More about that

Well I took a nap this afternoon after worshiping with Marina at Word of Life church on the left bank. I get my cell phone tomorrow, for sure, as it will meet me at the Institute along with almost 60 students in my three classes. Garry has managed to buy a new car already, a Lada brand station wagon-like one, Orban tells me it's called a universal here. He won't be able to drive it until Tuesday, so I look forward to seeing him and the boys here in the city then.
The boys seem to be adjusting well, although they are waiting for the Internet- hopefully we will have access out there soon, and you'll find out more as it happens!

We're Here!

Yes it is true, we landed in Kiev Tuesday afternoon with almost all our luggage- tub #3 found us two days later. Seth and Jonah enjoyed their first flying experience , even though it was a little bumpy. Seth did not enjoy takeoff so much the first time. We had a good time seeing our families before we left- and for those who know about Jonah's sparkler accident on the 4th - he's healing nicely- no infection in his burns on his toes!
I am writing from Dnepro were I am staying with Marina at her apartment as Institute starts Monday. Garry and the boys are in the village settling in, and moving around the stuff I put away. He has a cell- I'll have one tomorrow, so we can be called but I don't have the numbers! The boys had their first (very crowded ) tram ride and ate at Pazata Hata ( its a Ukrainian style buffet) and we got caught in the rain near the Central market do they got pretty wet. I will try to post photos next week!

Waiting

I haven't posted in almost a month, and the crops should have been planted here in Manitoba, but not much is done as it has been cold and wet, wet. Garry has been making gouda cheese to fill his days when he can't do anything outside. The homeschool materials are bought, I'm starting to pack stuff. I finished my tiling projects at daughter Jessica's house, and we helping Matt, Kari and the girls move into their new place- a farm at the border in Piney, across from the church where Matt is pastoring. We are sending our passports off to Ottawa to the Ukrainan embassy to get our Visas- you can prayer that the forms are all filled out correctly so they are done in time! The plane tickets are bought and we fly out of Newark on the 6th of July, after camping with Garry's family and visiting with my parents.

Church visits and Graduation

We have been busy this month, Garry is thinking about the farm here in Manitoba and getting ready to plant here, and we have been making decisions about what is going into the luggage and homeschooling materials for the boys. We are planning to fly out of New York City, after visiting relatives, on July 7th.

We spoke about our mission plans at our home church Emmanuel E Free, two Sundays ago, and visited the Ste. Aldolphe Fellowship, where the town is surrounded by the Red River flood, but one road is open to get in and out. We enjoyed talking to the people there, and got to know some of them better at lunch.

Two weeks ago we hurried over to Providence College after church where I received my BA in TESOL. Some of the kids came and our granddaughters were there to congratulate me, that's Xaris, who is 2 1/2 with me.

LACE class

Garry and Teresa spend 5 days at the end of March in green Langley BC at the Gateway missionary training school for a LACE class. This was a class about how to learn language using a language helper along with some work on phonics and other ways to help future missionaries learn their target language. As part of the class we got to use use a language helper to learn a language, Garry worked on Subwano (spelling?) from the Philippines and Teresa was in the Wolof group with Marjorie, a missionary who had worked in Gambia. The staff was wonderful as were our fellow students which included many future missionaries from other countries who have already learned English as another language. Both the training and the experience of being with our fellow participants made the week well worth the time away. It also gave us an apprieciation for the task ahead as Russian is considered one of the more difficult languages to learn! Garry is still working hard with his program on CD everyday and has memorized nearly 100 Russian words.

Preparations

Garry has been very busy learning Russian words-he tries to learn a couple everyday- like for food- potatoes, cheese, and so on. Yesterday he was working on he. she and we. It makes me think that I should start. I also need to work on lesson planning as I will be teaching at the Summer Institute in Dnepro right after we get to Ukraine in July.
He has also been making cheese at home. He hopes that this will be useful in Ukraine as a value added milk product. He has a couple edam style cheeses aging in the fridge, and has made some squeaky cheese curds we have been eating- the boys enjoyed some in poutine yesterday.

TESOL in Dnepropetrosk SLI 2008

Last summer Garry and I left the older boys at home, the youngest two in NJ with Grandma Emley and Aunt Sandy and Uncle Bob to visit their fav cousin Justin for the month of July while we flew to Ukraine so I could teach English. This was part of my classes at Prov- an overseas teaching experience so I could get my bachelor's degree.

We had an amazing time and while I was teaching and sweating alot in the city, Garry managed to see the countryside and do what he does every place we visit- look for dairy farms. He found one with all new equiptment and hundreds of cows- but most milk is produced in the villages by people milking a couple of cows that go out to the community pasture in the morning and return in the evening. The last weekend we were there we stayed in the village of Nikolipol and this is what started our mission focus for returning to Ukraine. However since we are returning in July I have been asked to teach again as part of the EFCCM team in Dnepro.