City of Kherson

We had a very nice but cold tour of the city of Kherson. Our faithful taxi driver pickup us up a little after 2:00pm and off we went. We went by a park that had amusement rides that appear to be there all year round. We then went to the Dnieper River that runs through Ukraine, through Kherson into the Black Sea. Kherson is the home of a major ship-building industry. There was a large statute of a woman on a very tall pedestal. I don’t know what the name of it was. We got to see ships going to the Black Sea. He then took us where there was a large tank up on a pillar with a dedication plaque on the front with year of 1969. We could see front this point the woman on the statute down by the water. There was a long brick sidewalk down to this statute. Across the street from the tank statute was the main entrance to the park that Richard, Jacob and I had walked around a couple of weeks ago.

Off we go and see a church and we way and the taxi driver immediately stops for us to get out and take more pictures. We were only able to see one church, though from postcards that we have gotten we know that there are many more churches here. He motion if we wanted more churches or what else. Mom had brought one of the postcards that we had gotten at the market and showed him the statute of the ship. He nodded and took us around that. Boy was it huge. We first saw the water and Jacob and I stuck our finger in to say we had touched the Black Sea or a least part of it. The wind coming off the water was very cold. Mom said it was a high of 27 degrees but it felt like below 20 degrees. We still were very happy that we got see what we did. We probably could have used more than an hour but we were going to the boarding school at 3:00pm.

When we walked into Alexander’s dormitory it was very quiet. One lady started talking and trying to explain something. Another couple of ladies were reorganizing the alcove where we play with Alex. So we go and sit around the desk in the TV room. Well we think that nap time should be over by 4:00pm but still no sound of any children. We then realize that all the children must be gone on a field trip of some kind. When we leave at our normal time of 4:30 and go by the cafeteria there aren’t any children there either. They must have gone to a special program or concert.

Tomorrow is St. Nicholas day here in the Ukraine. This is the day that children receive gifts instead of Christmas. The Ukrainian’s celebrate January 7th as Christmas but do not exchange gifts. They do start celebrating from December 24th through January 7th. We did see on a tour a large Christmas tree being set up, so I know things are becoming festive around here. So we came home a little sad because we did not see Alex. We know that Ira will be here in the morning and it will be very busy tomorrow, mostly for her.