15th Annual Christmas Charity Drive.

Last Saturday, the International Women's Club of Kiev (IWCK) held it's 15th annual Christmas charity drive, raising (at last count) $75,000 USD for charities. But I'm not writing about the charity per se. It was at this event last year that I first recognized that as a foreigner in Ukraine, I'm often privy to information that the average Kievan never hears about.

I first attended this event last year, having found out about it from friends in the international community. I had been in the country only 15 months at the time. My wife had been in the country well before the IWCK held their first event, and never during the first 13 years knew it existed. But I hear about it not long after my arrival. And, I'm sure that as a foreigner that I'm also equally uninformed about just about everything that goes on in this city.

I guess it's normal after all. During my time in the states, I was equally clueless to numerous neighborhood and cultural events going on right under my nose. I paid attention to what interested me, and a little research turned up almost everything I needed or wanted. But yet, wouldn't it be nice to really know everything that's going on around you? If you just knew it was there, maybe you would find out after all that it does interest you, or that others are interested in the same obscure things that you are? Even if you are 5000 miles from where you called home most of your life.

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