Chernobyl - 25 Years Later

Today marks the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. This is the first anniversary that it will not be known as "the world's worst nuclear accident." Unfortunately Fukishima is now appearing to be fast on it's way to share this illustrious title.

Twenty five years have gone by and people continue to suffer from the affects of radiation fallout. While people bandy about statistics, no one will ever really know how many people have suffered and/or died from health issues resulting from the toxic contamination in their environment. It is sad and unbelievable that the threat of a further disaster continues as government officials from many countries continue to talk about building a permanent cover to contain what is now a falling apart sarcophagus that was hastily built after the incident. Some lessons are still waiting to be learned when it comes to the problems of nuclear power.

Here are a couple of interesting film clips I found on Youtube:




CNN clip and interview with a Chernobyl survivor activist. Shows the inside of the Chernobyl museum in Kyiv, Ukraine.




Amazing film taken after the accident. The filmmaker died of dispersed cancer in a hospital soon after taking these shots.




Here is video of one of the explosions at the Fukishima power plant in Japan. I'm not a physicist, but I don't think newspaper, sawdust and diaper chemicals are going to plug up and stop the radiation leakage.

Related articles

• Chernobyl disaster, 25 year later: commemoration around the world (boingboing.net)
• Visiting Chernobyl 25 Years Later: Lessons for Fukushima (time.com)
• VIDEO: Vigil held for Chernobyl anniversary (bbc.co.uk)
• Leaders accused of neglecting Chernobyl legacy (ctv.ca)
• Chernobyl widows mourn as bell tolls 25 times (msnbc.msn.com)
• Dark Legacy Of Chernobyl Disaster 25 Years On (news.sky.com)

Wisdom

Wisdom has been a theme that I've been focusing on for the last year and I am continuing to study it this year as well.

As I've, ahem, gotten older, I realized that I am constantly in crazy situations or watching others go through crazy life experiences and that the world just seems to be getting more and more wacky and it seemed to be getting harder to navigate through it. I could definitely pin point some situations where my personal wisdom saved me from what could have been a potentially really bad situation but I also have found myself in situations that I wish I would have thought through better before I got myself in them.

Suffice it to say that when I was younger, most of what I learned about the Bible was based on facts. So and so wrote this book, did this, went there, then that happened, etc etc, here diagram the book of Revelation and now memorize this list of rules of how you are supposed to live and oh, NOW we are going to run some programs over here and this will save everyone and bring about world peace at the same time.

When you get out into the world and choose to live out your faith, that will only work up to a point because God didn't call us to live out a bunch of rules but to walk in faith through his grace.

I saw people around me, and myself included, struggling to solve life's problems. Grasping for understanding, I finally realized that I was going to be life's road kill if I didn't look harder for answers on how to handle the things life was throwing at me.

So after reading a book last year that encouraged it's readers to read a chapter of Proverbs a day for a year, I became intrigued by the subject of biblical wisdom.

Did I actually read a chapter of Proverbs a day for the year and gain insight and understanding?

No, I didn't.

Hey, I'm just being honest with you.

But through this last year, I did start thinking a lot more about wisdom. I know that doesn't totally count but it was a subject that I could not stop thinking about as I did my regular bible reading and listened to sermons. I am now at the point where I am reading a chapter of Proverbs a day and asking God to give me more wisdom and understanding about life and the world around me.

The nice thing about that is he gives wisdom to anyone who wants it.

"If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.".....James 1:5 (NIV)

Here's to making better decisions in life!

Intimidation

Intimidate:

1. to make timid; fill with fear

2. to overawe or cow, as through the force of personality or by superior display of wealth, talent, etc.

3. to force into or deter from some action by inducing fear: to intimidate a voter into staying away from the polls.

Living in a foreign country can be very intimidating, especially at the beginning. You don't know the language, how to get around, and if you want to not look like a pig in a tutu in a herd of zebras, you have to "get" the culture. You can sometimes feel like "all eyes are on the foreigner to see what insane thing they will say or do next." It can be intimidating.

Once you get some language going, know where you're going and figure out that if you don't make the conductor sell you a ticket on the bus, then some scary looking man will confront you and scream at you because you haven't paid, you start feeling some confidence when you are out and about.

But that tiny bit of confidence will continually be challenged by the everyday people you will interact with on a daily business.

People who grew up or lived in the Soviet Union lived in a culture with an under current of fear and instability. So when interacting with others, especially strangers, it is sometimes more easy to intimidate them. This didn't do much for their customer service ratings, but it gave them the upper hand in the situation.

Example A:

Bread shops are notoriously known for intimidating women working behind the counters. In an effort to not go into my local mini super market where I usually buy bread because they are doing so much remodeling that there is a permanent haze of dust and one needs to wear a hard hat to navigate their way through and over the steel beams lying on the floor, I decided to buy bread at a shop in my market.

I get in line behind a babushka and she asks the shop lady for a "baton." A loaf of white bread.

Shop keeper: (She grunts and goes to pick up a loaf and lays it down on the counter.)

Babushka: "How much is it?"

Shopkeeper: "Four hrivnyas" (Intimidating attitude that could sink a ship the size of Queen Mary. This attitude is projected towards the babushka and everyone in a 3 feet radius)

Babushka: "Four hrivnyas?!" (Intimidating attitude thrown back. translation: "Four hrivnyas is too much to charge for a loaf of bread!")

Shop keeper: (Another grunt but louder and scarier this time.)

Babushka: (Puts money down)

Shop keeper: (Big dramatic sigh, then a dramatic pause. Another big sigh. She is preparing already for the intimidating factor to be in place for me.)

