Yarmarka

Last week things finally began to feel Christmasy at DCU, and it began with an event we hadn’t observed before, a yarmarka. It was sort of a craft fair/bake sale. We didn’t really know what to expect beforehand, but since I was feeling like I needed a boost to get into the Christmas spirit, I decided to bake some cookies. And then the next day, we baked some more. All told, I think Dave and I baked more than 100 cookies for the sale. I was a little nervous that they would think that I was crazy and trying to earn big bucks from a bake sale. But they liked my cookies, especially the gingerbread ones. My uncle and aunt, Dave and Shirl, had sent us a great package that included a gingerbread man cookie cutter, and since it was the only one I had, I went to town with gingerbread men, complete with frosting buttons and goofy smiles.

The yarmarka was quick but fun. Ukrainians do very good handiwork, so there was cross-stitching and embroidery galore. Also lots of cookies and even some Ukrainian vereniki – dumplings filled with cabbage, meat, cottage cheese or potatoes. In the center of the room, two students led children’s games and competitions, which ranged from seeing who could eat a whole lemon the fastest to racing to diaper and wrap up a baby doll in the neatest and most attractive way. (Two male DCU students competed in that contest, for the entertainment of the women and girls looking on). And then after about an hour and a half, it was over. The food was all gone, the games were finished, so we all went home. I was a little surprised that it was over so fast, but it was still a good time and was a good start to celebrating Christmas at DCU.

Laura

Basketball at the Center

At around 4 in the afternoon every Monday and Thursday I head to the Good Shepherd Center in Makeevka. It is an orphanage that currently houses 32 children, ages 5-15. Andrew Geddert (an MCC worker) was there full-time until June, but his replacement has not yet been found. He worked there full-time, and was a psychologist of sorts. I could not fill his job description, but I go there anyway. I go mainly to play basketball, but also to spend some time with the kids (and maybe give the staffers a little more peace and quiet for a few hours).

Usually 7-10 kids show up, with varying degrees of skill and motivation. It is interesting to note that the two girls who regularly show up are two of the best players there. I usually try to convince them to do some drills at the beginning but, like all the basketball players I have ever met, all they want to do is scrimmage. I also like this part of our “practices” because that is when I am able to play as well. I keep a whistle in my mouth, but I rarely blow it because it is more fun to just play, and let them play.

I have heard that Good Shepherd is one of two Christian orphanages in Ukraine (but this may not be completely accurate–my Russian is not great and I am sure it is difficult to really know all the orphanages in the country). By any means, I have thought a lot about the jobs of the people at the center. They are paid little to be everything to these 32 kids: parents, teachers, role models, friends, … And I imagine with so many kids and so few “educators” and “assistants,” they have their work cut out for them. While it sometimes seems a bit loud and unruly there, I am amazed at how well behaved the kids are. It is a really great place. I am glad to contribute the little that I do and hope to continue this throughout my time here.

Christmas Tree

Saturday Dave and I went shopping for a Christmas tree. Last year we didn’t have one and since we’ll be around Donestk for Western Christmas this year, we thought we should invest in one. We were looking for a small artificial tree, small enough to fit on our living room windowsill next to Petey and his cage. In Ukraine, it’s a little early for such activities. Though I feel like it’s time to play Christmas CDs and decorate the house, I’m in the minority. The main winter holiday celebrated here is New Years, and Christmas follows on Jan. 7, according to the Eastern Orthodox calendar. Also, although the Western glitz and commercialism is making its way here, it’s not as prominent as at home. So whereas at home by the day after Thanksgiving stores are full of Christmas products, houses and buildings are decorated with lights, and Christmas music plays on the radio, here there’s not much to indicate that Christmas is coming until later in December. Because it’s so early, real Christmas trees aren’t on sale yet. However, after searching three big stores, we found our fake tree, plus lights and decorations to go with it.
Yesterday night it was interesting to see the various reactions of our prayer group students to our decorations. Most were surprised and a little confused that we seemed to be excited about decorating so early. One student in our group wished us a Happy New Year, so it gave us the opportunity to explain that to us, the decorations were Christmas decorations, and Christmas was less than a month away. To them, they were New Years decorations, a New Years tree, etc. It’s still hard for me to grasp that holiday traditions originally associated with Christmas were transferred by the Soviets from a religious holiday (Christmas) to a secular holiday (New Years), and that they stuck, even after communism is gone. I guess it shouldn’t be surprising, Soviet cultural influences still exist here in virtually every other area of life as well.

