At the sea

Last Sunday morning, Garry and I drove down to the sea of Azov to find a place to take the students for their promised trip to the sea. They have been working very hard baling (and stacking) thousands of square straw bales this month, and Garry promised them three days at the seaside when it was done. We spent the night at a place in a village just past the holiday city of Kirviloka, where we often stay, and reserved rooms for later in the week. We found out the difference between a lux and a half-lux room. We got the kids rooms with air-conditioning (they didn't turn it on) a mini fridge, an electric kettle and a shared bathroom in the hallway. Our is the lux room, with the addition of a private bathroom and kitchenette with a microwave, larger fridge and a hotplate.

On the way back to the village Monday morning, we stopped and bought seven kilos of peaches, so Monday afternoon I made ten jars of peach jam, while Garry ran around. On Tuesday I packed for the sea, and not just for us, since I was going to be making meals for the students to eat. I was prepping by browning farsce (ground beef) and freezing it and some of the veggies and spices to make cooking on a hotplate easier.

Garry, Max and a few of the guys worked on putting giant pieces of  tin (steel?) up on the equipment shed. The only injury was when Max got stung twice when he found hornets up on wood around the corner  of the building. They got about half of the siding on. They were joking it looks like a big blue wall.

The plan for the sea kept changing, at lunch time only half of the students were going to go, so we were only going for three nights, but by three o'clock I was back to packing for six nights and two groups of students. Wednesday morning at five am we were off with five guys and two girls (the single and childless group, we were calling them).

We had said goodbye to Scott and Shannon the night before, as they were going to be going to Kyiv the following day with Victor for their flight back to Canada. They gave all the students some produce from their garden, potatoes, carrots and onions. Julia posted this photo of her with them Wednesday evening. For reference, Julia is less than five feet tall.

The drive actually only took three and a half hours (it took us four on Sunday) and we only made one stop for gas and a bathroom break, in spite of Sasha saying he had to go from about an hour into the trip. That was when we hit our only stop and go traffic from the road resurfacing taking place. It will be great when its finished as the highway was in pretty rough shape. However, no painted lines makes some drivers pretty creative when there's an extra lane for passing for only one side. Going south was paved in places and the northbound lane was not so there was often a six inch drop in level and the shoulders were only finished (dirt level with the road) for a short distance, too.

The staff was a little alarmed when we arrived, Garry had said we needed rooms for our friends and as he helped get them settled in their rooms, the lady asked if the students were normal. Garry assured her they wouldn't be a problem and they weren't, but Sasha's exuberance and Leila carrying her stuffed dog Muktar that she talks too can take some getting used to.

Anyway, they had a great three days swimming. or walking around (the village is a mini seaside fun zone with food vendors and games, but less people than our usual city, so hopefully we'll be less likely to pick up the virus since I have seen exactly two masks since arriving) playing UNO, watching television in their rooms and eating whatever I cook.

Garry is driving back with the first group (right now, Saturday morning) and returning with the married couples and Valentina with the baby, at least that's the plan, I'll have dinner waiting around five o'clock.. .  the same meal  (ploff a rice, chicken and carrot dish) as yesterday, but only Garry and I will eat the menu twice. Sloppy joes and spaghetti will make another appearance, and a lot of salads and boxed cookies. Here's a photo of where the meal magic is happening. I brought my crockpot, and I'm making a lot of holodni chai (ice tea) to drink.

The only drawback to our ground floor room, near the trellised patio we're eating at, is the ant invasion, I have the honey jar in a bowl of water and the bread and sugar are hiding in the microwave. Garry's computer had a dozen walking on it when I picked it up to start this post, so I have been stopping to pick off the stray ants walking across the keyboard. I have squashed and drowned many, but they keep coming back.

 On Tuesday evening everyone except Kolya (and baby Matthew) were going to come at some point, but yesterday one of students said he was going to come, so I guess we'll find out when Garry gets back .