The rest of the week

Its Saturday morning in the village.  It just got quiet in the house at quarter to ten. I should be getting over jetlag as its been ten days, but no one has told my brain that. I just can't get to sleep at night until at least one or two am.

Thursday night it was more like five am when I got to sleep, and Garry's sleep was disturbed,  but not by me. His phone rang at midnight, then again at three am, twice, because he woke up enough to answer it and discover it was a robocall in Ukrainian,  so they phoned back! He decided to turn off his phone.  At four am I was finally starting to fall asleep when someone knocked on our bedroom window.  It was Yana, a cow was having a difficult birth, and she couldn't get Garry on the phone so she had biked over from the barn in the dark. She had tried to deliver it with the help of Dima, who was the night guard at the barn and had telephoned her.

Garry went to to barn and came back a half hour later. The calf had been coming out with a foot back. The head and one leg were out when he got there. Cows are born feet first, followed by the head, unless its breech when you have two back legs (but make sure those are back legs and the head isn't hiding, because that's a problem too). In this case, the calf was stuck because the second leg was not out. Garry had to push the calf back in, working against the cow, who was pushing hard to deliver the calf. By the time he had pushed the calf back in the uterus and reached around and found and got the second foot coming out with its mate, and they pulled the calf out, he was wet, dirty and exhausted (mostly because he is still recovering after being sick) but excited to tell me that they had a big live bull calf.

He jumped in the shower to clean up and put all his clothes in the washer at 4:30, while Leila,  who was milking that morning muttered in the hallway that she was going to be late for the five am shift. One of the most challenging things about living with four girls is we only have one bathroom in this house (our dedicated group homes have two or three, with one for the family to use) and sometimes you really need to get in there when its being used.

Garry came back to bed, and we both went to sleep.  I don't know when he got up, I slept on and off until I got up to cook the noon meal around eleven. I was awake a lot of the time because it was Friday morning and that's payday for the students. Garry was in and out of the bedroom and at one point Sasha came in the house when no one answered the door looking for Garry and I woke up to talk in Russian about where Garry was.

I thought he was at the guys house, working on the shower but I was wrong. They did finish tiling that one this week, I think Garry is grouting it right now. That house has three bathrooms but they should be able to use the new shower next week. Max and Garry will finish the one at the "new" house (2015) now. Max was installing the cement board yesterday.

Thursday morning I did not sleep in because it was cooking class day, and we were making hamburgers with yeast rolls and French fries.  Vlad and Valera were there, having arrived back in the village the day before. We are not sure if they will be staying  this time. They kept telling me that we should be having Pepsi with it like McDonald's.  I was still working without a translator,  but we muddled through, with the students guessing what I meant until we agreed. Mostly Kolya and Julia doing the helping and translating, and Valentina and Leila (who was cleaning up). Everyone, including Artom and young Vlad, the tractor drivers, who wandered in to see the guys, got a hamburger and a few fries to eat, with pickles on the side. I was told even baby Daniel had eaten, but I did not see that, or get any photos.

Hopefully Nellie will arrive back this weekend as planned (she did not make it earlier in the week) since Garry plans to teach Monday.

Garry was very excited Wednesday evening when Alona,  Nikolai and the baby came over that he was able to hold him without Daniel crying. Garry held him all the time before going home for Christmas but when he returned Daniel would scream every time. It turns out the wifi was not working at their house, we had visitors every evening it seemed, Julia and Dima were over a lot, Dima helped with the new cow puzzle they put together. The students finished it while we were off buying semen (see previous post).

Update

Well its Monday and Garry is feeling better after his bout with bronchitis.  Last week he started feeling better but he still tired easily.

Friday morning while I was teaching cooking class, Garry decided to go work on tiling one of showers he and Max are working on making (replacements in two of the houses for broken shower cabinets) but he came home in about two hours for a nap because he was exhausted. 

Friday evening we drove into Dnepro to see everyone who came for our SEI follow up meeting. Garry had three people out the previous week, but we had eight this week. We have twelve books now, thanks to donated ones we brought back from Canada, so everyone can read together. We are getting one chapter a week read from  40 Days of Purpose.

Saturday I just rested up. Garry took it easy but he made pizza for the girls.  We planned to go to an English meeting in Dnepro but decided to stay home we were just too tired. He planned to go to church in the village on Sunday,  but the students told him it was canceled because of  too much ice near the church building,  they were afraid someone would slip and fall. Most of the congregation is older and a few walk with canes, so it was a legitimate concern.

So Sunday morning the sun was shining as we were off to Dnepro with five students in the back seat of the mission car to attend Morningstar church. We were driving the mission car because Victor had used the big white van to drive a family of seven that were immigrating to Canada to the airport in Kiev on Friday.  The roads were snowy and icy that day but he made it there safely and back to Dnepro on Saturday.  After church we picked up the used Geely sedan we bought from the family.  I got to drive the white van with the students back to the village,  it was snowing and blowing (again) a bit, so it was a slower drive but we got back around three pm and I dropped Dima and the girls off at the boys house for the Sunday afternoon youth meeting.

