A quick blog before we leave...

We are having a busy couple of weeks. On Tuesday Laurie and I joined Jay Don and Mary Lee on visiting a sanatorium about an hour outside of Donetsk. The people their greeted us very warmly and the kids gave us a little performance. They were very cute. The Church of Christ has been helping this sanatorium for many years so they very much appreciate us visiting them.

The big blue thing is a 28 year old washing machine that just broke. I have never seen anything like it before but that is what they have been using up to now.


Wednesday morning and afternoon Vova and I returned to the Tuberculosis hospital and moved all the sand that was delivered. 10 tonnes of sand! I was pretty tired after that.






Laurie's parents returned to us on Wednesday evening and so we have been catching up with them on their trip to Poland and Prague. The Rogers also had all of us over for a dinner on Thursday night which was a great blessing. Then Friday was preparation for graduation and Laurie and I had a Russian lesson that evening as well.

Saturday was a happy and a sad day. Happy because UBI had nine graduates this year but sad because they won't be around anymore. This is one of the blessings of being apart of a small school. Everyone knows each other. And love and care amongst everyone is apparent. Here are the graduates below.



Then today I had the opportunity to speak in service so that was good for me. The congregation we have been going to on a regular basis has really welcomed us. We enjoy being with them and I think they enjoy us as well. We have developed a few relationships with the teens. It has been easier to get to know them even with a language barrier because they are more willing to be silly and act out what they are trying to communicate with us. Can anyone figure out the verse on the wall in the picture below?



And right now we are packing. Vova invited all of us (Laurie, her parents and myself) to come visit him in Dnipropetrovsk. A city that is known for manufacturing rockets for the former USSR. It used to be a closed city because of so, but now, since Ukraine has gained its independence, it has been opened. So we are looking forward to seeing this city and being a guest of one of the students. It will be a short visit though. Laurie's parents leave Tuesday evening so we will have to come back Tuesday morning to make sure we get them on their next train.

Then next weekend we will be going to another town for a day. I forget which city we are going to but we are going with Bogdon, one of the students at UBI to a large youth conference. I don't know what it will be like but it is interesting that opportunities keep on coming our way. I expect the summer will be like that for us.

Bylaws

Though we have been enjoying gardening in our yard, there is about a 4” by 30” patch of grass/weeds outside of the brick wall that surrounds our yard. This area is growing like crazy, but we have ignored it because it was outside of our yard. However, earlier this week we got a notice telling us we needed to clean up this area in front of our house by the street otherwise we will get a fine. We think it must be some sort of city bylaw we were not made aware of until now. So Laurie and I started weeding and got the majority of them. However when we were done weeding there was still a lot of tall grass left over. I thought to myself, “surely there must be someone on the street who has a lawn mower who cuts everyones grass for a fee.” Laurie wanted to take care of it ourselves by pulling the grass out. I thought that was silly. It would take over an hour just to pull grass and then it would be all patchy because some grass would come out by the roots and others wouldn't.

So we phoned our landlord to see what she normally does. Apparently her father knows someone who will take care of or “grass issue” and so I think about no more. In my routine walk to UBI, I have observed a few forms of grass cutting. One guy used a small electric mower that worked well. Another man I watched using a scythe got the job done as well so I figured I just need get me one of those and our grass would be easily taken care of. But then one of our neighbors shocked me.

Laurie and I headed out to our Russian lesson Friday afternoon and we walked by one of our neighbors pulling out the grass in front of her house. Her grass patch was bigger than ours so I was impressed that she was that ambitious. When we walked by she had just started and only had a small patch done. When we returned home about three hours later she was almost done. Wow...that makes me feel like a lazy bug. She pulled grass in the heat for over three hours while I didn't bother to pull grass for half and hour because of my pride. Next time I will not be so hesitant to pull grass, I'm not above that.

We are also constantly learning new things about this culture. We have been doing a lot of walking here lately and at times we just get tired. So sometimes we have sat down on a retaining wall or the edge of a flower bed and such. But each time we do this we seem to have the same experience. Shortly after we sit a militia (police) man or a security guard comes over and tells us not to sit there. Perhaps this is another bylaw here. But at least we know now that if we ever need help from the police we can just sit down on something that is not a bench and a militia man will come to us rather quickly. :)

Today Laurie had the opportunity to visit with the ladies at UBI. Every year Mary Lee either takes the ladies out or has them in her home for a meal for fellowship and to show appreciation. This year she was pressed for time so she took them out to a nice restaurant where they had a nice meal together.



Vova and I however planned to work. We order ten tonnes of sand and had it delivered to a Tuberculosis children's hospital. This hospital had a playground put in last summer by a short term mission team. The sand is to help the playground be more friendly, plus a sandbox, without sand is just a box...not very fun.



As soon as the sand was dumped, boom...thunder roared and the rain poured. We figured moving wet sand and working in the rain would be very challenging. So we will go back and finish the job on Wednesday. The weather is suppose to be better then.

