Updates

 We have been here for more than two weeks now, and things are changing fast. We would need a negative test to fly in without quarentining for two weeks from Canada now as Ukraine has moved Canada from green to red. Of course Canada keeps changing the rules for getting back home too! I am hoping they will change for the better before May when I plan to be home to greet the new grandchild. Quarentining in a hotel in Toronto or Calgary waiting for test results before flying to Winnipeg sounds difficult and expensive. 

After two weeks Garry is getting back into his regular schedule. We are trying to find some N95 masks to use when going to in person English classes. The boys have been cutting boards for the trusses they will build for the new heifer barn Garry plans to build this year. 

Thursday it cooled off overnight and we had some snow that night. Friday morning we made bread in cooking class. It took a while and the students managed to go home with packages of ground beef and jars of jam, relish, and pickles from my canning closet by eleven o'clock. Garry took off to Dnepro with Vika and Sasha to go to the dentist right after they sampled some of the hot bread.

 Some of them were still in the kitchen when Max's brother Artom brought the guy to check out the gas heater. It keeps shutting off, sometimes a couple times a day, it's been off almost every morning this week. After an hour and a half it was pronounced fine, it could be a problem with the gas coming into the village instead. So of course the thing shut off three times Friday night.

In other news, hopefully my sleeping from one to 5:30 am last night means that jetlag is rounding the corner for me, and Garry finished his 1500 piece puzzle this morning after locating the last three pieces inside the table!

A pleasant drive

 When we left at seven am on Wednesday morning, with our bags of stuff for Adam, Luba (that we'd brought from Canada) and Curtis, since I'd packed up some walnuts, honey, a couple bottles of milk, and some leftover brown sugar and peanut butter from the Crawfords to share with our fellow Canadians).  We were anticipating the normal drive to Kirvoy Rog, bad roads, lots of potholes, and sections so bad people drive beside the highway to preserve their car and tires. Garry checked the spare tire and tire changing equipment the night before on the little Geely car. We had debated the trip, because the weather forecast kept changing from rain to snow and back to rain all week, but it was wet and foggy as we left (without Misha, who wanted to come but did not get to our house in time, based on his phone calls he overslept by at least a half hour, he wanted to pick up some stuff he left there last year when he returned after trade school.)

I didn't take any crocheting, since I knew the roads would mostly be too bumpy to do anything. Next time we drive there, I will know better and bring some, because, while not completely finished with the sides, and second layer of asphalt in some places, all the road is good. Even the two lane parts have been repaved, there's miles and miles of four lane. Even the rain didn't matter, and we didn't hit a hole until we went under the overpass to the city, an hour ahead of schedule.

Anyway we found Adam and Luba around ten o'clock, in spite of the GPS on Garry's phone cutting out repeatingly as we tried to find the right apartment building. We had a lovely time talking after carrying our bags up with their goodies. It's been a while since we'd seen them, and we found out their exciting news while eating sirniki that Luba was making. They have a baby on the way next summer. 

Updated - I seem to have lost part of this post! We had a tour of the church buildings with Adam,checkinghecking out how the big building work is going. The kitchen looks grwat.

We had lunch and hung out with Adam's team. They have been able to visit orphanages at times during the pandemic by getting tested. We played a game called bang in Russian, and enjoyed hanging out, since we hadn't seen them in a while. We couldn't believe how time flew by, until we headed home around three pm.

Rainy days and Monday

 It has rained every day since it warmed up last week. Which means that there's mud everywhere! Sunday morning we drove Yana, her mother and nieces to the bus station in Zaporosia so they could go home to the their village after visiting Yana since school would start on Monday. Yana's driveway was quite muddy as they got in the van on the street, in front of her new white fence. Garry says he has no trouble remembering which house is her's now. 

We bought Yana lunch at McDonalds on the way home. We were surprized to see how tall her older niece is now, taller than her grandma!

Garry is getting back to his normal routine, breeding cows- I think he bred four the first day back in the village and contines to breed some almost everyday, ones in our barn and for other people in Nikoliapolia and surrounding villages. On Monday we headed into Dnepro early to meet up with Victor because he needed more frozen bull semen. He had no Holstein semen left, and only two straws of Jersey. He has to charge more for Jersey because it costs more to buy, he tries to break even on the cows he breeds for other people; we get the Canadian semen because we can and besides everyone knows we're the Canadians.

