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.