I travel around the country giving talks, and I meet with women who have started businesses, women who are unemployed and would like to be self-employed, and women who are already successful in business but are thinking about striking out on their own. I also help a local English teacher improve his business terminology so that he, in turn, can better teach local business people who want to learn English for professional reasons. Just being here makes me feel alive. Changes occur so quickly. Building renovations are an everyday sight.
New stores open every week, and new products arrive on the shelves and are eagerly purchased.
Sidewalks formerly plagued with potholes and crevices are regularly resurfaced with elegant cobblestones by new store-owners. A museum of atheism and religion is being restored to its pre-Soviet existence as a Ukrainian Orthodox Church. I have attended Independence Day parades in the nationalistic western part of the country, and in the eastern part of the country I have attended rallies to celebrate the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. Over the year I also know I've become much more Ukrainian. I am one of only a handful of Americans living in my city, which formerly housed important military factories and was, therefore, only opened to foreigners about 8 years ago.