Now that you are gone

The team is gone and life goes on. We get back into our normal routine.  Plus try to finish the job. Last year we had months to finish before the Crawfords arrived from Canada.

This year we hope to get Yana moved back in her home by the end of the week. She may have to wait a few days for running water,  the guys who dug the cistern are now working on cementing the sides.

Max showed them how on Wednesday,  after English class with Nelly at 8 am, while Garry had another group working on building more picket fence sections for the Crawford's yard and (I believe) to replace Yana's fence also. In a few weeks the village herd of cows will be going through the village morning and evening on their way to the pastures.

Garry worked Thursday and Friday on taking off the loose floor tiles, cleaning them up and putting them back down. He then locked the door and took the key so no one walked on them. The reason they came off was that they broke loose from people walking on them the morning after his late night tiling the floor last week.  At least the kitchen cabinets and tub were installed over the good ones, he said it was a pathway of loose ones where people had stepped.  Of course there is only one door and one way in the house!

After our Wednesday work day... and yes I made them lunch again,  after I had put all the plastic soup bowls away Tuesday afternoon, I got them back out and served spaghetti in them for the students,  Garry and Max. The students kept calling it macaroni.

The temperature was dropping all day Wednesday and Thursday morning there was snow on the ground.  It melted quickly but during cooking class giant snowflakes were falling off and on.

Thursday morning I had cooking class after English and Friday morning Garry had them balancing feed rations.

Thursdays are always busy for me. Julia had asked about making the potato filled pirog I had made when the team was here, so that was the class. Think cheese and mashed potato in a calzone. I started the dough early and class still ran more than two hours. By the time they ate and left the house, it was time to hurry up and get lunch on the table for Garry,  the girls and Nelly,  whom I'd invited to stay.

We had our usual Thursday afternoon staff meeting at 1:30 until after 3.  We left home at 5 to drive Nelly and a group of students to the mall in Zaporosia so they could shop while we went to Steve and Jo's for our small group meeting.  The Crawfords drive themselves with the new students shopping in the city plan.

Friday by noon Garry and I were off for our weekend escape so he could rest a bit after working so hard for the last couple weeks. Of course he was back to teaching his English conversation classes, three hours Friday before we have our SEI follow up book club meeting, plus four and a half hours teaching on Saturday,  so we are staying in Dnepro.

Friday afternoon while he was teaching I found former students Karina and Vika working at the mall. They had been phoning Garry about something. Karina,  although happy to see me, was disappointed that Garry was teaching English.  I gathered that they needed money because they weren't getting paid yet for the new job- they are cleaners at the food court. Garry got a phone call from them as we were finishing up at Patona and driving Sweta toward her stop (we drop a couple of the ladies who attend off going through Dnepro on our way home every week).  We ended up meeting the girls downtown.

They had a free place to stay with "a lady from the church" but were out of money for food.  We took them to KFC (it was 9:30 by the time we found them and we'd skipped dinner) bought them some food,  which they shared with their friend, an orphan guy that Vika knew from the orphanage she was in. He knew several of the students who are still in the program so we talked about how everyone is doing.

 Then we proceeded with Karina's plan, we bought them some groceries,  basic food like macaroni,  gretshka,  tea, sugar, and apples Garry added to their list, so they could eat until they get paid on the tenth. Karina took the receipt for 230 grivna (about $8.50 US) because she said she is going to pay Garry back.

Hoping to have a restful Sunday before heading back to the village and work on Monday.

Couldn't finish the post when the internet went off this morning before we left for church.  We enjoyed seeing everyone at Morningstar church this morning, however it wasn't as restful an afternoon as I'd hoped.
We went to a birthday party for the English school Garry teaches at.

Election day

Sunday is election day in Ukraine, this year they are voting for president.  For months now most of the billboards are for a candidate.  There are dozens of people running for president.  If the top vote getter has a large enough percentage it's over tomorrow.  However normally everyone votes again between the top two candidates.

Coming up to the election there are three candidates getting the most support in the polls.  The current president Poroshenko seems to be in third place in most polls. His slogan seems to be president a din (#1)   Yulia Tymoshenko, who has run for president before is either 2nd or 3rd, it seems. Her billboards are a patriotic blue and yellow,  we got a newspaper in the mailbox that Nelly was reading,  sounds like she's making lots of promises.

Both these candidates have had people coming through the village encouraging people to vote for their candidate.  Garry actually talked to someone campaigning for the current president,  but had to say he couldn't vote anyway. They wanted Garry to pay when he asked to take photo of them. Lots of advertising on the radio, too.

