Why Slaves Don’t Leave

One of our Faceless team just posted a great blog on Why Slaves Don’t Leave. It’s really good….

kaylynlorraine.wordpress.com

Superstitions…

So there are a few proverbs that I’ve learned since I’ve been here in the Ukraine:
First – There’s something about that you can’t chase 2 rabbits. (Sort of a you can’t have your cake and eat it too reference….). Thus the advertisement…which I completely didn’t understand until someone explained it to me.  (Sorry there are 2 of these…don’t really know why there are 2!)

Second – Never put a mirror by your front door. (Because your money will come in the front door, and reflect back out)

Another – Girls can’t sit on the ground, as it will freeze their ovaries. I have no idea where this came from.

But this one really bothered me.

Never say nice things to a baby. As children need to earn praise.

I think this may explain a lot of what I have experienced here in this country. There is a harshness about the people here that I’ve never experienced before. In general, I’m not sure, everyone just seems a little sad.

I know some of it is simply their dialect – the harshness of the language and the preferred volume of speech just makes everyone sound angry.

But

There’s something about the kids here.  In just 3 days, they have blossomed into happy, loud, typical teens.  They seem to be desperate for attention and a little unconditional love to keep them going.  I know I’m drilling these stats in, but they have a 10% suicide rate among orphaned teens.  60% prostitution rate for girls.  70% crime rate for boys.

Something is very wrong.  But maybe it goes back to being as simple as being told as an infant that you were worthless or ugly or sub-par.   I’d like to try an experiment and see if simply encouraging children changes things.  If we start building these kids up from the start, if people gave these kids encouragement from the moment they are born and let them know just how amazing and precious they are…

It’s probably a bit idealistic, but maybe, just maybe that can be a little teeny amazing change in the world.

Hello Ukraine

Just for the record – Aerosvit Airlines doesn’t have movies (but they have video screens), music (but they have earphone jacks) or air vents…air vents would have been nice when the guy across from us took off his shoes. Hum….. But Kyiv looks like an amazing city and I’m looking forward to the week ahead!

Ukraine

Monday morning I’ll be landing in Kiev and heading to Vasylkiv Ukraine for a week that I’m sure will once again give my brain and my spirit a much needed reality check… Hope to be blogging and posting pictures, but not sure how much internet access we’ll have. FacelessInternational.com will have an area with pictures, video and posts (Video thanks to the wonderful people at Flip Camera!). I’m checking in with excitement, a teeny bit of apprehension and a whole lot of stress today.

Proctor & Gamble – Slave Free!!

Go buy some Crest Toothpaste! Proctor and Gamble promised a zero tolerance to forced labor. Time to support companies who do good.

A few other compaies who have made similar pledges – http://www.free2work.org/featured_companies.html

Here’s a list of their products – http://www.pg.com/en_US/products/all_products/index.shtml

I think I’m going to print a list of products and keep them with me….that way, I can make sure I’m supporting the good guys with my money. Hurray P&G!