I haven’t posted for about a week because, fortunately, things have been relatively stable in Mariupol  It is a rare day/night when there isn’t shelling of a checkpoint or two on the outskirts of the city, and in other parts of the region (oblast), the truce/cease-fire is a bitter joke.  People in Mariupol are still on edge, and if that wasn’t enough, they also had a hurricane.

Technically, it wasn’t a hurricane, but that’s what their local media have been calling it.  They had a strong, early fall storm last week that had a good deal of rain and some pretty strong winds, a la a hurricane.  Trees were knocked down throughout the city, including two or three large spruce trees in front of the main administrative building (“City Hall”).  Power was out in assorted places (my wife’s mom’s house lost electricity, but still had gas for cooking and heat), and on one day most of the schools were closed.  I recognized many part of town from the photos on 0629.com.ua of the damage.

Things are getting back to normal now — “normal” being a relative term for a country at war.  The weekend was pretty nice, and the weather for the coming week looks much more calm and temperate.  My wife came through it all OK, with only a little water seepage around the window.

Last Sunday (before the hurricane) was UN Peace Day.  (Sorry, I never get my Peace Day cards out in time.)  Mariupol City Day was the day before, so I’m pretty sure it either incorporate peace themes, or they just carried the celebration over into Sunday.  What happened in Moscow is actually more interesting:  the Peace Day/anti-war march there attracted almost 30,000 people.  By contrast, a “pro-war” march today only got about half that many people.  Although the Kremlin controls the bulk of Russian media, more and more people aren’t believing the story the being put out.  It’s kind of hard to hide the truth about military members being at night without any ceremony, and their families being told the person died from an accident during a training exercise.  (And then reporters get roughed up if they try to follow up on things.)

But that’s all I’ll say about that; I want to keep this blog mostly focused on me (when I’m traveling), my wife, the immigration process, and things in Mariupol. As always, I’ll keep everyone informed about any major events.

I will note that my wife has started to consider Belarus as a possible destination for her mother, sister and nephew, should the fighting become too intense.  She says that she won’t leave, because Zhenya (her son) wouldn’t be able to leave, and she didn’t want to be away if the unfortunate should befall him.  I’m still working on her to leave (if necessary), but it is progress that she’s looking at “escape routes” for her family now.