Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Welcome to Donetsk

Well we have made it. T'was a long trip but we are safely at UBI now and enjoying the fresh smell of rain. After a quick tour of the school we had dinner with our hosts (breakfast for us) and then did a wee bit of shopping to have groceries for the morning, then off to bed. Everyone at the school is very nice and has greeted us warmly. We have been given the guest teacher's flat for now. It is a modern, quaint flat with a western bathroom, kitchen unit and a queen bed. We will be able to stay here for about four weeks but then we'll have to move out to allow for visiting teachers to stay here again. So one of our firsts priorities is to find a new flat that is close to the school yet at a respectable price.

We've had some time to walk around town and it is very interesting. There are usually two types of buildings: really old or really new. The sidewalks are really wide and the roads busy. It is interesting though that most of the vehicles are relatively new, except for the buses and trams that look like they will fall over.

Our fashion does not blend well with the Ukrainians. My red/orange jacket sticks out like a sore thumb in the sea of black here and Laurie's simple outfits and flat shoes don't compare with the fur coats and high heels that pass us by. However, the people we have interacted with seem to not not care about our strange ways of dressing.

Today, Laurie and I ventured out to a supermarket to buy groceries on our own. It is a new building and quite nice looking compared to its surroundings. I was going to take a picture of it but just then I brushed against a car in the parking lot and set off its alarm. Also a police man was just down the street from us so I did not want to bring any more attention to us with taking pictures.

It was interesting to try and figure out some of the items at the store by their pictures. We bought something red that we are really hoping is pasta sauce, but I guess we will find out for sure very soon. We have a Russian phase book so we were able to figure out some mysteries but the rest will be an adventure.

We also had the opportunity to sort through some cloths donated from Vancouver and Calgary that arrived here while Jay Don and Mary Lee were in North America. It was a mixture of sheets, toys, mens, ladies, kids, and baby clothing. All the kids and baby clothing will go to orphanages and we hope to help deliver them soon.

The first picture here is the entrance to the school. The building looks run down but the inside has been renovated quite nicely. The next picture is just around the corner from our school that I took of Laurie and the last pictures are of the guest teachers suite that we are staying in for a few weeks. They only recently had it built so it is very modern and a treat for us as we will not be in a place this nice for the rest of our time here.











6 comments:

Greg Ashby said...

just make sure the next place still has a toilet for when we come to visit! :)

Mini said...

Good to know you are getting settling down without big problems. Nice pictures. Take care. Love mom

Adam Koleba said...

Hey Bruno, maybe that can of red stuff is Borscht. Or maybe it's a Ukrainian version of salsa. But I'd try it on a nacho chip first if I were you.

Anonymous said...

Well, good news and bad. The bad news is that we need to make another trip to the store to try to find pasta sauce. The good news is we have a good supply of Ketchup now.

Adam Koleba said...

Hey, do you guys have any new prayer requests? (besides your prayer request for real Mexican salsa). And tell us, what is happening with your search for a new flat?

Bruno and Laurie said...

Hey Adam,

We are looking at two places tomorrow so we might have a new place soon. We can stay at our current place for another two weeks so the situation is not urgent. Concerning prayer requests, Laurie and I are adjusting pretty good but the language barrier is frustrating. We are hoping to start language study real soon but that all depends how our visit to the University goes tomorrow. We also need wisdom for what to get involved with and with me preparing to teach a class. Hmm, actually I should start a new blog entry...theres lots to share.