A wee bit ambiguous

We had an interesting experience last week. The University of Artificial Intelligence invited us to attend an international conference that is intended to unite students and universities from all around the world in hopes to learn from each other and to set an example for the students. The Dean of the religious and philosophical faculty wanted me to be there. I met her awhile ago when I was a guest speaker for Victor's class. Her English is not so great but I had the impression that she wanted me to speak at this event. I didn't think to much about it and figured it would be an interesting experience so we told her we would go. The problem however is that I did not know what she was expecting from me. I wrote an article for the University earlier so I figured she wanted me to present that but over the phone she told me she adjusted the article a bit to make it fit better with the book it was published with. So the night before I started preparing a speech that somewhat followed what I wrote about. I would have started preparing earlier but we were not sure if we would be able to go until just before we left for Kiev. I was only able to make a rough outline of that speech and of my article before I was overcome with tiredness and figured I would go with what I got.



When we arrived at the University the next morning I was a bit shocked by the magnitude of the event. We were assigned a few students to translate for us and I was even asked to be briefly interviewed by the local TV station. Later I was told I was on TV but we didn't get to see it. The main conference room was quite big. It held a few hundred people and I wasn't sure if I was speaking then or afterwards. From what I understood there was two parts of the conference. One when everyone was gathered together and then another afterwards where more specific groups had their own sessions. It did end up being that way. The main conference had four main speakers presenting different topics, usually based on research they had done. And then our smaller conference was mostly students presenting their term papers. At this point I wished I would have forced myself to stay up and work on my presentation better because I know that I am not good at just 'winging it.' However, I don't think it went as bad as it could have. I gave a little information about myself and talked briefly about the article I wrote.



For the rest of the week Laurie and I showed her parents the city and had them tag along in all our routine activities with shopping and teaching. Today they left for Poland and will be gone for ten days and then they will be returning back here for another few days. It has been really nice to have them around and be able to share our lives with them. Laurie and her mom also spent a lot of time working in our little garden and we are getting excited about our crop. The apricots are starting to grow and we now have five potato plants, lots of carrots, onions and peas coming and so far just one lone bean plant. Our garden project for this week is to move our tomato plants from the house to the garden. We have 32 tomato plants so if anyone needs tomatoes in a couple of months ... come and get them.

Bustling Kiev

Kiev is a city quite different from Donetsk. The people walk faster and tourism is more prominent. From our experience there I would describe Kiev as big, grand, and busy. The population is about five times that of Donetsk and this became noticeable for us last Sunday when we went to the large Botanical Gardens there. It is a large area but not large enough to handle its popularity. These two pictures give you an idea of how busy it actually was. The heat and the crowd made the park unpleasant so we decided to walk by the river instead, which was more quiet.



This picture shows what became a common occurrence in our time in Kiev. I was always searching our map to figure out where we were and more importantly how to get where we wanted to go. And Bud used these stops as his chance to take many pictures. However this was a bit challenging because my map was in English and the street signs are in Ukrainian. So I used my Russian skills to read the Ukrainian signs and translate them into English so that I could read the map. Needless to say we took a few detours as I was unsuccessful a few times. But we did get to our desired destinations with the help of some friendly pedestrians and the metro. And what a metro. It is remarkably cheap, fast and deep. You ride an escalator into the earth for about two minutes to get to it. I was impressed.

Another noticeable aspect of Kiev is its numerous Orthodox Cathedrals. They seem to be almost at every corner. We visited the oldest ones in Kiev and even went down into caves where many deceased monks are buried. They are buried in glass caskets and so you see them in their wrappings and such. It is a common practice for the faith holders to do a prayer walk through these caves and stop at each casket for a prayer. It was interesting to view this. Fortunately, a man who spoke English saw us looking at the entrance of the main Cathedral and approached us. We thought it was closed because the doors were closed and a sign hung in front of it but the man told us that it was being resurfaced inside and that he would gladly give us a tour. (Pic) The majority of the Cathedral was being resurfaced but we were able to see what has been completed and it was very nice.

The apartment we stayed in was located right in downtown Kiev. This was very fortunate because we were close to the metro which enabled us to get to many places fairly easily and also it conveniently placed us at the beginning of the Victory Day parade. May 9th is one of the biggest holidays in Ukraine. It is called Victory Day because it celebrates the defeat of Nazi Germany of WWII in the Ukraine. There are many events planned all around the city, fireworks and a parade to honor all the surviving veterans. It was neat to see many young people show honor to the veterans by giving them flowers. Bud and I though were puzzled at the end of the parade because there was a huge crowd of people left to walk the parade but for some reason they were not allowed to go...at first. Eventually they were allowed to march but it was an interesting event. Interesting because by reading their signs we were able to figure out that they were the Communist Party of Ukraine. So I'm not sure what sort of tensions are currently being held in Ukraine politics but it was interesting to see all this first hand.

