Final visit from Ukrainian newspaper staff

Five staff members from the Panorama newspaper along with two translators are in Amarillo this week for a visit to our city and to work with the Amarillo Globe-News.

The Globe-News has been participating in an exchange program with the newspaper from Sumy, Urkaine, this year. Earlier, myself and another newspaper staff member visited Sumy and four staff members from Panorama were here in July.

Now, the publisher of the paper along with four other staff members - one from advertising and three from the newsroom - are here this week as a final visit for the program, which is coordinated by the International Research and Exchanges Board in Washington, D.C.

Like the other visits, most of the week will be spent at the newspaper exchanging and discussing ideas.

But this time, the publisher of the newspaper, Yehven Polozhiy, will be speaking to communication, government and history students at Amarillo College, West Texas A&M University, Texas Tech, Tascosa High School and Amarillo High School.

It's a chance to learn about the differences in newspapers and other media as well as past and current political issues in the country of Ukraine and their importance to the region and the world.

They arrived Saturday evening after a journey of more than 24 hours. On Sunday, they visited most Amarillo landmarks for the Cadillac Ranch to the Palo Duro Canyon.

Sunday night ended with a meal at - you guessed it - the Big Texan. However, no movie stars this time around. (In July, the group saw David Duchovny, the star of X-Files whose family is originally from Ukraine).

Monday, they began work at the newspaper and visited with Mayor Debra McCartt.