We left shortly after eight am when I woke up (I am still fighting jetlag, that night I fell asleep about four in the morning). We went to Nova Lenya first because Victor was busy with family so we'd meet him in a while. We were able to finally shop in-store with the lockdown restrictions ending. Garry wanted to purchase a new saw so the guys could cut the lumber to make trusses for a new heifer barn like the one we built two years ago. We found a few other things that we had wanted to buy since our return two weeks ago. The kasa (checkout) took a while because both of our bank cards wouldn't work when we tried them, so Garry had to use cash. 

 We met Victor on the other side of the river and after a stop to change some US dollars- they needed cash to pay for the semen and we'd used what he brought for it buying the saw- followed him to the place where they buy liquid nitrogen to fill the tank (that's how the semen stays frozen) and then to the place where the Canadian-Ukrainian Dairy Commission is to buy the semen. I messaged the guy Garry was supposed to meet at eleven am that we'd be at the cafe at noon instead. 

Garry was doubting we'd get there in time but we did, the cafe seemed business as usual, there were people at nearly every table, even a couple young mothers out with their babies. Garry bought us kakao, as it's often close to hot chocolate from home, I drank mine by just pulling my mask up. This one, while pretty, was rather bitter since they'd dusted the top with cocoa powder to make that heart on top. Every place seems to have a different recipe, and if it says hot chocolate it's usually melted chocolate. 

We went through the KFC drivethru for lunch on the way home, we'd both skipped breakfast and we'd never stopped to get any because it didn't work out that morning, so Garry had two chicken sandwiches.

Tuesday Garry was busy all day figuring out the truss stuff so Dima, Vasa and Nikolai could cut the lumber. They had to clean the last of the corn out of one side of the quonset first so they could work in there. Wednesday we planned a trip to Kirvoy Rog to see Adam and Luba, we had brought some Canadian foods back they wanted in our suitcases. More on that in my next post, and photos of the guys working.

Cold and not so cold

 Today (Saturday) is like a lovely spring day at the end of March in Manitoba. The snow that fell the night we arrived is melting, making a mix of ice patches and mud outdoors. Garry and I had to chase an escaped hen back into the chicken pen this afternoon. We aren't sure how she got out, but she was enjoying digging in the dead leaves near the garden. 

Earlier in the week it wasn't so nice. Monday it was cold, minus 14 C was the high for the day. Victor had trouble starting his car to drive out to the village that morning. The cold started freezing water pipes, the girls had emptied their cistern Tuesday morning and the guys couldn't refill it because something was froze between the barn and the house. Luckily it thawed out on Friday so they could go back to showering, giving Angelina baths and flushing the toilet. For a couple days they were showering at other houses, Andrey was being sent over here for warm bath water in 2 liter bottles and Victor had given them a big milk jug full of water to flush with. So everyone was happy when the water started working again yesterday afternoon.

Overnight Tuesday was the coldest, Max says it went to minus 28, and when Garry tried to start the van and (or?) the car Wednesday morning, neither would start. He was supposed to be meeting Victor in Dnepro for a meeting and bringing one of the Sashas (birthday Sasha from Monday night) to the dentist. They finally got the van started by jumping it with Max's car and Garry was off for the rest of the day. They also went to see some heifers for sale, but they were not as advertised, so Garry made a low offer. We really don't need any more open or bred heifers anyway, since we have 120 calves and heifers on the farm now. Buying milk cows might be good, but no one is selling them since the price of milk is high this winter. 

The price of bread is higher, the students told us on Friday at cooking class it had jumped it another two grivna. When we first moved to Ukraine in 2009 a loaf was three grivna, now its sixteen in the village. We made oatmeal raisen cookies, without using the mixer, we melted the butter to start, because I only do recipes in a way that they can make them at their own houses with them.

Thursday morning it was only minus nine, but that was the day that Max was gone with the truck to pick up soybean meal. Earlier in the week he was having trouble getting a brewers grain delivery, he said he could either get a load to buy but no truck. or he couldn't get a load but the truck was available to deliver it. It seems the guy with the truck is working part time as a guard. Max convinced him to take the truck to work and start it every hour, I think, and the cows got their protein. They had been out for a while (beer production shuts down over the holidays) and milk production goes down when they don't get brewers grain in their feed. 

Garry is trying to get the heifers growing better this year. That plan was undercut while we were in Canada when they were not fed correctly. Later Thursday they realized the water had frozen to the insulated water bowls fqor the heifers and dry cows outside. Friday they used the truck and container and watered them. Fortunately whatever had frozen thawed out by this morning, and they are back to drinking whenever they want. 

Friday morning at 5:15 the rumbling overhead began as snow started sliding off the metal roof, so we knew it was warming up. Or I did, Garry slept through it.

Here's some photos to show how fast the snow has melted taken from our kitchen window. I took the first one Friday around noon, the second this morning around ten and the last about 1:30 this afternoon. If you look closely in the last photo you might see the chicken near the gate. 

