Thursday morning, Lyuda from L'Arche, who had organised all these meetings for us came to get us at the home. She's the one talking in the middle part of the video I shared in my Part 2. It was nice to finally meet her, after talking to her months before our trip and hearing about her from everyone else once we got to L'viv. She took us across town to a new training center for independent living that has been recently opened by yet another organisation in L'viv. I didn't take a single photo there because I was so busy translating, but I just found this video clip about the center. Here's a screen shot from that video, showing the next Lyuda who met us there:
This second Lyuda showed us around and then served us tea with a presentation about the center. It's built to be fully accessible to people with severe physical disabilities. They will come and live there for short periods of time, with assistants. Their assistants will also visit them at home, and help them to learn to live more independently. The center also supports and trains family members. Alys took photos of their door handles and handrails and other physical details to help with ideas for the homes she is building. Their experience in teaching people who have been used to overprotection and being told that they can't do anything is invaluable for us, too.
Our time there ended all too soon and we had to figure out a rather complicated arrangement to get our luggage and have a few minutes as tourists. We ended up calling a taxi that took Nila all the way back to the house, but dropped Alys and me off in the center of town on the way. Then we ran around to get the souvenirs we wanted and dinner for the train, while Nila got our things and was brought back across town by the L'Arche driver. He and Nila found us, and we went on to the train station from there.
This beautiful shirt was what I got in L'viv to give to Raia for her birthday:
Our trip home wasn't as idyllic as the way there; the train was hot and there were some other problems, too. But the Ukrainian countryside was beautiful, as always, and it was very good to get home the next morning. Not to mention that one of the things we bought during our run through the center of L'viv was boxes of Thai noodles with shrimp!
And that is the end of our truly wonderful trip to L'viv. We will be processing and applying what we learned for quite a while. I am so thankful for all the new friends we made and all that we got to see and hear about.
This second Lyuda showed us around and then served us tea with a presentation about the center. It's built to be fully accessible to people with severe physical disabilities. They will come and live there for short periods of time, with assistants. Their assistants will also visit them at home, and help them to learn to live more independently. The center also supports and trains family members. Alys took photos of their door handles and handrails and other physical details to help with ideas for the homes she is building. Their experience in teaching people who have been used to overprotection and being told that they can't do anything is invaluable for us, too.
Our time there ended all too soon and we had to figure out a rather complicated arrangement to get our luggage and have a few minutes as tourists. We ended up calling a taxi that took Nila all the way back to the house, but dropped Alys and me off in the center of town on the way. Then we ran around to get the souvenirs we wanted and dinner for the train, while Nila got our things and was brought back across town by the L'Arche driver. He and Nila found us, and we went on to the train station from there.
This beautiful shirt was what I got in L'viv to give to Raia for her birthday:
Our trip home wasn't as idyllic as the way there; the train was hot and there were some other problems, too. But the Ukrainian countryside was beautiful, as always, and it was very good to get home the next morning. Not to mention that one of the things we bought during our run through the center of L'viv was boxes of Thai noodles with shrimp!
And that is the end of our truly wonderful trip to L'viv. We will be processing and applying what we learned for quite a while. I am so thankful for all the new friends we made and all that we got to see and hear about.
2 comments:
Your commentaries leave me a bit the way I expect you felt at the end of your trip: a bit breathless and trying to absorb all the implications of what was seen and felt. Thank you for sharing your trip--it feels like a breeze of hope for orphans in Ukraine. May the breeze bring winds of change. Love you!
Thank you for sharing all the wonderful things you experienced, heard and hope to put into practice - all over Ukraine!! We pray for you and are so blessed by the vision and love you have for orphans! Love!
Post a Comment