Garry picked up some groceries and came home in the new car. We got to drive it back to Dnepro around seven o'clock after Garry had a phone call to breed a cow in the village and realized his tool box with his breeding supplies (gloves, sheaths and hot water thermos) was in the mission car. The snow had stopped and we picked up some more groceries at the mall where we met Victor.

Monday morning Garry went and bred the cow at eight am as planned, then he called Victor to phone the semen supplier. He had used the last straw this morning on that cow. Garry went and worked on the tiling again. He came home to "Canadian soup" as the girls call my vegetable hamburger soup. Vika even ate it, even though she likes her soup without meat.

Victor called back around two after a few back and forth calls about needing it today,  and Garry and I were  off for another drive in the new car. We hoped to get there and most of the way back before dark. The freezing and thawing process of winter is really hard on the roads. The new highway from Zaporosia to Dnepro is fine, but the other roads are growing potholes daily. 

There was less snow as we went south,it was exciting to see that the wheat fields were green.  We also saw a large number of hawks in the trees on the way.

Unfortunately we decided to take to road to Tokmock and then over to Molachansk. We should have taken the first road over, it was better when we drove it on the way home. The closer to Tokmok the worse the driving, with the road full of big holes. When we finally got to Tokmok we missed our turn and drove around for 20 minutes before getting directions and getting on the right road, heading toward the setting sun.

Once we got to our destination we were able to get the semen and liquid nitrogen quickly and almost got back to the main highway before dark. At least we didn't have any flat tires, and the semen tank securely buckled in the back seat.

We made it home around 7:30 after dropping off milk and baby cereal for Alona and Nikolai's baby Daniel we bought on the way home. The doctor had told Alona he could eat kasha now.  Interesting to discover that the first cereal for a Ukrainian baby is not rice, but gratschka (buckwheat).

I'm back

After a bit of confusion,  I'm logged in and making a blog post. Garry somehow logged in and changed the password last week, so when I tried to make a blog post in the middle of the night I was locked out.

I returned to Ukraine Wednesday afternoon (its confusing what day it is now, between traveling and the time change because you lose half a day when flying in this direction. 

The boys dropped me at the airport at ten PM Monday after their basketball game.  I could have gotten a hotel room but I was reluctant to spend the money since I needed to be there to check in by six am, so I stayed awake until my flight at eight, and napped on the flight to Toronto. 
Where I was for six hours until my flight to Vienna.  I got off the plane and decided to hang out where I was so I could eat at the A&W there before heading to the international terminal.  I had just gotten Garry online for a chat after puzzling over messages from an unknown number saying they'd seen me in Winnipeg airport,  when Carol walked up to me.
She'd spotted me coming off the plane when she and Roy were waiting for a plane to Toronto at a nearby gate. We chatted until they boarded.  Unfortunately their African mission trip was cut short because her brother had passed away.
I headed to the international terminal E after eating my mama burger. When I first got there around three pm, it was pretty empty but the chairs gradually filled with people speaking many languages.  I got called to the desk to check my status for traveling to Ukraine.  She had some problems registering my shiny new residence card, since she had to input all the numbers. The Air Canada agent had done it in Winnipeg but I was flying Austrian air the rest of the way. Eventually all was solved, and eventually I boarded the plane around six pm and was on my way. I managed to stay awake until after the meal was served, and got some sleep until the breakfast muffins came out an hour and a half before landing. 
All went smoothly in Vienna and I arrived in Dnepro about a half hour late. Garry was waiting for me.  Snow in both places delayed the flight with deicing and a bit of turbulence in the air.

We spent the night in Dnepro before heading out to the village after lunch, where we had the weekly staff meeting and the two of us where invited to dinner at the Crawfords and chatted for hours.
It seems like I'm teaching cooking class in a couple minutes so I'll write more later.

Big plans

After last week, when neither of us did as we'd planned, Garry is working on several projects and will be restarting our follow up English group on Friday in Dnepro.

Last week he was sick with a cold or flu, either the cold he left here with got worse or he picked up something when he arrived.  He was looking really bad and sick in bed when we video chatted mid-week.
Friday he drove to Zaporosia because Alona and Nikolai were out of baby formula (really Nikolai, Alona had managed to get the flu and had been admitted to hospital for a week, so daddy was taking care of little Danil).  Garry said he had to sit down on a bench after a bit of grocery shopping because he was exhausted.  After resting for most of the weekend (except attending church in the village) he's on the mend.

Monday Garry and the students helped clean the classroom for the new year. He tells me he had an English class with them, too.
Today Larissa was there from Zaporosia to teach her class, that's the ethics class even the grads attend along with English and cooking.

Leila with her new cow from Canada
and Vika

Garry (and Max I assume, since he said we) were going to work on building a tiled shower to replace a broken shower at the "new house" by the shop. They've decided the salty water is just too hard on the prefab showers we've put in the houses, they are fixing them often with expensive parts. They plan to replace ones at the boys house also. It will be similar to what the team built in the small bathroom at the Crawfords home. 

