Hello from Kiev

Monday, Feb. 9th

We have arrived safely Saturday morning.

Sveta was the airport waiting...what a relief. The weather - foggy and drizzle - about 35 degrees. After stopping at the supermarket to pick up supplies, we arrived at our apartment in center of Kiev. the apartment is very nice and modern inside...but walking in from the outside old warehouse and up a very old, very old elevator.

Saturday we did nothing, slept most of the day and watched TV (we have 6 english channels, CNN ,BBC and Hallmark). Still foggy and rainy.

Sunday Sveta arranged a guide for us. Natalia is a very young university student, very sweet. She meet us in front of our building and we went to many places, walking and by bus. Tell you more of that later. Foggy and rainy and about 36 degrees.

Today, Monday. Still overcast with some drizzle, but not as foggy and a little warmer. Roger and I ventured out alone, started walking around the city square "Independence Square". There is a huge mall under the square and large intersection of streets (this is common all over the city, but this is the largest one). It is very modern, clothes, sporting goods, restaurants and boots. Lots of boots, all the women where boots...everything from practical to sexy.

We back tracked the route that we had taken with Natalia, to the old city where we had eaten lunch, and found an electronics shop to get the adaptor that we needed to get our computer up and running.....we are very proud of ourselves. We walked 3 1/2 hours - great for stress and Kelley's waist line.

Tomorrow - We are meeting Sveta tomorrow morning to go to our appointment with SDAPRC. Sveta went early today and made copies of all the documents that we need, so soon after the meeting, we should get our letter of referral to visit the orphanage. If all goes as planned we will buy our airline tickets to Simferpol and be on our way to Sevastopol on Wednesday.

We will write more later.
Kelley and Roger.