Saturday we were busy with Victor's B&B guests from BC (see I told you you can come stay with us) Garry took them on a walking tour of the village in the morning, and then they went along when he went to breed a cow in a nearby village, and they saw a few more sights on the way, including the other old Mennonite cementary in the village. After a quick bowl of borsht (I was trying out the recipe that Victor's son Daniel showed me while I was home in Canada last month with some fresh beets and peppers from the garden) we all headed into Dnepropetroesk. Garry was speaking at an English class at 1:30 and I took our visitors on the number 11 tram down Robotcha street to the train station where we caught the number one tram which goes down Karl Marx and we got off at the art market and walked around checking out the paintings and crafts for sale. I spotted a red umbrella across the street and went to buy a phone card so I could give Garry a phone call at 3 pm, he had just finished and came and met us. We headed back to the village since our guests were going to accompany Maxim to Saturday evening church in Zaporoshia as they were interested in attending a Mennonite Brethren church (John is with the MB mission.) They came back charmed with Maxim's ability to speak English, and had enjoyed the worship service which had a special music group.
Sunday dawned clear and cool with the promise of a nice day, we brought our guests along with the milk and cheese for Victor's church. We had a little excitement when Garry stopped at a light in the city and we heard the sound of running milk. He put the emergency brake on and jumped out and ran to the back of the Lada. The box with the cheese had moved forward when he stopped and neatly opened the tap on the bottom of the milk jug. Good thing Garry moved fast and Max bought that plastic tray for the back of the car, it caught the liter or so that spilled. We left Peter and Alice with Victor and headed to the river.
This week Morningstar church was meeting on the island for a baptism service, and as we parked we noticed a large group of people with flags heading down the steps from the bridge of locks. As we got closer, we noticed some were dressed up, and when I said some seemed to be anime looking- blue hair, short skirts, swords, Garry remembered that one of the students in English class had mentioned some kind of anime convention this weekend. It makes sense, this city has more sushi restaurants than anywhere we're been, why not teens and twenty-somethings dressed as Japanese characters?
After we walked across the bridge, we noticed that the big statue on the island seems to be undergoing renovations (I believe it is of the writer Shevchencho) there is scaffolding around it now and his head is missing.
We walked through the children's game area, where the vendors where inflating the slides and jumping things, a a few early birds were trying the fishing game as we headed to the beach area where the service was starting.
The group was standing in a circle, singing a praise song as we walked up. I have a trouble singing in Russian without the words, but can join in the choruses on the familiar songs. We even had a stray dog join church for the day, happily settling down in the middle of the circle. Two guys and a girl were baptised in the river at the end of the service. The water in the river is rather green with algae right now, as you can see in the photo I took from the bridge. There were a few people swimming, but not many. The times I have been to baptisms there in July the water is crowded with swimmers.
After the service there was a picnic with games and other fun. Some people thought that they might go play basketball at a different park in the city where some new fenced courts have been erected, but when Garry and I went there the gates were locked, so we rode the ferris wheel instead, before buying groceries and heading home.
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