If you are wondering what happened Friday evening through Monday, here are the highlights and not so highlights. Garry did not make it home with the students until a few minutes before six, so he did not join the zoom call. I did, but had to run outside to shut the door to the chicken coop at 5:30 because when I tried to do it at five the whole flock (now two roosters and four hens) were all digging around in the dirt outside in the pen.
We did head out with the students who wanted to shop, there was more traffic than normal and it was raining a bit when we left the mall. Traffic was slow going back over the bridge to the island, we thought truck traffic would have already cleared out. Trucks cannot cross the dam bridge and the island bridge in Zaporosia bans them during rush hours of the day, so there is a lot of trucks waiting to cross at seven pm. It's a tight turn as they get onto the bridge so it impacts traffic flow getting off the bridge as they need to stop so they can make the turn. The students were all happy with their purchases and the Mc Donalds they had bought and eaten as inside eating is back in Ukraine for the last month. Danil really enjoyed the car shopping cart and french fries his parents fed him while waiting for everyone to gather at Mc Donalds after the grocery store.
Saturday morning we woke up to three or more inches of heavy wet snow. It didn't keep Garry from going to teach in Dnepro although I stayed home. I planned to work on making the curtains for Alona's living room. However I got busy printing photos of workteams off my old computer and didn't work on the curtain project at all. A new photo collage in an old window from this house is in the works to hang by the table, although its now waiting on the curtain project. By noon, water was running off the roof as the snow melted. A good amount disappeared that afternoon, Garry was happy to spend the rest of the weekend at home when he got back. The planned trip to Kirvoy Rog for church had been cancelled due to the possible snow and the van needing a little work done. We hope to take the students there on the 21st. A number of them came from that organization and like to visit the church there.
By Sunday morning, things were not going as well as planned. Garry and I had realized we were getting the cold the students were passing around last week. I was ready to spend the day in bed when I woke up, although I wasn't really sick yet. The pastor from the village church had called Garry on Saturday to invite us for a 'special service' so Garry thought it would be okay to go if we wore masks and kept away from everyone. It was a great plan to keep them from getting sick. It was until the service was over and they insisted we stay and take off our masks for tea and sandwiches and pastry for womens day about two feet from them. I hope those sweet old ladies did not get sick. I even got a gift (my second womens day gift, Garry had gotten one from the teacher he taught for on Saturday, roses made of soap arranged in a cup).
The worse news Sunday morning was that Valentina and baby Angelina were in hospital somewhere in Zaporosia. Garry was a little miffed that Andrey had called the ambulance, instead of us, when the baby started throwing up with a slight fever Saturday night. She was fine on Friday morning at our house, as you can see it the photo. At nine months, she's weighing in over nine kilos. It's the first time she's been sick and it's normal procedure here to call the doctor to the house, as crazy as it sounds to us, whose kids rarely even went to the doctor's office unless they ran a fever for a couple days.
Monday morning and we were both woke up feeling really sick with this cold- by evening I couldn't breath through my nose! We were supposed to be teaching English the next afternoon for the American week at the university in Dnepro (that the zoom call was about). We warned Victor not to come out for his normal weekly trip to the village so he didn't catch the cold from us. He phoned and found out where Valentina was (there are several hospitals the students/babies end up in), and we gave Andrey (Angelina's papa) money for the marshutka to go visit and bring things they needed. It seems like once they get to the hospital they are there for at least a week, mom goes to take care of baby/child, so everything is in flux as they need things from home, prescribed medicine and food delivered to them.
I handed out a box of the chocolates I'd bought for womens day for the girls to Vika who came to the door for something, and soon after another girl or their husbands showed up for their gifts. Garry was going to the barn after lunch so I gave him a bag with one of the last heart shaped boxes and said that one was for Oksana if he could find some one to give it to and the big box was for Yana (our only staff female now). Unfortunately he misunderstood me (or forgot by the time he preg checked cows and pulled a calf- the second of a pair of heifer calf twins- hurrah) and gave the whole bag to Yana, so I am looking for another box for the last girl (either Oksana or Valentina).
Garry and Yana drove to get something from the vetecka for a sick calf at four o'clock, Yana couldn't write it down, and Garry didn't understand what she wanted. The vet has already given this calf a couple of injections, but Yana wanted to try something else. They stopped along to way to breed a cow someone had phoned about. However, they had forgotten it was a holiday and the vet supply store wasn't open, so they decided to return Tuesday morning.
Tuesday morning when she came, I realized Yana has cought the cold too, she sounded very hoarse. They got the meds and Garry bred another cow in the same village as Monday, the same lady called as the day before, but about her neighbor's cow he discovered when they got there. Garry gave Andrey more money to go to town with Vlad to help him out again- he'd gone with him the day before. Sadly he's a pro at dealing with hospitals after his brother was there so long.
It was going to be a very long day when we got home after teaching that night. We tried out different cold medications we've brought back from Canada, Garry wanted to try out the neo-citran drink, but I said he'd have to wait until we got home because it was a nighttime formula, and gave him a daytime pill. We played Sequence under bad lighting for a few games. At ten am the power had gone out, they were working on a transformer in the village, Garry said, so it was daylight coming in the windows to see by. Garry took a short nap before we got ready (I was glad I showered when I got up that morning) to go teach, so we could check out where the building was before finding a late lunch in the city. I'll leave our story there for now, but you don't want to miss... the rest of the story.
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