Chernobyl Museum

The town of Chernobyl no longer exists

The people in the 74 towns and villages were evacuated on May 3, 1986. The people were told to take food and clothes for three days as well as documents. The were told they would return home in three days, so only take the essentials. More than 22 years later, the people still haven't returned home.

Many people grabbed photographs as they were evacuating their homes. The museum has a large collection of photos found on the ground.

Walking through the museum was pretty amazing. In the west we got so little of the information that is now in the museum. It still amazes me that the leaders did not understand the impact of their lack of action on the citizens of the world.



The museum is full of pictures of people who were out walking around, going to school on April 26 and 27 as if nothing happened. Because the people were not scientists they were not aware of the dangers of the Chernobyl plant. They trusted their leaders. The saddest thing I saw was a video of children playing on a playground in the town of Chernobyl and you could see the plant in the background. Those children were exposed to radiation unnecessarily.

Cat face!

Ever wonder what teachers do when they are bored? Well, wonder no more! Today, Yanina, my assistant teacher, came in and started playing with my erasers. She asked me, "I wonder what it would be like if these erasers covered the whole table?" I encouraged her to find out! Here is what she ended up creating.

Mama

There are a lot of stray animals in Ukraine. It breaks my heart to see so many animals wandering the streets--being abused and feeling hungry. This dog isn't really a stray. She "belongs" to the building behind us. I tried for over a year and a half to get her to come to me. Finally about six months ago she came to me and let me love on her. She is a sweet dog with the softest ears. I call her Mama because she is always having puppies. If I could bring her home, I would!

Dang Birds!

As you can see from the picture, our car is parked next to the trash cans for the building. Normally there is no problem with them being so close to the car. Well, that was until today. The birds decided they needed a plate for their scraps, so they used the roof of our car! Have a look! There are tiny fish bones, a piece of tin foil , a chicken bone, and what looks like a dead fish!

Here they are--caught in the act! They have decided that the top of our car is a nice platter for their food! Over the course of several days there have been bread, meat, fish, and trash scraps on top!