Home again

 Garry, Steve and Jo arrived safely, and on time in Winnipeg last week Wednesday afternoon, I picked them up at the  airport and after we dropped them at their house, headed home to the farm. Garry was in bed by seven pm, 24 hours after he awoke to go to the airport in Budapest. 

I had thought I had posted that last week, but I guess not! We had a busy time after he got home, celebrating Easter a week late on Friday and Saturday with the family. All of the grandkids were here on Saturday for the egg hunt at uncle Seth and Jonah's after breakfast and dinner at our place. Almost all the snow had melted and everyone had a good time.

Sunday after church, Garry and I went out to the cottage. He enjoyed walking out in front of the cottage to go ice fishing, although it got more difficult by Wednesday afternoon. He had a ladder on the edge of the lake to get to the ice, since the shoreline ice was disappearing. Anyway, he'd caught lunch and decided he would wait until we can take the boat out on the lake to fish again.

We were heading back to the farm anyway, Garry is off to Saskatchewan this weekend with most of the boys for a basketball tournament at Matt's and I am babysitting today because the other boys insisted Micah had to go with them and Crystal is at a craft fair in Morris today with her soap.

Garry is mostly over jetlag and his cold that affected most of his trip. He's pleased with the results of his trip, the progress on the barn and how everything is going in the village and with the students and staff. The power was never out while he was there, the stores  and restaurants are open and busy in the cities.

Uber-ing to Budapest

 Garry left Ukraine via a Sprinter van, it cost 40 euro to get picked up at his hotel in Uzgorod and delivered  to his hotel in Budapest. It took about 11 hours, first they picked up other passengers in Uzgorod and drove to the border. It took about 4 hours to cross the border this time (remember the seven hours it took in December?) and then they were on their way, but got stuck in a traffic jam about 69 kilometers from Budapest. 

It was about three more hours in the van to get there, first they dropped all the other passengers. He did pass our friend Jessica on the highway, they waved at each other on the Hungarian highway, he was sitting in the front seat. She had left our friends Steve and Jo at the hotel and they checked in around 3 pm. Garry got there around ten. 

They plan a nice tour in Budapest today, and have a flight at 6:30 am Wednesday morning to Frankfurt, then on to Toronto and finally Winnipeg at 4 pm, the same day, through the magic of time zones.

It finally stopped raining in the village, Max sent this photo of one side of the barn with the roof finished. 

On his way

 

Garry is about four hours into his 21 hour train trip back to western Ukraine. He will miss Easter, since it's here (tomorrow) this Sunday, I thought he'd miss it in Ukraine anyway, since Orthodox Easter is next week. However, he went to a Maundy Thursday service in the village because they are using the "western church date instead of  Russian Easter". 

He told me he has lots of snacks and he'll be staying overnight Sunday and Uber-ing across the border Monday, he flies out with our friends Steve and Jo on Wednesday morning. After nearly missing his flight in December he decided on an extra day in Hungary.  They are already over the border.

Jack and his team are home in BC after staying overnight in Montreal. They had a two hour delay in Istanbul, but were already scheduled to be in Montreal overnight, so no problems. 

Excuse me, while I take the paska bread out of the oven. I've been working on it all day, it's for church tomorrow, they asked for people to bring some to share. Hopefully Ukrainian paska is close to Mennonite, because it's the only kind I know how to make!

Garry worked on the barn walls for a couple hours all the last three days, he says they decided to make the walls a half block taller, so someone will need to finish that. The metal roof, that we thought would be done before he left, isn't, because it keeps raining everyday. Garry said today (Saturday morning) when he started working on the wall at 7 am the sun was shining. Max and the guys started on the roof and a thunderstorm came up, so they didn't get much done. They are gluing the seams together on the sheets of metal, so they can't do it in the rain. 

However, we know that sooner or later, it will be dry in the village and it will take about three days to finish the roof. I'm told they plan to put a coating on the outside of the block walls so the barn will look really nice. 

So Garry was done around 11 am,  cleaned up and finished packing his backpack and carry-on for the trip home.  Max took Garry for a quick check up with the dentist and to the train station in the afternoon, his train left at 7 pm. Hopefully he remembered everything he was supposed to bring home

, he said he found the candy bars I sent with him and gave them to Oleg today, they'll hand them out at church on Sunday.

A little more

 

See it looks like they had eggs for breakfast, and there's Richard feeding some to Angelina. It's the interaction and friendship with the students and the people in the village that are the best memories, not the work that gets done. 

Not that the work wasn't worthwhile! Thanks to whoever sponsored Jeremy to come so he could fix all the electrical panels and wiring in both barns, everyone is now safer!

The team, especially Richard and Jack, helped Garry and the students and staff who worked on it, make the barn more suited to raising chickens, which has turned into a profitable business for the project. 

Finished broilers are sold via the internet and delivered weekly to customers in the nearby cities of Zaporosia and Dnipro.

The students love interact with the teams and to see their Canadian friends come back again. Besides, who wouldn't want to share a bathroom with ten other people for a week? 

