мы часто посещаем

'We often visit' is the title of this post because that has definitely been the theme this past week. We have been the guests or hosts everyday last week except for Friday. I have found this to be a tiring experience since we don't use a translator and only use our limited Russian skills and a dictionary. However, our many visits have been fun, interesting and learning experiences. On Sunday for example Laurie, Bogdon and I visited a Babooshka (Russian for grandma) that is a part of our congregation but can not make it to the church building because of her knees. She was so very kind and grateful to visit with us and even offered us a tasty meal with compote. Compote we learned is a traditional juice that is very popular here.

From what we gather it is made similar to apple cider where some fruit is placed in a pot and boiled with sugar and water. Then cooled and served. It is made with every and any fruit. She served us cherry compote that was quite tasty. Laurie was a bit hesitant at first because she did not have a good experience with her first time trying compote. Her first time was in a small restaurant and she got smoked prune compote. She couldn't finish it!

Then that evening Vova and Lena invited us out to the movies with them. We were actually quite interested in this not being to the movie theater here yet. Vova and I decided it would be best for us to watch TRANSFORMERS, the ladies of course were a little hesitant at first but agreed afterwards when we bought them ice cream. The movie was quite easy to follow since there is actually only about twenty minutes of dialog in the two hours of action. Laurie and I were a little surprised at first at how little of the dialog we actually understood but then we realized the film was translated in Ukrainian, not Russian.


Between the fun and visiting we have been working. On Friday I did some painting at the church building. The children's room is almost complete so this time we focused on painting the radiators. We almost got all of them done. This is Nazar painting one of them. Tomorrow we are going to try and finish up the rest of the painting but some might need several coats. Our English class was a little smaller than usual but still well received. During the summer here there are many summer camps and vacations going on so we expect our attendance to fluctuate a lot.

Our place keeps us busy as well. Weeds grow like crazy here so thats an ongoing process. Nazar has been kind enough to help us with some of weeding too. Look at this 'weed' I cut down. The hot weather is also taking its toll on our garden...everything is drying up.

Oh, I have some great news...we found Dr. Pepper. So far at only one store and at about three times the cost of coke but...its worth it for that once in awhile necessary Dr. Pepper fix. Laurie and I both love Dr. Pepper and even better Dr. Pepper slurpee. I am a little surprised that in a country so warm they don't have slurpee machines, well at least so far as I can tell, we have not come across any yet. This could possibly be a big business opportunity.

Where have I seen this guy before?

Laurie and I had an interesting shopping experience earlier this week. As we were going to our friends place we noticed a big supermarket. After our visit we were in no big hurry so we took some time to explore 'Boom' that's the name of store. This is where we found Mr. Proper. The store was very modern and nice. Laurie called it the Donetsk Superstore. It also had some interesting security features. On the expensive items like cans of caviar and new items like salad dressing they had fairly large magnetic security clips on each item much like you would find on clothing items in Canada. Laurie burst out laughing when she saw this...a little different from what we are use to.

Last Friday we invited some of the students who are staying in Donetsk for the summer over for Borscht. As we were out shopping for the ingredients Laurie suggested that maybe we should invest in a new chair. Earlier this month I broke one in our house and have still been using it but very cautiously since one leg is extremely loose. We found out chairs are quite cheap so on the way home we stopped by a store and bought one that matches our broken one exactly. We were still about twenty minutes away from home however so I had to carry the chair home. I haven't gotten so many looks in a long time. I guess it is not normal to carry a chair on the street.

We had fun with our guests, played lots of uno and then taught them a new game which they loved, Ukrainian Manners. I'm not sure if that is the official name but thats what we call it. The goal is basically to write to a hundred as fast a possible, but there is only one pen and everyone takes turn rolling a dice. If you roll a six you take the pen from whoever has it.

We served strawberries for dessert but I gave Bogdon some sour cream and sugar. Earlier he was telling me how he loves sour cream and especially sour cream and sugar. So I wanted to see and taste this dessert. Here he is showing hows its done. It actually tastes pretty good, like sour yogurt. Dema did the same except he squished some strawberries into his too. That was really tasty.




