Busy Days

May 30, 2006

Life has become very busy this past week. We hired a young man in the church to come and paint the bars on our balcony. I warned him that it would take at least 3 or 4 days to complete (and I was thinking that was not realistic). It’s kind of funny to watch people here react to my ideas of how things will go. He said sure, he’d be willing to paint them and kind of gave me the “3 or 4 days to paint the bars on a balcony? Ha! I’ll do it in way less than that!” look. For some reason – maybe because I’m a woman and I’m not supposed to know these things – I get this response often. Well, Kolya has been here 4 days and he finished painting the “anti-corrosive,” or primer yesterday. He hasn’t worked a full 8 hours each day – it’s too hot and the paint fumes are too much. But he has put in some long hours out there and he seems to be a hard worker. I checked this morning just to see how it all looks (gray). I know from personal experience that the pattern in the bars is complicated enough that it is easy to miss parts – the top of this bar, the side of that one, or the bottom of another. That’s what I get for having such a pretty security cage installed lo these many moons ago, when we first moved in here (can it truly be 7+ years???!!!)

Mel and I are late night people, which means we are also late morning people. We asked Kolya to show up no earlier than 10:00 am (I know that makes it the hottest part of the day to work, but……). He showed up yesterday at 9:30 and I was still asleep, arriving so early because he wanted to show us his photo album (he is a very homesick young man right now). We had been up way past 1:00 am the night before because:

Dave is here again. Dave is a former short term team mate, now back in the States attending seminary. He arrived about a week ago and will be here another several days. He’s staying in our “office” flat on the first floor. And because his ‘bedroom’ is just two floors below us, he is able to stay late – it’s a very short commute home. Ha! Sunday night he and I played two rousing games of cribbage, which I won, and it was great. Not because I won – that was just the icing on the cake for me. No, it was wonderful because I was raised in a family that liked to play games (Candy Land when we were little, Life, Parcheesi, Scrabble, Pinochle, checkers, Chinese checkers, etc.). Mel has never been a game player – he just doesn’t enjoy it at all. So, having Dave here, willing to play with me has been very fun for me. I’ll willingly stay up till all hours of the morning playing cribbage. Unfortunately, the rest of the world does not live on the late night, late morning schedule….

Last night we had guests – Ira and Melinda came for my special “Ukrainian spaghetti.” This spaghetti recipe consists of throwing fried farsh (a ground beef and pork mixture) into a pot with chopped cabbage, grated carrots, grated beets, frozen spinach (can’t buy fresh here), chopped peppers and about a liter of tomato juice, a handful of dried oregano, a bay leaf and some basil – let it simmer until the cabbage is cooked and yum, yum! I don’t know why, but I try making it like that in the States and it’s just not as tasty. I think it has something to do with the tomato juice here, or maybe the farsh…. Whatever. I served spaghetti, made garlic bread and for dessert a homemade potato starch vanilla pudding topped with real maple syrup from Canada, which Denis brought me. Melinda brought my favorite Ukrainian Roshen chocolates and some waffle cookies. It was a feast.

Ira told us a lot about her trip to the States and then showed us photos. Dave came up, made himself some dinner with the left-overs. My computer started acting up – wouldn’t show Ira’s videos. Sigh. I think we need a new fan – it gets really hot and then slows way down. So, Ira and I spent some time trying to fix it, or figure out what was going on. She majored in computer science, so was able to show me some tricks on how to get it to work faster (YEA!). But, we finally gave up, with her instructing us on where to take it to get the fan replaced.

It was good to hear about her trip. I think I still have a lot of questions for her, but those will come in time. I’m thrilled that she was able to go to Texas this time, which is the closest she’s been to “my culture” in the States. Ok, ok – I hear all my Colorado family and friends screaming at me – Texas culture is close to Colorado culture?? AAAAIIIIIIHHHHH – no way!! The only good Texan is one on his way out of Colorado, etc. etc. and so forth and so on. (Sorry Lisa!) (But I love cowboys – yes, I do! No matter what state they come from!).

Ira and Melinda left – Dave stayed, talking to Mel and me for another hour or more – and then he got out his cribbage board, which he had conveniently brought upstairs. Ha ha! This time, he beat me soundly.

Today I have my Russian lesson, and tomorrow Kolya will be back to start putting color on the bars, so I can have my pretty balcony again. Our neighbor upstairs asked him how long it was going to take before he finished painting – I think they are sick of the smell of this paint, as am I. I hope they will be patient just a couple more days – the next step will go a lot faster. But I will be really glad when it’s finished – the need to have them painted like this has been weighing on me for almost three years!

I am very much an introvert and need my time alone each day. Having someone here from the time I wake up until just a couple hours before we go to bed can be very difficult for me after a couple days. Yet - - it has been so good to have Dave here again, to have Ira home, to have Melinda over and to have the bars painted. Plus, the time Mel and I have spent talking to Kolya has been very good – when we can get him to speak in his simple Russian! He’s from western Ukraine and is very nationalist – the first day he told us we need to learn Ukrainian. When I asked him to speak in Russian because we don’t understand Ukrainian, he replied, “But I am a Ukrainian man!” I understand the sentiments – but oh, it is exhausting to try and cipher out the Russian when it’s all mixed up with Ukrainian.

We are expecting another guest today – our Denis. Denis was born and raised here in Kherson but moved to Canada a few years ago. He was Mel’s first Russian tutor. He came back a few days ago to visit his family and has been over to see us a couple times. Sunday night his girlfriend arrived from Canada and he plans to bring her over so we can meet her as well. I’m looking forward to it. Denis is 30 now and we can see such a change in him, a positive change, as he has grown up and matured.

So, our life has been very busy over the past week. Busy in an interesting way. Lots of visitors, lots of people in and out. A lot of work accomplished. Good food eaten. Laughter. Concerns shared. Life shared.

I enjoy these days.