Post jet lag- I hope!

After more than a week of sleeping for three hours, lying awake two to four hours and then catching more sleep around five am I slept all night last night! Mostly anyway so I am hoping jet lag is over.

Monday the snow started and Garry drove to Zaporosia in the afternoon anyway. He got home at eight pm and said the road into the village might be closed in the morning. Tuesday morning we had no classes for our students, since it is the day that Larisa comes from Zaporosia to teach her class on Christian ethics. She had phoned early in the morning to say that she had shoveled her car out but no one had been down her street yet. I am sure no one minded the day off.

Later Tuesday afternoon Victor came to the village, although he said he got stuck in the road coming into the village, mostly because there was a Lada stuck there already. Victor told me that at his house in Dnepro the snow was right up the the stoop, as high as he could remember. They had a meeting with our only current private milk buyer, the guy who makes cheese and pays ahead of time for his milk. The reason we started selling to the milk company instead of all the private buyers was the fact that most of them were so far behind in paying for their milk that they never would catch up, so Garry cut his losses after five years and he is happy with the decision six months later.

Wednesday morning was cold and sunny outside, it got down to -19 C (-2 F) overnight, and was pretty cold all day. Garry taught first after making feed for the cows and then he brought them to the house to have my cooking class. They had requested making hot cocoa and an oatmeal dish. I didn't have the ingredients for the requested pumpkin oatmeal but while looking for a recipe for breakfasts on the internet that morning, I found Ham, cheese and egg Oatmeal. That sounded like a winner, although I had to substitute kolbassa for the ham, and chopped onion for chives. It was a big hit during the taste test besides being easy and inexpensive to make, and great in a country where oatmeal can be for any meal. The egg was fried and served on top of the oatmeal.


Wednesday afternoon Garry had an appointment in Zaporosia and Nelly and I went with him. We drove out the end of the village instead of the road to the highway since Max told Garry it was plugged with snow, he'd had to take the tractor and pull three different cars out there. So here's that way and some of the city.

Sidewalk clearing is never a priority in the city. It will warm up and melt sometime. 

Garry has continued his winter hobby of puzzle making with the help of Alona, who lives with us and anyone who drops in. He is doing a tank puzzle with a lot of tanks on after finishing the yoga cow puzzle our kids gave him last year. Its a keeper, he glued it onto cardboard. Now I need to to find a wall to hang it on.









Friday at lunchtime Garry and I left the village via the highway so we went out the usual way, it was open but really only one lane was plowed through where it had drifted when the wind blew. We tried to get a photo, but I don't know if you can really see how deep the drifts are. Dnepro had some snow filled minor streets and some icy ones where cars were sliding and some main streets that were fairly clear, with pretty deep banks on the side of the road.

Both days we were out we saw some snow removal going on as some parts of the highway had drifted.

 Something was going on at the police check on the highway, looked like some kind of protest.

The weather is supposed to warm up over the next week, not above freezing though. Someday soon I hope.

Snow, no snow, snowing again

Sunday morning we woke up to a winter wonderland. After the snow fell for the first time (for a cover) last week Monday when I returned, there was a little more Tuesday, followed by Wednesday night's overnight melt and mud. Friday's inch stayed, and we got three more inches overnight to make Sunday's fluffy layer over everything. It really stuck on the trees. It seemed like everyone in Dnepro was posting photos on facebook.

Saturday evening Garry drove a van-full of students to Dnepro to a youth program at one of the churches. He tries to get them there once a month and to Steve's Just Youth in Zaporosia, which is held once a month. He saw former students Andrey and Karina, who are living a working in Dnepro since fall. Andrey was out to celebrate New Year's in the village, but Karina was not so he brought her a gift of socks, gloves, shampoo and some small things. That's what all the students got when Garry gave out the gifts on New Year's Eve.

There is snow in the forecast for the next couple days and it is supposed to be cold (not Manitoba cold) too. Right now it's Monday afternoon and it is snowing lightly and blowing a bit, the wind is picking up some of the loose snow. There is some ice under there, someone said it was raining at 3 am on Saturday night before the 3 inches of fluffy snow fell. This morning I put my new gripper soles on before walking down to class, the road has some ice on. Yesterday morning someone scraped it - a first, normally they just drive on it and wait for it to melt. We did not see, but assume a tractor or payloader did it. However the sun came out and melted what was left on the pavement Sunday afternoon and it turned to ice overnight as the water had no where to go to.

I just had to find Alona some gloves as she headed over to the barn to work. Not to wear there, but to milk in, I tried to tell her that it wouldn't work - I even had Nelly to translate as she had joined us for lunch since she had been translating for Garry's class until noon. However, I gave up after giving her some black gloves to wear over for work and just gave her some rubber gloves to wear for milking the cows, after telling her it would be better without.

Garry had gone to breed a cow between class and eating lunch, while he was gone his phone rang and I gave it to Nelly, someone else wanted their cow bred and so I said they could come at one to pick up Garry. He is off now breeding the guys cow, he lived in another village so I guess Garry will find out how the highway is for driving. Yesterday we only drove the short distance to the village church.

Turns out he bred two cows, as the first guy who knocked on the door was not the guy who had phoned. Garry says the highway looks pretty good, they even plowed both lanes.

 Garry finished his cow yoga puzzle he's been working on since before I came back, and glued it on cardboard. Now I'll have to find a place to hang it. I am dragging a bit today, Garry slept through most of it but I was awake most of the night watching our football team, the Eagles book their ticket for Super Bowl 52. I knew I should have bought a hat or t-shirt in the Minneapolis airport while flying through last week!