The room we renovated last Monday is looking a lot nicer. They also have new furniture so it is much cleaner and more modern now. And the new table is large enough for all the children to sit around comfortably. On Thursday Bogdon and I will be painting the floor and radiator in the room. After that it should be all done.


The next few weeks for us are going to be quieter and less busy for us. Many people are gone on holidays and so many of our students and friends will be away. We hope to use this time to work on our Russian, study the Bible and work on my assignments for my History course. I am happy with our Russian progress. Of course we still have a long way to go but Laurie and I now can have simple conversation with each other totally in Russian.

I am learning that knowing the native language is extremely important if you really want to impact peoples lives. For example for the past two weeks we have been going with Bogdon to a lady's home after the Sunday service to visit with her and have communion with her and her son. This lady is a sweet grandma who can no longer go to Sunday services because her knees are too bad, and her son is restricted by a handicap. As we, or I should say, as Bogdon visits with her and her son I can tell they appreciate us and enjoy our company. I think this is a good ministry and hope in the future that our Russian may be good enough to speak more freely.

Oh, this is not good.

That's what I said after the laptop slipped out of my hands and fell about a foot. My first thought was “please don't be broken” but that quickly changed to “what is that sticking out of the side of the computer.” Well, the computer still works which is a relief but when the computer fell it landed on its power cord and it snapped. I then turned off the computer to preserve battery life, and figured I'll see if we can find a new one the next day. Our friend Vova was more than willing to help us and he took us to a new market we have never seen before. It was an electronic market. I have never seen so many cell phones in one place in all my life. There was also a bunch of computer stores there as well. The third one we visited had universal AC adapters for laptops so of course I bought it. Thankfully, that problem is solved, now I need to be more careful.

We have been here for 4 months and you would think that we would have a grasp on the culture but we found out this week we still have a lot to learn...

On Wednesday we had plans to go interview a friend of ours from UBI as part of one my assignments and after that we had our Russian lesson.  Our friend doesn't live in the city center so we had to take a bus to her place. We have never been there before so she just gave me directions and told me to get off when we saw a big Orthodox Church. That seemed easy enough but if you don't wave at the bus you want it drives right pass you. And so we missed the first bus we could have taken, but did catch the next one. While we were on the bus I realized I didn't really now how to say 'next stop please' so when we saw the church I attempted to say, "By the church, stop pzahlsta." But the driver gave me a very confused and unimpressed look. However other people wanted to get off there as well so it wasn't a problem.

While we were visiting with our friend I got a phone call. Its Vova, and he is attempting to communicate to me in Russian. I understand some of what he is saying and figure he wants Laurie and I to be his guests this evening. So we set a time and say our goodbyes. We finished our visit with our friend but before we left Laurie asked to use the washroom. Unfortunately, that building didn't have running water that day and so Laurie learned how to flush a toilet with a bucket of water.

Our next culture lesson came when we went to our Russian lesson. Our classroom is behind another so as we walk through the one we do so quietly because there is another tutor teaching and we do not want to be disruptive. We walked into our classroom and shut the door behind us to find that our tutor was not impressed with us.  Basically she told us that it was rude for us to walk past that lady in the first classroom without saying hello and told us to go back and say hello.  This was interesting because we haven't been formally introduced to this lady but since she is a friend of our tutor we should be friendly even if it is disruptive. 

The rest of our Russian lesson went well and then we headed off to Vova and Lena's place.  It was a hot day and we knew Vova and Lena would probably serve us tea to drink and we were wanting something cold so we bought a big Pepsi that we could all share on the way. As we get to their place I knock on the door but just then my phone rings. Its Vova and he asks where we are! I tell him we are at his house and asks him where he was.  He said on the street which can also means outside. So we figured he was just running a little late and went to wait outside for him to return as I didn't really catch the rest of what he said.  But as we were sitting outside and talking it occurred to us that maybe Vova had called not to invite us to be their guests but to invite themselves over as our guests. And it turned out that was exactly what had happened. I phoned Vova back to see what he was doing and he tells me he called a taxi to pick them up. And that works. Shortly afterwards they arrived in a taxi and then we all headed back to our place for a good visit.



