Tuesday here and there

 Today I didn't talk to Garry, although he sent some photos and I saw some from the team. I was in Winnipeg for Max Boradin's swearing in as a Canadian citizen! If you are a long time reader of our blog, you know Max as the orphan from our program who came to Canada to study at Providence College just over eleven years ago. He became a permanent resident a few years ago, and today a Canadian.

You may recognize a few more people in this "family photo" you could take with the judge that swore the new Canadians in, as Roy and Carol Enns came to the village on a couple work teams. Carol was Max's English teacher at Prov and they have been some of his Canada family, helping him with life and paperwork. One of their sons also came to the ceremony.

Just noticed I look very short in this photo. 

Meanwhile, in Ukraine, the suitcases finally found them!

They also got the rest of the trusses up, and as Garry wrote "are almost ready for steel". 

Good night, folks. Seems like it's a cold bug that's hitting the team, just a few more days before they head home.  Apologies for Monday's post I didn't check if it published after I clicked the button. 

Monday

The computer font and I are disagreeing today, but I talked to Garry, all are well, except Jeremy's wife Rachel was sick but was feeling somewhat better, she even went to work for a while today. Jack's a little worn out, but he tends to not sleep well, so I'm sure that's not helping. They are on the house refurbishing crew. Here's a photo of everyone, including the people who live there. Looks like they are in front of the summer kitchen in that yard. From what I heard, the dad and the kids are helping with the work of repairing the house.

Looks like Jack was getting a massage there.

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Garry's crew (they are like two teams that eat together) did get about 2/3rds of the floor poured this morning with the 8 yards of concrete they can get in the morning. More ordered for Tuesday morning. Unfortunately the crane they hired broke down so they hope to finish getting the rafters up tomorrow, and then nail on the boards. The steel for the roof has not been delivered yet, but hopefully soon.

Church and a story

 

So Jeremy a professional electrician, has been coming on these mission trips with Jack for ten years and has become friends with Dima, who grew up in a handicapped orphanage, abandoned by his family because of his muscular dystrophy. For years Dima has helped Jeremy as he works on projects and has become the village handyman. Residents of the village hire Dima to do electrical work.

So I found this video in the photos Jeremy uploaded today. 

Here are some photos from the village church as promised.

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.