Out and About

Picture from the first sports afternoon we held a few Saturdays ago:

Gagarina Street - the Baptist church is to the right (out of the picture):

 Gagarina Street Babushkas selling stuff:

Where the kids are contained and (maybe sometimes semi-)entertained during church at the Baptist church (as far as space goes what you see is what you get and don't get confused - that's a mirror at the back making it seem larger!): 

In the foreground you will see parts of an old concrete bench cemented into it's sidewalk surroundings: 

Steve went with Oleg (front left, one of the Pastors of the Baptist church) to School 25 (where we've started helping in English class) for a day that was all about hygiene, not doing drugs, living healthy and what it means to be happy:

Walking down the boulevard in the middle of Metalurgov street (which we live off of) on the way home from the market. 

Six Months Ago....

It occurred to me today that we have been out of our house in Winnipeg for six months (and two days). What a crazy life change has happened between then and now and we are reminded all the time that God is good and is faithful to us when we follow Him. We miss our house but mostly for the people who were in and out of it all the time!

Quirk of the Day:

Wheelchair "accessible" means something different here. 

We haven't taken our stroller out once since being here and this "ramp" isn't the first place I'm headed if and when we do! 

Calling All To Pray!

We have been presented with a great opportunity from a girl named Sasha who attends both Young Life and the Monday evening drop-in at New Hope Center. She is really interested in learning more English and asked if we'd be willing to come to English class at her school. She spoke with her teacher who was also really interested and so this afternoon we went for the first time. We were there from 1:45 until 3 in a classroom with 10 or so students just talking - about them, about us, about differences between Canada and Ukraine. They were really interested in us and the teacher invited us to come back every Friday for a class from 1-2 which we were really excited about. For school purposes the teacher needed our names and the organization we were with - and this is where the prayer comes in! In no way, shape or form do we want to hide what we're doing here but a name like Youth for Christ could shut the door on us pretty quickly as far as public school is concerned. We're not really worried at all but prayer for an open door and open hearts would be appreciated. We're really excited about what this opportunity could begin in the lives of these students and the relationships that we could build with them.  

Quirk of the Day:

Add this to the growing assortment of uniquely filled manholes.   

This Week

Monday from 4-8 (ish) we go to New Hope Center for a supper club (that's what we personally have been calling it). There are three Americans and one Ukrainian in charge and we take turns cooking - one week they cook, one week we cook. We usually feed between 5 and 20 people and meals are usually things like tacos, stew and biscuits, quiche and zucchini bread (don't knock it, it was amazing!), sloppy joes. This next Monday will be our turn to cook again so I'm thinking empanadas. We usually play games (Uno, Foosball, Ping Pong, Darts) with the kids and with supper one of the Americans, Joel, usually does a short message and then after supper we clean up and go home. 

August playing ping pong. 

It's been a lot nicer outside - the temperature usually hovers between -1 or -2 at night to between +2 and +6 during the day. There is no snow (hasn't been since ??? mid January) and everything is grey and brown. It's usually cloudy but every once in a while we've had one amazingly beautiful day that is brilliantly sunny. Dez's birthday was one of those days. 

 The entrance to our apartment building. 

We got a package in the mail this week! We were all very excited, Steve and I especially to know that mail does actually get here! There is only one thing in the mail somewhere between Canada and here that hasn't made it yet and should have. I'm still holding out hope that it will arrive. 

Christmas presents!! 

We hadn't ventured to any restaurants (besides McDonald's and it got old) since being here but finally this week we went out with some friends who recommended a Georgian restaurant. It was all shashlik (barbecue) so we tried a few different kinds of meat (beef tenderloin, beef and lamb) as well we had this amazing bread with cheese baked in the middle and Steve had a pork steak with fries. We already have plans to try another restaurant with these same friends so although we rarely go out it would be nice to know of a few places to go if an occasion did come up. 

Lamb Shashlik 

Tuesdays and Thursdays from 4:00-5:30 we are still having our Russian lessons. They are going well, some better than others of course but we still feel like we are making some progress although it is slow. Our Russian teacher is a great lady - strict in learning but sweet to talk to! She brings gifts for the boys every time - candy, chocolates and sometimes colouring books.

Steve has still been attending Young Life on Fridays and he has had several meetings with some of the Pastors from the Baptist church. They are the church affiliated with Young Life and we have friends that go there and therefore have been there a few times ourselves. The Pastors are really excited that we're here and we're hoping it works out to partner with them to see our vision come to life. They have the same hopes and dreams so we're in the process of working out what it would all look like. 

Quirk of the Day: 

Another manhole cover replaced in an inventive way. This one is across the street, right outside our entrance. 

Ukrainian Wedding

We attended a Ukrainian wedding last Saturday! 

It was the wedding of a very good friend of ours who we met here in 2009 and who we have remained friends with. She and family have been a great help to us every time we've come to Zaporozhye and we found out when we got here in December that she was getting married. We've spent a lot of time with her and her fiance and were really excited to be able to share their special day. I was honoured to be able to do her hair for her for the wedding as well. 