Now Laurie and I are back in Donetsk with her parents. They will stay with us for a few more days and then do some more touristy stuff on their own. Laurie and I will continue with our lessons. Learning Russian and teaching English. I am also working an a few assignments and needing to prepare a sermon and so the work continues. Thank you all for the anniversary wishes. Laurie and I are enjoying our time together and we know this experience is strengthening our marriage.

Not so great of an idea, but interesting nevertheless

Yesterday was our first year wedding anniversary. I thought to myself, 'I would like to do something different, memorable and nice for that.' However, being in Donetsk made that a bid difficult since I don't speak the language. But I know Laurie likes live theater and so I thought it would be nice to watch a live show here. I asked Ludmilla one of the translators at UBI to call the drama theater here to see if they had any shows playing on the third. They did but I would have to go there to buy the tickets and so I did but afterwards I realized that I had just bought tickets to something I had no idea about. However, the theater is very elegant and so I thought to myself they must play respectable shows. I kept all this a secret from Laurie hoping that the surprise would enhance the whole experience.

So we started our outing with a trip exploring some new territory. Natasha told me about a nice park that is on the other side of downtown so we went and found it. Thus far it is the nicest area of Donetsk we have visited. Big lush trees with many fountains, gardens and such. Afterwards we had a nice dinner at a restaurant downtown and then walked around a bit afterwards before the show began. Downtown Donetsk is quite nice. Lots of shops with a large flowery park/boulevard that I'm sure will be more beautiful in the summer when more of the flowers are in bloom.



When we entered the Drama Theater I was surprised by how busy it was and the variety of people there. Many young, old and middle aged people all dressed respectfully. 'Oh, this must be a popular show if its packed out like it is,' I'm thinking.

The show was fairly easy to follow even though we could only understand a fraction of what they were saying. It started off good. About two amateur musicians trying to get a gig...one playing the sax and the other a cello. They get rejected by some and then they get in trouble. The local mob boss sends in his cronies to get rid of another 'rival' I assume since they are all shot. However, the musicians were in the washroom of the place where all this happened. Of course they heard everything and came out just after all the shooting stopped. The mob boss is going to pay them off when the police come and everyone flees the scene. Now the Mob is after them and they need to hide.

And this is where it gets interesting. The two musicians then dress and act like women to avoid the mob. Then they join an all female band and tour with them. The musicians then struggle to hide their identity when they are attracted to their coworkers and want to 'get to know them better.' The play seemed light hearted and fun I gather for the audience laughed quite a bit but I felt we had to leave at the intermission because of two reason. First, the ladies dresses/panamas were not too modest...and secondly just before the intermission the two musicians striped down to their tightie whities after getting soaked and chased one another around the stage. Now was that really necessary?!?

We then enjoyed a nice walk home and talked about the interesting aspects of the show. I also promised Laurie that I will not buy tickets anymore unless I know what we are getting ourselves into but it did end up being an unforgettable anniversary.

Doing errands around town is still a little awkward for us. This is because our understanding of Russian is not the best. It is getting better, but I'm finding gestures to be very helpful. For example, I wouldn't have been able to pay our phone/Internet bill if it were not for hand gestures. I used our map and the address on the bill to find out that the phone company was right in downtown. So I verified with one of UBI's translator that I could pay the bill there and off I went. The company logo was nice and big so the building was hard to miss but that was the easy part. I enter the first door I see that reveals a security guard. I showed her my phone bill and then she said something quietly to me. I must have given her a confused look because she repeated more loudly but this time gestured with her hand to go out and turn around the corner and said dva (two). 'Oh, around the corner and then the next entrance with the two doors,' I thought. As I go outside I check my dictionary to make sure I know how to say “I want to pay my bill” I got it and go into the next set of doors. Here, there are four counters with four receptionists. This must be the place I'm guessing. I say my phrase and show a receptionist my bill. She looks at it and then says something...I have no idea. I think she thinks I'm hard of hearing because she repeats what she says but louder and points to the left...Hmm is it the next counter? I wait for the lady in the next counter and I get the same results but this time her hand gestures indicate that I need to go out and turn left again. Oh, thats what the security guard meant, down two sets of doors. I walk out a bit embarrassed but our bill did get paid that day. It's a little bit frustrating because Russian is a language that blends their words together so that a sentence may sound like one word. So Laurie and I need more practice with listening to distinguish words. This week will give us more opportunities to listen as we prepare for a new adventure.

This Wednesday we are off on a bit of a holiday. Laurie's parents are flying into Kiev on Thursday so we are meeting up with them there. Kiev is the capital of Ukraine and we are told it is very beautiful so we are going to spend a few days there exploring and checking out some tourist areas. It should be very interesting. It will be the first time her parents have left North America and the first time we will have ridden an overnight train. We are excited for this experience.