Jet lag part two

 Sunday morning we slept in until ten am. Garry woke up about the time I had almost fallen asleep around three am. We did get (back for him) to sleep before five am. He cooked himself ramen noodles with veggies about 3:15. I had to get up show him where I put the cabbage we bought while shopping.

Sunday evening went to sleep around eleven pm, and woke up when Garry jumped up thinking it must be around five am. It was one-thirty am. Eventually we got back to sleep and woke up at 7:30. However, I did a lot of the prep for tonight's student meeting, chopping up more stuff for salad and the chicken fritters in the middle of the night. Sunday afternoon I made cookies and cooked the potatoes for the oliveyah salad Julia had requested.

I spent most of Monday morning making cabbage rolls, it made me remember why I don't ever make them! I cooked rice, boiled two different cabbages for leaves, scorched my fingers trying to peel the leaves off in the boiling water. Then I mixed up the rest of the ingredients and rolled the cooled leaves around balls of filling, I actually filled both crockpots (although we ended up freezing the ones from the small crockpot, I always worry we won't have enough food). My recipe I found was very Ukrainian style and everyone liked it. Garry said it tasted a lot like the Friedensfeld community club ones- that's for people in Manitoba. 

It was cold last night and only -16 C when we met at five pm this evening. Almost everyone made it to our house and we celebrated  Sasha L's 23rd birthday with cake and candles. 

He's the only guy still here that started in fall 2019. He's recently gotten his broken front teeth fixed, and enjoyed his gift of hats, neck warmer and water and coffee cups. Garry says he's the hardest worker we have, this fall he was getting day work for the pumpkin farmer along with working at the farm. He and Vika seem to be boyfriend/girlfriend this year but don't seem too serious.

The cold snap is supposed to last until Tuesday, it rarely gets down to -20 C here, so tonight's overnight low has people worried about what might freeze. Most of the students, especially the little boys, were very bundled up to walk here. 

 I'm staying up until midnight because our granddaughter's fourth birthday goes live on facebook for invited guests at 4 pm Central time. I just had a video chat and watched her decorate her own cake. There's a lot of icing and sprinkles on it. 

Garry had a message for the new year tonight, and making the most of our strengths and working with our weaknesses too. 

Jet lag

 So far, so good. We are going as non-contact as possible, in the hopes of avoiding the virus. Garry has been out to breed a few cows, we have hung out with some of the students. Garry went to the village store for a few items earlier in the week, and everyone is wearing masks to shop in the village stores again. We took our masked and sanitized trip to the grocery store at the mall this evening- pretty much everything is closed except the grocery store with non-grocery items blocked off- its like we are at Wal-Mart in Manitoba. 

Jetlag is a different story, although Garry seems to be hitting a more normal schedule as of last night, I am, as usual, not sleeping much and wide awake until way past midnight, one, two, maybe three o'clock...

Which is why we were both in bed Friday morning at nine am when students arrived for cooking class. I was sleeping so soundly that when Garry asked "Are the kids coming this morning?" I had no idea what kids he was talking about, or even where I was... that's right, my brain was  not even in Ukraine! Less than a week ago we were talking about a whole different set of kids that could be coming over. 

He went out to let them in while I stumbled around and found my clothes and remembered where I was and that the students would be making soup this morning. I started one browning ground beef, another peeling and chopping onions and another pair peeling and dicing potatoes, while I found the tomato paste.

By ten-thirty we were eating soup. 

Thursday morning we were awoken by a knock on a window at 6:15. It was still dark, who could it be? We had forgotten it was old new year, January 14th, and it was the first group of neighbor boys to recite a verse and throw grain over the threshold. Garry put on his robe to answer the door, came back in to get some money (they get candy or money for doing the blessing of the house) and then went back to sleep. Four more guys showed up around nine, but less guys came this year than usually do, maybe because of the lockdown.

Max Rudei says that they can come anytime after midnight until noon. He also said when he was a teenager, they used to mark a path with straw to the home (or gate anyway) of the girl they liked that day. Garry swept up the grain in the porch Friday morning, because  a couple years ago we found out you weren't supposed to clean it up all day.  At least we have a porch this year, at the other house it came in the kitchen door usually!

We are having colder weather (-13 C when we got back from Zaporosia at 7:30 tonight) so Garry has postponed building trusses as warmer weather is supposed to arrive next week.

We made it

Its Wednesday afternoon in Ukraine. We landed 24 hours ago. Victor and his daughter Dasha met us at the airport in Borispol and we loaded up the suitcases for the drive back to the village.

