Saturday

 

Jeremy and his friend Dima 

I did talk to Garry before he went to sleep. He told me he slept better, but Jack had to come wake him up again. This time before breakfast, so he was feeling better than the day before. He said he was only awake an hour or two in the middle of the night.

They did get one load of concrete in the morning, so the pony wall was poured. They couldn't get any later in the day, so they will pour the floor Monday morning. The cement trucks will only come from the city first thing in the morning now, and if there aren't any drones around. Garry said it was a quieter day for the village, but Margarita and Elena went to the city- I believe it was a milk delivery day- and had heard a very loud explosion. Garry said they were laughing about it while telling the story. 

Hannah cut some of the girls' hair with some scissors that Rachel (Jeremy's wife) had brought, hopefully her professional haircutting tools arrive Monday, as they weren't working well with some thicker hair.

Jack thinks they will finish the work over at the house before they have to leave for the border on Friday.  Garry said he still hasn't been over to the house but would try to get over there to get me some photos, but I told him Jeremy had shared some yesterday. Garry said they cut 2 by 4s and nailed the beginning trusses together so they will be ready for Monday because they have booked the crane for Monday for the shed build.

He said Jack with the guitar and Hannah on her violin were practicing that evening to be ready to play for the hymns at church Sunday, so I hope to have photos from the village church tomorrow. 

The only new photo I got today was off Facebook, apparently Sasha Borchuk liked the Canada t-shirt I sent for his birthday because he has a new profile pic. 

Sasha

Photos!

 Thanks to Jeremy I have more photos to share. Here's the team after landing in Moldova getting their luggage- except for the two bags you read about!

Here they are going out to the yellow van at the airport.

Here they are unloading the van at the border.

The second photo is when Hannah was playing violin while they were waiting to be able to cross the border on foot to Adam and Max and the vans on the Ukraine side. The border was closed when they arrived because of an air raid warning. Finally the border opened and they got in the vans to continue the journey to the farm. 

Here are some photos in the village, not just the shed build Garry's sent photos of, there's many of the work at the house they are working to clean up and repair. 

You can see some of the kids who live there.

Here they are eating at the house the guys are staying in (except Garry- he's in his room at our house). The newlyweds are in the little house- old summer kitchen, and Hannah is staying with Margarita, who speaks English- she's helping with the house cleaning-with the glasses in the photo of three ladies above.  

So if I get more photos of concrete pouring that was happening today I will share them with you. 

Day two- Friday

 I talked to Garry twice, last night my time, when he had been unable to sleep for several hours and it was 4 in the morning in Ukraine. We talked for a while. He said they had arrived around nine am Thursday in the village. 

Elena made them a big Ukrainian dinner the first day. They got started working, although Garry said they were like zombies all day with virtually no sleep since leaving Canada.

They were able to work on the shed build, Garry hopes to get it mostly finished before the team leaves next week. Jack and the girls are working on cleaning and fixing up the original boys house, which is not the job that was planned, but one that needed doing. Apparently there's a lot of mold, mildew and broken things there. A family of refugees with seven kids have been staying there and it seems after four years there's some problems.

Garry said he hasn't been there but they told him that they have done a lot of cleaning and wallpaper removal, I believe. I'm hoping for photos tomorrow. Hannah has not been able to cut hair as planned because her tools are in one of the missing bags I think. They hope to get the missing suitcases on Monday, someone has to drive 350 km there and back to get them- but not all the way back to Moldova.

I talked to Garry at the end of the day (lunchtime here) and he said they had gotten all ready to pour concrete in the morning Saturday, the trucks won't be able to get all the way to the build because the ground is too muddy. It hasn't rained since they arrived but it's been quite wet, he says the winter wheat fields look great. They couldn't order any cement trucks to come today, but they're supposed to start arriving at eight am tomorrow.

