We Went to L'viv

     Every Area Medical Advisor is over several missions, so one of the big things they want to do is travel to all their areas to check out medical facilities.  Travel.  As we got here in January, travel was not high on our want-to-do list until the weather got warmer.  But now that weather is decent, we have enjoyed looking into the areas of the missions that the presidents want us to see.

Not all mission presidents feel the need for us to visit them.  For one thing, the previous AMA visited a lot of the missions just last summer.  He especially visited the large cities.  The second reason that there is sometimes not a need is that in some missions, there are missionaries only in the major cities--the Baltics, for instance.  However, we have had the privilege of visiting several smaller cities in the three Ukraine missions where we have missionaries stationed.

What we have found has been surprising and heartening.

But first, the lead picture:

I don't care what Germany says; Ukraine is the sun flower capitol of the world!

     Ukraine has three missions in it (down from four since Russia took out Donetsk), Kiev, Dnepro and L'viv.  We have visited many of the cities in Kiev and been the guest and co-worker with Sis. Karen Sullivan of the Dnepro Mission.  This last week, we had the privilege of visiting some of the cities in the L'viv mission.

     We started out by leaving Sunday afternoon for the city of Rivna.  It was a five hour train trip.

Frankly, it reminded me of something 

out of Harry Potter.

No, it doesn't say what you think it does.  It's Cyrillic.

Really cute railway stations.

We stayed in the suite they usually put the mission president in when he's traveling.  Wow!

After visiting medical facilities until there were no more directors to talk to, Brent and I went walking in Rivna and found this wonderful little open-air rinok.  This was only one street.  It was about three blocks on a side.

     Let me here give a big shout out to mission drivers.  We have three of the best in the world here in Ukraine.  These are local professional drivers.  They are at the beck and call of the mission president. They are well versed in the language, culture, lay-out of the cities, etc.  They are indispensable for the safety of the mission presidents, because the president always has so much on his mind as he travels from one responsibility to another, that he would be a distracted driver.  They often must work on Sunday as the mission president visits the different branches in his mission.  They must make themselves available to retrieve a missionary in trouble at any time of the night or day.

     President and Sister Sullivan of the Dnepro mission and President and Sister Rizley of the L'viv mission have lent us their drivers (to be fair, Sis. Sullivan was with us) while we have been inspecting medical facilities.  They have acted as our interpreters and general go-betweens with the directors of the facilities we have been to.  They are fantastic!

     And I am told by our missions president(s) (President Packer and President Kumferman) that our mission driver is no less serviceable.  What an asset to the mission is a good driver!

     As we are traveling around, we see that in the medium to small cities, automation has not taken over everything.  

You might be surprised at how often the horse cart is used here in Ukraine.  I know I was.  Notice that the colt is right along side it's mother, learning young how to do its future work.

What the farmer is working on here is a horse-drawn side-cutter, a method of harvesting that is very seldom seen in the U.S. anymore.

A couple of really pretty vistas we caught between towns.

     After Rivna, we went to L'viv.  

The view from our room in the top of this cute hotel towards the city center of L'viv.  Very European architecture.  Notice the wide streets with a park down the middle of it.  This is very common.  Love it!

This is the attic room we stayed in.  Cozy, cute, and watch your head if you need to get up in the middle of the night!

These were one of several pairs of people playing games in the park.  We also saw backgammon and another couple of types of games.  There were some younger people playing, too.  Electronics don't always win.

     We had a lovely dinner that evening with Pres. & Sis. Rizley and a couple of other senior couples.  What a joy to get to meet and associate with such wonderful people!

     The next day, we were off to Ivano-Frankivsk and Lutsk.  These two cities are fairly close together, and not a lot of facilities to see, so we could cover both in one day.  At one point, we were having trouble finding the address of one of the buildings, and we picked up a native who was going to show us the way to the hospital.

Short-cut to the hospital?  Probably if you were on foot.

     We had a lovely big room to stay in in Lutsk that night.  It was getting near the end of our trip, and we were starting to feel the effects of age.

     We found this interesting item in our room, though.

What is it?

   

Oh, it's an ironing board.

Nope.  It's a ladder.  Well, how about both?

Oops!  How did that get in there?

Breakfast the next morning was al fresco.  And a beautiful morning it was!

This, I'm sure is the type of scene that inspired the Ukrainian flag.

Traveling around the country, we see many beautiful sights. As you saw before, the technology in many places has not changed in centuries.  But things are changing, not only in technology, but also in the Ukrainian people's hearts.  They love their freedom!  There is still a lot of corruption and graft, but many universities in the United States are sending lecturers over to teach at the law and politics schools, and they are showing the younger generation the how and why of honesty and transparency.  The people are starting to hold their government more accountable.  The European Union is investing heavily in infrastructure here, on the condition that the people maintain their democracy.  We live and serve here in exciting times!

In the meantime, there are still dachas as the people try to maintain their self-sufficiency.  It a growing, promising land.

And sometimes there are pet cows.