On Monday, Sergiy and I met with David Ralston, the UEC's board president. We had a long lunch, took him to a store, and he visited the Center for a little inspection. He also brought some items for us. He's always gracious. We also planned a visit to the bureaucracy nightmare we have been fighting for almost 3 years. In order to finish a set of documents related to the legality of our renovation of the UEC property, we needed David to be here with an official translation of his passport. I planned to pick up the translation Tuesday morning while Sergiy took David to stand in line at this office where we were submitting this huge stack of documents for final approval. We, of course, needed some more copies of the documents so I trecked down the hill behind Bessarabska Market and found a xerox place. The copier was also being attended by the lady who was running the pay toilet. 50 kopecks to use the bathroom. 30 kopecks for a copy.

The bureaucrat accepted most of our papers and then wanted David's tax ID code. He doesn't have one. She then informed us it was impossible to buy property in Ukraine without a tax ID code (kind of like a SSI number). After taking our papers, she said it would take 2.5 months to review them and meanwhile, we will need to submit his code. David was on the way to the airport so I guess next time around he'll be getting a code. The drama continues.

The election campaign continues in Kyiv. Now all the parties have people waving huge flags on street corners. This became popular in the 2004-5 Orange Revolution so now everyone has flags. Our metro station is surrounded by them.

We also had Soup Group and had a great discussion. The parable of the shrewd manager was asked about. Always a fun one.

We've had more snow and cold temps at night. But March 1 is officially spring in Ukraine, so I guess we will all be celebrating tomorrow. I guess the 6 inches of snow and ice won't get in the way.