Kyiv Days In Kyiv

Every May Kyivians celebrate "Kyiv Days" which are usually held in the middle of the month but this year were celebrated this weekend. There are lots of festivities planned around the city but my favorite thing to do is to walk up and down St. Andrew's street. Artists and crafts people from all over Ukraine fill the streets with all kinds of hand crafted and unusual Ukrainian items. I wish this would happen at least once a month during the good weather months because it is so interesting and fun.

This lady was busy reading while waiting for customers.

Wooden beaded necklaces and bracelets.

My favorite photo of the day.

Ukrainian art for sale.

There are lots of antiques and knick knacks straight out of people's homes.

Handmade Ukrainian shirts and table cloths are popular.

Here's my find of the day. Three mismatched wooden matryoshka dolls who have lost their stacking dolls inside. I bought them from an elderly man who was obviously selling anything he could find not nailed down in his home. They're older so they are not so fancy, but I think they are cool. HAPPY KYIV DAYS!

Band Aid Aid

Image via Wikipedia

Last year I read a book called "White Man's Burden" by William Easterly and wrote a post about my thoughts on the book.

There is growing evidence that in the rush to "help" people in places such as Africa, that many in the West only end up putting a "Band Aid" or apply quick fix problems to a situation. We need to start understanding that if we really want to help people in a meaningful way, then the solutions to the problems have to address the long term affects of the assistance so that the help offered does not become detrimental to the very people that need the help in the first place.

This problem occurs in Christian ministry as well as in NGO's and aid organizations. It is something that churches and ministries need to look at carefully also when they get involved in missions.

Glen Penner at The Voice of the Martyrs blog reviews another book on the topic and shares his views. It's a post that's worth reading. You can read it by clicking HERE.

Parade Of Clouds

There seemed to be a parade of clouds today across the skies in Kyiv.

Slumdog Millionaires Street Children

Image by AFP/Getty Images via Daylife

I'm probably one of the few people on the planet who has not sat through an entire viewing of the Oscar winning movie "Slumdog Millionaire."

When I first saw a trailer for the movie "Slumdog Millionaire," I was very excited. It looked very interesting and since the story was about street children, I was looking forward to seeing it. So when I saw the film was on the lists of movies available on my flight to the US, I eagerly set up the video player to watch it.

I majored in Communications TV/Film and I remember one of my professors explaining that what you feel about a movie about ten minutes into it is pretty much going to be your lasting impression of the film. I have found this to be a pretty accurate way to gauge if I am going to like a movie or not.

About ten minutes into "Slumdog Millionaire" I was extremely uncomfortable and was not enjoying anything I was watching. I had read articles about the film and knew that the children used in the film were not professional child actors, but real children from real slums in India. I felt very uneasy about what I was watching and about the subject matter involving children who had never worked on a movie production before. I know that my impression might be considered extreme to the average viewer, but I have spent a lot of time working with street children in Ukraine so I was feeling sensitive towards the children. As I watched the film, I knew that these children were most likely re-enacting situations from their own lives. I knew that their parents, being poor and probably promised money from the producers for letting them use their children, were most likely not in a position to stand up to or have a say in how their children were being used in the production. (Per California's law regarding minors working on a production, a minor must have a parent or guardian with them at all times and their job is to look out for the child's welfare.) About fifteen minutes into the film, I gave up on the movie.

I don't know the details of the production of this movie or why the producers and directors made the choices that they did in making it, so I am not trying to villify them. But I do wonder if it would not have been a better choice to use professional child actors instead of using children they were depicting in the film. They may have saved money and gained an authenticity by using the children from the slums, but apparently their attempts to compensate them for making the film are turning into something that looks more like exploitation of these children.

While the producers maintain that they have adequately "paid" these children for their services, including trust funds, a trip to Hollywood, and have donated money to a fund to help other children who live in India's slums, it is interesting that these children's standard of living has not changed and that they are still living a squalid existence, some are even losing their homes and being offered for sale by their parents. A trust fund for college won't help them much if they cannot go to school, are sold by their parents, or die in trying to survive to adulthood.

What do you think? Have you seen the movie? Did you like it? Do you think they should have used professional actors or children from the slums?

How Do I love Kyiv In Spring, Let Me Count The Ways

In California, springtime started for me with the smell of cut grass and the crack of baseball bats signaling the beginning of baseball season. In Kyiv, it's a little different........

How do I love Kyiv in spring? Let me count the ways:

Chestnut trees, lilacs, green everywhere you look!

Sunglasses galore, racks and racks at every metro station

Ukrainian devushki (girls) stepping out on the streets and setting the season's fashion trends for the warm weather.

Tiny children in their babushka mandatory sun hats.

Little white balls of puff raining down everywhere that make your allergies go crazy.

Outdoor cafes

Not having to take fifteen minutes just to put on your winter gear before you leave your flat.

Invitations to friend's dachas for shaslik and huge amounts of Ukrainian food.

Evenings drenched in sunlight.

Running into Philip Kirkorov lookalikes on the street. (This happened to me today, honest, I would have taken a photo but I was dragging groceries home. Here's a photo of the real Philip.)


