We started Friday with some paperwork in the office and then went out in the morning to an electric fence supplier. There are not many places here to get electric fence components as it is not commonly used for livestock farming. The place we went to have a small amount in stock and a catalogue so Steve can get the parts ordered from other countries. They mostly import from the Czech Republic, but can get from the company Steve uses in the UK.
We went on to a hardware store to buy our own supply of tools. The zoo gave us a reasonable budget and we managed to get almost everything we needed for about half the amount the zoo gave us. So we now have hammers, saws, chisels, work gloves, an axe, pliers, wire-cutters, a tape-measure and all sorts of other useful bits. Just need another enclosure to work on now!
After lunch we had an unexpected visitor. An American man was in Kyiv on a project and visited the zoo a few weeks ago. He has been volunteering/ working at the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington for over 20 years and wanted to talk to Kyiv Zoo about some suggestions he had for improvements. He brought along a translator from the American Embassy and I think they were both surprised to find English speakers working at the zoo. Anyway, very interesting man and it was nice to talk to a native English speaker (even if it is American English!). He was able to confirm a lot of the things we have been saying about the zoo and the animals and had some useful ideas. We had a good chat and walk around the zoo, so we have made a contact at the Smithsonian now and he will get us some of the keepers email addresses for information when we need it.
Both he and the translator told us about some expat groups and events, so hopefully we will meet with the translator in the future and get along to some of these things. Apparently the Canadian Embassy has regular “pub” evenings for any English speakers. Also the translator would like to bring the American staff from her Embassy to the zoo for a tour, which would also be good for meeting people (and raising a bit of money for the zoo!).
On a different note, it would appear that the Ukrainian TV channels have bought into this “talent show” business. Most evenings the TV is full of people singing badly, people singing badly upside down, people singing badly while dancing badly, people singing badly in silly outfits and a selection of sword-swallowing acrobats and strong-men, who also sing badly. There are a lot of American shows (Desperate Housewives, Heroes etc.) and films on TV, all dubbed into Ukrainian, which isn’t much use for us as we are trying to learn Russian. There are a few Russian programmes and they have Ukrainian subtitles. We don’t really watch TV but the girl who shares our flat is a TV addict and a relentless “channel-flicker”, which doesn’t help much – you just start to get the hang of what is going on, and then she changes to something else. However, I did turn the TV on one weekend and found an episode of Mr. Bean – Classic!
We are having internet problems again this weekend. It seems to work fine up until late Friday night and then stops working all weekend. It’s a particular pain as it is another long holiday weekend.
This long weekend is to celebrate the end of the Great Patriotic War (WWII). There will be a big parade and fireworks in the centre of Kyiv and special events for Veterans. It is free entry to the zoo for all Veterans for these three days. There are a lot of monuments to the war around Kyiv and all that we have seen over the past few days are buried in flowers, taken there by Kyivites and school children.
We went on to a hardware store to buy our own supply of tools. The zoo gave us a reasonable budget and we managed to get almost everything we needed for about half the amount the zoo gave us. So we now have hammers, saws, chisels, work gloves, an axe, pliers, wire-cutters, a tape-measure and all sorts of other useful bits. Just need another enclosure to work on now!
After lunch we had an unexpected visitor. An American man was in Kyiv on a project and visited the zoo a few weeks ago. He has been volunteering/ working at the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington for over 20 years and wanted to talk to Kyiv Zoo about some suggestions he had for improvements. He brought along a translator from the American Embassy and I think they were both surprised to find English speakers working at the zoo. Anyway, very interesting man and it was nice to talk to a native English speaker (even if it is American English!). He was able to confirm a lot of the things we have been saying about the zoo and the animals and had some useful ideas. We had a good chat and walk around the zoo, so we have made a contact at the Smithsonian now and he will get us some of the keepers email addresses for information when we need it.
Both he and the translator told us about some expat groups and events, so hopefully we will meet with the translator in the future and get along to some of these things. Apparently the Canadian Embassy has regular “pub” evenings for any English speakers. Also the translator would like to bring the American staff from her Embassy to the zoo for a tour, which would also be good for meeting people (and raising a bit of money for the zoo!).
On a different note, it would appear that the Ukrainian TV channels have bought into this “talent show” business. Most evenings the TV is full of people singing badly, people singing badly upside down, people singing badly while dancing badly, people singing badly in silly outfits and a selection of sword-swallowing acrobats and strong-men, who also sing badly. There are a lot of American shows (Desperate Housewives, Heroes etc.) and films on TV, all dubbed into Ukrainian, which isn’t much use for us as we are trying to learn Russian. There are a few Russian programmes and they have Ukrainian subtitles. We don’t really watch TV but the girl who shares our flat is a TV addict and a relentless “channel-flicker”, which doesn’t help much – you just start to get the hang of what is going on, and then she changes to something else. However, I did turn the TV on one weekend and found an episode of Mr. Bean – Classic!
We are having internet problems again this weekend. It seems to work fine up until late Friday night and then stops working all weekend. It’s a particular pain as it is another long holiday weekend.
This long weekend is to celebrate the end of the Great Patriotic War (WWII). There will be a big parade and fireworks in the centre of Kyiv and special events for Veterans. It is free entry to the zoo for all Veterans for these three days. There are a lot of monuments to the war around Kyiv and all that we have seen over the past few days are buried in flowers, taken there by Kyivites and school children.
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