Dog Story 2

Returning from looking at all the artist's displaying their paintings in a street market, I headed down a steeply cobbled street towards the river. It was a very interesting street with a small theatre and small picturesque church.View photo of Theatre. I noticed a statue further down the street, (see photo)leaving the statue I wondered who he was, his name is in the Ukrainian language. Hearing snuffling and whimpering I looked down to see 5 puppies trotting out from under a parked car,a black and white collie dog was on the pavement near the beige coloured pups. Camera ready I started to take some photo's of the pups when I heard snarling and felt a sharp pain in my leg,I jumped round nearly dropping my camera. The collie was hanging onto my leg,I managed to free myself by spinning round. Needless to say all I got was a photo of the sky,no puppy photo's. After this dog bite I had a couple of marks on my leg,thank goodness I had been for my anti rabies injection prior to that years visit.

Dog story 1.

A few years ago while staying with my friend and his wife,there was a pollution problem with the main water supplies to Kiev. Citizens had to collect water from deep wells in various city locations. The weather was very cold with lots of snow and ice about. As we were down to the last,former soft drink bottle, of water Anatoli asked me to help replenish the water in the apartment. Walking in the bitterly cold but bright day carrying an assortment of empty plastic containers,we joined a long queue of water collectors, pensioners, children,disabled people,workers, all filling various types of container's from the communal well in one of the many parks. I wondered how such a scene would look back in the UK. Eventually we reached the well and filled our containers with water uncontaminated by chemicals, unlike the main water supplies.
The weather had improved since we set off on our water quest, and the sun shone through the clouds, I was however proceeding carefully,as laden down with two bags full of bottles of water I did not want to slip and sprain or even break my ankle in the icy conditions.
I was walking down a steep slope,watching a pack of dogs running about, there are many packs of stray dogs around the city suburbs. I watched as a large black pregnant dog ran in our direction passing behind me, I tried to look round but nearly lost my footing. Suddenly I felt a pain my left calf muscle as the pregnant dog gripped my leg in its massive jaws, I managed to swing one of my bags of water at the dog,as did my friend and the dog released its grip. Anatoli warned some mothers walking their children about the attack dog. When we got back to the apartment, I was very worried about Rabies as feral dogs can carry this potentially fatal virus. However although my skin had indentations, the surface was unbroken,the heavy denims I was wearing had protected me. I resolved there and then to get a course of anti Rabies injections when I returned to Scotland.

School visit part 2

When I recovered from the realisation that I was "the School Event " I was taken on a tour of the School which was very interesting. There are 1200 pupils and gaining educational qualifications are a high priority for the pupils as they progress through their school years. The School has a lot of old worn out facilities,despite this the pupils are proud of their School and respect the teaching staff. At the end of their final year their is a Graduation Ball with all the young ladies in long gowns and the young men in suits.
I was taken to see a permanent exhibition in the School Museum dedicated to a young girl called Nina Shoshena and her family. Nina was a pupil at the School, pictures of village and School life hang on the Museum walls, the girls who showed me round explained in English that Nina was a local Heroine. In 1942 during World War 2 during the German occupation of Ukrainian Territory Nina Shoshena who was a member of the local area resistance refused to give information about the resistance to the German Army. As she sheltered in a house with friends and family surrounded by troops,she bravely continued to oppose requests to surrender. Machine gun fire and Mortars pounded the house and most of the resistance members including the schoolgirl Nina Shoshena were killed. When I heard this story and looked at the faded black and white photographs It was like being transported back through time.
Just at that moment the lights in the Museum went out! but two of the girls went to fetch a couple of torches to carry on. Why did the lights fail when they did? Who should know.

Malin School Visit. Part one.

