Thursday in Zhytomir
Thursday we went to Zhytomir to belatedly celebrate both Polina's birthday and Lena's dad's birthday. When we got there, they didn't have any water. I then went to the store to buy a cake but the store didn't have electricity so they couldn't sell anything. Of course, they were allowing people in the store, people were looking at things and even getting in line. Then, finally, a worker would say they can't sell anything because there is no electricity. I saw this happen in several different stores as I searched for cake and Diet Coke. Apparently, a large part of the city was experiencing a freak power outage. The traffic lights weren't working either so it made it fun trying to cross the street.
Polina is walking now. Still not too steady, but she bravely takes a few steps on her own.
We made it back to Kyiv just in time to have an unpleasant conversation with our landlord. God, give me wisdom to deal with him.
We have spent a lot of time this week with the Broadways. They are heading to Bila Tserkva this weekend so we will have our apartment back for a while. Though we have spent some time "helping" them, it's been a great pleasure being with people who are about my age and have some excitement for mission. It helps to see things that familiarity blinds us to.
I guess you are bored of my reports on the government but here goes in brief: After Moroz (a.k.a. Judas) backed out of the democatric coalition at the last minute and formed a coalition with criminals and oligarchs, it set the whole parliament in an uproar. One day, a small riot broke out and one deputy was bleeding. Yulia's party brought matching red and white (her party's colors) bullhorns and sirens to drown out any attempt to conduct business in the parliament. The Regions party had been doing this for two weeks prior to Moroz's treachery.
Pictured here are members of Yulia's party passing a bullhorn around. Many are calling for new elections. Yesterday, this new coalition nominated Yanukovych to be prime minister. The president has hinted that he may dissolve the parliament but some aren't sure that he has the constitutional right to do so. The Constitutional Court will have to decide. But the court can't form a quorum to hear cases because several justices have yet to be confirmed by the parliament. Parliament has decided to take a break till Tuesday (you wouldn't want to lose your weekend just because the country is in a political crisis and hasn't had a functioning government since March). There are also new tent cities being set up in Maidan. I was there on Wednesday to pay the UEC's phone bill. There are about 20 tents. I think some larger demonstrations are being planned for Saturday. Yulia said she doesn't want to ask people to go back to the streets but prefers to pursue all legal means first.
Polina is walking now. Still not too steady, but she bravely takes a few steps on her own.
We made it back to Kyiv just in time to have an unpleasant conversation with our landlord. God, give me wisdom to deal with him.
We have spent a lot of time this week with the Broadways. They are heading to Bila Tserkva this weekend so we will have our apartment back for a while. Though we have spent some time "helping" them, it's been a great pleasure being with people who are about my age and have some excitement for mission. It helps to see things that familiarity blinds us to.
I guess you are bored of my reports on the government but here goes in brief: After Moroz (a.k.a. Judas) backed out of the democatric coalition at the last minute and formed a coalition with criminals and oligarchs, it set the whole parliament in an uproar. One day, a small riot broke out and one deputy was bleeding. Yulia's party brought matching red and white (her party's colors) bullhorns and sirens to drown out any attempt to conduct business in the parliament. The Regions party had been doing this for two weeks prior to Moroz's treachery.
Pictured here are members of Yulia's party passing a bullhorn around. Many are calling for new elections. Yesterday, this new coalition nominated Yanukovych to be prime minister. The president has hinted that he may dissolve the parliament but some aren't sure that he has the constitutional right to do so. The Constitutional Court will have to decide. But the court can't form a quorum to hear cases because several justices have yet to be confirmed by the parliament. Parliament has decided to take a break till Tuesday (you wouldn't want to lose your weekend just because the country is in a political crisis and hasn't had a functioning government since March). There are also new tent cities being set up in Maidan. I was there on Wednesday to pay the UEC's phone bill. There are about 20 tents. I think some larger demonstrations are being planned for Saturday. Yulia said she doesn't want to ask people to go back to the streets but prefers to pursue all legal means first.
posted by Kyivmission at 10:59 AM
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