Laura

The Bosses' Visit

Friday we were graced with a visit from our country director and regional directors. They arrived around 1:30 pm on Friday and left around 10 am Saturday. It was a quick visit, but we tried to schedule as much as we could into their time here. We had a few meetings with partners as well as some cultural activities and it seemed to go well.

The region reps are new to the position and used the trip as an opportunity to meet some of the partners and hear their stories. I went along to two of these meetings, as one was with the rector here at DCU and the other with the leaders at Good Shepherd Charitable Fund (orphanage and children's shelter); the two places that my work takes me.

Being here is sometimes very difficult and draining for me. It sometimes feels like I am not doing much and little is happening, and these are some of my most-hated feelings. Then I get the opportunity to listen to some partners talk about their vision. I hear the rector talk about the difficulties of operating a Western-style Christian university in a system unaccustomed to (and maybe even biased against) such universities. I hear the director of the orphanage talk about dealing with 30+ children, 24 hours a day for up to 17 years. Both organizations talk about how funds always seem to be severely lacking. But they don't dwell on these things; they can clearly see God at work. And it serves as an example for me to keep plugging away and have faith that, in the end, I used my time to the best of my ability.

Dave

Greenhouse photo

It seems that winter may be here. We have a few inches of snow on the ground and it has barely made it above freezing for the past few days. The greenhouse may need to stand, as is, for a while. I promised to post a picture today, so here it is.
Dave

One Year

As the one-year anniversary of being here passes, Dave keeps reminding me to write some sort of reflection, and I’ve been dragging my feet. I think it’s just because I feel like I don’t have much to say. Or maybe not much that is profound or inspiring. His reflection was a good summary of my experience as well – similar struggles, similar joys. As I’ve thought about it, I’ve realized that the greatest difference between me last year and me now is that I feel comfortable. Not completely, of course, but enough to get by for now. I know my responsibilities at work, I have established relationships, I can communicate (even if at a basic level). I know how to function – where to buy fresh fruit, good meat and band-aids. Where to take guests who visit. How to get across town on public transport. Which students I need to call on in class and which students I need to watch during tests. How to explain passive voice and reported statements. What to wear (and what not to wear) to church. How to organize a month of intensive English classes. There is no place where knowledge is power like a foreign country is to foreigner trying to live on his/her own. Without all this knowledge, I am helpless; dependent on others for everything. And now I am forever grateful to those, who, in the past year have helped get me to this point. With the knowledge I’ve acquired, I can live my life and take care of myself, and in addition, be useful to someone else as well. I guess I feel like I’m finally reaching the “useful” point – the point where I can really get something done for someone else. Yes, I have done something this year, but I feel like it’s been mostly for my own knowledge, for my benefit. From now on, I feel like I can do much more for someone else’s benefit.

Laura

One Year Here

I guess that I am trying to catch up on blogging as I took the last few weeks off. Today is an important day for us as we arrived in the Dnieperpetrovsk airport all sleep-deprived and groggy exactly one year ago. A lot has happened in the past year and I would like to write a bit about it.

I started out my year wondering what exactly it was I was going to be doing the next 3 years. I found myself adequately busy most of the time with teaching, gardening and building the greenhouse. Seeing the produce as we weighed it and gave it to the cafeteria as well as seeing the steel structure standing outside definitely have given me a sense of accomplishment. At the same time, I wonder now what I will be doing for the next 2 years. I am sure I will find something.