During one of my visits to Malin hospital, girls from no.1 School who had voluteered to translate for me at the hospital asked if I would like to see their School. I said I would be happy to go to see a Ukrainian School as it would be very interesting for me as I had not been in any schools in Ukraine. I was also invited to go on a hunt for wild Boar by friends, but I declined their offer as I had already accepted the Schools offer. Next morning Anton the Doctors son took me to a very large building which was down at a lower level from our vantage point,he pointed to doors in the middle and said, that's the entrance I will see you later and left.
Making my way down past a large World War 2 monument,I approached the entrance,wondering where my Schoolgirl hosts were. Pushing through the old worn doors I saw I was in a large reception area, over to my left sat a woman behind a desk,I was just about to go over and try to explain in my limited Russian why I was there,when she indicated that I should keep going forward. I suddenly became aware that there was a large crowd of girls, boys, and what I assumed to be teachers standing in rows.
I thought I had arrived at the wrong time, probably some sort of school function was taking place. I started to walk over to the side out of the way, where I could wait for someone, anyone, to come to my rescue!
I heard a shout ,Mr.Gillies, Mr.Gillies turning round I saw Anastasia one of my tranlators heading towards me, this way she said leading the way towards the assembled crowd. Girls and boys dressed in Ukrainian dress offered me a circular loaf of crusty bread, in the middle a section of bread had been removed,and filled with salt.It was handed a piece of bread which I was asked to dip in the salt and eat. Anastasia explained that I was getting a Traditional welcome, and the local Press and TV reporters were there to cover the story of my visit. I was amazed, it was indeed a school function but to welcome me!

Inside Malin Hospital,Ukraine.

Journey back to Scotland

I watched the ballot boxes being opened and emptied on large tables pushed together to allow about 20 people and officials. They worked fast each person collecting a pile of ballot papers and sorting them into batches. When they were finished sorting, a woman standing at one end of the table took the batches of ballot papers lifting them one at a time reading out who's name was on the ballot paper. All you heard her saying was Yanacovich,or Yushchenko in a loud clear voice. At the end of all this the ballot papers were put in large sealed envelopes to be taken to a secure building in the city where only people of official standing could enter to see the final results from all the Polling Stations in the Region.We left Dnepropetrovsk the following morning to return to Kiev. On the way home we stopped at a roadside memorial cross to a politician called Chernobyl who died at this spot when his car ran into a large blacked out truck parked across the road one dark night. When I left Kiev on a bus to Belgium it was night time and the bus passed many bonfires surrounded by supporters of Yushchenko, chanting his name. In Lvov cars full of young men drove round and round the streets shouting Yushchenko,Yushchenko and sounding the car horns in a pattern like his name.It was unlike any other political scenarios I had seen. A few years later the Ukrainian people have become disillusioned with the Political landscape.On my arrival in Scotland I continued to follow the News about Ukraine holding another, election free of corruption.

Orange Revolution, next blog the end game

I was in the tent city and Kiev city centre in freezing conditions all night waiting to see if special forces would arrive to break up the massive demonstration of people power.A photo journalist friend escorted me as I talked with the tent city demonstrators, surprisingly many of them understood English. There was a young lawyer with her brother and a friend in one tent, wrapped up well against the bitter cold.She said they were worried about the possibility of special forces arriving but were resolute in their determination that elections must be corruption free. Young and old alike had come in the thousands filling Kreshatik Street the main square and surrounding areas. At regular intervals the chant "Yushchenko, Yushchenko,Yushchenko, began the noise increasing as more voices joined in. My friend's girlfriend arrived from another part of Ukraine, she and some others had been detained by security forces on their way to Kiev and held for a few hours while being questioned why were they going to Kiev. I understood her concern as I had been to Dnipropetrovski a large industrial city 500 Km. East of Kiev during the previous 48 hours.I went with a group of friends and they were worried in case our vehicle would be stopped and they would be detained for questionong. Coming from the West I was not used to travelling with this type of potential threat present at the many police roadside control posts. Fortunately we made it through without being stopped.
On arrival at the city we were able to get accomodation in an apartment,when the old person who lived there,moved in with a nearby relative and allowed us to use the apartment. Next day we went round various polling stations, one polling station with loud music playing through speakers outside had women running a temporary tea room inside with tea,coffee, soft drinks, and food. I think this idea could work in UK!
I was allowed to film voters in the polling station,and also later in another larger polling station I filmed the ballot boxes being opened and votes being counted.