What are some of the things you love about spring where you live?

Dynamo Kyiv Graffiti

Here's some Dynamo Kyiv graffiti...

Ah.......Kvas!

Image via Wikipedia

Ah......Kvas! The drink of Ukrainian champions. The fermented grain drink that is delightfully refreshing and does not contain alcohol. The best way to describe it to those who have not tried it, is to compare it to non-alcoholic beer......except in my opinion, kvas is much better!

The foreigner reaction to kvas is usually somewhat mixed, but I do like it, especially on hot days.

Every spring, the kvas tanks begin to appear all over the city. These tanks provide kvas on demand for anyone passing by who needs something cool to drink. Drinker be warned however, this year the Kyiv City Officials have warned that many of these tanks do not have their health inspection permits and who knows what may be growing inside those tanks.

Do not fear, kvas is sold in bottles in Ukrainian markets. If you visit Ukraine, defnitely try the kvas!

Wasting Time

Nothing about my life in Kyiv ever stays the same. It seems as though life here is always fluid, always changing and life presses in on you with whatever urgent need gets thrown in your face.

I have gone through a lot of changes in my ministry and life while living here in Kyiv and Kyiv has changed drastically as well. Ten years ago it was a quiet, post Soviet republic capital, learning it's place in the world in a newly independent country. Now with the passage of time and a revolution, Kyiv has evolved into a fast paced Eastern European city.

When I was home recently in the states, I was reminded again of what life is like stateside. People work hard, play hard, stay busy and juggle friends, family and everything else into the mix. I felt I did not have enough time to see and do everything I wanted and needed to do and a lot of planning was always needed for whatever I was doing. Nothing just happened or flowed. It was quite jarring compared to the way life works here in Kyiv.

I have found for me that it is easy in these fast paced environments to be swept up in what you are doing to the point where you loose your focus and forget why you are doing it. We get busy because we must and then it becomes such a habit that we find outselves needing to figure out how to be busy. A viscious circle of busyness starts and then becomes a merry-go-round that is hard to get off of and eventually spins out of control. The point becomes doing and we forget why we are doing it or, if we are working in ministry, who we are doing it for.

God has blessed me so much with amazing ministry and personal support and wonderful people to work with in our organization. Because I feel that God has a purpose in all that's unfolding in my life and that he is connecting me to like minded people, I have been trying to be really focused on spending time with him and asking how and with who I am supposed to be spending time with each day. I don't want to be sidetracked by things that take my attention off what God has called me to do. I don't know if it's me or what, but this has been a hard and an interesting period of growth for me personally.

All I'm really trying to say in this post is to encourage those of you reading it to not get sidetracked from your relationship with God. Whether you live in a fast paced place like Kyiv, the US or anywhere else in the world, it's easy to let other people or events around us distract us from where God is leading us, whether it's in our relationship with him or if it's in our own goals for our lives. It's important to have time with him in prayer so that we remain focused not just on what we are doing but on why we are doing it.

Today's Exchange Rates

My Lame Victory Weekend Photos

Many blogs, (see Neeka's Backlog and Ukrainiana) have posted some awesome Victory Day photos. Victory Day was May 9th but I was busy sleeping 14 hours that day, trying to recover from jet lag and a very wonderful trip to the US. Here are my somewhat boring additions to the weekend photo op. I took these on the way home from my friend's flat. The first is an outdoor restaurant.

And here is a street dog resting next to the bus stop.

Twitter: Short And Sweet

I started experimenting with twitter several months ago to figure out if I would like it or not and to learn how to use it. I have to say that it's kinda weird but also very cool. I feel like it's something that either can be a waste of time or it can be used as a fun tool which helps people to communicate in a new way.

Different people use twitter in different ways. Some use it to "talk" back and forth with friends quite a bit and others use it to share their thoughts as well as what they are doing. I like when people twitter encouraging quotes or post interesting news links. It also is a handy way to share a newly update blog link. Some of the people following me on twitter are not on my facebook account so it's a way to inform different people that I have written a new post.

I find it fascinating to follow people and see how they use it. Some people use it in an almost narcissistic way, detailing more than you want to know about them and posting too frequently for my taste. I find this more humorous than annoying. As in anything, twitter can be used in a productive and healthy way or in an addictive, narcissistic way. Some churches are now encouraging their flocks to twitter during worship services and this to me seems extreme.

I love following friends and some of mine can now give me a smile several times a day even though they are far away from me and we can't see each other face to face very much!

However it's used, for good or bad, I think that twitter is here to stay for a while and if you are blogging or wanting to create a presence on the internet for whatever you do, it is important to learn how to use it.

If you want, you can follow me @tweetingsfromUA

I'm BAAAACK

Well I'm back in Kyiv and all I can say is, "Boy is it green here!" California is beautiful in the spring but the deserty colors there cannot compete with Ukraine's extreme seasonal colors. The skyline along the Dnieper River is now a deep green and after my last glimpse of the city in the dreary winter weather, it is truly a refreshing sight. Add warm weather to the lush green color with birds chirping out of control and what can I say? It's gorgeous and I'm glad to be back! Here are some genuine Kyiv chestnut blossoms to enjoy!