 In Ukraine you must be married by the state. You may have a church wedding if you like but you must have an official ceremony at a place called Zaks. There are many of these Zaks places around the city and the one they were married in was apparently one of the more beautiful ones and it really was quite an amazing place to have a wedding. When we arrived we had to wait for twenty minutes or so for the wedding before "ours" to finish, then it was our wedding's turn! We all lined up behind the bride and groom and followed them up a big staircase into this room:

 It was a standing ceremony and we couldn't understand what was happening but they drank something together, did the usual exchange of rings and they bowed to their parents three times. 

The ceremony itself was about fifteen minutes and as we went back down the stairs, the next bride and groom were lined up with their guests, ready to go! It feel a little like a production line but the ceremony itself was still beautiful and quite emotional and I don't think anything was lost in the speediness of it all. 

 The bride and groom:

 In the evening at six there was a reception. There was a hired master of ceremonies, almost like a toastmaster-type woman who greeted us all at the entrance to the cafe where dinner was being held. We all waited outside while the bride and groom were presented with a big loaf of decorated bread and they fed it to each other (while still outside) like wedding cake. Then we all proceeded inside and sat down at the table - there were 35-40 of us so it was one big long table COVERED in all these dishes of traditional Ukrainian food! 

 Cabbage rolls, Greek salad (okay that's not traditional), cabbage salads, pickles, some kind of meat pate:

 Many, many salads with mayonnaise and eggs, stuffed tomatoes/mushrooms/cucumbers: 

 And don't forget about Mr. Fish!!

 This fish was cut in slices like a loaf of bread and was very loaf-like in the middle. I also noticed other traditional dishes that we've been told about like meat that is served in jelly.

We ate dinner and the MC talked and had several people give toasts that were very short. After the dinner it was time to dance. First we all just danced but after that there was almost like dancing party games! 

 Four gentlemen were chosen to dance down this aisle that we formed to where the bride and groom were standing. Steve was one of these men chosen and was told to roll up his pant leg...?? The MC didn't seem to understand that we don't speak or understand much Russian but she forged ahead assuming he'd catch on. 

 Then four ladies were chosen, of course I didn't think to hide in the bathroom and I was chosen to dance down the aisle towards the bride and groom as well. After that the bride and groom danced in the middle while we all formed a circle around them and danced to different music from different countries and we were supposed to dance like the country - we heard Germany, Shalom, Americanski and Ukraine all in the mix and the others we just went along with what everyone else was doing! It was really fun. After dancing we sat down for more food and toasts. We had no idea that there would be more eating so Steve and I were still really full at this point. We found out right then that after this round of eating there would be more dancing and after that dancing there would be ANOTHER round of eating and then one last round of dancing!! The MC came over at the beginning of round two of eating and told us that we were up next for a toast so Steve braved the crowd and said a few words to the bride and groom. The MC kept telling everyone that we were from New York so he cleared that up and after that a lot of people came to say hi and ask what in the world we are doing in Zaporozhye. 

After the second round of eating we decided to bid the bride and groom farewell. 

We had a great time and it was really interesting to see the differences in traditions and what goes on compared to the Canadian weddings we've been to!

Grocery Shopping

I hope these are bright and clear enough pictures to actually see (if you click on them they are even bigger)!I thought it would be fun to share a little grocery shopping experience! This is the store where do our major grocery shopping once a week and the last time Steve was there he nabbed a flyer. The store is pronounced "Amstore" to clear that up right away and it is a bit like a Superstore in that they have a bit of everything - food, household items, baby things, clothes, toys, outdoor and sporting goods etc. You may also notice a few familiar brands as we go through so keep your eyes open for those. 

Let's peruse shall we?

Specials of the week.

Dairy Section:

Butter top left, yogurt below it, cheese top right and juice bottom right with a few random things like cakes on the bottom left. Some notes: the tube middle left side is butter, cheese varies in price from roughly $4.87 to $9. 37 per kilogram.

Various Fish/Meats:

Fresh meat and "deli" style meat that consists of various kinds of bologna and the bottom right is ready made food you can buy like for lunch on the go or whatever. Note on prices: ground beef runs around $4.60 a kilogram. 

Coffee and tea, cookies/crackers and chocolate:

Kitchen basics:

 Pasta and rice, flour ($1.12 for 2 kilograms), spices/spice mixes, oil ($1.90 for 1 liter),  sauces and frozen fruit/veg. Notice the sushi started kit in the middle! Note: mayonnaise (green bag, almost bottom left hand side) is craaazy popular here - you can buy it in 4L buckets like we'd buy ice cream in Canada)! Also liquid items such as the oil (or yogurt, milk etc) are measured in grams where we're used to doing milliliters or liters - it's hard to get used to! 

Household/toiletry items

Valentine's Day Items:

 Ukrainians love their chocolate and candies so there's an even larger abundance to choose from with holidays. 

I will also note that I skipped the extensive liquor page :)

Thanks for coming shopping with us!

Visas!

Look who's legal! 

We finally got our official visa documents on Friday! Apparently the boys don't need them which makes me wonder if we need to apply for visas for them at all next time or ??? Also these documents are good for one year which takes us to almost the end of next January and after that I think we just need to renew this document instead of having to go back to Canada, apply for visas and redo the entire process.