Tuesday (I think) we left Uzhgorod 7 hours later we were in Ivano-Frankivsk.
The folks from the Uzhgorod 'Skala' and Uzhgorod Rotary clubs proved to be excellent hosts, they treated us to cultural tours of the area as well as many vocational vists. Our host families were awesome, everyone was treated to some real genuine Transcarpathian Ukrainian home life, an experience we will never forget. (Thank you to both Uzhgorod Rotary Clubs)
We arrived in Ivano-Frankivsk with half an hour to spare before we were expected to make our team presentation at the Rotary meeeting, needless to say we were a bit rushed. First we had to meet our new host families load our luggage into their cars, drive to their houses, unpack, change into our uniforms jump back into their cars and rush off to the Rotary meeting. We arrived at the meeting almost on time, to find out that they did not have a ppt projector (which is the media we use for the presentation). We didnt let that bother us, Jay held up my laptop at the head of the table, we moved some chairs around a proceeded with the presentation, an unexpected thing happpened when I finshed bumbling through my introduction in Ukrainian, everyone clapped and cheered, then when Inessa finished her bit, same thing and the same enthusiastic applause for Kevin, Noreen and Jay as well. We later found out that they were very surprised to hear the presentation in Ukrainian, they loved it; apparently they have hosted two previouse GSE's from North America and both required the aid of an interpreter.(Thanks to Svitlana Melnyk our Edmonton language trainer, lol)
I should add that really' Inessa' is our ace in the hole on this trip as she speaks fluent Ukrainian and has been our interpreter on a daily basis.
Today Greg, Jay and Kevin visited the Fire Administration and Training Centre and Inessa and Noreen visited the Girl Guides and the Cancer hospital, but more on that tomorrow, its bed time up early. Apparently we are climbing a mountain.
Cheers,
/g
