about shoes. We only brought one pair of shoes with us – the ones on our feet. John has sandals, which work well with pants and shorts, and I have black slip-on sandals. Just be sure to bring something comfortable because you will walk a lot! When you are in the house, you will probably go barefoot, or wear slippers, if you choose to bring some. It is warm enough now, I can’t imagine putting hot slippers on my feet during the day, and am quite happy to go barefoot.

Another thought about dress. Even though at times I have felt underdressed, we have never been picked out to be foreigners. In fact, we have had to give many puzzled looks and “I don’t speak Russian” comments to people that have tried to engage us in conversation. Dress is not so much the key to fitting in, as is being quiet, observing and doing as the Ukrainians do!


Water IssuesI remember a lot of grumbling and talk about water issues in Ukraine. This is a little of what we have learned and observed. Hot water is produced in a central location in the town/city, and distributed accordingly. Therefore, when the city decides to not have hot water, you don’t have hot water. It is possible to purchase individual wall-mount water heaters. Our friends, and the apartment we stayed at in Kiev, both had individual hot water heaters. You turn them on before your shower, and have hot water. If your apartment doesn’t have that, you are at the mercy of the city policy on providing hot water.

There have been a few nights here in Odessa when the city has turned off all water in the evenings. This is a water-conservation method. Apparently, when the water level gets to a certain point, water is turned off in the night to build up the quantity again. Here in Odessa, water shortage is an issue. Many of the city fountains and pools (not swimming pools – just decorative pools in the parks) are empty because of the water shortage.


UtilitiesMany, if not most, people in Ukraine, live in 5,6,7-story apartment buildings – many of which were built during Soviet times. Our friends shared with us that sometimes their utilities are turned off because someone else in the apartment building didn’t pay their bill! There are times when you still note the “collective” mentality, for lack of a better phrase.

Bathing
While I’m sure they exist, we haven’t yet seen showers in Ukrainian homes. It seems most have bathtubs with a handheld shower wand. So, in order to bathe, you sit in the tub, and use the shower wand, as there is no wall mount for the wand, nor is there a curtain around the bathtub.

Security
So far, we haven’t had any issues with feeling unsafe in Ukraine. We have been out walking late in the evening, and haven’t even felt unsure about our surroundings. There have been places that we have been extra careful about pick pocketing, but that has been the extent of our concerns. We clearly feel safer here, even on our own, unable to read signs or understand people’s speech, than we do in parts of Spokane or Seattle. Just a note about packing issues again – John didn’t even bring his wallet with him, as we thought that might be a sure target for pickpockets. We brought our money belts and a neck travel wallet that holds our passports, tickets, and small amounts of money.

Something to DoIf you have been following our journey so far, you know we have had a lot of time on our hands. With any luck, you won’t choose a sibling group bigger than your INS approval, and you won’t have quite so much time on your hands! However, be sure to bring something to do. We brought a card game, Yatzhee and Scrabble. We also brought several books to read. Well, our books are read, are games are played, and we are making great headway in reading through the Bible in a month (instead of a year!) and we are wishing we had brought more to do. Start thinking now about what you never have time for at home. Even if it takes up more room in your suitcase, the little extra work to carry it around will be worth it for your sanity’s sake! As we have finished reading our books, we have simply given them to our Ukrainian friends, so we don’t have to carry them home again.

Another thought – if you belong to a church, check with the denomination’s missionary board before you leave to see if there are local missionaries in Ukraine. They would likely love a visit from fellow countrymen, and it would be something else enjoyable to fill your time with.


Getting OrganizedOne of the best things we brought was a spiral bound notebook. Before we left, I wrote all the contact information for our Ukrainian friends and our translator. I also noted our FedEx account number (which we’ve used!), friends’ email addresses, and work phone numbers for John. If anything is important, it is written in our book. This has been extremely handy, particularly as we have made numerous trips to the “international call center” to make arrangements for our paperwork changes. It is just a simple idea, but one that has been very practical.

When you are preparing your little notebook, be sure to include all the contact information for your social worker and/or homestudy agency, local BCIS office, notary, Secretary of State’s office that does the apostilles, and FedEx (or whatever international shipping business you use). We didn’t have these items with us, and while we were able to track them down, it would have been quicker and easier to be able to just look in our notebook.

One more thought, and many of you adoptive parents who are reading this are beyond this point, but when you are doing your homestudy, get approved for the maximum number of children you could ever see yourself accepting. When we did our homestudy, we had heard the recommendation to get approved for one more than what we were thinking. I’m not sure if we would have had our homestudy written for the number it now states, but had we done that, it would have saved us a 8-10 days of boredom, frustration and heartache.

Packing
We would highly recommend using the Packmates bags (or something similar). We bought them through their 800-phone number and just bought their “adoptive parent special” – 15 medium bags for $30. We probably only used half of the bags, so could have easily shared the package with another family.

Using the Packmates, we were able to pack all of our clothes in a small carry-on bag. We checked two large suitcases that were completely filled with donations we were bringing with us. So, on our way home, we will only have a small carry-on, plus two empty suitcases for souvenirs, gifts and items for the children.
In addition, I would hazard a guess that you could find pretty much anything you might need here. While we haven’t seen contact lens solution, we could easily purchase a wide variety of shampoo, conditioner, hair styling items, makeup, lotions (Avon is very popular here!), toothpaste, etc. This isn’t to say – don’t pack any of that stuff. But, maybe just pack a travel size, and when you run out, it will give you something to go do that day!

Well, I just moved over onto the fourth page, so I will close. I realize this wasn’t very exciting for our friends and family to read, but I hope it gave some of you parents waiting to travel to Ukraine some good ideas to think about.

I’m off to post this journal entry, and then check on the status of our FedEx package.

Have a great day!