But first let me go back to where I left off... Saturday morning we drove into Winnipeg and got our Covid19 tests done, in the hope we'd have the results to print out before Sunday afternoon, when we planned to go to Winnipeg, since our flight to Calgary had been moved up to 6:30 am instead of later in the morning (Westjet has been cutting routes due to Covid). We started saying goodbye to the kids and finished packing our suitcases before going to bed that night.

Sunday morning I logged in to the MB health covid site and there they were, two negative results to get us on the plane to Amsterdam. We printed the page, along with the Ukrainian insurance certificates Victor had emailed us (for flying into Ukraine, Canadians don't need to quarentine or have a covid test, although others -eg Americans- do). Garry was worried that our printout did not specify what kind of test it was. We both got busy with other things until about one, when we tried a toll free number and they texted the results with all the details to Noah's phone and he printed them off for us to take.

Since Manitoba's code red was on the entire time we were there, we did not get to visit anyone, so I will just say we stayed the night in Winnipeg, had delicious Chinese takeout, delivered the stuff we brought from Ukraine and got a ride to the airport at 4:30 am.

It took a long time to check in for the flight, since she had to check all of the documents we needed for everywhere we were going. They all looked good, and we were off to Calgary where we landed at 8 am and took off around 3:30 in the afternoon. We bought bagels and hot chocolate at Tim Hortons and headed to where our gate was. D (international) terminal was pretty empty until about an hour before the flight, but had nice places for Garry to lie down and nap a bit. For lunch we shared a giant takeout burger and fries from chili's. Both A&W and Subway were closed, along with all but one shop and the chili's restaurant. Covid has really cut down shopping and eating choices at airports. 

Around one o'clock they announced a bunch of names, including ours, and we took turns going up and showing our documents, once mine worked we knew we'd get to Ukraine and messaged Victor again. The couple ahead of me had orginally been going on Friday but had to rebook for Monday because of the Covid test.

We ended up with empty seats next to us, so Garry was able to lie across four seats and got a little more sleep, I had two seats by the window. We discovered that members of the Canadian speed skating team were on the plane with us, apparently at least one was using compression socks (probably not for varicose veins like me) I heard him talking about how he was prepared for the flight. Apparently the world championships are in Holland and they will be in a bubble.

The flight was pretty smooth, food was okay (I was disappointed however, there was no ice cream and not even the  can of coke and giant bag of snacks halfway through the flight like on the way over, KLM). After deplaning in Amsterdam we went to their Terminal D and had a short wait for the flight to Kyiv. We were all the way at the back of the plane, but got through immigration and customs pretty quickly, our luggage was selected to go through the xray and Garry had to open it to show them the chain he was bringing for the chopper (forage harvestor) but then we got to go.

Back to the first paragraph, we left Borispol shortly after two o'clock, of course by 4:30 it was getting dark. The dark turned out to be a problem as after stopping for drive-thru at McDonalds (no eat in, we are under lockdown until the 24th) we discovered a couple of potholes that caused tire damage. We noticed two cars stopped fixing tires after we hit the first one, and just up the road we had a flat too, and Garry and Victor had to change it. The police came by and asked why we were stopped, Victor told them, our tire is almost fixed but there's two more cars up the road with the same problem. 

Not ten minutes later we heard another loud bang as we didn't avoid a bad hole and Victor stopped; he opened the door, heard the air hissing out of a tire and they raced to find the hammer under the suitcases to pound out the dented rim and then plugged in the little air compressor to refill the tire.

Luckily we avoided all the really bad holes the rest of the way home. Victor dropped Dasha at home in Dnepro before long we were headed out to the village. Garry and I both dozed off and on for the last part of the trip. Victor called Vlad shortly before arriving in Nikolaipolia because he had made a pizza for us, and he wa standing out on the street waiting to hand it off to Garry.

Garry fell into bed soon after getting home at 10:30 and slept in this morning, I woke up early and unpacked the suitcases. Box was so happy to have us home she climbed into bed and wanted petting, I woke up at three am and there she was staring at me. 

Dasha had mentioned on the drive home that they had predicted snow for Monday and Tuesday but it hadn't happened. Well I guess our timing was good because the storm hit overnight and there is about three inches of snow outside. The whole village is saying we brought it back from Canada.

Garry has had a busy day, talking to Max and Victor, buying a snow shovel, breeding cows (by two o'clock, he'd bred three cows). The neighbor came over to talk to him about breeding his cow and renewing the car insurance on the Geely (little while car) because it expires today (it cost 20 dollars for the year). Now Garry's busy making plans to build trusses for another heifer barn, the quonset is empty on one side, so they can work inside. Victor phoned to order the lumber.