I think I'll take a nap. Three hours is not enough sleep, even for me. Most nights I have been getting two three hours sleep with a couple waking hours in bed between.

Adjusting

Last year we were in Canada when Andromeda was born, since Garry was recovering from his ankle operation. Her birthday party was held early, just for me on Saturday before I left for Ukraine. One last time to have all the kids and grandkids and some others together. Today is her actual birthday.

Garry is finally feeling better. He spent the day out of the house, enjoying the mud- the snow all melted overnight with the wind and rising temperature. Since he was at court yesterday, he had class this morning (Victor was gone to Kiev) and took the students on a field trip to Dnepro to look at tractors with Max and Nellie.

I spent the morning sleeping, I think the trip back and lack of sleeping for a couple days was catching up with me, even though I have slept pretty well since arriving. I got dizzy after making breakfast and  went back to bed and slept until Garry got home at one o'clock. His class took a little longer than planned because a tire blew out on the highway while they were driving back to the village.

As you can see in the photo I took on Tuesday, both sides of the highway are open again, but only half of the road going to Dnepro and also halfway to Zaporozhye was repaved, so we are still driving a holey road halfway there, with some tire damaging holes. Garry had a flat that he re-inflated yesterday and it was the same tire, so it must have had a problem.

There is a new sign in what used to be the village of Novy Swit on the highway, it looks like its now Kamyanee?

Snow in the village

Well after two weeks of Garry telling me about warm weather and rain since his arrival, I arrived in Kiev Monday to cold and snow. All my flights went like clockwork so I was able to take the train I had a ticket printed for as planned. Garry met me in Dnepro at 11:11 pm. We  stayed at a hotel overnight before heading to the village Tuesday morning. Garry's cold and cough had gotten worse over the weekend, so he was feeling pretty sick.

Tuesday evening a group of the new students showed up with a belated cake and birthday banner for me. Garry had spent most of the day resting but he came out for the party.

Wednesday he had to go back to court, they had a translator but he has to go back again next month, so the lawyer gets another payday. He says he is feeling better, didn't take a nap all day. He is not coughing as much, I am getting pills down him on schedule for the cough, but his throat is sore from coughing.

One more day...blogpost?

Well it is my last day in Manitoba. Sunday morning I get a ride to the airport to start my trip back, which, if all goes as planned; puts me on the Intercity (fast train) from Kiev to Dnepro Monday evening.

I have had an interesting week here, a little babysitting, a little lot of house cleaning, and I went to the Piney Ladies monthly Bible study with our daughter-in-law on the spur of the moment Wednesday evening. Literally, she stopped on her way there there and asked. The ladies there kindly send me care packages every spring and it was nice to join them for a meal and discussion about some passages in First John. She drove home to St Labre in a snowstorm, which caused me some problems the next day, as we got a good amount of snow.

Thursday evening I planned to join the Steinbach building team for their meeting. They will be coming to Ukraine near the end of March and we are planning a house renovation next door in the village for a group home and home for our possible new team members from Canada (more on that to come) and a VBS for the village kids during spring break.

I had been torn between going to the meeting and going to Winnipeg with the boys to watch them play basketball, and fate intervened when I slid the car into the snow on the side of the road- only one side of the gravel road had been plowed at 5 pm and it was more ditch on an angle than the car liked. I will not miss driving the road when I leave, it's rough, bumpy and icy this winter. The boys came by a few minutes later and I went to the game instead of the meeting. They even won the game.



Today I am going to our granddaughter's first birthday party (five days early for me since I'm leaving). My bags are packed and I'm almost ready to go. The weather will be like spring when I get there, Garry says it just gets to freezing overnight and he is wearing a sweatshirt most of the day instead of a coat. Here its been -30 C (-22 F) or colder  most of the days since he left.

Garry was in the car when I last talked to him, last evening he had a phone call that there was the possibility that Nikolai could leave the hospital today and continue recovering at home in the village; so maybe that's where he was going. No work for Nikolai for a while though.

Update

Garry left last week and his laptop went with him, so I had not posted because I can't seem to log in on my phone. Saturday night and I am borrowing a basement computer to catch you up an all the news. Garry did make it to Ukraine in time for New Years like he wanted. However, his flights did not go as planned because Air Canada had canceled his flight from Toronto to Frankfurt, so he was re-booked on LOT (Polish ) and he spent way more time in airports and his Kiev flight landed two hrs after the train he was supposed to take to Dnepro departed the station.

His was able to book a ticket on the overnight train that leaves at 11 pm but he slept the first
 two hours after boarding, woke up until 4:30 and was sleeping very soundly at 7 am when the attendant woke him up to say everyone was off the train,get off!

When he got back to the village he went to sleep, slept all day and didn't do much better for a couple days, The first night back a couple of the boys surprised him with a belated birthday cake at 11 pm. The next day was New Years eve and he gave out the gifts and they had a party. Even Monday- made feed and went back to sleep until 3:30 pm. He was taking the students into the city at four to see the Christmas lights in the park.

He tells me it has been warm and rainy most of the time. Friday he was at the missionary Christmas party in Kirvoy Rog all day. Sounds like he had a good time. However, while he was gone, Nikolai who had been sick for a few days went into the hospital and it sounds like he could be there for weeks.

I have been enjoying a week of babysitting and spending time with different grand kids and catching up on projects around the house. I will be flying out on the 14th at noon and land in Ukraine the afternoon of the 15th, hoping to catch my train without any problems! One more week to play.Monday everyone is back to school, including our Max Boradin, who will be back at Prov and hopefully over his cold he caught. He says he is weak from too much time in Canada.

Tonight we celebrated Noah's 30th birthday at his new house and the kids re-enacted the family photo from 20 years ago.