Bits n Pieces - Living in the Land of Rumors

Yesterday the Ukrainian government declared an emergency and put the whole country under quarantine. All public meetings are cancelled (altho I hear that church does not count as a "public meeting"), all schools are cancelled, private or public (but the Kherson kindergartens are still working because the parents have to work and there would be no one home to watch the kids), and there are travel restrictions in place. For 3 weeks. I heard tonight that the border with Poland has been closed. There is a question now as to whether or not we will be able to fly out to London from Kiev in 2 weeks (we may not be able to travel to the airport from here). It's all up in the air.

Fortunately - God is sovereign and He is in control of this whole situation. If we are supposed to fly out of Ukraine on Nov. 17, then we will fly out. If we are not supposed to - then we won't. And if we get to London and we are stuck there - well, we are stuck there until we can leave. Such is life. Living in the knowledge that God is in control is wonderful. Sometimes it's a little breathless, but it's wonderful. :-)

~*~*~*~*~
Busy day cooking up a storm.

- Made cupcakes for church tomorrow. We are celebrating "Thanksgiving".
= Made a grape dessert for team meeting tomorrow afternoon.
- Roasted peanuts and made peanut butter again.
= Peeled half a tikva (squash with flesh the same color as pumpkin) and made Pumpkin Peanut Soup for dinner.

Which reminds me, I need to look for my Thanksgiving tablecloth to take to church to cover the boards we are currently using for a table. I think it's in that box under the bed. Which is good, because after last year's Thanksgiving I decided I would just take it home to the States and let my daughter use it since I can't use it here. Sad. Sigh. But now I'm going to use it! Yea! This makes me feel inordinately happy.

~*~*~*~*~
Talked to my mother earlier this evening. She chatted away like a house on fire. It's halloween in the States. They don't go out at night any more, so instead to help with the Fall Festival at the church, they are going this afternoon (their time) to string donuts for some kind of game the kids will play. I'm so thankful my parents are still as active as they are and as involved in the church as they are. I think they are much busier now than when they both worked full-time!

~*~*~*~*~
Thinking of working full time - my mother worked at the Young Life International Service Center for 33 years. I worked there for at least 6 full years, possibly a bit more (I worked there 3 different times). Recently I've dreamed about different Young Life things several times. I loved working at the Service Center - both the work I did and the mission of Young Life.

Mom told me a week or so ago that now when you go there as a visitor, there is a guard and that you can't just go and see different people. This is since the shootings at the church in Colorado Springs and the Denver area a couple years ago. So very sad. A Christian organization has to protect it's employees this way.

I know our home church also has guards and/or people trained to look for problems and deal with them quickly. These are needed due to an incident that happened several years ago when a group of gays and lesbians unknowingly stationed themselves in several different places in the congregation, then during the worship service they stood up, took off their coats/jackets and had obscene t-shirts on, and threw condoms all over the place. They were quickly escorted out, but it was the beginning (for our church) of having some kind of protective services in place during worship service.

This greatly saddens me. The world is very, very sick. And we are supposed to admire these people? We are supposed to think of them as normal? Gag.

~*~*~*~*~
I like playing FarmTown and FarmVille on facebook. I like it. I like to play games and I don't know anyone here who wants to play games with me. Adult. Not adult games! An adult who likes to play games. Whew! Anyway, I play FarmTown with several other people, Americans and Ukrainians both. Often we chat as we work on each other's farms. I like that.

~*~*~*~*~
I painted the little tiny hallway inbetween the livingroom and the bedroom. I forgot to take photos of it in the very beginning, but that's ok. First I stripped off the wallpaper and just let it be naked walls for probably 3 weeks because I was busy with other stuff.

Lucky me - I don't mind living in the middle of things partly finished. I think my stash of UFO's (unfinished objects) attests to that! I'm not sure Mel likes living in the middle of it, but he's been married to me for over 33 years....

I had a ladder in there and Mel moved it to get into the little pantry closet. In the process he broke the wall lamp glass shade. I cleaned it up. He moved the ladder again - and broke the bulb. I cleaned it up. Shattered glass everywhere. And if I get some strange mental deterioration everyone will know to blame AlGore and the environmentalists because I got mercury poisoned from the bulb. Lay that blame right where it belongs - at the feet of the head of the new world wide religion - Green!

