As a child I was fascinated by my mother's stories of her childhood in a village in western Ukraine. She never expected to see her native land become free and independent in her lifetime, and neither did I anticipate the ease with which I would travel to this distant country to meet and become involved in the lives of my aunt, her six children and their families. I live in Iowa, a state whose people are interested in making friends around the world. Among our eight sister state relationships is a partnership with the Cherkasy oblast in central Ukraine. Iowa and Cherkasy have initiated a number of educational, medical, business, and cultural exchanges and projects.
Enthusiasm is high on both sides, and the relationship grows stronger.
This combination phrasebook-guidebook reflects my philosophy that visitors to Ukraine will gain more from the experience if they have an appreciation of the country's history, culture and language, as well as an orientation to the wonderful tourist attractions they will discover. And that is the approach I took when I put together this web page. The original purpose of this web site, which began in November 1995, was to answer the frequently asked questions that came up on the bulletin board. Over the years it's been gratifying to find an increasing number of interesting links to web sites in Ukraine. Because patience is not one of my virtues, I assume that visitors to this web site don't want to sit around waiting for a page of graphics to load up.