Language has been a source of frustrations and joys. I have repeatedly found myself wondering if I would be fluent yet, had we chosen to go to a Spanish-speaking place and I spent as much time there as I have here on language. It never seems to happen fast enough for me; it has been a long process to get even to the point where I would now consider myself almost conversational. Who knows if I will ever approach fluency, but I was quite pleased with myself over the past month as I was the Decherts' primary translator and I didn't have to ask "What does that mean?" too much. I would even venture to say that I did not do too bad of job.

The biggest struggle that I have had over the past year has been with being so far from friends and family. While we tried to prep ourselves by heading to Arizona for a few years, which seemed to be so far away from friends and family, all we did was find new friends and even family to grow close to. While something similar may be starting to happen here, it still feels infinitely more isolated than anywhere I have ever been. I have been fortunate to have some very good e-mail correspondences as well as to have taken a trip home this summer. That was really good for me, yet the readjustment was again very hard. Now we are settled back in and are preparing for people to come here and visit us. We just don't know who will be first.

The biggest joy for me has been getting to know some Ukrainians. While I can't really say that I have made any close friends, I have a lot of acquaintances and have had some really good interactions. I especially enjoy talking to the workers here at DCU, the kids at the orphanage where I coach basketball, and people at our church. In many of these instances we have even moved beyond the traditional "differences between the U.S. and Ukraine" that seemed to dominate conversations when I began to be able to converse. That has been great.

As I look to the next 2 years, I expect many more joys and struggles. As I continue to develop relationships with and work beside some of the nationals, I expect some strong friendships to be built. I hope that these will far outweigh any of the struggles.

-Dave

Greenhouse Progress Report

I thought it would be nice to post some pictures of the project that has been occupying my time for the last month or so. Chuck and Janell Dechert made the trip from Wyoming to DCU to do a variety of things. They did conversation practice with the students, helped with the construction of the greenhouse, and brought funds for the drilling of a well on campus.

After spending some time finding supplies, doing some planning and getting the tractor and blade into working order, we were able to start levelling the spot for the greenhouse on October 24. It took Chuck a little while to get used to our little Russian tractor, but he figured it out and it worked well. This was the location of one of my gardens last summer.


Danic German, the director of public relations here has some greenhouse and agriculture in his background and he was able to take a few days out of the office to help with some of the construction. Chuck, Danic and I were able to get the walls up, and sixteen hoops up in the following week. Along with being the heaviest part of the greenhouse, they were also the most expensive as steel is quite expensive here and the labor involved in having them rolled into nice curves was rather costly.

After we hung the hoops, we hung eight pipes, the full 24 meter length of the structure. Along with providing some structure for the building, these are spaced to be directly above the eight rows of cucumbers and tomatoes we plan to grow in the future. We will hang strings down to each plant and train them to climb. This seems to be the method of choice for growing both types of vegetables here in Ukraine.

Here is a photo of the greenhouse as it stands right now. The Decherts returned to Wyoming on Tuesday, and I am pleased with the progress that was made while they were here. There are still several things that I hope to complete before it gets too cold, but I fear I am too late as it did not get above freezing yesterday. If the weather cooperates, I hope to finish painting it yet, and hopefully cover it with plastic on a nice day in January.

-Dave

A KGB room and other Soviet lore

One bit of interesting history about the hotel I stayed in in Tallinn. On the flight to Tallinn, I happened to be skimming through the airline magazine when I saw a story entitled “The secret lives of Tallinn Hotels,” with a full-page picture of the Sokos Hotel Viru on the opposite page. This just happened to be the hotel in which the conference was going to take place, so I read on. I learned that in Soviet times the Sokos Hotel was formerly the Intourist Hotel, the infamous state hotel which every sizable city had, and where foreign guests were housed. According to the article, Tallinn’s Intourist Hotel was quite well known – it was the first “skyscraper” in Tallinn (22 floors) and was perhaps one of the “most luxurious” hotels in the USSR. Of course, it came complete with bugged rooms, especially on the 14th floor where important guests stayed, and a room full of KGB personnel to monitor those important people. The KGB room was located out of reach of guests on the 23rd floor. However, when the political tides began to turn in the late ‘80s, the KGB simply deserted their post in the hotel. They left behind their electronic equipment, some clothing and random items, including an overflowing ashtray. Rather than clean out the KGB room, the hotel management decided to leave everything as it was. And so the author of the article paid a visit to the room to glimpse a bit of Soviet history frozen in time, and wrote that any guest could request to see the room and would be escorted there.