A day or so later, I put the "primer" on that I bought a long time ago to do the hallway and then later the bedroom. Oh yes, the lovely clear liquid stuff that does absolutely nothing at all that I can see, but they tell me is needed before I paint the oil painted cement wall (actually, the paint under the wallpaper was flaking off, as it did in the bedroom, but not nearly as badly so I didn't scrape and scrape the wall - just brushed it down a couple times. Oh - lead poisoning, too - my brain has had it, I'm sure!)

So, the primer dried and I couldn't tell that there was anything on the wall - felt the same, looked the same, smelled different, tho, that is true.

We went to Nova Linea and bought a couple new rollers, a couple of the new handle things you put the rollers on, a bucket of colored paint, and a new lamp for the wall.

A day or two later, I put a coat of white latex on. Used a roller for the high stuff. A roller on a pole. That was very nice! I love Nova Linea - the new store that is like Home Depot! I can actually go in and TOUCH what I want to buy, hold it, look at it, decide with some kind of knowledge rather than looking at what is behind the counter and trying to guess what the teeny little tag says so I can ask for it. But I'm going off on a rant...

I was sad. The wall looked minty green after that first coat. So I knew I needed to put a second coat of the white on before I put a coat of the colored paint on. I let it dry overnight and painted that second coat of white.

After finishing, I almost came in here and started crying. The wall was still minty green in large sections. Primer and two coats of white latex later, it was still minty green.

Not one to give up in defeat - I said to myself - "oh what the heck - it's not our flat anyway! I'll just put the colored paint on and if it clashes with the minty green - so be it. We're leaving for 6 months anyway!!"

And I did. last night I put the pinkish tannish colored paint on. Well - it was supposed to be pinkish tannish but it's more like milked down pepto bismal. Again, not the color I wanted, but I like it none the less. In the morning light the reflection off the wooden floor makes it look a bit more tannish. :-)

If we are still in this flat when we come back next May/June - and if I don't like the color then, I'll repaint it. Maybe then ALL the minty green will be gone, gone, gone! (If you look really close, you can still kind of see it showing through the pink!)


I will also think of painting the door and door jambs when we come back. Right now it's too cold out to have the balcony door and windows open to get rid of oil paint paint fumes!

~*~*~*~*~
Bed time! All for now!

The Way It Is

Since living in Ukraine I have come to realize just how sheltered most Americans are. Being sheltered is not a bad thing in most cases, it's just the way life is in America. There are times, of course, when the 'lid' needs to be removed so the reality can be seen and dealt with. Or another way of saying it might be - there are times when the scab needs to be picked off the wound so it can be cleaned out and healing take place. But, because we Americans tend to hide the negative and only show the positive, life is usually much more pleasant from the outward appearance. And, as I said before - this is not necessarily a bad thing.

Life here in Ukraine is a whole 'nother ball of wax, a whole 'nother cup of tea, a whole 'nother thing. (what IS that phrase I am searching for???)

Last night Mel and I went for a walk much later than usual. Usually I take my walks in the mid-afternoon, but for reasons I won't go into here, I left the house sometime after 4:30 yesterday instead. As it was already getting dark (eek! fall is here, winter on the way quickly), Mel came with me. I'm so very glad he did.

We took a slightly different route than usual, walking down some side streets and 'back alleys' to get to the main road. This was not bad at all - very quiet, just a few people out, a section of our neighborhood I've never walked in the whole 11 years we've lived here! Very nice and I'll walk there again. It was perfectly safe for the most part at that time, safer still in mid-afternoon - just not located on the main roads.

However, when we got the first major road and started to cross it, we looked up the road to check on traffic. There, on the other side of the road, under one of the huge elevated heat pipes, in a pile of beautiful yellow leaves, lay a man all sprawled out on the ground. A woman and her little girl were walking past him on their way to the corner. The woman stopped, left the little girl on the sidewalk, walked over to the man, said something to him, he moved a bit and she went back to the little girl and they walked on. He obviously was a drunk, partially passed out there in the dirt and leaves, beside a major road in our neighborhood.

Mel and I ignored him, crossed the street and started down the next 'alley' between buildings.

