Month: July 2012 (Page 3 of 4)

Washington Post Story about Ukraine’s unstable political environment –

Our family moved to Ukraine just after the Orange Revolution, but building tension between current President Yanukovych and the West is making news again. With the opposition leader still in prison, several leaders boycotting the recent Euro Cup games, all eyes are on the average Ukrainian to see whether they have enough ‘care’ left in the tank to oust him once again..

I find most Ukrainians have become indifferent to the political process. After their apparent victory at the polls a few yrs ago, the country watched as infighting all but halted any significant progress. The country remains in the dark ages compared to the other former Eastern Block States, rates near the bottom of every international poll relating to corruption. Many Ukrainians believe they’ve already ‘tried democracy’ and ‘it doesn’t work.’

Should be an interesting fall in Ukraine.

As many of you know, I am desperately trying to get Permanent Residence in Ukraine. It’s been an arduous task to say the least, I shudder to think of the ‘man hrs’ spent between Svetlana, Alyosha and Natasha, and myself. This August it will be 1yr since we applied, and every month has been filled with trips to Kiev, government offices, paperwork, stamps, and more paperwork. I would have surrendered a long time ago but we’re in too deep now!

Anyway, when in the US two weeks ago we were told that we needed new criminal record checks. The ones we paid for and submitted (at Ukraine’s direction) TWICE were rejected and we needed ones directly from the US. Because we were in the US, both Deb and I raced to the nearest fingerprinting station and submitted the applications. This week mine arrived, yeah! But… we needed to now get them translated. So Alyosha spent the day in Kiev trying to do just that.. however nobody believes that the document is an original because it’s not littered with stamps and signatures.. They won’t translate it because they think it’s a copy!!!

Please pray for this. It’s road blocks like this that are so frustrating. Not only has our permanent residence stalled (with time ticking on my truck which I can’t drive past August without this going through), but we’re now faced with spending more money and time to prove the official document from Texas is in fact an original.. which will take multiple visits to Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the US Embassy.. it’s both the ignorance of Ukraine and the corruption of Ukraine on display.

What makes this even more frustrating is the fact that we’ve already applied with all documents TWICE now (all medical, criminal records and payments) and because these documents are only good for 6 months, we’re approaching the possibility of a THIRD round of the same documents because Ukraine is chalked full of inept government workers and zero desire for doing their jobs – they find pleasure in sending you ’round the bin’ multiple times, it’s job security.

We can only hope that they get tired of our visits, complaining, and give us the coveted new passport/stamps we need just to get rid of us. It’s a war of attrition and we need spiritual strength and grace to stick to this path.

Bruce & Deb

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Here’s a fun video I put together from short time in Texas with the guys at the office.  Everyone in the video works with either Cypress (www.cypressinteractive.com) or EDsuite (www.edsuite.com).  I wanted to do something creative with the guys, and at the same time practice my Final Cut skills.  I chose this song not only because it’s one of the most awesome 80’s songs ‘ever’, but as many of you know, our company has built (among many other things) dozens of City websites across the US.. and that makes about as much sense as the original song (which I’m still trying to figure out).

I look forward to taking more video here in Ukraine and Lord willing using that for creative outreach among the younger generation.

Bruce & Deb