So the day after I arrived, several of my fellow conference attendees approached the desk and asked to see the KGB room. The receptionist called someone on the phone, and unfortunately, the answer was no. Her English didn’t seem to be good enough to explain why, either. So we went looking for the room on our own. The elevator only took us as far as the 22nd floor, so we wandered around until we found a maid and she directed us to an unlocked door and a flight of stairs. Two walls on the 23rd floor were mostly made of windows, and the other two walls each had two doors. We tried the handles on each one, and they were all locked. And that’s pretty much the anti-climactic ending to my story. Behind one of those doors was the KGB room, full of Soviet paraphernalia, but we never saw it. We considered pestering the front desk staff further, but in the end never got around to it. So however mistaken the airline magazine writer was about guests visiting the KGB room, it was still interesting to learn the history behind the modern, well-decorated building we were staying in. From its current looks, I never would’ve guessed it had been a legendary Soviet hotel.

Laura

Tallinn

Here is part two of my trip. After spending the first half of the week in Klaipeda, Lithuania, I spent the morning wandering the streets of Vilnius, then flew to Tallinn, Estonia. The conference was sponsored by the organization “Women of the Harvest,” which exists solely to support North American women serving overseas through Christian ministries. Part of their work is to host conferences all over the world and invite women to get together, network with others in their area, and relax a bit. All 50 women stayed together in a hotel in the center of Tallinn – mornings and evenings were sessions and afternoons were free. Seven women including me attended from Donetsk, and we had a good time exploring Old Town Tallinn and meeting others from throughout Eastern Europe. One highlight was feasting at a medieval restaurant lit only by candles and complete with musicians in traditional garb. Even though the weather was pretty chilly, Old Town was full of tourists, and it was fun to blend in with the foreigners and not stick out so much, for once.

Although we didn’t venture much out of the center of the city, I was impressed by the Western-European feel of Tallinn. The hotel we stayed at was overflowing with other guests and conferences, and the buildings were very well maintained and restored. Everywhere you went people spoke English – my better-traveled colleagues said they encountered more non-native English speakers in Tallinn than they remember when visiting places like Italy or France. In Lithuania the experience was similar. As soon as I stepped off the plane, I could tell a difference in economic stability as compared with Ukraine. Cars, streets, buildings and buses were modern and well-maintained. I saw the familiar Soviet-style high rise apartment buildings, but they seemed to be tidier and holding together much better than their equivalents in Ukraine. All of the Baltic states are now part of the European Union, and it showed me how far Ukraine has yet to go to reach that level of economic improvement.

Laura

Garden Produce II

Dave showing off some of the cabbage grown in the garden. The cafeteria was more than happy to buy it all from the project at a discounted price.

Garden Produce I

Dave harvesting some of the beets grown in the garden. Over 250lbs. have already been picked and there are still more out there.

Lithuania

I'm posting this entry from Klaipeda, Lithuania, where I have spent the last couple days exploring Lithuania Christian College (LCC) and spending time with my fellow MCCer and friend Robin Gingerich. I headed towards the Baltics to attend a conference/retreat in Tallinn, Estonia by invitation of some of my American friends in Donetsk and thought I should stop in Lithuania since it was kind of on the way. Ideally I would've liked to visit during July, when LCC's summer English program is in full swing, to lobserve what happens and pick up some tips for DCU's program. But since DCU's program is also in July, I settled for October. The leaves are beautiful, although it has rained quite a bit. I've also connected with Anna Detrich, who's at LCC for the year and she and Robin have shown me LCC and a little bit of Klaipeda. LCC is a unique place - a Christian liberal arts college in the midst of Eastern Europe where no such idea/institution existed before. The language of instruction is English, but I hear Russian, Lithuanian and other languages in the hallways, mixed with English. The facilities are new and very nice and I've learned a lot about the school as well as the English programs - and have a few ideas to take back to implement in DCU's English program.

