Kiev

So the last city we visited was Kiev, Ukraine. Again, they geared us up for a long day at the border. There are not a lot of restaurants between major cities in Belarus so on both long bus ride days in and out of the country we geared up by going to the grocery store and buying food for 52 people. That was interesting trying to make lunch and dinner on a bus. We ate a lot of sandwiches. The border out of Belarus wasn't too bad. It took us about an hour and a half to get everything on the carnet checked off and passports checked. The Ukraine border proved to be just as bad as the Belarus border. First, they told us that a bus couldn't tow a trailer in the Ukraine. We pulled a trailer behind us with all of the equipment. After about 2 hours of negotiation, (again Mark speaking German and our bus drive translating it into Russian) they still wouldn't let us go. So we decided to take all of the equipment and luggage and put it in the bus. There was luggage everywhere in the aisles. We couldn't move. Then our bus driver hired some random person to tow our empty trailer across the border. That problem somewhat solved, they then collected our passports and started working on the carnet. They were just as confused as the Belarus border and didn't know how to handle all of our equipment. By this point we had been on the bus for about 4 hours or so with no bathroom break. They wouldn't let us get off the bus while they were doing all of this. 52 people can't go to the bathroom in the bus bathroom so people were getting cranky. Finally they let us off and we spent another few hours there waiting for them to finish. Border to border was about 7 hours. We crossed the border and about a mile down the road picked up our trailer, attached it to the bus and continued on our way. Illegal? Probably. We got to our hotel about 3 a.m.
Kiev is like the rest of the cities we have seen. Destroyed during WWII. They have restored a lot of their old buildings though. But some not until just recently. The traffic is insane there. Our helper lady said that they add about 100 cars to the road a day there on roads that were not meant to have traffic. The church is thriving there. They have 10 wards. Small wards, but most of the cities we've been to only have small branches. They have the first stake in Eastern Europe. They are currently constructing the Kiev temple. Too bad we didn't get to see it. Our fireside and show went fine there. I think all of us were just ready to be done so it's kind of a blur. We did get a little sightseeing in. Here are some pictures.


We went to a monistary. Most of it was destroyed including this church which they started restoring in the 90's. They have finished the outside and are currently working on the inside.


Underneath one of the churches, they discovered the bodies of several priests that had been perfectly preserved. They think it is a miracle. The bodies are displayed below one of the churches in what they call the caves. This place is considered very sacred to the people so the women had to cover their heads, hence the lovely purple scarf. The bodies mostly covered by cloth, were displayed in glass cases. They did expose some of the hands which was a little gross.


This is a group of the students in front of the the big lady as we liked to call here. I'm not sure the name of it but it is a hero statue. Several eastern European cities were declared hero cities by the Russian government after WWII. These were cities that had endured much destruction at the hands of the Nazis but prevailed. In these cities they constructed these large statues. This is one of the largest. It's probably almost as big as the statue of liberty. Minsk also had a statue but it wasn't nearly as big.



Mark and I in front of one of the churches.

Mark and I with the bus drivers, Andreas and Rolf. Mark had a good time speaking German with them. I was the third wheel with Rolf and him. Then Andreas showed up to help with the long bus rides and to speak Russian and I became the fourth wheel. They were very nice though and I'm sure Mark will stay in contact with them.