Garry will be busy here, the snow is melting, Saturday night the guys (Max and company) spread some fertilizer on the wheat fields while they were frozen.
Over the weekend we visited some English classes.
Monday, February 17, 2020
Just in case
I'm heading to the airport shortly, so just in case I can't log in from there on my tablet, here's a quick update. My dad is not doing well after a bout with the flu and pneumonia and is in hospital. The cancer drugs he's been taking for 7? Closer to 8? years now, means his white blood cells are few to fight infections. Anyway I have a one way ticket on Ukrainian airlines and a car rental out of JFK to get there today.
Garry will be busy here, the snow is melting, Saturday night the guys (Max and company) spread some fertilizer on the wheat fields while they were frozen.
Garry will be busy here, the snow is melting, Saturday night the guys (Max and company) spread some fertilizer on the wheat fields while they were frozen.
Thursday, February 13, 2020
Getting ready to build
In five weeks we'll have a building team here. We'll also run a VBS, or camp, as they call it here, for the village children.
Garry got busy as soon as he returned in January and took the old house that was falling down on the building site down with the students. I took some photos of the site before the snow fell.
The snow meant that plans to get the concrete pad poured have been delayed however the guys have continued to dig the cistern. It's 3.15 meters across and 3.5 meters deep.
Last week Garry and I stopped by the lumber yard that is going to cut and plane the wood to build the house. No metal studs this time, or even building inside a crooked old building.
It is impossible to find boards that are true to size, so we are getting them made. The guys wanted Garry to check the first couple boards before cutting the rest of the lumber. He gave them the go ahead, so its cut and stacked and hopefully drying more under their shed until next month.
Garry got busy as soon as he returned in January and took the old house that was falling down on the building site down with the students. I took some photos of the site before the snow fell.
The snow meant that plans to get the concrete pad poured have been delayed however the guys have continued to dig the cistern. It's 3.15 meters across and 3.5 meters deep.
Last week Garry and I stopped by the lumber yard that is going to cut and plane the wood to build the house. No metal studs this time, or even building inside a crooked old building.
Busy in the snow
Bet you regular readers have wondered why I haven't posted in ten days. We had no internet in the village for more than a week! It came back on yesterday afternoon as we were leaving to go to our follow up group in Kamskoaya.
Driving has been interesting for the last week because we finally had snow, and not just a little. We were supposed to go there last week Wednesday, but it was canceled for the first snowstorm, and its snowed and blown a few times since. While not perfect, main highways have been plowed, and mostly by some new snowplow trucks we haven't seen before.
We bought some paint last week and Garry and I repainted the kitchen/living room area on Friday and Saturday. Today (Thursday) I finally got back to painting and did the rest of the hallway. Our golden paint was a little more orange than I thought, but it really brightens the house up after ten years. It also covered up the cherry pitting juice stains!
On the weekend we took students on two excursions, Saturday night we took a big group to city mall for grocery shopping and McDonald's after they got their salaries for the week. French fries are a very popular treat. Five month old Matthew came too.
Sunday we went into Morningstar church with the van and had another car full, six or seven students and a baby. Everyone was well behaved, even little Danil, who's 16 months old now. We parked on the main street Robotcha and walked in.
Garry and I had an English class at two, so after church we dropped the students off to spend the afternoon downtown. Garry had another group to meet with nearby at four o'clock so I did a little shopping and picked up some buns, lunchmeat and apples to hand out to everyone on the trip home.
With no internet for a week, and very limited cell data inside the house, it was hard to keep track of the outside world, including how my dad was doing since he's in the hospital with flu and pneumonia. We got the DVD collection out to watch some movies. It's good to finally be able to blog!
Driving has been interesting for the last week because we finally had snow, and not just a little. We were supposed to go there last week Wednesday, but it was canceled for the first snowstorm, and its snowed and blown a few times since. While not perfect, main highways have been plowed, and mostly by some new snowplow trucks we haven't seen before.
The students were excited for me to be back teaching English and mostly excited about Wednesday cooking class. Last week we made one pot spaghetti and this week soup. I think they mostly enjoy working together and eating together.
We have three new students - actually old students- as Karina and Vika have returned after living and working in the city didn't work out, and Misha Mazhara (Vasa's twin) has finished his junior agronomist trade school- he has a certificate. We didn't realize that Misha would be coming on Tuesday evening when we went to pick the girls up after watching the English movie of the week. The back seat of the little car was packed since we had picked up more frozen semen in Dnepro that afternoon for breeding cows. The liquid nitrogen filled tank took up one seat behind Garry, leaving three people in the spaces for two. The two girls mean we are at four in our house again.
Sunday we went into Morningstar church with the van and had another car full, six or seven students and a baby. Everyone was well behaved, even little Danil, who's 16 months old now. We parked on the main street Robotcha and walked in.
Garry and I had an English class at two, so after church we dropped the students off to spend the afternoon downtown. Garry had another group to meet with nearby at four o'clock so I did a little shopping and picked up some buns, lunchmeat and apples to hand out to everyone on the trip home.
With no internet for a week, and very limited cell data inside the house, it was hard to keep track of the outside world, including how my dad was doing since he's in the hospital with flu and pneumonia. We got the DVD collection out to watch some movies. It's good to finally be able to blog!
Sunday, February 2, 2020
Back in the village
Everything went well on my trip back to Ukraine. Flights were pretty smooth, I even had an empty seat next to me on my first two flights.
As you can see, it really is both green and muddy here in the village. We stayed in Dnepro overnight Thursday and when we got home Friday morning the girls were out and the door was locked. Garry went and found Valentina, who was at the classroom in Vova's class. Some of the senior students who aren't working find classes interesting and attend more than they need to.
I have unpacked my two free checked bags (thanks westjet and Ukrainian airlines) and everything made it here safely. Garry wore his new coat to his Friday evening English class. His lost coat was not found by the airport.
Both Victor and Shannon returned from Canada on different planes to different cities, Victor came on the train from Kyiv to Dnepro late Friday night. His daughter Dasha picked him up, she just got her driver's license.
Victor and Lena have been visiting their sons and grandkids in BC. Scott is really happy that Shannon is back from visiting with their daughters, he even bought her roses, in spite of having to try to communicate with the seller in Russian. So classes and other routines will be returning to normal next week.
I have slept some, although I probably will be awake to watch the Super Bowl live, which will be in the middle of Sunday night here (kickoff is around 2 am, I think.)
Our wheat field as you turn into the village is very green as you can see in the photo. Garry is pleased with it. He says the fertilizer they put on the sunflower fields (the field where wheat was planted in the fall) is being used by the wheat.
I have unpacked my two free checked bags (thanks westjet and Ukrainian airlines) and everything made it here safely. Garry wore his new coat to his Friday evening English class. His lost coat was not found by the airport.
Both Victor and Shannon returned from Canada on different planes to different cities, Victor came on the train from Kyiv to Dnepro late Friday night. His daughter Dasha picked him up, she just got her driver's license.
Victor and Lena have been visiting their sons and grandkids in BC. Scott is really happy that Shannon is back from visiting with their daughters, he even bought her roses, in spite of having to try to communicate with the seller in Russian. So classes and other routines will be returning to normal next week.
I have slept some, although I probably will be awake to watch the Super Bowl live, which will be in the middle of Sunday night here (kickoff is around 2 am, I think.)
Our wheat field as you turn into the village is very green as you can see in the photo. Garry is pleased with it. He says the fertilizer they put on the sunflower fields (the field where wheat was planted in the fall) is being used by the wheat.
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