Meanwhile back in Manitoba, my yarn was delivered yesterday. I ordered it November 12th and thought I'd have it for Christmas. Garry's new coveralls also came on Tuesday, so if we'd stayed a little longer, but we missed driving through the snow and I will have yarn in May, since I assume there will be a two week isolation again. 

Hopefully leaving Monday

 After a couple of emails about preparing for your flight that I read, on Wednesday, we tried to find out if we needed a Covid test to fly through Amsterdam, as it was unclear. Apparently the government of the Netherlands changed requirements on December 29th, but did it apply to us? Thursday morning the newest email was clear, we need a negative test within 72 hours of landing in Amsterdam (we'll be in the airport there less than two hours) and a printed copy to prove it before boarding the plane Monday. We now fly out of Winnipeg at 6:30 am, due to WestJet route cuts, so we had a problem. All covid-19 testing in Manitoba is through public health, no private testing. Can this work? 

We were thinking no, better change the tickets, but Garry was in the barn yesterday morning and found out that the cleaner Marcie (the boys hired someone just to clean a year or so ago) has a son flying to Germany today who got his test results back in 12 hours. So we have an appointment Saturday morning and we'll see if we get the results in time.

We did tell Victor not to drive to Kyiv to meet us until we are on the plane to Amsterdam, because we have no idea if this will work, our daughter's been tested a couple times as a teacher and it has taken days to get the results back...

So I'll pack the suitcase today, including some goodies that Adam Nikkel wants from Canada, and hopefully we can fly out Monday morning. I am torn about leaving Manitoba for Ukraine, which is going into their code red lockdown today, while here we've been in code red and haven't been able to visit with anyone off the farm. Victor says things have been going well in the village, but of course Garry has to see for himself. Most years I stay longer than Garry, but he "accidently" booked us both together, and with the complications of moving around during the pandemic, I have not changed mine. So this week I put Christmas away on Tuesday, normally I wait until after the seventh (Ukrainian Christmas and our son Noah's birthday) but Jonah said he wanted to unfold his treadmill. 

Garry is hoping Monday we will be sitting in Calgary for our much longer than planned time in the airport there- about seven hours between flights now- waiting for our connection to get to Ukraine. I hope whatever happens is for the best outcome. Oh well, lots of stuff to get done before we leave, and the cats are looking to get fed again.

Sad news

 This week we recieved some sad news from Victor. You may remember that former student Valera was in hospital with a severe head injury. He had been in a coma since that night and passed away in hospital on Sunday. After doing paperwork for a couple days, they were able to have a funeral on Thursday, the last day of the year. 

His older brother Vlad, who was also in the program, lives in the village and was very sad. He was going to the hospital almost every day for weeks to pay for Valera's care.  He says he has been looking out for Valera since they went to the orphanage as children. This summer they had been not together as much with Vlad having a new girlfriend (they announced their engagement days before Valera was hurt) and quitting drinking and smoking, while Valera did not.

The police eventually decided Valera had been attacked and robbed for his pay that he had recieved that day for some construction work, (around 100 dollars) 2000 grivna in cash, by a married couple that had been living for a few months in the nearby village where Valera was found. They disappeared afterwards, and have not been arrested, which has disappointed his brother Vlad, who wants to see justice done, almost as much as he hoped for Valera's recovery. 

New Year

My mother always told me that whatever you do the first day of the year, you will do the rest of the year, so I can hope to be unloading the dishwasher every morning! That's a bit of a joke as we are planning to fly back to Ukraine on January 11th, and we don't have a dishwasher in the new house. It would be handy when we have all the students for dinner to wash up the plates and cups, though.

Here in Manitoba it has been a quiet holiday season with all gatherings banned due to the pandemic. No visiting friends and supporters, no in person church to attend. Garry was sleeping by the time the new year was rung in, and Max Boradin insisted it already had happened back in Ukraine. He did eat the pizza I made for dinner. Max has decided since he made it back to Canada two months ago to work on getting a permanent resident card. 

Back in Ukraine the students planned and created a celebration for Novi Goad (new years) and sent me some photos. Looks like Valentina may have stayed home with the baby, it took place in the classroom.

They planned the evening, bought supplies and prepared the food and looks like they had a good time. Earlier in the day Victor handed out the bags I had left for each student. This year while we were on vacation in Egypt I crocheted hats for most of the boys (a couple got Canada hats). For the girls, I made either mittens, ponytail hats or cowls. Plus the usual toiletry supplies and candy. The little guys and baby Angelina got toys and goodies too.