Wednesday Garry and the students will repaint the classroom.  I asked if they would paint it a slightly darker dirt friendly tone, but Garry couldn't remember what color he bought!
Hopefully Nellie is back soon, she went to the city near Odessa she's from two weeks ago to take care of some inheritance stuff from her mother who died in the summer. Garry can't really start teaching much without an interpreter.

Meanwhile I have a week until I fly out to Dnepro and I need to get packed (mostly stuff for Garry I think) and spend more time with the kids here in St Labre after helping out in Morden last week. I did get home for the weekend and enjoyed worshipping at our home church, Emmanuel EFree church in Steinbach, w

He's back

We had a good but busy time between Christmas and New Year's day with lots of family time and a few visits with supporters- we got more books for our follow up class in Dnepro and another handmade quilt for Garry to take back. Here are a couple pics from my birthday party.

 

Garry left for Ukraine Wednesday morning.  He managed to squeeze a few extra items in his suitcase before leaving the farm and even a basketball practice with the boys before we left for the city.  We met Roy and Carol Enns at a restaurant in Winnipeg because our schedules had not gotten together earlier while Garry was home.

We got to our hotel room around nine PM and went to sleep because we had to be up at four am so I could drive him a couple blocks to the airport.  Of course the last few days he was here was really frigid with a cold snap, so it was freezing cold out. I went back to the room and Garry went off to Toronto.

He had a long 13 hour layover in Toronto so he went downtown to the Eaton centre for a while. He sent me a photo of his lunch.

I got up and drove across Winnipeg to pick up our granddaughter's prescription and then out to Morden to hang out for a couple days with our daughter and family.

Garry had decided to book the Ukrainian Air flight from Toronto direct to Kiev but when I talked to him yesterday he said my refusing to choose it was good.  The new planes he'd heard that they bought are for the New York flights not Toronto so he had a small seat and no entertainment system... and no phone charger... for that nine hour flight.

He did make his train and got safely back to the village. My flight is going to be right into Dnepro in about three weeks so I can tie up some loose ends, and get Garry's special 
shoes that should be in next week, and a few things for the Crawfords.

Valentina sent me this photo. She also sent one of Happy the dog on the couch. I see I'll have work to teach her to not go on the couch when I return.
Sunday I'll take Maksym Boradin to Prov after church, his new old car is not available to drive yet. Later in the afternoon I'll be watching the Eagles playoff game at our son's birthday party while Garry will be up after midnight in Ukraine to see it.

Merry Christmas

We have been enjoying time at home, seeing family and friends. Last week it was the farm Christmas party and we got a family photo. This was the best one, maybe we should pick a photographer older than twelve next time.

We have been busy celebrating birthdays, Friday we drove out to Morden for our daughter's birthday party.

On Sunday we celebrated Garry's birthday while watching the Eagles game. I baked the cake in the new oven. The thermostat went in the old stove and it was burning everything so Garry went shopping earlier in the week.  Most of the family came and ate hotdogs and chips,  ice cream and cake and the Eagles won, too.

Christmas eve Garry sang in the choir at Emmanuel EFree church. He misses singing in the choir, so he got back early enough to attend 3 practices.

Christmas morning Garry went out to help with the normal hurry up and milk so we can open presents time that we have done since our kids were small. Of course there weren't more than a thousand cows to milk back then, so I guessed we could start breakfast at 9:30. They finished early though so by the time our daughter and family had arrived from Morden, most people had eaten.

We had fun with stockings and opening  presents for a couple hours. Some of kids, like grandma, have been sick. I finally went to the doctor and got antibiotics for a sinus infection  last week. It was a nice day and our kids and grandkids enjoyed the hats I crocheted for everyone. I have been working hard to finish them all in time for Christmas since I did not have a lot of time for crocheting this fall.

Meanwhile back in Ukraine the students had a Christmas celebration with Shannon and Scott in the village. Shannon made chili and they handed out the present bags I prepared before leaving last month.

Victor drove out for it and he said it took three hours to drive back to Dnepro instead of the normal 45 minutes because of the snow. 

 This morning I woke up to birthday wishes on the internet, including Valentina's voice message singing in a mixture of English and Russian. Happy birthday savoinya (today). Our children are planning a party later today to celebrate my sixtieth year.

Life in Canada

Well Garry arrived last week, tonight he'll be at his second choir practice. One of the things he misses about living in Canada is singing in the choir so he plans to sing at the Christmas eve services at Emmanuel (our home church) in Steinbach.

Right now he is off across the border to mail the Christmas cards for Americans that I finished writing last night.  The Canadian ones are ready to mail today also. Most of them go to relatives on both sides of the border. I am still trying to get over my cold, it's mostly down to a nagging cough now. I've been busy getting ready for Christmas and babysitting.

Garry tells me he's going out to cut a tree today, so I'd better continue getting ready. At least I'll have a place to stack the presents. He plans to head back right after new years day so if you want to talk or see him, make plans now!