Vitali Klitschko, founder of UDAR

It’s one thing to be a world champion boxer and decide to enter the political ring to fight for your vision for Ukraine. In his own words, he entered the fray wearing rose-colored glasses that quickly needed to be removed.

It didn’t take long before those he thought would be allies proved to be in the political process more for personal gain than truly for the best for the country.

Vitali Klitschko has all the money he needs through the sports world. His family has lived quite comfortably in the U.S. and in Germany. And yet he has returned to live in Kyiv with a heart to make real changes in the direction of his country. Not hollow promises. Not political cliches. But real change.

Keeping our eyes on him…

Read the full article from Forbes here.

Ukraine in the News

Another fistfight took place between lawmakers with different opinions on whether Russian should be added as an official language of Ukraine.

Azerbaijan appeals to Ukraine over murder of Azerbaijani activist

Ukraine’s national futbol team has lost its first-choice goalkeeper to injury

Euro2012, Yulia, EU

All news points to the Euro2012 futbol tournament being co-hosted by Ukraine and Poland next month:  The new coach for England has x number of days to get his team prepared. Will the venues be ready for play? Are the roads and public transit sufficient for the crowds? Is security secure?

And now we add to it all the continuing saga of Yulia Tymoshenko (including a hunger strike), a possible EU leadership boycott, and terrorist bombings in Dneipropetrovsk.

More details in this article.

Please keep praying for the people of Ukraine.

Euro 2012

The excitement is building throughout Ukraine…stadiums are being built and/or renovated (and renamed), roads are being repaired, bridges completed, buildings have facelifts.

All in preparation for EURO12…co-hosted by Ukraine and Poland.

Souvenir t-shirts and other paraphernalia are readily available.

And storefronts are taking full advantage of the excitement.

This one’s for you, Kolya.

Crazy mixed-up days

It’s kind of crazy how one unplanned day without internet can set me back!

Not only did I miss one day of posting on this blog, but the next day we didn’t have access to the internet until early afternoon. Our newsletter took priority over most things, but we still had our regular work to do. So two days in a row with no blog post. Unheard of!

Thankful that the newsletter was finally completed today and went out early this morning (USA time).

Other distractions? This is a crazy sports weekend around the world. Go USA! Women’s World Cup team won their match against Columbia. Maria lost her Wimbledon final. Andy lost at Wimbledon and failed to qualify for the finals. The Tour de France started today with a crazy first day: nearly half the peloton went down at one point. Surprise standings after the first day. And now Klitchko is scheduled to fight David Haye.

Made a big salad tonight thinking that our friends might come by to catch some of the race — he’s a big cycling fan. (HELPFUL TIP: If you put your hand in the pot of water to retrieve hard-boiled eggs, even if the heat’s been off for awhile…um, the water will still burn your fingers. Don’t do it.)

And for some reason I am having trouble keeping my eyes open. I’m going to blame all unrest and abnormalities on the weather…I don’t know when I last saw so much rain in Kyiv. Day after day after day. Though a little sunshine pierces the gray from time to time. Pitiful weather for the Balcony Cafe. Praying it clears before camp at the end of the week.

Thinking I should just hit the sack, and start the week off rested.

Looking forward to Communion tomorrow.

Li Na wins at Roland Garros

What an amazing women’s final match at the French Open this afternoon. Li Na became the first Chinese player to win a Grand Slam singles title. And she accomplished this by beating the defending champion, Francesca Schiavone. Two sets. Final set ended in a tie-breaker which Li Na won 7-0.

It’s so great to watch a final and have it be a fabulous match. The match could have gone either way.

To read more about the actual match, Eurosport filed this story.

Hoosiers

Our DVD player stopped working a couple of weeks ago. No big deal. We don’t really have time to watch a whole movie or show anyway.

Last week, following a loss of power, our cable box stopped working. It was probably a good thing that I couldn’t follow news minute-by-minute, but I did miss a few special news programs on Sunday afternoon.

Neither of those mechanical failures affected my viewing of March Madness. We don’t get a channel that shows it, and so I learned what was happening by watching facebook status comments. “Sorry, dear…Sorry, Justin.” Translation: Ohio State lost.

Needing some sort of a basketball fix, we resorted to our VHS collection. (Suddenly I’m glad that we didn’t just pitch these over the past years). Loved watching Hoosiers with Jim and our house guests. Maybe Pistol Pete tomorrow? (Odds aren’t great that we’ll have another evening to enjoy a full movie…but a girl can hope, can’t she?)

Go team!

Heavyweight title fight

Apparently it’s sports day on my blog…a second entry today.

Not much of a fight from what I read, but it IS another victory for Ukrainian boxer Vitali Klitschko.

I’m afraid I would have been a bit perturbed had I actually purchased a ticket.

Read about this short bout here.

Dynamo Kyiv

As Ukraine and Poland ready themselves to co-host the Euro 2012 tournament next year, it’s great to read about new young players who are playing topnotch futball. Road improvements and world-class stadiums should be completed in time, though there is some talk that Ukraine just might not be ready and Poland will host this tournament all by themselves. But that’s another story.

Today I want to feature a bright spot in Ukrainian futboll, namely Andriy Yarmolenko. Young and talented. Dynamo Kyiv is understandably very excited about this striker who is currently leading his team’s goal-scoring chart.

Dy-Na-Mo!

For more about Andriy, click here.

Green Bay Elves

Probably won’t be watching the Super Bowl in Ukraine — middle of the night here to watch it live — and none of my favorite teams are in it. But, one of my most favorite teams to dislike is playing. It’s really not worth staying up to simply root against rather than root for. (Steelers: the team we all love to hate.)

I’d have to have a reason to stay up to cheer FOR Green Bay. I want them to beat the Steelers, for sure, but as I said, not reason enough to stay up.

And then I saw this picture.

I can get behind a team dressed like Buddy the Elf. Buddy is a favorite of mine. And this MUST be HIS team.

Go, Elves!