...and Jenya

Jenya is Tanya's brother.  As I understand it, she took care of his through some very tough times growing up - even when they had to live on the streets for a period.  At about 5'4", he may be the toughest little guy I know and I always use him as a resource when it comes to safety concerns.  He was originally security at camp based on his previous experience as internal police for the steel plant in town, but now he does lectures, camps and other programs too. 

When I first came to camp in 2007, he only spoke a few words of English but now he's even capable of some simple translation jobs.  Tanya says that he never was motivated to learn English until I came.

Our original connection was football and we have enjoyed some great games together, culminating in the Shakhtar game last week.  I'm so glad we were able to take that trip.

I packed 4 liters of cold kvas onto the train.  That seemed like a good idea until I learned that some train lines have 'sanitary zones' which leave the restrooms closed for hours at a time.

As you can imagine with his high strength to weight ratio, he proved adept on the climbing wall.  It was his first time and I'm glad Sergey talked him into trying it.

This is in downtown Kharkov.  If there is one thing that I love about this area it's that they never let you forget about the sacrifices made in war.  There are memorials everywhere, some of which are quite beautiful.  Conversely, this is us being irreverent on top of a GERMAN tank.  This is the same strange model that is used in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. 

I don't think he ever did American-style senior pictures so here is a good one in front of some very impressive graffiti in Donetsk.

I love this picture.  There is actually a steel man right behind him and it looks like he has a steel girlfriend.  This park was full of these sculptures.