Trip report fall 2009
Saturday September 26th
Mission accomplished!
Pascal is back home in Switzerland, after 7,758 kilometers on the road. A daily average of 539 kilometers made this trip quite strenuous, but as always very rewarding and rich in experiences.
Friday September 25th
Vika and Pascal left by car from Zhytomir. Vika took a night train from Uzgorod to Nikolaiev and Pascal continued by car to Vienna, where he spent the night.
Thursday September 24th
The road from Kharkov to Kiev seemed never ending, but finally Pascal and Vika were able to drop off our friends from OBS, Stacey and Elizabeth, safely (they plan to fly back home on Saturday).
Afterwards Vika and Pascal continued to drive to Zhytomir, where they spent the night.
Wednesday September 23rd
After visiting Green Forest Internat in Kharkov we went to Zeleniy Gay school internat (boarding school), where we were received with pomp and circumstances. Our contact person Natasha celebrated her 50th birthday and we were invited to participate in those festivities.
Afterwards we spent the evening with Galina (LADS contact in Kharkov) and her family, then a short night’s rest at the hotel.
Tuesday September 22nd
Vika, Elizabeth (OBS) and Pascal spent a day at Poltava where all visits were dedicated to OBS activities.
Monday September 21st
Today we had a busy schedule. We visited Baby House in Kremenchuk, boarding school in Potoki and a trade school in Komsomolsk.
In the evening we drove to Poltava, where we stayed over night.
Sunday September 20th
Today we drove to Kremenchuk where we meet Elizabeth & Stacey from OBS.
As of Monday the pace of our visits will increase in order to meet ambitious schedule.
Saturday September 19th
We spent an other day in Donetsk visiting again orphanage Makiivka. Today the outdoor playground was finished and the workers were cleaning up and packing their bags. We took advantage of that and went sightseeing in the city, that we only crossed by car so far.
Friday September 18th
Vika and Pascal drove to world famous Donetsk, where Sir Elton John wanted to adopt a child. Vika and Pascal spent most of the day and the evening at the orphanage of Makiivka (for HIV-positive children). The outdoor playground was supposed to be finished today, but work was still ongoing when they arrived and the official documents for the orphanage were missing. The owner of the building company took his car and drove all the way from Kharkov to bring the required papers and to receive the balance of the money due, according to our contract.
Thursday September 17th
Pascal and Vika are on the road again, direction Donetsk! Today they drove all the way to Mariupol (Azov Sea), where they will spend the night. Not too many miles each day on those poorly maintained and bumpy roads 😉
Wednesday September 16th
At Nikolaiev Baby House Pascal and Vika picked up director Olga Ivanovna before driving to Kakhovka to visit OIga Igorivna. She was awaiting us eagerly and was happy to show us her new room on 2nd floor, which is in better condition and nicer than her previous room on 4th floor of the boarding school. Unfortunately kitchen, toilet and bathroom are in an (for us) unacceptably bad condition. In one way we can understand why Olga Igorivna doesn’t eat healthy, considering the situation in the kitchen, no fridge and no working stove and all a big mess. Olga Ivanovna and Vika convinced Olga Ivanovna that she must study the cook book, that she received from her Swiss sponsors, and use it. Olga Igorivna has even promised that she will cook something for Tom during his next visit.
Tuesday September 15th
Pascal and Vika spent the day at Nikolaiev to do accounting, contract negotiations regarding the project to repair the heating system of the Baby House and various other things overdue since Pascal’s last visit. They also bought a cook book for OIga Igorivna.
Monday September 14th
Today we travelled together with Vadim and his nurse to Odessa. Vadim lives at NBH since last Mai.
Vadim had an appointment at the Filatov Institute in Odessa for an ophthalmologic consultation. He was born with one eye only (the latter never developed) and is expected to wear a glass eye.
The operation to install the glass eye had already been postponed several times and it was not different today. :-/ hmmm This short trip took all day and we returned with rain but before nightfall to Nikolaiev. Time for a progress report with director Olga Ivanovna of NBH and it was nice to go to bed early to be fit the next day again.
Sunday September 13th
Towards the evening Pascal and Vika have arrived well in Nikolaiev. It took twice as long for the trip within Ukraine than to arrive, coming from Switzerland, at the Ukrainian boarder. The roads are really bad, luckily we are travelling by Jeep!
Saturday September 12th
Pascal has managed to pass Ukrainian customs without the help of a translator, with the car and with all the goods that he will bring to orphanages.
Well done Pascal :cheese:
He meet Vika after lunch. Together they managed to drive up to Ternopol. Though it’s 3rd or 4th time that Pascal drives in Ukraine, he keeps forgetting that their kilometers take at least twice as long to drive as ours. But they shall make it easily to Nikolaiev tomorrow and they have already visited outdoor playground at Svalyava orphanage.
Friday September 11th
Pascal departed from Fribourg Switzerland by car. The most direct route to Ukraine from Freiburg (Switzerland) is to completely cross Hungary west to east. A long day’s drive via Munich, Vienna and Budapest before reaching Miskolc in the east of Hungary.
Tomorrow Pascal will cross the boarder and enter into Ukraine.
Pascal is on a new marathon of approximately 2 weeks (from September 11th till September 27th) throughout the country. Places to visit will include Kachovka, Nikolaiev, Makiivka, Kremenchuk, Potoki, Poltava, Kharkov und Zeleniy Gay.
