- Our days=Summer English Institute and then back to the village

Just as we get on the highway

This was the first of three weeks of teaching at Summer English Institute, we left the house around 6:30 every morning Monday - Thursday in our Ford, which still was waiting to get the air conditioner fixed,since  due to various reasons, we couldn't drive the Mercedes until Friday. Unfortunately, it was not fixed and back that night as expected... On Monday, I hope to see it with working A/C for the first time in two years (and ride in it to Dnepro on Tuesday). Yes, you may remember it has been six? maybe seven weeks since it went to get fixed while we were in Hungary, but they did have to get that part from Germany.


Some mornings we have to check on the cornfields to see how the corn is looking (Garry is hopeful, there is possible rain in the forecast for early next week) and we normally stop at MC Donalds for breakfast, since we have lunch with the other teachers when class is over at 2 pm.

The Mercedes has A/C, although someone in the front seat gets a wet foot every time you turn a corner, so our drive home was more enjoyable Friday than on the previous days. The temperature has been 38 C some afternoons, (100 F) so it's like you are baking with the windows open and the hot wind blowing!

Ira getting off at the train station

Two mornings we picked up someone going to Dnepro on the highway as we left the village and gave them a ride. On Monday it was a mother with a boy around nine, and on Wednesday we took our Ira, who was off to visit her family (even though she grew up in the orphanage she has a mother and two older brothers and two younger sisters, she'll be gone two weeks) and picked up the girlfriend of the guy Garry ran over last winter (she works at the hardware store in the village, so Garry talks to her often. I had no idea who she was).

Garry's fellow youth teacher, our friend Stacy at the front of the classroom

My last period class

This year Garry is teaching in the youth division with 12-15 year olds, and having fun with English games and  then reading and discussing stories, while I have the adult groups- my classes are about slang this year.













Garry was excited to follow the progress of the building every afternoon when we got home, but the guys ran out of steel on Thursday and the roll that was delivered on Friday was the wrong stuff so the crew went home for the weekend,  He is hoping they start working again on Monday. The plan is that someone's supposed to start combining the wheat then, so I guess the building won't be ready in time to store it.

See Garry? It's a really tall building!

Today we went to the annual picnic- to eat way too much under the hot sun. There was a big turnout of students past and present. I made timbits (donut holes)to bring and Garry even cooled off and swam in the river.