Around a slight corner we walked, and there were 2 or 3 dumpsters. An unshaved man, dressed in filthy clothing, carrying a filthy cloth bag was digging through the garbage, pulling out beer bottles and putting them in his bag. Toward us walked 2 more unkempt men, each carrying bags in both hands. These two men, however, appeared to be coming home from work - dirty from a hard day's labor, but carrying groceries in their bags rather than bottles to sell.

We walked on to the next major street, passing several buildings that were abandoned, or mostly abandoned. Two were only shells, missing roofs, walls partially dismantled. We know the history of these buildings because a friend lives nearby in another one exactly like them. Her home, too, is falling down around her ears. Two-story apartment buildings which fell down or are falling down are caused by the poor construction of a 5 story building nearby several years ago. The sewer line for the 5 story building was not put in correctly - it leaks underground, washing away huges areas of the ground under the 2-story buildings, causing them to crack, sink and literally fall to pieces. Our friend has no place else to move - this is the flat she was born and raised in, has raised her own family in and will probably live in until she either dies or the building totally collapses around her. The city says there is nothing they can do.

(Thinking of that ground being washed away underground - I have become very nervous walking near ANY manhole covers. In more and more areas around town, the pavement, cement and/or dirt around many manholes is collapsing. The result is deep holes beside manholes. Some are small holes at the top - maybe a piece of pavement the size of a baseball is missing - but how big is the actual hole? Who can tell since the pavement or cement is still holding above it until weight is put on it! Other holes are barrel size already, full of trash, dead tree limbs and whatnot. I give manholes a wide bearth now, unless they are in areas that are obviously well traveled. There is always the chance the sidewalk/road could collapse under me or someone else as we walk over the area. More and more holes are appearing!)

We turned a corner and walked down a major street beside an agricultural institute. Many young people were walking around, chatting on cell phones, talking to each other, laughing, drinking beer as they walked.

We came to the cross street and waited for traffic to allow us to cross. As we waited, two more older guys walked up beside us. Roughly dressed, talking loudly, weaving slightly, liters of beer partially drunk in their hands. We crossed the street together, but Mel steered me at an angle so they ended up ahead of us by the time we reached the other side. I was walking rather slower than usual due to the high humidity and we followed them for several minutes. Finally, however, we caught up with them, sped up and passed them. The one guy almost fell over when we did pass, losing his balance due to surprise at seeing Mel I'd guess :-). The second guy caught him and steadied him and they continued walking behind us.

This particular section of the sidewalk is one of the worst for collapsing sections. I was shocked to really look around and count how many holes there are - in the sidewalk and in the weedy areas between the sidewalk and the street. Anyone could fall in - child, drunk, old person - me! I will be much more vigilant whenever I walk there - often! - in the future.

We turned at the next corner and started up that side street, on our way back home now. More holes, more missing pathway skirted, more students out walking with beer in hand, lovers leaned up against walls, hugging and kissing and touching.

We arrived at the next major intersection, waited until the traffic cleared and started across the street. A marshrutka appeared from down the street and around a slight corner, doing about twice the speed he should have been doing. We were perfectly legal, in a cross walk area (altho the stripes have worn away), but he honked angrily at us anyway. Sheesh. The stop was just a few meters up the road - he had to slam on his breaks to actually stop! Good grief.

This section of my walk, when I walk this particular route, is usually very busy any time of day. Now there were people every where. Flower sellers, people walking home from work, more students hanging around, a pack of dogs fighting over their territory, cars whizzing by. Now I remembered why I don't walk that way very often! Too noisy, too many people, to much confusion - no peace and tranquility.

We walked on up the street, crossed over another major road, walked farther. Just two blocks from home now! We came up to the bus stop just as another drunk guy lost his balance and fell onto the ground as his friend struggled to hold him up but failed. People just moved away from him, ignoring him, turning their backs on him and he curled himself into fetal position and waved his hand angrily at his friend to leave him alone. His friend turned away, walked a couple steps and turned his back on the guy on the street and pretended not to know him, unsteady on his own feet.