 There were a few reminders that there was a war not far away. They got to see Ukrainian fighter jets fly over the farm one day, and driving there are block posts (Garry said you didn't have to stop, they waved the cars through). Here's a photo of metal hedgehogs on (beside?) the road on the way to Zaporosia and yesterday in Kirvoy they saw a pile of salvaged destroyed tanks. 

Wednesday

 

Wednesday Garry drove the team to Kirvoy Rog so they could meet up with Luba as they are heading home Thursday (at least back across the border) and then they will be heading back to Canada. I didn't get to talk to Garry, until tonight (his Thursday morning) he said he got home at 7 pm and was so tired he went right to bed. 

However I have received a few more photos from them from Tuesday. Monday afternoon Garry picked up a couple visitors from the train station, Pastor Yura and Jack's young (maybe 18 year old) English learner who were there on Tuesday, having come from Kramatorsk to see Jack.  

I would like to remind everyone that in Manitoba, we got a foot of snow here on the farm last night, while in Ukraine, they had some rainy days while they were working. In this photo from the weekend, you can see all the pallets of the insul-block piled around the barn, and look at all the green grass!

Here you can see that most of the blocks are now in the walls. That was a lot of work for three guys over 65! Jack is 70 and Richard is 78. There's a little bit to go (I think Garry said two top rows on one side) and he hopes to get it finished Friday with Nikolai, one of the students. Thursday (today) he has to go back to the dentist and back to the lawyer's office (Tuesday he was there but they need more things signed for the farm business) and he is doing laundry. 

The young guy with the long hair is Jack's friend, but his name escapes me right now at midnight. He handing Jack a block and  Nikolai is closest to the camera.

Here's a few more pictures from Tuesday. The first one is Twyla milking Tuesday afternoon, she enjoyed spending time with the students, especially the girls. Garry tells me she also did a lot of cleaning up in the house Tuesday. 

Monday night there were three guys (Richard and the visitors) sleeping in the living room - two of the chairs turn into beds, and the couch. Of course, four girls, one three year old and Twyla were also sleeping in the house, and Garry.  Jack and Jeremy slept in Victor's little house, the old summer kitchen. Garry did say he missed me helping with all the cooking and things, especially since he was sick some (most?) of the time they were there. Garry cooked breakfast and I think Elena and Oleg made dinners for the team. 

People who have visited us on work teams might remember young Igor, who is now a young man in the civil defense in the region, here he is posing with Jeremy. 

Saturday evening Garry's getting on the train back to Uzgorod, Monday he's going back across the border to Hungary and next week Wednesday evening he'll be home. 

More photos!

 

We have more photos from Sunday and Monday, even a cell phone video from church. You can see they are working hard, and there's only one more day of work before the team moves on to other places on Wednesday for the rest of their trip. Of course the first photo is of church, they might not have understood the sermon, but got to worship with other believers. The team sang the Old Rugged Cross in English and then it was sung by everyone else. Not the best quality, but I thought you might enjoy seeing it. 

Then they got to work after lunch Sunday. They did start the roof and built more of the block walls. 

Unfortunately it was rainy on Monday, so they weren't able to work on the roof, but they did get more blocks up on the walls. 

You can see some of the chicken raising area in the last photo. I'm sure it will be a busy Tuesday, which is getting started as I'm writing at 11 pm here in Canada. I was busy today, and there's a snowstorm predicted tomorrow! Meanwhile look at the green grass in Ukraine, and the green frog.

 

Photos!

 

Thanks to team member Jeremy, I have photos! So here's some pictures taken 1) when the finally got over the border Thursday and 2) of all the work they got done on Friday and Saturday. Jack, Richard, Garry and Twyla are working on building up the block walls...

Lunch break

Jeremy, who is a professional, was working on rewiring the barn, with his usual follower/helper student Dima.

While Max, his brother Andrey and Vlad (former child tractor driver) are doing the front and sides of the barn, they got half of the back side done on Friday and actually to their surprise, finished it and the whole front Saturday. They (mostly Andrey- Garry told me on Wednesday he was cutting metal and holding pieces for him to weld) had to do a lot of welding to make bars for the metal to get attached to beforehand.  They won't need todo that for the roof, I am told.

So they are ready to start the roof now. Today, Sunday, the team planned a quiet morning, with church in the village at ten am, but were going to go back to work after lunch on those block walls. Jack thinks that they can be done by Wednesday or Thursday. 

We'll see. Maybe Garry will get a full day of work in on Monday, he was feeling better yesterday, but had to leave at five to get his infected tooth pulled in Dnepro, and now his face is swollen. 

Long day

 

Garry, Max and the BC guys are safely home at the farm after a long trip, that was long for the ones on the airplane, and even longer than expected, due to passport problems for the teen that they were escorting home to Ukraine. It took about eight hours longer than planned, they had to go to the Ukrainian embassy for paperwork, so Garry and Max were waiting for most of the day at the Moldova border. They left the village at 3 am Thursday and got back at 7 am Friday.

Jack drove for a couple hours through the night, and they got a day of work in, except Garry who had to go to bed at noontime, he has caught that flu I think. Hopefully the team doesn't catch it.

While waiting at the border, Max sent me some photos. Garry got a haircut and had a number of people concerned about his health because he was napping in the grass. 

In the pizza photo, you can see the haircut.