Dan, this site is great! Thanks for all your efforts in giving the public a clear idea of what's going on in the Ukraine. I was in the Ukraine for 3 weeks in September in the Poltava Oblast working on an agricultural project and fell in love with the people and country. Like you, I've been a PCV (Togo, Africa) and continue to do consulting work in developing countries (Belarus, Kazakstan, Uganda, Morocco, Nicaragua, etc.) E-mail me if you get a chance. Thanks again, Marty

CONGRATULATIONS UCRANIA...

Here in Venezuela we lived a situation very much like yours in UCRANIA; but here the oppsoition leadership did not know how to handle it and FRAUD was impossed on electors.

We will have to wait until 2006 to get the russofiles out...

Not that you have to care, Dan, but someone on Daily Kos is ploughing up the argument that Yushchenko is poisoned not by dioxin but excessive drinking, and that's why he looks like W.C. Fields (I kid you not!). It's laughable but maybe someone should set him straight. I don't have enough biographical facts on Yu to prove straightaway that he's not a boozer, though since he's a rarity--a functional person in politics--I can't imagine he touches much more than a drop ever.

the link on DKos is http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/12/27/135010/57

Oh yeah, Yu's wife is a Nazi too, according to earlier posts...that website is like the lintcatcher screen of the internet, all kinds of wadded up trash lurking in there.

You mean, man, to get a face like that in two months? You gotta be taking vodka showers every morning! I mean, let's be serious!

Ditto kudos to you Dan and Lesya for all the postings and photos during this historic time of Ukraine's eventful journey to a free and democratic future.

I've been in the US tracking the election situation since the protesters started showing up en masse. I'm wondering if there's anywhere I can go to order some of the shirts and scarves they've been selling on the streets. I checked eBay, but there's just the one shirt. Any ideas? Thanks.

Thank you so much for putting all the time and effort into the pictures. They are wonderful and capture the spirit of the event. A technical question now, what kind of camera do you use and did you buy it here in Ukraine?
Thanks again!

Dan, is there any way that orgs. like Maidan (which are in debt) could coordinate things to sell on ebay? I know this is crass commercialism but I would feel better if they get the money and are able to get out of debt for such things are expenses for election observers rather than ...

Brian and Hello - Yeah, that would be a cool idea. I didn't figure Lesya or I or they could figure out the payment schemes fast enough to catch the ORev demand before the majority of people turned their attention elsewhere. However, Lesya's company just got their iKobo account up and working, so we can theoretically pull this off, I will post something on the main site.

Marty - much respect for PCVs who were tough enough for Africa. My two restrictions when I signed up were no-Africa, no-Haiti. Glad to see your still with the goodie-goods, too.

Hey Dan - I'm the crazy Ukrainian American who met you and Discoshaman right outside the press HQ, and we wandered around Maidan for while at 3 am... Just wanted to say hi and compliment you on the site.