The other popular candidate plays the president on television! We think his slogan is nash (our) president,  and many people we talk to seem to support him. They say he can't be worse than a normal politician.  It will be interesting if he gets into the run off or in office.  He's the candidate people talk about, especially young people.  Some people wonder about his and even Yulia having close ties to certain oligarchs,  however.

Speaking of young people,  Victor's daughter turned 18 this year and wanted to vote.  However she discovered that she was not on the rolls. They told her the other office just hadn't sent the information for the 18 year old voters yet. She had to go the the courts and spent four hours there, just to be able to vote tomorrow (that may be   is today now, its midnight and time changes tonight, so I'm losing an hour!)

Last day

 Wow, I just accidentally erased a huge blogpost for this day. So here's the quick version.

After one last breakfast of oatmeal and fried eggs, and devotions by Jeremy, the guys got an early start to the day. They hoped to get as much done as possible before they left sometime between four and five in the afternoon with Victor.

All the students except Sasha B were in class because it was Tuesday morning when Larissa teaches Ethics.  Sasha was helping Mick tile the bathroom most of the day.

Jeremy, like he did on Monday,  did some regular work after finishing up his electrical work.  Today he hung the door foor the bedroom around lunchtime with a lot of helpers.

Even Nelly helped with holding the door.  The bedroom is done, door, floors, ceiling, pink walls.

Garry had to make a second run to Nova Lene at lunchtime for one more box of laminate flooring to finish the living room.


Jack was off at the shop altering the cabinet that was to go over the stovetop when I arrived with Nelly for lunch. The Crawfords walked over, and the students were starting to arrive from class. They had all been invited for soup, sandwiches and birthday cake because it was Kolya Mazhara's 27th birthday.  Nelly had helped load everything in the car.

Garry took off with a sandwich and a bowl of chicken noodle soup,  and soon everyone had one, except Jack.  Jack did get his special diet bag lunch with raw veggies,  rice cakes and a pulled pork tortilla wrap. He sat with Kolya and chatted after Kolya blew out the candles.

After lunch, Garry returned and Jack went back to putting down the last of the laminate while Dima helped Garry with the cabinet uppers.

 They were still tiling after three when I brought some coffee and cookies down to the worksite.  Dima and Leila were helping Garry put trim around the ceiling.

It was about 3:40 when they quit working,  got cleaned up, packed up to leave. Victor was later than planned because he picked up Mick's glasses. There were  lots of students hanging around the house to say goodbye.

The guys made it to Kirvoy Rog in about three hours last night and right now (midnight Wednesday night)  they should be on the intercity train to Kiev for their flight Thursday morning.

Final rush to finish

Well, it's Tuesday and the BC team are leaving this afternoon.  We just finished breakfast and everyone is off to work.  The students all have class with Larissa today, so the house will less crowded as the guys try to finish some last minute drywall mudding and sanding, painting,  cabinet hanging, tiling and laminate flooring.

Here's a couple photos I took yesterday.  It was a little crowded over there in the house at times.

We actually played some cards last night, remembering all the nights the last two years when these guys were here with the Steinbach teams.

Right now I need to make soup and cake because at noon the students are invited to the worksite for one last soup lunch with cake to celebrate Kolya Mazhara's birthday.

Even more to do

Well it's been busy this weekend. Right now it is almost midnight Sunday. I am listening to the sounds of peeping chicks for the second night, last night there were five that had hatched in the incubator.  Tonight there are three (no, now four) newbies there, more working their way out and 19 in a cardboard box in our bedroom.  I assume that they will be moving over to the Crawfords tomorrow.  Garry is tiling the kitchen floor over at Yana's right now. I took him some coffee an hour or so ago, and he was half done.  Jack and Jeremy are sleeping  (the other two guys sleep at the Crawfords) Jack has been sick since yesterday.

Thursday afternoon Garry bricked the septic system, and the guys were working on finishing drywall, among other things.

Friday the guys got lots done, although Garry had most of the guy students working over at the barn in the afternoon,  setting up forms for the second cement walls they hoped to pour on Saturday.

We had found out that Jack's young English student friend Glab and his dad would be driving back to Kramatorsk on Saturday and would leave after breakfast.  Pastor Yura from the same city would be coming on Friday evening with 8 people from his church. Garry was planning to have them build some picket fences for the Crawford's yard and Yana.  They would be staying overnight.

