Ukraine Week 1

On Monday we began our tour of Kiev with my sister, Irene, whom we met at the airport on Sunday. After a few frustrating hours trying to find where we could catch the Hop-On Hop-Off tour of Kiev, we finally got our tour but it was too late to do any hopping. On the tour and otherwise we saw many monuments and churches. A monument to Mother Ukraine in remembrance of all the soldiers who lost their lives in WWII is shown below, followed by two elegant churches.

 On Tuesday Grace and I toured Kiev on our own as Irene’s leg had swollen up from all the walking we did on Monday. We walked across this pedestrian bridge to an island in the middle of the Dnieper River. We saw more monuments and also toured the Cave Monasteries. On our return we joined up with our Ukraine Tour group.

 Freedom Arch - commemorating friendship with Russia.

Wednesday we had a different tour of Kiev and ended up at an outdoor Cossack museum in the outskirts of Kiev for lunch and a most interesting presentation from a museum tour guide, seen in the photo below. 

Friday we took a tour of Zaporazhye to see many buildings and monuments. The Zaporazhye area has about 20,000 statues of Lenin. Here we are with Walt and Ruth Ewert at the historical large old oak tree that Grace’s grandmother Petkau often talked about.

We also visited Insel Chortitza where she lived. Here we are at the beach she probably often visited.

We also saw a Mennonite monument and many Mennonite buildings. These are distinguishable by the brickwork and the gable windows. In the evening we went to a most enjoyable Cossack show. The horse riding was amazing. The MC called out Professor David from Kanada and I had to go forward and have a hat knocked off my head with a lasso whip. Later I was told that someone had knocked it off my head at the same time as the whip cracked.

Saturday we toured many villages in the Chortitza Colony, beginning with Burwalde where Grace’s father, grandfather and great-grandfather were born. Burwalde is in  beautiful valley (shown below) but there are no Mennonite homes left in Burwalde. After Burwalde we visited Nieder-Chortitza, Blumengart, Schoenenberg, Kronsthal-Osterwick, Schoenhorst and Neuendorf in the Chortitza Colony. We also visited Nikolaipol and Hochfeld in  Yazekovo Colony. Again, we saw many Mennonite buildings and some cemeteries with a few Mennonite tombstones.

Area of former Burwalde

In the afternoon we met Garry Verhoog. His sons took over his dairy farm in Manitoba. Now he is attempting to teach, by example, Ukrainians how to increase their milk production.

Grandma Petkau's beach taken from our boat tour on the Dnieper River.

On Sunday a subgroup went on a tour to Schoenfeld Colony in search of Janzen ancestors on Alf Poetker’s mother’s side. Our guide, Victor Penner, was very apologetic and not too keen on having us go there as there was “nothing to see”. Alf had this argument on a previous trip to Ukraine and persisted with the conviction that even if it was now an open field, it was still where his ancestors had lived. We visited a Janzen Granite Quarry and then went looking for the area. After asking directions a few times and starting on roads that were not passable, we had some very fortunate meetings and were told about a tombstone in an open pasture. The field was in a valley Alf’s family had described and he had googled. Then we made an amazing discovery that surprised Victor (and Alf) and was not in Rudy Friesen’s book. The tombstone belonged to Elfrieda Janzen (Jantzen ? ? ), born Dick, who died in 189? (perhaps 1890).  We believe we were the first Mennonites to discover this after the Mennonite Exodus. We also met a man who told us a fascinating story of how the stone got to this open pasture.

Marker for Janzen's Granite Quarry 

Carl Plett, myself, Grace, (my sister) Irene, Ruth and Walt Ewert with Linda and Alf Poetker at the Elfrieda Janzen tombstone.

Week 19

Our last few days in Kenya were spent in or near Nairobi with a focus on orphanages. On Tuesday we visited the Mully Children’s Family home in Yatta. Charles and Esther Mulli were very wealthy when God called him to rescue street children. Charles was abandoned by his parents at six years of age. Since they began, MCF has provided a home to about 7,000 children, bringing them in at all ages, caring for them and training them. They also bring in pregnant girls. They brought in a choir to sing just for us. Training is provided for all ages, even for the very young. The young children wanted their picture taken. 

Training centre for the youngest children.

On Wednesday we visited the Nairobi Animal Orphanage, the David Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage and the Giraffe Centre that was set up to preserve the Rothschild Giraffe. All were unique and very interesting. We also visited the Karen Blixen Museum. Karen wrote many books. Her most famous was Out of Africa which was made into a movie. At the end we stopped at a Masai market to pick up a few last minute souvenirs. What a pain! The Masai literally grab you and drag you to their display and almost demand that you “promote them” (i.e., buy something from them). We were glad when that was over.

Zeedonk - cross between zebra and donkey (not planned by humans)

Some baby elephants were covered with blankets to keep them warm.

 Warthog at the Giraffe Centre

 Karen Blixen Museum

At midnight we began our long flight to Warsaw where we have spent the last couple of days in transition before joining a Manitoba tour group in Ukraine. Was it ever cold in Warsaw, especially after our long stay in warm Kenya. After arriving we went to the top of the Palace of Science and Culture for a good view of the city and a view of a Leonardo da Vinci art display.