Today, Laurie took the day off to rest and clean the house. Yesterday, we also had some friends over for dinner and so our place was needing attention. The picture above is of the juicy pork chops we had. Our place has a shashlik thing so I got Vova to show me how to 'bbq' Ukrainian style. As you can see there is a convenient holder for a poking stick.

The picture below shows what Bogdon, Tooly and I were up to today which is renovating one of the rooms at the church building. This was an interesting experience for me. The walls are a bit wavy and had many interesting layers under the wallpaper. We pulled down all the old wallpaper and scraped off all the 'stuff' underneath. Tomorrow, Bogdon and Vova are going back to put up the new wallpaper. I won't be able to help though since we made other plans previously.

Snowing in June

Summer has arrived but the ground looks like it is snowing. All the white here is the fluff from the trees. Some areas are more dense than others but by UBI it is very dense. Last week when it was windy and it looked like it was snowing but really it was sunny and over 20 degrees.

Earlier this week we had a quick trip to Dnipropetrovsk with some friends of ours and Laurie's parents. It was a fun time with exploring a new city and practicing our Russian with them. One of our friends speaks an intermediate level of English and of course Laurie and I know some Russian so the language barrier was not too much of an issue.

It was nice to be a guest. It helped us to see how some of the students live outside of UBI. They were good hosts and treated us very well. We had very good weather there as well. It was very hot in the sun. Here is Laurie and Lena taking it easy in the shade.

In Dnipropetrovsk we spent some time walking around town and shopping. I told Vova I was hoping to buy some new jeans. My one pair was starting to get holes in it so I figured a replacement was due.
We first went to the downtown mall that was huge and expensive. The cheapest jeans we could find there were around $400 Hryvnia , about $60 dollars Canadian. I thought this was ridiculous so I told Vova I wanted cheap jeans. So then he took me across the street to a smaller clothing store and there we found decent jeans for $75 Hryvnia. Yes, thats more like my price range. Now I just need to find those stores here in Donetsk.

As soon as we returned to Donetsk we had to get Laurie's parents ready to leave. They were taking a overnight train to Kiev and then flying out from there the next day. We were sure glad to spend some time with them here in the Ukraine. It was encouraging for us to see them.

This past Saturday we went to a small town just forty minutes outside of Donetsk. I believe its called Garlorkov. There, the Church of Christ held a youth conference. They did a very good job with giving a relevant message that was rooted in Scripture. They also provided a meal, played games and had discussions. I was encouraged to see many youth there and was hoping they were soaking in the good messages. Laurie wasn't feeling well though so we had to leave early. This challenged my navigation skills a bit. Because on the way to there we just followed Bogdon and trusted he knew where he was going. But we left on our own so luckily I paid attention to which buses we took and figured the buses must return to where they come from, so we took the same ones home. Thankfully my theory worked and we got home without incident.

Today, Laurie and I took the morning off to rest. We have both been fighting colds that have been draining us. Nevertheless we did have a Russian lesson this afternoon. It is interesting, the more Russian we learn the more we realize we have sooooo much more to learn. It was funny when we got to the university and Laurie realized she forgot her tissues at home and she needed to use the washroom. This was a problem because the university washrooms don't have toilet paper in them. We had some time before our lesson so we went up the street and found a pharmacy. The lady there asks me what I'm looking for, so I said, “ do you have ... umm, ahhh.” I realized that I don't know the word for tissue, or paper or blow or sneeze or anything that would help me describe tissue paper so I did the only thing I could ... I performed a little charades for her. She laughed at me but it worked. Laure laughed at me as well saying that I probably made her day. How many other pharmacies have foreigners come in and act out sneezing and blowing their nose for them. We have some more free time this summer so we'll focus more time on the language.

After our lesson we stopped for a treat. I got a milkshake and Laurie an iced tea. Our straws came with frills on them ... Laurie thought this was funny so she took a picture of me. I am amazed at how manly I make this milkshake look!

Now we need to work on preparing for our English classes and working on school assignments. We are giving group lessons and private lessons. The private lessons are giving us an opportunity to build stronger relationships so this is good. We're thankful for this opportunity and the opportunity to open our house to others.