Wrapping up with the team

So early Monday morning Ed was flying out, Garry drove him to Dnepropetrovsk and even drove by the New Holland dealership before the airport. Then Garry picked up Maria in Zaporozhe before returning to the village. Micah and Crystal were getting ready to leave, they needed to be at the airport around one for their flight to Vienna.

Meanwhile Roy and Wilbert were having one last workday with the students finishing drywall. Carol took charge of lunch so we could leave early for the airport.

Roy at work

Valera was proud of his work

Wilbert

It was great having some of our kids here in Ukraine again,  now Micah has seen firsthand what we do. It's almost been four years since "the little boys" (poor guys aren't even teens anymore and that's what the family still calls them) Seth and Jonah, left to stay in Canada. We were really busy since Micah and Crystal came with a work team but we did get to spend some time with them on Saturday and went down town for a little shopping before they left. We had hotdogs from a stand... and unlike Sunday's, they were hot!

Tuesday was a slow day, Roy and Wilbert did some walking in the village, Carol and I got some laundry out on the line with the sun shining and the students were back in school; once we got the desks back in the room and the beds out. No soup for lunchtime, I cooked one last meal, before slacking off for dinner.

 At dinner Garry and Victor shared the good news, the electric project to get power at the new barn was finally approved and signed. We had been waiting for more than two weeks for the final signature of the boss. Wednesday Victor paid the bill and now it is just a matter of time, to get the work done and the cows milking over there.

The last three team members left Wednesday on the seven am flight to Kiev, after a little flat tire, broken jack adventure after they left extra early, at four thirty for the half hour ride to the airport. Once again, a team got so much done while they were here, more than Garry hoped.

And then there were the shoes... what looked like so many pairs of donated athletic shoes that they brought in their suitcases found homes in the village, not just with the students, but the many people who work for us and their families, and people they knew in the village, and kids at the village church who needed shoes. Both our Maxs kept finding people to give them to, even though Maxim Borodin ended up without a pair of his own, within a week there was only three pair left... and then they were gone too.

None of these people have ever owned such nice shoes, one of the ladies who milk for us told Garry how proud she was to have such nice shoes- Nikes- to wear to the city and one guy told Garry he had never had shoes that felt so good on his feet, and made him 2 cm taller, too.