Update

Well its Monday and Garry is feeling better after his bout with bronchitis.  Last week he started feeling better but he still tired easily.

Friday morning while I was teaching cooking class, Garry decided to go work on tiling one of showers he and Max are working on making (replacements in two of the houses for broken shower cabinets) but he came home in about two hours for a nap because he was exhausted. 

Friday evening we drove into Dnepro to see everyone who came for our SEI follow up meeting. Garry had three people out the previous week, but we had eight this week. We have twelve books now, thanks to donated ones we brought back from Canada, so everyone can read together. We are getting one chapter a week read from  40 Days of Purpose.

Saturday I just rested up. Garry took it easy but he made pizza for the girls.  We planned to go to an English meeting in Dnepro but decided to stay home we were just too tired. He planned to go to church in the village on Sunday,  but the students told him it was canceled because of  too much ice near the church building,  they were afraid someone would slip and fall. Most of the congregation is older and a few walk with canes, so it was a legitimate concern.

So Sunday morning the sun was shining as we were off to Dnepro with five students in the back seat of the mission car to attend Morningstar church. We were driving the mission car because Victor had used the big white van to drive a family of seven that were immigrating to Canada to the airport in Kiev on Friday.  The roads were snowy and icy that day but he made it there safely and back to Dnepro on Saturday.  After church we picked up the used Geely sedan we bought from the family.  I got to drive the white van with the students back to the village,  it was snowing and blowing (again) a bit, so it was a slower drive but we got back around three pm and I dropped Dima and the girls off at the boys house for the Sunday afternoon youth meeting.

Garry picked up some groceries and came home in the new car. We got to drive it back to Dnepro around seven o'clock after Garry had a phone call to breed a cow in the village and realized his tool box with his breeding supplies (gloves, sheaths and hot water thermos) was in the mission car. The snow had stopped and we picked up some more groceries at the mall where we met Victor.

Monday morning Garry went and bred the cow at eight am as planned, then he called Victor to phone the semen supplier. He had used the last straw this morning on that cow. Garry went and worked on the tiling again. He came home to "Canadian soup" as the girls call my vegetable hamburger soup. Vika even ate it, even though she likes her soup without meat.

Victor called back around two after a few back and forth calls about needing it today,  and Garry and I were  off for another drive in the new car. We hoped to get there and most of the way back before dark. The freezing and thawing process of winter is really hard on the roads. The new highway from Zaporosia to Dnepro is fine, but the other roads are growing potholes daily. 

There was less snow as we went south,it was exciting to see that the wheat fields were green.  We also saw a large number of hawks in the trees on the way.

Unfortunately we decided to take to road to Tokmock and then over to Molachansk. We should have taken the first road over, it was better when we drove it on the way home. The closer to Tokmok the worse the driving, with the road full of big holes. When we finally got to Tokmok we missed our turn and drove around for 20 minutes before getting directions and getting on the right road, heading toward the setting sun.

Once we got to our destination we were able to get the semen and liquid nitrogen quickly and almost got back to the main highway before dark. At least we didn't have any flat tires, and the semen tank securely buckled in the back seat.

We made it home around 7:30 after dropping off milk and baby cereal for Alona and Nikolai's baby Daniel we bought on the way home. The doctor had told Alona he could eat kasha now.  Interesting to discover that the first cereal for a Ukrainian baby is not rice, but gratschka (buckwheat).