Humanitarian --Odessa, Ukraine--City of Cats, "Way Home"

Odessa is located in the southern part of Ukraine next to the Black Sea. Odessa is a tourist town in the summer season because of it's beautiful beaches. The beaches had soft sand but also jellyfish. 

There are many parks, especially for children. There is one main park, Taras Shevchenko, which includes a Ferris wheel and carnival type rides. There is a haunted house and an upside down house. This park was our main walk to and from the city center to our hotel. There are a lot of roaming cats.

Each day we walked about 7-10 miles. It is easy to get around and so many things to see. The restaurants were amazing. Even though the looks from the outside may not be appealing, inside the restaurants were quaint, clean, and each one had some sort of a theme.  We find that with every Ukrainian restaurant. 

There is a long walking, skating, scootering, and biking path on the hill next to the beach which no cars are allowed. The path starts at the end of the Taras Shevchenko park and through a forest of trees overlooking the Black Sea.

We visited a project that LDS Charities provided mattresses, pillows, and linens, and a washing machine. They take in orphans or children who have social problems at home. The home has about 9 boys and 8 girls living in these dorm type rooms from ages 7-17. 

"Way Home of Odessa" teaches the children different skills so by the time they are 18 they can go out in the world. There are other children who visit the home that might have some troubles at home and need some psychological counseling. There is also a preschool program. LDS Charities, in 2020, provided some hideaway bunk beds and mattresses they use for the children to take naps. 

"Way Home" has classes such as: pottery, art, gardening, farming, karate, health and fitness, cooking, etc. They have 8 centers and around 300 children that participate in the various centers. 

The home we visited used to be a Soviet manufacture building that was converted it into this home. The walls are painted with all sorts of colorful children's pictures. The tree post is a load bearing pillar that has been plastered over to look like a tree trunk.

The children who live there have duties each day to clean, wash, pick up, sweep, and all sorts of chores. There are 2 young adults from Germany to help at this center for 1 year. They learn the language and help the children. 

One of our favorite things to do is to walk around the town and take as many pictures as possible. We love to go into the churches. Spaso-Probrazhensky Cathedral is one that we visited. Inside we witnessed a blessing of the people and also a baptism for a baby. The prayers were lovely as they sang to bless the people. 

Odessa has some of the most interesting architecture. It is called "The Pearl of the Black Sea" It is a warm water port. In 1794 the city of Odessa was founded by a decree of the Russian empress Catherine the Great. 

Potemkin Stairs is one of the famous sites which we climbed down. It is considered the formal entrance to the city. There are 192 steps. 

We took the train from Kiev terminal to Odessa terminal. On the way there we had some nice seats with a lunch box. On the way home we took the sleeping train and slept our way home. We can't decide which we liked better, or which one we liked least.