2 Weeks in 1 Blog?

So it's been a while but we now have some internet in our apartment by way of a USB stick so I can finally make a blog!! We left Vancouver at 7:30 on March 8th and had a 9 hour flight to Amsterdam. I thought the flight was pretty good, we flew with KLM and they were constantly handing out drinks and the food was pretty good too. However, as in all airplanes, leg room was severely lacking for Steve and as a result a stretch-out was needed in Amsterdam when we got there.

We had a 5 hour layover so Steve and I took the train to Amsterdam Centraal and walked around for a little bit. There were TONS of bicycles!

From Amsterdam we had a 4 hour flight to Kiev where we were met by John Wiens who herded all 13 of us onto a night bus bound for Zaporozhye.
Our first real experience of Ukraine came about half way through the night when we stopped at a bus stop and went to use the bathroom facilities. We had to pay 1 greevna, which is about 12 cents USD and were given a little bit of TP to go and use a lovely squatter potty!
We arrived in Zaporozhye at 8 Tuesday morning and went to John and Evelyn's apartment for a wonderful pancake breakfast. Afterwards we were shown to our apartments. Evelyn gently told us that the smaller apartment is "a little bit like camping"....and it kind of is, although very clean and livable. Not sure who picked out the sparkly pink wallpaper, but I'm beginning to see that they do things differently here! The larger apartment where Steve and I are staying with Travis and Dan is actually quite nice. I haven't taken pictures yet but I will one of these days.
After dropping off our stuff and cleaning up, John came by for a walking tour of the market which is right outside our apartment. I was a little surprised but not really shocked at the variety of items available. It's open Tuesday to Saturday until 3pm.
The first evening we were at John and Evelyn's apartment for supper and then we walked back to our place which is about a 20 minute walk. The sidewalks are terrible and I was mentally telling myself to watch where I was stepping. Those thoughts just passed through my mind when I stepped on a manhole cover and fell in!! My right leg went in and the cover slammed shut over it, and it was quite terrifying although really funny afterwards. Steve lifted the cover off and gave me a few minutes and then I was able to hobble home. I had the sweetest bruise and lots of cuts and scrapes to show off for the next week. The pain however wasn't quite so cool.
First day of work was Wednesday, March 11 where all 13 of us loaded up into a van/bus owned by a friend of John's interpreter Olga (who also came with us) and headed to the villages of Morosevka and Nicolaipolia. Team Ukraine did the most work in Morosevka while Team Lithuania worked in Nicolaipolia for the next week and a half until they left on March 18th. The following are a few pictures from working and stuff.
The first day some of us girls sorted donated glasses by prescription. Needless to say we had a lot of fun!

Most of the work in Morosevka was building a fence around the backyard area to plant potatoes. The village has no running water and is very poor so the pastor of the church there, Pastor Alexander has set up a place in the church where the women of the village can come and bring their children to bathe once a week. He's also planning on planting potatoes to help bring these people through the winter. This is the back of the church, which is an old Mennonite school building.

This is Pastor Alexander - or Sasha as he preferred to be called. He was in charge of all our work projects for the week and is the coolest guy ever! We all cheer everytime we see him. We laughed a lot at his t-shirt this day and we asked him if he knew what it said in English...he didn't so that made it all the more hilarious.

 

Alexi, our van driver for the time we were working out there, stayed during the day and worked with us. After the first lunch of sandwiches I guess he decided we weren't eating enough so he started cooking periodically for us! The first day was kartoshka - potatoes cooked underneath a metal bucket in the fire outside, and the next day was Ukrainian borsch (no "t") complete with chicken necks!!

Alexi also has a Bandoora - a Ukrainian instrument with 55 stings which he brought in and played for us and showed Dan how to play.

A lot of the work was cemented different areas of the church yard...which is a completely different story that Steve will have to explain to all of you someday....

Sasha's sons-in-law were also there helping us work, Roma and Vassa, so we got to know them pretty well too. But keep in mind that these people all speak no English so we had an interpreter some days and others, we just played charades and laughed a lot.

Friday night in Nicolaipolia there is a soccer night. It's in a Mennonite church converted into a gym but it has a lot of the original woodwork and fixtures. The guys have played there 2 Fridays now and I think it's definately a good ministry opportunity.
This is a lovely picture of the factories pumping smog into the city. There are good air days and bad air days. Bad air days it kind of smells like sewage.

Last Sunday, Team Ukraine went to Nicolaipolia for the church service in the morning and then afterwards we spent time with the kids of the church, singing songs together and having tea.

Sunday afternoon we were at Morosevka in the afternoon for a service with the people there where Sasha got us all to give our testimonies and then afterwards we had tea for a different Sasha's birthday party. In the evening we went to a youth group that Olga (our interpreter)'s son goes to and then afterwards we all went to McDonalds for food! It was cool to hang out with people our age who speak English so hopefully we'll be able to do that again.
This is the main drag in Zaporozhye, Lenin Prospect. Notice the cars parked parallel and angle, it doesn't really matter.