Letters from Cyprus: February 2014

The protesters gather in front of the embassy next door

It's been interesting living next door to a Ukrainian embassy with the current unrest affecting the Ukraine. Whilst there are only a small number of Ukrainian citizens living in Cyprus, on a few occasions over recent months there have been protests outside the embassy. The most recent of these was last weekend, where a group of around 50 people gathered to sing and light candles in solidarity with the protesters in Kiev. Unlike protests at other Ukrainian embassies around the world, the gatherings in Cyprus have been quiet and peaceful. One of our World Vision staff here in Cyprus is Ukrainian, and he is not hopeful on progress towards peaceful resolution of the current situation within the country.

A birthday dinner for Sam

In the meantime life continues as normal for us. We enjoyed celebrating Sam's 7th birthday a few weeks back. He was delighted to receive a suit and 'fashion glasses' as his main gift. Not being one to shy away from the theatrical side of things, he has been wearing the suit at every opportunity, and his friends were suitably impressed when he wore his new glasses to school. Angus continues to love his football, and plays several times a week. Jessie remains obsessed about musicals. Her current favourite is Wicked, and we are learning the appreciate the music from this musical as it seems to be on constant repeat at home! And Anna has just asked that training wheels come off her bicycle, and seems to be growing up too fast. At the moment she cannot decide whether she wants to do ballet or football. The mere fact that she has expressed some passing interest in ballet is interesting for us; she has been far more the tom-boy than tom-girl thus far!