Humanitarian-- Dnipropetrovsk Trip and Zaporozhe Children's Area Clinic August 2021

 

We traveled about 6 hours to Dnipro (shortened) it is on the Dnieper River south of Kiev. We picked up some pediatric endocrinological surgery equipment for the Zaporazhe Children's Clinic. This equipment is used for a scope to go down the throat and into the lungs of children who have swallowed items. 

The doctor explained how the children would swallow things and how they would have to retrieve the item by inserting a tube down their throats. The doctor even had a coffee can full of items that the children had swallowed.

There was almost everything you could think of. The worst ones were the batteries and the needles. One 3 month old sucked on his mother's finger and swallowed a ring. One young teenage swallowed a small pocket knife. One infant swallowed a needle. There were many kopiyok (coins), buttons, tacks, jewelry, small magnet beads, and plastic jewels...those are very hard to see with an X-ray machine. 

We stayed in Dnipro and had a wonderful dinner at a cute downstairs restaurant called "Mama Carla".

We walked along the river and saw many people out and about riding bikes, scooters, long boards, and a group of young children and 2 leaders in a roller-blading club.

This area is in a different mission. It is the Dnipro Mission. We met with the Mission President and his wife. They had just moved into a large apartment overlooking the river. The city is on a small hill with the river bending around about 3/4 of the city. 

Below is a little of what the cities do. We find painting icons like this throughout the Ukraine. We saw a Yoda statue at the Botanical Gardens. A bug (Bug's Life) statue at a restaurant garden in downtown Kiev. Kyiv is also another way they spell the city's name, and an iron work of art on top of an auto shop.