It’s been a wild 48 hours (or has it been 56? between the time change and the flights, I’ve lost track). Between the non-materializing crazy storms that were threatening NY enough for Delta to cancel our flight out to JFK on Thursday (while my crew waited in Kiev), a 1.5 hr delay out of JFK on Friday, and a 1hr delay to get the ATA Carnet processed in Ukraine (mind you the lady was very nice and even let me type the info in for her, since she didn’t know how to type … much less in English) — I was a bit nervous.
Well, we’re here. We not only made it to Kiev, but we got to see much of Cherkassy – the city I lived in until the age of 5 1/2. As I had hoped, so many stories and memories sprang to my father’s mind. Many will make it into the documentary, others will just help me know more about him, about my family, and about myself.
Thank you to all the kind Ukrainians we met today who let us into their homes (including the apartment we lived in before we left), my great-cousin (?) Yefim who showed us around and gave me an interview today, my line producer who found my grandfather’s grave after an hour of searching, and my father for coming with me.