Well, it has been an interesting couple of days, to say the least. Ah, life here in Ukraine – never a dull moment!
Yesterday morning I went to the craft class, which was kind of like the old sewing bees of yesteryear. Olya finished up a cross-stitch she has been working on. I’m very impressed with her work. Olya has severe juvenile arthritis and her hands, elbows and shoulders are almost frozen. Yet, she can cross-stitch fairly quickly and quite beautifully. It is a real lesson to me on what you can do if you really want to do it. So, Olya finished the last few outline stitches on her current project. Natasha came late, but brought her crocheting. She has been working on a sweater in a very pretty orange coral color. This is her second project – the first was a very long orange-ish scarf. I think she likes orange! Karolina was gone, not sure why, although over the past month in the village where she lives not too far out of town, they have had water only sporadically, and electricity rarely. It is possible that she felt she had nothing nice to wear (she has mentioned this before) because she cannot wash and iron things right now. I missed her a lot. I worked on my quilted pillow-top. It was a great time of sewing and talking and drinking tea.
Afterward, Mel and I went over to the school where we are currently meeting for church. Sergei N. met us there, made sure everything was unlocked and then left. The heat has been turned on in that building! Yea! We couldn’t see our breath this time as we sat there and talked to each other! Yippee!! Mel taught English to 7 women. Seven women who know English from bare knowledge of the alphabet to teachers of university English for many years. He said he felt a little lonely – no other men showed up this week! Poor Mel – it seems that his life is women, women, women – everywhere he turns he is dealing with more women. I am glad God gave him the character that he has – he deals with us all quite well, really – very patient, he is, although there are times when he just sits back and lets whomever he is with talk and talk and talk. He’s learned that unless he’s teaching, most of the time women talk right over him. He gave up trying to be heard, I think, a long time ago. (If you know him, this may be hard to believe – but you know, women together in a group really DO talk a lot!)
After the class we went shopping at the supermarket nearby and picked up some farsh (ground pork and beef mixture) and some other items. Then we walked over to Pan Pizza for dinner. It has been a tradition of ours for several years now to go out for dinner on Saturdays after the class because no one wants to cook on Saturday night after such a busy day.
Pan Pizza is very close to the school where we meet. We went in and chose a table in the section in which we usually sit. There is a very well padded yellow vinyl bench that stretches from one end of the building to the other. In front of this bench are several little two person tables with a white chair in front of each. I sat down on the bench behind the table and Mel sat in the little white chair facing me. There was a free table on either side of us.
Mel says there are two smoking sections at every café, bar and restaurant in Ukraine: smoking and chain-smoking. Last night it seemed that our section was just a simple smoking section, which is very nice, although we still come home and have to hang our clothing and jackets out to air awhile to get rid of the smell. I’ve become somewhat used to having my hair smell like stale cigarette smoke for several hours after dinner. Sigh.
After we ordered, a woman and her son came in and sat down at the table on my left. Mel sat forward and said something to me very quietly in English, and I responded. Less than a minute later the woman leaned over to me and said, “Are you Americans?” I smiled at her and responded, “Yes, we are.” And thus began a very long conversation that lasted all the way through dinner.
Svyetlana attended the very first English camp we held, way back about 7 years ago! She is still in touch with her teacher at that time, an American woman who now lives in Kiev. She also worked for several years with my Russian tutor, Lydumilla, and knows her quite well. The main reason she wanted to talk to us, however, was that she is moving to Tucson in the next few days! She is going to marry a man there, and is taking her youngest son with her. Her older son will stay here in Ukraine, live with his grandmother and finish his education here, including the university. I firmly believe that there are no accidents in meetings like this. As Mel sat quietly, ate and listened to our conversation, I talked to her about Tucson a bit (we’ve been there a few times and have friends who live there now). I ended up giving her the name of a friend we have in Mesa who pastors a church there. I wish I could have given her his phone number and exact address, but I know if she does need help or advice, she can reach him with the information I gave her. I also talked to her about culture shock and a bit of what to expect for both her and her son. And as she got up to leave, I told her I would be praying for her. I reached over, put my hand on her forearm and said, “May I pray for you right now?” With tears in her eyes, she responded almost in a whisper, “Yes, please.” There in Pan Pizza, with Euro beat music blaring from the speakers, other customers drinking down their wine and beer and sending clouds of smoke into the air, we bowed our heads and I prayed that God would guide her and protect her. I am always concerned for these women who go off to America to marry men they barely know. She gave me her Tucson address – I plan to write to her and see how she is doing.
After Svyetlana and her son left, I finished my very cold pizza, drank a cup of very hot and good chocolate tea and then Mel and I left. We decided to take a trolley and walked over to the trolleybus stop. We got there and waited. And waited. And waited. No trolley of our number ever came by. For a Saturday night at only 7pm, there were very few people out, and the marshrutkas were not terribly crowded. Finally, after about 45 minutes I told Mel – this marshrutka goes past our flat, lets take it. This is a big deal for me – I’ve been trapped on them before and get panic attacks when they are very crowded… But God was kind to this chicken hearted woman, and the marshrutka never did become crowded. Yea!
As we walked into our flat, the phone was ringing. It was still ringing when I got my shoes off. I answered it and it was Natasha Y. almost in a panic. No, she WAS in a panic. She is the young woman who is caring for Melinda’s flat and two cats while she is in the States. The radiator pipe in the bedroom had sprung a leak while she was gone, and when she came home, the whole floor was soaked. Water everywhere. Hot water. She had contacted the neighbors downstairs and the man had “turned off the water” to the radiator. Well – he turned it off by turning it up full blast – that was the hottest radiator in the house when we got over there today and is still leaking like a sieve! He also came upstairs and wrapped the pipe and the connection to the radiator where it was leaking with a “blue band aid” thing they use when pipes spring leaks. But, it was still leaking about a cup an hour at that point, down close to the floor where only a small container could be set under it. Natasha was emptying the container about every 15 minutes to half an hour by then.
Oh dear! We don’t know any plumbers! We called Sergei K. and he called Sasha, our driver, and explained the situation to his wife (Sasha is out of town). She gave Sergei the number of another man and he called him. This man could not come until Monday, but he said he would come – that is success right there! We called Natasha back, gave her the information and she assured us that she would be more than willing to stay up all night emptying the water container over and over again.
This afternoon we went over. Between the three of us we moved all of the furniture either out of the room, or out of the water that was still on the floor. We carried the large and very heavy throw rug that was sopping wet into the bathroom and dumped it in the bathtub to drain. Then, Natasha and I mopped up all of the water. I tried and tried to get her to go home and take a nap, but she absolutely refused. I gave her some extra cash and told her to go out and take a walk and buy some food. Finally she did and was gone about half an hour. Mel and I stayed for another 45 minutes or so, me hoping she would lay down on the bed in the office room and take a nap, but no way was she going to do that. Finally we left.
Tomorrow the repairman is supposed to show up between 9 and 9:30. Mel plans to be there. It will be interesting. Natasha does not plan to sleep tonight either, and she will translate for him. Natasha’s English is better than my Russian is, yes, but she still gets mixed up quite often. It is going to be a very interesting day.
Does Melinda know? No. Not yet. Unless she reads my blog! We’ll wait to tell her until it’s all over and done with. I think it’s better that way. Sometimes it’s better not to know about interesting days until they are all over and done with.
Heh heh heh.