Another corner, we crossed the street and walked on. Just a block from home now! A young woman was walking in front of us. 4 inch heels, skin tight black pants, a tight black jacket, bleached blonde hair. She walked unsteadily, too. I thought - "she's not very comfortable in those shoes - every dip in the sidewalk seems to throw her off a bit." She didn't seem to be drunk, really, just unsteady on her feet. We got a bit closer behind her and then - I heard it. We passed an old woman selling sunflower seeds who suddenly looked up and stared at the young woman as she passed - and I knew I was hearing correctly. This poor young woman was sobbing uncontrollably, trying to hide it, but quickly completely losing control.

I pondered what to do. Should we stop her, try to help her, would she understand us or be afraid of us (especially Mel)? Just as we caught up to her - literally started to go around her, her friend met her, coming from the opposite direction. The young woman totally burst into loud wailing and weeping and fell into her friends arms. The friend wrapped her arms around her, held her head on her shoulder and started talking softly to her.

I have never, ever seen anyone cry in public like this before here. It was a very unusual experience. I wonder what happened? What sort of thing would cause a pretty young woman that much distress? Maybe I am glad I do not know. But she has been on my mind off and on since then, and I say a prayer for her.

Oh - the sadness!
It is hard.

We walked on home from there, stopping in at a new store where I bought a tikva (squash shaped like a huge pear, but looks and cooks like pumpkin). And on home we came.

Last evening was unusual, to say the least. Only 1 in 1000 walks are like that, altho seeing one drunk lying on the ground is not all that unusual - 2 on the ground is unusual, and the crying young woman - well, I hope that is a one time only experience!

We live in hard times. It was hard when we got here 11 years ago - but it got better. However, the economic crisis started again and now people are even more in debt, the difference between those who have and those who have not has increased even more. I cannot believe the number of huge houses that have been built around the city - several more new ones in the area where we walked last night. Huge houses next to hovels. The disparity grows. Poor people see the wealth around them, evidenced in the massive private houses (why so big??? most families are not that big! it's only self pride showing in most cases!). When they have nothing else, the poor usually have money for beer, or more usually, vodka.

It all makes my heart weep. It makes me long even more for heaven. It makes me this much more aware of the need for the Gospel of Jesus Christ to be preached, for people to be converted.

Oh, come quickly, Lord Jesus! Call Your people to Yourself - and come quickly!

Wednesday Afternoon

Mel and I walked over to the little coffee shop again today. On the way over he told me about some of the things he and the rest of the guys talked about yesterday in the Session meeting. He doesn't tell me everything, of course. :) When I commented about one of the issues they discussed, he decided to call Sergei K. So, as we walked down the busy sidewalk, dodging open manholes, cracked pavement/concrete sidewalks and people, he asked Sergei to come meet us. (He knew that Sergei was already in town.) He wanted me to tell Sergei what I was thinking and also ask him the same question about it that I had asked Mel.

Sergei arrived. He drank tea while Mel had coffee and I had cocoa. We talked around the world and it was great. It's been a long time since I've really talked with Sergei. He's been busy or gone a lot this winter and with Sunday School starting right after church gets over, I never get to talk with anyone now after church. So, it was good to sit and talk and listen to him.

We met this young man when he was not even 18 yet - a tall, skinny kid who had a hollow leg come dinner time. Well, he's still tall, but not quite as skinny (no one would ever say 'fat' and 'Sergei K.' in the same breath, though) and his leg is not quite so hollow. However - he is not a 'kid' any more. I was struck by this a few weeks ago at church while watching him do something in preparation for the worship service. Our Sergei is truly grown up and a man now. I kind of have the same feeling as when I realized my own sons were men, not little boys or even teenagers any more. It's a good feeling, but it also is a bit sad. While they grow up, I grow older. Such is life. And it is good.

After talking around the world he and Mel left for about half an hour. I am not feeling well - I think the cold that is going around has finally come around my direction. (Whenever I say aloud or even think "I'm not feeling well" it actually comes out, with Mel or in my head, "I'm not feeling a hundred percent, Charles." If you don't understand that, think the movie, "The Edge". If you've never seen The Edge, well, I can't help that!) So, I'm not feeling 100%, Charles. In fact, I'm feeling much less than 100%, Charles. I stayed in the little coffee shop, the only customer there for most of the time and had another cup of cocoa and worked on ideas for this summer's VBS.