Or so we thought. However, we had a lovely dinner over at the Crawford's house and thought we were ready for our guests.  There was a thunderstorm during dinner and Garry wondered if it would be too wet to pour cement.  We had assumed Yura was bringing guys, and planned to put 3 or 4 on the couches at the Crawfords,  up to five at the old girls house with Max's mother, and if needed we had a couch that pulled out. Garry and Jeremy drove to Nova Lenya for tile and other stuff.

When Victor arrived around ten pm we discovered that it was Yura and eight women, so he went on our couch, three ladies to the Crawfords and five at the other end of the village.  Garry said he'd pick them up at seven for breakfast at our house.

We were up early, Leila was crying at 5:20 and Garry got up to find out why. Everyone in the house heard her. She had slept in (she never does) and was very upset.  Garry drove over to the barn with her so she wouldn't run all the way. He brought back some milk for me.

We had oatmeal, eggs, toast, juice coffee and tea for breakfast for 23... two of us, Nelly, the Crawfords,  four guys on the team, the father and son who came Wednesday afternoon,  Yura,  eight ladies and our three girls...23!

Then Jack and crew were off to the house,  Garry to the barn to get the forms ready, and me to the kitchen to make food for lunchtime for about 35.

I wondered if he still planned to have the Kramatorsk church people build a fence, and they did, in the shop. Nelly helped them find some clothes in the storage room they could work in. A few wandered back to the house after a couple of hours, because they were cold. It was cold, too, snow flurries and windy.

Shannon was heating up plovf (rice dish) leftover from the night before to go with my Oliviah salad (potato plus everything) gretshka (buckwheat),  giant meatballs and fried shredded cabbage and carrots.  Unfortunately everyone did not get to eat at noon as planned.

We ended up putting the food in the classroom to eat.  The five ladies who had stuck it out in the shop building wanted to wait until all the guys had eaten, but we had Nelly explain that they would be a long time even if everything went well.  The cement truck had arrived right at twelve. Jack and his crew walked over from Yana's house, so those people all ate.

Of course it did not. They were nailing supports to the forms because they were bowing.  Even Garry's septic system cover pour went wrong. Shannon waited for them to come while I headed home to start dinner.

Around this time I was talking  to Victor and found out that the Kramatorsk folks were staying two nights. Since we were planning on a student meeting around seven o'clock,  I went with chicken noodle soup. The three ladies who stayed here had tea, bread and honey with Nelly while  I  was waiting with Shannon at the classroom.

Shannon said the cement crew (including Scott and Yura) ate around three o'clock when her and Scott carried the leftovers in the house. Garry said that the walls held, even though they are a little fat in places.

We had soup after the guys stopped working, and a short student meeting with a couple songs and a short talk by Jack.  The Kramatorsk folks were there too. Then we went home, Garry got a shower and went to bed while Jack, Jeremy and I hung out with the Kramatorsk folks for a while.  They had me call Scott and Shannon and they and Mick came over because Yura and friends had brought gifts for us and cake because it was one lady's birthday Friday.

Eventually everyone was where they belonged to sleep and Yura got promoted to the now empty bedroom (remember Gleb and his dad drove home that morning) to escape from the cheeping chicks in the living room.


Sunday morning I made pancakes (I  make them every Sunday for Garry and the girls)  using today - a dozen eggs, 16 cups of flour and milk, some oil, sugar and baking powder and soda. Lots of peach and cherry jam to spread, coffee, juice and green tea. 19 people sitting down to eat (Valentina was in Dnepro, and Nelly missed breakfast) with a little smoke in the air from the butter on the hot pans. I cooked pancakes for an hour and a half and kept them hot in the oven. We even had some leftover pancakes. 

One of the ladies decided I needed slippers on my bare feet and brought me a lovely pair of knitted ones, so I put them on before they left.

The Crawfords took the Kramatorsk people in the van to Dnepro while we went to church in the village.

The guys did a little work on the ceiling in the afternoon and dinner was a much smaller group to feed, just ten of us  (plus saving a plateful for Leila, who was out.)
Then Jeremy and Garry were off on their almost nightly drive to Zaporosia for supplies.

When Garry got home he said he was going to get the kitchen floor tiled at Yana's. I brought him coffee around 10:45. He came home around 12:30. Almost finished.  He said he had to move his saw and stuff outside to continue working on the floor but it was too dark to see what he was doing out there. He turned on some lights but that made the roosters crow, which made the neighbors roosters crow, so he'll have to finish tomorrow.

 I still need to get Flat Stanley on his way back to Tennessee where my cousin lives. He's quieter than the chicks scrambling around in the box at two am. I made him a Ukrainian friend.