New stadium for 2012 European Cup (soccer)

On Friday we took a city tour that included a tour of the Royal Lazienki Museum – an outdoor park that included a statue of Frederic Chopin statue. 

Frederic Chopin statue

After many game drives in many Kenyan parks, we went on a “game walk” in the Royal Lazienki Museum.

We also toured tour Old Town Warsaw – the newest Old Town in the world. Warsaw was 90% destroyed during WWII under orders from Hitler. Old Town had an interesting museum of Madam Currie, winner of two Nobel prizes for discoveries that led to radiation treatments.

Old Town Square with restored buildings

 Gate to Old Town

On Saturday we toured the Warsaw Rising Museum – a museum depicting details of the uprising near the end of WWII that resulted in Hitler’s orders to destroy Warsaw.

On Sunday we will be travelling to Kiev to begin a new and final phase of our adventure – joining a large tour group from Manitoba.

Week 18

We had an enjoyable week at a resort north of Mombasa. On Monday we took a tour to Mombasa, visiting a shop with many wood carvers and painters, Fort Jesus (built by the Portuguese in 1593), Old Town Mombasa and Haller Park. The tusks are Mombasa landmark; erected for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953. Haller Park is a Bamburi Cement reclamation project built on the site of a former quarry. Many animals were quite tame. We watched some feeding demonstrations and got to feed the giraffes.

Thursday we visited Ngomongo villages, a series villages representing nine different African tribes. They also had a resident medicine man who told us we were both in good health.

We met an English couple and on Friday Mike and I went for a walk on the beach, which was considerably cleaner than it had been earlier in the week. Tony (one of the “beach boys”) walked along side us but not as close as previously and eventually gave up on us when we told him we had no money along.

Early Saturday morning we began a long drive to Amboseli National Park for another safari at the foot of Mt. Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa and the tallest free standing mountain in the world. The upper slopes of Kilimanjaro are actually in Tanzania but Amboseli provides some of the best views (at least when it is sunny). In addition to Kilimanjaro, the landscape and wildlife is quite different than Masai Mara.

We arrived at our camp early afternoon, had a lunch and a rest and went for a game drive in which we saw many elephants, zebra, wildebeest, Grant gazelles, buffalo and even a hippo that seemed injured and far away from water.

Amboseli has the largest number of elephants in Kenya and at one point we saw a herd we estimated to consist of roughly 200 elephants. The only cats we saw at Amboseli were a cheetah and her two cubs.

In answer to prayer the clouds lifted on Monday morning and for about an hour we had some gorgeous views of Kilimanjaro. We had partial views most of the time until we left Amboseli for Nairobi around 10:30. The first picture was taken at our camp.

The elephant on the right seemed to want to fight but the one on the left kept backing away so eventually they walked away peacefully.

For the next two days we are in Nairobi before we fly to Warsaw around midnight on Wednesday. 

Week 17

Monday morning we discovered a little gem 15 km outside of Eldoret – the Sosiani Power Plant that generates much of the power used in the region in wet seasons - and an 80 ft high waterfall. With recent rains, the water level was high. The next pictures were taken there.

On Tuesday we went to our first Kenyan wedding. Just after the couple exchanged their vows, the pastor called us up to give best wishes to the couple. We had asked him at our farewell supper if we could come. Unlike brother-in-law Tom, he

1.              Called us before the wedding telling us he would call us up.

2.              Asked us to make a speech (not announcing that I would sing a solo).

The wedding was very enjoyable (not referring to our part). The procession and recession had a lot of motion. The reception was to be outside, a few tents had been set up. While we were eating it started pouring. One of the tents was blown down. 

 On leaving the wedding we passed our street and noticed both ditches were overfull and our street was under water, as were several other streets.

This week Grace’s principal (Martha Tubei) and my department head (Philip Nyangweso) also had a goodbye supper for us.

Early Friday morning we bid our adieus to Eldoret, flew to Nairobi from where we boarded a train for an overnight train ride to Mombasa. Skies were clear and we got a good view of the landscape between Eldoret and Nairobi. Our train ride went quite well but we did not get to see the wildlife we had expected as we were out of Tsavo East National Park before daybreak even though we arrived in Mombasa two hours late. However, we did enjoy the scenery. Also, every place where the train stopped or even slowed had many children standing all along the track. All of them waved, the older ones also held their hands out for shillings.

 Mombasa Harbour

For this week we are at a resort north of Mombasa along the Indian Ocean. A peaceful walk along the ocean may be but a dream. This is the low season for tourists because of the rains, although we have had just sunny, hot, humid weather so far. Our resort is far from full and the moment we show our faces at the ocean we are surrounded by the “beach boys” trying to sell us tour tickets or provide us with transportation to their restaurant. Unlike in Mexico, they do not let us alone. They earn their living getting commissions and this afternoon we were the only tourists at the ocean. Here are some pictures at or of our resort.

 At high tide.

Next weekend we do not expect to have internet access so the next update will be Monday, May 14.