After Mel and Sergei got back, Sergei headed off on direction and we headed on home. We took the trolleybus. There was plenty of room on it, even at 3:45pm. The crisis in this country is really starting to show - there is a lot more room on public transportation right now during most of the day. I sat down, at the back, facing backwards. I looked at the broken and "repaired" window and thought to myself, "I should take a photo of that." Mel sat down beside me, looked at the window, leaned over and said, "You should take a photo of that." So, I pulled out my handy dandy little camera and took a photo of it. There is a hole in the window and it has been 'mended' with two pieces of metal (a piece of metal on each side of the glass, held together with a screw).We got off and Mel offered to buy me a Coke Light and I said, "Sure." I went in with him, saw these Korean carrots and M&M's and asked him to buy them, too. And he did. So for dinner tonight we will have Italian lasagna and Korean carrots and cucumbers possibly from Turkey or Israel. Yum yum!After we got home, I took the photo of the carrots and brought the camera in here to the office to download today's photos onto the computer. As I sat down, I looked out the window and thought, "Oh, why not?" I had to take this photo carefully, cutting out the graffiti on the far left, conveniently behind the tree, because it is obscene. Sigh. We have had such a beautiful gray wall to look at for a couple years now, but some stupid person finally decided to make it their graffiti canvas. The face here is ok, but the other is, well, let's just say I know that no man has ever been built like that. sigh. Hopefully someone will paint over it because as it is now, I can't take any more photos of the dumpsters. Bummer. hahahahahahahaha!

At Least the Toilet Seat Wasn't Freezing....

So, today was a little touch of reality.

It is cold. Very cold. Not Alaska cold. Not Siberia cold. But it is cold. Down in the teens cold outside, in the low 60's cold inside. Sitting around the house wearing three layers plus an afghan cold. It feels warmer outside than inside cold. I wonder if my fish are going to survive this cold. Cheyenne thinks we are abusing her cold. Shiver me timbers cold - except, I don't think that one quite fits.

Russia and Ukraine continue to argue about gas. At least we still have gas, which is more than Bulgaria can say. We heard that the heating plants shut down completely in Sophia, Bulgaria. Here they have just turned our heat down so low that in public buildings pipes are actually freezing.

Which happened at the place we are currently meeting for church. I, of course, had two cups of coffee this morning, plus drank some water. Church doesn't start until 1:00 now so I thought I was safe. Made sure to do potty stops before we left the flat. Got to church, first thing I see: a sign on the doorjamb that leads to the basement saying the туолет не робетет - or in English - Toilet not working, or Toilet out of order or something along that line.

I knew, right at that very instant, without a shadow of a doubt that I would need a toilet before we got home again.

Sure enough, about half way through the service, sitting there in a heavy sweater over a turtleneck, wearing my heaviest coat and boots and jeans, it hit. Cold. Cold induced bladder overwork. Brrrr - I really need to go right this exact instant help me please!.

Sergei announced before the service started that the toilet was not working and if anyone needed one there was one located next door at the school. So, I understood all of that. I thought I understood which school it was, too. You see, there is a school on each side of the place we are meeting. So, as we stood after the closing prayer and before the singing could start again, I hurried forward and asked Valentina to go with me and help me find the toilet. She is my translator during Sunday School and I wanted to get back before the group of kids arrived for Sunday School. And if I needed to talk to someone about said toilet when we got to the school, I wanted someone who could hurry the process. :) :)

We went outside (she made me snap my coat closed although it felt warmer to me outside than inside). We walked over toward the school on the left, but we couldn't see any way through the fence. So we walked back over toward the school on the right. There was a group of guys out playing soccer in the snow there and she asked them where the front door was and they pointed in "that" direction. We walked around the building. We walked up to the front door. It was locked. She pounded on the door - but no one came to open it.

I was starting to do a little jig by then, but figured we would just have to have a very short Sunday School - or maybe I could find a secluded spot out behind the school somewhere or something......

We went back in to our meeting place. When the service totally ended I asked Sergei where the toilet was at and Valentina explained what we had done and he said, no, it was the wrong school, go to the one on the left.

