a trip to church via Victor's van

Since Maxim (the hired man- for those who don't know) was gone with the car for his godfather's funeral, on Sunday morning we needed a way to get to Dnepropetroesk (with the milk) for church. Victor came out with the van, arriving in the village around eight in the morning. They had to wait to load the milk, since it was still warm in the tank (on Friday afternoon they had frozen the bottom solid so the paddle could not turn, then turned the tank off so it would thaw. Sunday morning they were still having problems with the same thing- once they got it thawed the temperature shot up to 12 C) At nine Seth and I climbed into the back of the van with the milk cans. Jonah was sick with a bad cold and stayed home alone.











Garry was excited when we drove past the corn field he planted by the highway because he could row the corn (it is up so you can see the lines in the field- but not in this photo!) If you come in person you can see it. Seth was reading a book on the nook (offically it belongs to both boys- their brothers bought it for a Christmas present) Since Jonah is the big reader the mystery was solved later- he was reading In His Steps for his English assignment (as part of finish schoolwork and go to Canada for the summer soon.)






We had to slow to 20 kph in the construction zone- the police are there all the time picking off the fast drivers who ingore the signs. Garry found out from a person he picked up for a ride this week that they are building an overpass for a new road that will connect to a highway by Dnepropejisk and over to a bridge over the Dniper river. Not sure when the project will be finished or the piece here by the highway but here are some construction photos- they have been at it for around a week.













When we got to Dneproetroesk we when over to Victor's house since the plan was that we would drive the mission Lada home after church- Victor was going to a wedding in the forest of a girl his son Denys used to date. The chestnut trees are all in bloom now, many of the city streets are lined with them. You can really tell the weather is turning warmer, - only the occasional babushka wearing a coat, and many more people out and about.


Here's a little church Russian for you- with a couple of praise song slides







See the word the looks a little like bor _ pronounced bog - not like a mucky mudhole, but bow (like on a present) with a deep Guh at the end -that is God - the song is Our God is Great- Haw is pronounced nash and is our.






On the other photo, you can see the words for brother and sister (brat and sistra- c is the s sound)Tbl is you- and the word the starts with X in the third line is Christ. Even I can translate most of this song about the family of God. Many evangelical Christians here refer to each other as brother and sister.








After church we got the empty milk cans in the Lada and stopped at Dafi (one of the malls) for lunch and to pick up a few groceries and more yarn- I have been crocheting little hats and ran out of pink. There is a cinema in the mall so there was advertising for the new Pirates of the "Carib Sea" (sea looks like MOPE in Russian- but the P is the R sound) movie- upstairs the big stuff was in English but the one at the bottom of the escalator was in Russian (or Ukrainian- do you see any i's- that's the e sound instead of the upside down N of Russian.)




In spite of those threatening afternoon clouds- still no rain here- I even left laudry out again last night. Here's the new sign they erected recently over the highway into Dnepro - as you leave the city- it says welcome to Dnepropetroesk in two langauges on the way in - it did have the time and temperature on it
the first two weeks- but it's not working already this week.

This morning the lady milk buyer's guys were in before 5 am and bought 450 liters. Since the moring milking was just starting Garry pumped the rest of the old milk into cans (hopefully someone comes to get it to make cream) and washed the tank before the new milk went in - he also turned the themosat up a degree- so hopefully it doesn't make ice on the bottom this time! Good news the motoe for the paddle that stirs the milk was not damaged by the freezing in place and trying to turn anyway.