After 15 hours of travel we made it to Kyiv and our hotel at midnight on saturday night. I was able to fall asleep, with a little aid, by 1:30a. We started sunday with breakfast at the hotel … pretty yummy. Lots of sweets, cherry juice and of course COFFEE??
We met our amazing tour guide Edith who walked us to Maidan Square (Independence Square). This is where the protests in Kyiv were in 2014 which led to the fleeing of the President of Ukraine, Viktor YanukovycI
On Sunday the main city street is closed to cars so we walked some blocks to check out the city scene. The city was just waking/cleaning up for the day, it was only 9am.
Our tour bus took us to the Cave Monastery. The monastery was beautiful as you can see the amazing gold tops and intricate detail. We had to wear scarfs to cover our hair and wrap skirts to enter the caves (photo of the wrap to follow ; ))
The Museum of Famines Victims was next- the museum documented the organized famine and the partial list of the millions who had died from the 3 Ukraine famines, the largest being from 1932-1933. The museum is located on Pechersk Hills where there is a beautiful view of the Dnieper River.
We stopped for lunch at a yummy pizza joint and then went to the open markets. We were getting sleepy from eating (and jet lag) so a coffee was needed. A photo of me with the friendly barista… and another Tech Adviser, Gallen, at the open market.
We then had a meeting with an NGO who supported IDPs (internally Displaced Persons) with Children with Disabilities. There were 5 families who shared their struggles about being displaced and supporting their children with disabilities. It was very moving and incredible that the families opened up to us and shared their stories. WAKE brought a donation of tampons to gift to these families.
One of our hosts from the Ukrainian Woman’s Foundation (UWF) Natalia then took us to a Crimean Tatars restaurant called Musafir where we ate lots of doughy baked and fried goodies filled with veggies and meat. The restaurant was run and owned by IDPs from Crimea.
And more coffee…
After dinner we were all walking zombies so we took a fibit fresh air walk around out hotel back around maiden square and found the French Quarter ; )
and more coffee!
We are off to the US Embassy for a workshop with Local Entrepreneurs(I will leave for a meeting with an NGO to talk about their website- hope I can help!) more later...