About that time Jamie left with Timmy and we kind of followed them out the door. And then they went a bit farther than we did and lo and behold there was actually a hole in the fence over there that was the gate and voila! we were in the school yard and walking over across the empty playground toward the school.

But wait! Valentina explained to me that we were not going to the school, we were going to that little building over there at the side. That little building, I asked and she said, no - that one was a garage, no - that one over there inbetween the garage and the school. Oh! Gotcha! THAT one. The one without a door!

And so I was reminded of where I live. I don't live in modern America. I don't live in the wilds of Alaska. I live in Kherson. Where a school has an outdoor toilet without a door. In the middle of a city of 400,000+ people. Yep. For sure.

BUT it was not a little outhouse without a door. No. It was a big outhouse without a door. A 7 or 8 holer outhouse. Without inside partitions. Without toilets. Without water. Just holes in a cement floor on the ground. No heat - unless it's summer time. No electricity, no lights - except for whatever light came in from the doorframe without a door and I think there was actually a very dirty window as well, but I might be wrong about that.

I was very focused, you see, and really didn't waste a lot of time looking around. And to be frank, I've been in much worse toilets here. This one was not too bad. It was not very dirty at all. Just a little unusual in that it could hold so many people at one time, with no partitions between the holes in the floor and no door on the outside door. Community, you know, - living in total community....

The one great thing about these kinds of toilets - at least the toilet seats aren't freezing when you sit down.

ha ha ha (Hysterical laughter) Sit down. ha ha ha No way, Jose! I couldn't help but think of the toilet room - ok, the restroom - at our home church in the States. I remember the last time we were there - winter and it's like someone had turned off all the heat in the restroom for some reason. The toilet seats were, uh, lets just say no one wanted to spend very much time in there. :) ha ha ha

Oh my. I am mentally wiping the laugh tears from my internal eyes. It is halarious to me. But maybe you have to be here?

The only thing - and I mean that - the ONLY thing that bothered me was that Valentina was so embarrassed by it all, feeling like Ukraine was so backward and horrible and how this must have been so awful for me. No! NO! Not even a little bit. I laugh now, but I never thought it was horrid or awful. I'm just glad there was some place I could go! I've seen a lot of outhouses in my life - in campgrounds, in Alaska, in Ukraine, all across the Western half of the US out in the woods. I just wish it had not been so painful for her to be with me.

I also wish The McGowan family had still been here. I think they could have used a little more cultural learning. (Don't you, John and Martita??? You've been 'south of the border' so I have a feeling it would not have been all that shocking to you, just unusual, as it was for me.)

ha ha ha ha ha ha

Oh my. :)

Gas - A Hint At What Is To Come?

According to FoxNews this morning, Russia has cut off gas supplies again to Ukraine - Russia's Gazprom Cuts Gas Supplies to Ukraine. This is not the first time, nor the last time would be my guess. Sigh.

It has been cold all winter because our ZhEK/privitization group has not turned the gas up enough to keep it even 65 degrees in our flat. Each morning when Mel gets up the temp in our living room is between 60 and 64 degrees, depending on how cold it is outside. It could soon be much cooler than that. I am finally starting to get accustomed to temps in the mid-60's so maybe my body is readjusting from the surgery last year back to the way it used to be. I sure hope so!

Here is a photo of the flame in our kalunka: Looking back at a couple photos I took the last time our gas was very low (see my post, And I Wonder Why...), it appears that so far after 3 hours our gas is still better than it was before. But it's only been 3 hours. :) :) :) We'll see what the flame looks like in two days or a week, if the crisis goes that long.

This is Russia's way of saying to Ukraine: Happy New Year!

And I Wonder Why....

it takes so long to simply boil a pot of water to cook spaghetti or macaroni! These 3 photos show how bad our gas is tonight. What doesn't show are all of the hissing and popping sounds from the air that is mixed in the gas being released, and the little sparks from substances that are in the gas and catch fire as they are released. Gas is paid for by the amount used, supposedly, so adding air to it means someone is making money somewhere!

pilot light in the kalunka (a kulunka is a water heater that hangs on the wall above and between the sink and the stove)
(ignore the string, it sneaked up there and hid until after I'd already finished cooking dinner and couldn't retake this photo without it! silly little thing)