Sanitory Bethany

After everyone from Odessa had arrived at the train station, the guys stowed all of the luggage under the bus and we boarded for the trip to the sanitory. Now a sanitory is a little hard to explain. When said, the word sounds similar to ‘sanitary’ or a corruption of the word ‘sanitarium.’ Actually, a sanitory (long ‘o’ sound) is like a hotel where people all across the Soviet Union went on holiday, but could also receive medical treatments, massage, physical therapy and all sorts of alternative medicine treatments, if they wanted (plus have their hair and nails done). Now do not think modern hotel or modern hospital. No, every sanitory I have been to has been like something out of the 1930’s, but in poor condition. Sanitory Bethany, however, is a new building and very modern. I would put it on a par with a lot of nicer church camps in the States. It was built by the Seventh Day Adventists and is located right next to a nice hotel that they also own.

Because Mel needed a fridge for his insulin, we got a “lux” room. It was on the third floor and had a great view to the north. The only problem? Well, the ceiling was slanted and in most of the room it was just barely 6 feet tall, if that, and Mel could not stand up but had to walk around bent over at the waist. He forgot once, when a visitor came, stood up and smacked his head on the ceiling. Now I don’t know about anyone else, but I think it’s a little odd that a room would have a ceiling just barely 6 feet high (Mel is 6’5” tall). Although we had a nice big window, to look out it I had to either sit down on the edge of the bed or get down on my knees. Otherwise the view was of the ground three floors below, or the roof of the house next door. Only in Ukraine….. However, it was a wonderful room otherwise. There was one bed, instead of two, and it was quite comfy. As you can see in the photo, the bed had the typical European individual comforters. I find these sheet/blanket combination nice and cozy for a few nights, but prefer over the long run to be able to actually cuddle with Mel at night if I’m so inclined. The bathroom was nice – a regular toilet that worked well, a nice clean new shower stall – and the water pressure was unbelievable! Plenty of hot water – almost too hot, in fact. Yes – this is a very nice place to stay.

Our room from a different angle


The meeting room was also on the third floor so we had a very short commute. Don’t be deceived – yes, the meeting room was also on the third floor, the same as our room, but the ceiling of the meeting room was at least 15 feet high, maybe more. The third floor was the top floor of the building and I think the roof had been built at a steep angle due to the amount of snow this area receives every winter. The roof was bright yellow metal and the steep angle meant the snow would slide right off on the north side, rather than accumulate all winter. I understand the slant … I just wonder why the only two “lux” rooms were built for short people? The meeting room, which was the full length of the south side of the building, had several big windows that let in wonderful sunshine that filled the room with warmth – when it wasn’t raining.
View from room on clear day, to the north

I won’t bore anyone with details of the “business” meeting that first afternoon. It was a time to catch up on what is going on with each team in each city, time to listen to joys and concerns in ministry, time to pray with and for each other. Over the course of the weekend we had three sessions with our main speaker, as well as a regular worship service on Sunday morning. How wonderful it was to sing in English, to hear the Word of God preached in my mother tongue, to worship with my teammates! After the Sunday worship service, the men all went over to a meeting room at the hotel and we women all gathered in the sanitory to spend almost two hours praying for each other. What a wonderful, refreshing day that was!
Rain!

I never ate a breakfast that was served at the sanitory, but had crackers and cheese or a poppy seed roulette in our room. I am not a morning person at all and I had an idea of what the breakfasts downstairs on the first floor would be like (I was correct – one morning it was cooked spaghetti noodles and a hot dog), so just stayed in our room. There was instant coffee, electric tea pots and clean bottled water on the tables in the meeting room, so I made my own morning coffee. The rest of the meals were typical. Soups (sadly no borsch) for lunch, with either individual plates of potatoes or rice cooked with a few little pieces of meat at each place, a big plate of salad to share, made of grated cabbage and carrots with a vinegary/spicy dressing, plenty of bread and a cookie each for dessert. High in carbs – but they prepared extra meat for Mel each day. I doubt if he ever got the full 3 or 4 ounces of protein he usually has at each meal, but he did ok (we also had extra cheese upstairs in our room, just in case there was little he could eat). One day they fixed buckwheat for Mel, with lots of extra meat in it. D, who put the retreat together for us, had told them Mel was diabetic and please don’t fix buckwheat because no one likes it. Except Mel – and Mel is allergic to it and can’t eat it! He picked the meat out and did fine (when he eats buckwheat his throat and the tissues in his mouth swell). The buckwheat had been cooked in a savory broth and was actually quite tasty – I had a large portion of it, and shared the rest with a couple other people at our table who have developed a mild liking for it. (Please note – we had plenty of food, too much on each plate in fact, for everyone. I don’t think “family style” meals are common in places like this, so a lot of the food is wasted, which is a real pity. It would be different during ski season when many of the people staying might be strangers to each other and possibly greedy…) The only “bad” meal we happened to miss completely. Fish. But that’s for another post!
View from our room of house next door