Yesterday, four bombs were placed in trash cans at various bus stops near the center of town and all exploded within an hour, injuring 29 people. An anonymous call said the train station had been threatened as well, so a full evacuation was ordered and delayed the trains for several hours. It's possible this is related to the Euro 2012 Soccer Games, but no one has taken credit for the explosions yet. Click here for more info.
I had just been remembering that it was the 26th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear explosion.
"The April 26, 1986, explosion spewed a cloud of radiation over much of the northern hemisphere, forcing hundreds of thousands of people from their homes in heavily hit areas of Ukraine, Belarus and western Russia. The Soviet government initially tried to hush up the explosion and resisted immediately evacuating nearby residents. It also failed to tell the public what happened or instruct residents and cleanup workers on how to protect themselves against radiation, which significantly increased the health damage from the disaster.
A shelter called the "sarcophagus" was hastily erected over the damaged reactor, but it has been crumbling and leaking radiation in recent years and a new confinement structure is necessary."
There's something about "dull" that is just more and more appealing to me.
Today is Saturday in Feodosiya, but today the kids have to go to school because Monday thru Wednesday will be the Labor Day holiday, so there will be no school. American teachers and students would never buy into that. What's the point of getting a day off if you have to make it up on the weekend?
And what is Labor Day about in Ukraine? May 1st is actually International Workers' Day and is celebrated in more than 80 countries. The US has resisted pressure for a hundred years to switch from our September holiday which celebrates the contribution of its laborers. Consequently May 1st is the day chosen by groups like Occupy Wallstreet and the Latino community to hold strikes and protests.
Vera was busy yesterday, so I had very little communication with Malvina. I arrived at 6 pm and was told Malvina was shopping up the road. I walked for a mile to see if I could find her but returned unsuccessfully and was told she was in a dance rehearsal. I watched the last few minutes, played a little volleyball, ate dinner, played a little more volleyball and said good night.
We have some cooking and a picnic with Vera planned for the holiday, so hopefully that will be fun.
I made a couple of movies: the first of three boys at the orphanage break dancing; the next is of Malvina diving. Enjoy!
The hill where I sit and gaze at the spectacular view while contemplating life.
I walk for several hours most days.
Svieta, Rya and Christina
These boys are showing off their new haircuts.
A few of you have mentioned you haven't been able to post your comments. I changed some settings, so hopefully it's easy now.
No comments:
Post a Comment