Garry said the war is more noticeable than last fall for the team (and more than when he was there in the spring.) They have heard some drones flying over the village and the sound of the Ukrainians shooting them down. Phil made pork chops, potatoes and carrots for supper, and at one point there was a boom that shook the house. Probably a shot down drone exploding. 

They think they have all the supplies they need after Jeremy made several trips to Epi Center the first two days. The problem is the big box hardware store closes when there's an air raid warning, so at one point he was considering driving to a different city when it re-opened and he could purchase what they needed. 

Garry told me that after talking to me early in the morning, he fell in a deep sleep until Jack woke him up at eight am. He said he had a headache most of the morning. It sounded like no one slept well, so hopefully everyone is getting a restful sleep tonight. 

  

In the village

 I found a photo of the van they took from the airport to the border. It was a ten passenger van I was told before the trip. They did arrive in the village. Garry sent some photos, and he phoned in the middle of the night here to ask which bag he was supposed to give Daryl to use for the the English classes he's doing in Ukraine (Thanks Esther for the SEI destined swag she bought for 2020, that she gave us last summer to go to Ukraine sometime) . I guess I need to put names on everything in the suitcase. 

Photos labeled - Two new tractors (I'm assuming new to the farm, not just out of the factory)

It looks like they were checking out the cement pouring that has been happening before they arrived to work on the build. Garry had mentioned before he left that it was behind schedule due to the rain that's been falling at the farm. But you can never complain about rain in Ukraine if you are farming!

I'm sure I will get photos of actual team members and people soon. I'm sure they are going on virtually no sleep as they would have arrived in the village sometime this morning... but I haven't really talked to Garry yet. 

I did get sent a photo of one of our Sashas,  Garry did write for this photo that he nearly died a couple months ago of a perforated ulcer . I knew I was asked to pray for Sasha when it happened. Looks like quite the scar.  It's good to see him smiling again. 

 

Almost there

 Well, Daryl and Garry met in Toronto as scheduled and found most of Jack's crew before they flew into Moldova. The person I didn't realize was coming, Craig,  had flown into Chisinau earlier in the afternoon. He had spotted their driver that was going to take them to the border with a sign the said GERRY.

After a short delay, with two of their suitcases not making the flight, they decided to go ahead and leave instead of getting a hotel and seeing if Jack and Hannah's bags would arrive at midnight. Max and Adam were getting close to the border, but they would have to wait a while before seeing them. They sent a photo around the time the plane landed.

The border was closed when the got there, apparently Hannah played violin while they were waiting. I don't know what else she had in her backpack, but I think her stuff and Jack's including his work boots were in the missing bags.  They had to walk through the border with the suitcases, to meet up with Adam and Max in their vans..

 Five hours later I found out they were two hours from Kirvoy Rog, so about four more hours to the village. That was about 9:30 pm here in Manitoba, so getting to be sunrise soon in Ukraine. I'm sure they will post photos I can show you tomorrow. 

 

One day

 In about 27 hours I'll be dropping Garry off at the airport in Winnipeg. This morning he's finding additional things for the farm in Ukraine. The parts they needed for the tractor hitch and skid steer were too heavy for one checked bag, so he has to pay for a second one, so new inflations for the milkers and breeding supplies are going in bag two now. 

I did find my old suitcase with all four wheels, so that's a start. I just decided there seems to be one more person in Jack's team than I thought. Hopefully this all works. I'll let you know as I find out here at home, as he travels.. 

One week

 This time next week, Garry will be getting close to the village, Max and Adam will meet our group at the Moldovan border crossing. They will get a ride from the airport to there via hired van, it will be late afternoon and we'll see how far the are able to drive that night. They may stay in Kirvoy Rog, where Adam lives and Daryl will stay, it's about two more hours to the village. 

For now we are trying to figure out packing his suitcases, or suitcases, as he has a 24.5 pound part to go to Ukraine. We had a nice family Thanksgiving on Monday.

AS you can see, Garry has not had a haircut since he was in Ukraine in March. It's really bothering him, but he's sticking with the only in Ukraine thing.