Babushka: "Can I have a bag?" (Each loaf should be put in a bag at no extra charge.)

Shop keeper: (Even BIGGER sigh. She then dramatically reaches down and pulls one out.)

Babushka: (Not to be intimidated by the fact that she did not automatically receive her loaf in a bag she reaches into her purse and slowly counts out some change. She's making a point here.) "Here's some money."

Shop keeper: No, no! (Her intimidating attitude swells higher at the indignation of having someone try to buy a bag for a loaf of bread which should come with it anyway!)

Babushka leaves.

The shop keeper looks up and sees me standing there with a stupid, foreign, friendly smile on my face and gives me the most intimidating, scary look I've seen in quite a while.

I confidently say, "Baton, PLEASE"

(Okay I look confident, but am definitely sweating inside my coat)

The smile and the word "please" immediately confuses her intimidating attempt to control her customer. She falters.

She hands me the loaf of bread and looks at me carefully and warily. (Remember when I said those foreigners may say or do any crazy thing? I just did.)

I say, "Thank you." and do not ask her to put the loaf in a bread bag. I am too intimidated. I admit it.

She didn't offer me a bag either.

First Mashrutki Rides

Oh the those first mashrustki rides that you take after you've been away in a country where you command a car down the wide, smooth highways in your attempt to get somewhere important!

How quickly you forgot how difficult it is to even open the door. No one will help or offer assistance as you struggle desperately and feel like a fool. If you can't open the door, you will stay where you are. You will go nowhere. Once inside the driver impatiently looks around while you try to decipher how much the fare has gone up. If you ask, you will receive a sarcastic answer if any answer at all. You should already know the price of the mashrutka you poor passenger you! You will delicately balance yourself on the narrow steps in your winter boots as you dig in your purse with one hand to find money while the other tries to close the door. Before you get the door shut completely, someone yanks it open and you nearly topple over as a woman screams at the driver and asks where this mashrutka is going.

Once the fare has been handed over, you glance quickly around to discern what you will be able to grab onto for dear life that is not a living, breathing human being. You have only the bare half second to make a decision. Make sure you do not grab a person or their belongings! Maybe you will be spared a ride standing in the narrow aisle and you will be able to take a seat. Look around quickly. Always be hopeful!

Ah, a seat! You are propelled into a vacant space next to a glaring devushka by the raw speed of the mashrutka as it pulls away from the curb, but you are sitting down! If there was a game app for "Life In Ukraine" you would score five points at least.

Now, inhale deeply. Okay, maybe not that deeply. The smell of the mashrutka. Ah, you forgot that human sweat, plastic, dirt, gas smell. How could you?

Enduring

People usually think that working with street kids or at risk children is difficult in regards to relating to them specifically or getting thru to them to help them change and grow.  To some degree this is hard, but most of the time it is not. They want help.  They want love.  They respond.

What is difficult is not the interacting part of the ministry with these children, but how difficult it is to actually get yourself into a position thru ministry, a church or an organization to be able to help them.  The political and exploitive factors that swirl around children without parental authority in their lives is unbelievable and unless you view it firsthand it's hard to comprehend or understand.  In Ukraine our organization constantly faces challenges and setbacks that would dishearten the strongest person.  It is discouraging to discover in your enthusiasm to help children that the forces of the world around you are pretty much against that idea most of the time.

After a particularly depressing meeting with our director this week, I came home absolutely deflated.  I just cannot understand why a group of people who want nothing more than to help children have to go through so much to do so.  I turned the problem over to God and began to think and pray about it.

"Children are a gift from God; they are his reward.".....Psalm 127:3 (LB)


Many verses in the Bible point out God's heart for children and how we are to treat and respect them.  This goes for not only children who are living in families but for those whose have been abandoned by or forgotten by their parents.  God makes it clear that he himself takes over the position of spiritual authority over fatherless children, "He is a father to the fatherless.".....Psalm 68:5 (LB) 


Because he himself has taken authority over children who are abandoned by their society or families, God gives those of us who are Christians a special mandate to take care of them. "The Christian who is pure and without fault, from God the Father's point of view, is the one who takes care of orphans and widows, and who remains true to the Lord--not soiled and dirtied by his contacts with the world."....James 1:27 (LB)


Part of our calling as Christians is to help abandoned children.  This is a Judeo/Christian value taken from the Bible not a "feel good" program.  No matter how difficult it gets or how much the world around us works against us, Christians are called to endure and continue to help these children.

Spring Is Here!

A new season is here!  Spring!

I am originally from California and I miss the constant, year round sunshine and mild climate.  But living in Ukraine has been an interesting experience as for the first time in my life, I've been able to experience seasonal change.

In Ukraine, the time between the melting snow at the ending winter and the lush green of spring is interesting.  The world is gray and brown and there is an almost desperate feeling for warmth and greenery.  I can almost feel a pulsing desire from nature pulling the world around me in a new direction.  The birds start going crazy singing with a manic glee that you don't hear any other time of the year.

Ukrainians around me start going crazy with spring cleaning.  Rugs are pulled out and beaten, floors and ceilings are giving a wipe down that they never get any other time of the year.

In the market, you find lines of people waiting for their chance to buy seeds for vegetables.  With the constantly rising food prices, Ukrainians take the time to buy seeds and plant gardens on their small plots of land at their dachas.  The rich soil of Ukraine nourishes their seeds so that they will grow and those who push the seeds into the ground will be assured of having some fresh food for their families.

So with the current change of season blossoming in Ukraine, with the hope of warmer and longer days, I welcome you to my new blog. I will be sharing thoughts and photos of my life in Ukraine.  Seeds that I hope will inspire or encourage you in your own life.