I've just stopped by for a few days, this afternoon I leave for Lithuania's capital, Vilnius, where I'll spend a little time being a tourist, and then head to Tallinn.

Laura

Heat

Fall is here and the weather and landscape are slowly becoming how we remember them when we first arrived almost a year ago in November. We’ve been reminded this week that spring and fall, the in-between seasons, can be somewhat uncomfortable indoors – in this case as we’ve waited for the heat to come on in the buildings. Most every building is heated with a boiler system - hot water in radiators. Most of the time the hot water source is a big place that services a whole section of town, so climate control within your own apartment is not up to you, nor is the date when the heat is turned on or shut off.

Across the city, the big day that the heat comes on is October 15. This year, it could’ve been a couple weeks earlier – we’ve been drinking lots of hot tea to compensate. Last night during the weekly student gathering in our apartment, prayer requests and conversation focused on staying warm despite cold buildings and keeping from getting sick. Since DCU has its own boiler system we are independent from the city and the October 15th rule. This evening I came home to a cold apartment, but stepped close enough to a radiator later in the evening to notice its warmth, then happily listened to it gurgle all during supper. We are grateful for the extra two days of heat.

It’s funny how much my attitude towards the temperature in our apartment is affected by knowing that I could do nothing to make it warmer. In Phoenix, Dave and I would see how long we could go without turning on the heat in our house – partly to be cheap and, being native Midwesterners, partly to marvel at how warm the Arizona weather really was. (You can make it until Christmas without heat in the desert!) So even though it probably wasn’t any colder in our apartment here in Donetsk than it was in our place in Phoenix, I sure resented the chill more, simply because I couldn’t do anything about it. As long as I know I can control it, I’ll sit in my apartment and shiver for as long as I feel like it. I realized that having your apartment temperature controlled by a mysterious “boiler operator” five blocks down the street is just another handy method of control if you’re living in a communist country. And in our case, living under the remnants of a communist system, the boiler man can keep the masses of shivering citizens from being warm but he can’t keep them from complaining about it.

Laura

Politics

I don’t know how much Ukraine has been in the news in U.S. during the past several weeks, but just in case you haven’t heard, there’s been a big shake-up in the government. I don’t know many details because, honestly, I don’t follow the political situation very closely. It takes quite a bit of effort to get Ukrainian news in English with our current technological capabilities, and sometimes we just don’t have the time to wait for the slow-as-molasses Internet connection to deliver the news. Anyway, apparently the president, Victor Yushenko (leader of last fall/winter’s Orange Revolution) “fired” the government. This includes lots of top leaders and the prime minister, Yulia Timoshenko. Apparently there were accusations of corruption and interfering with government work for all sorts of personal/monetary gains. The all-to-familiar story here, of shady financial deals and whatnot getting interfering with running a lawful, corruption-free society.

It’s hard to know who to believe and what exactly is going on. We, of course, hear a range of opinions. Several times a week we walk past Lenin Square in the center of the city and see banners proclaiming a “Ukraine without Yushenko,” and many of the people we rub shoulders with agree with such sentiments. This summer when there wasn’t hamburger at the store we asked our language teacher about it, and she shrugged her shoulders and replied in a sarcastic tone, “I don’t know, ask our president.” A similar finger-pointing response came up again later in a discussion about the prices of groceries in general, which have risen noticeably since we arrived last November. One positive change in bureaucracy we’ve happily noticed is the waiver of visa requirements for Americans who plan to visit Ukraine for short amounts of time. (A $150 discount incentive for those thinking about visiting …) So although the news magazines we read from the West paint a dreary picture of the “Orange Revolution gone wrong” and the old ways of corruption and cronyism taking over again, I don’t think anyone really knows what will happen. For us, it’s just wait and see.

Laura

Cleaning the Garage

As I have mentioned before, when workers leave Ukraine, those who remain have a free-for-all on the household items left behind. After this, there are always things that no one really wants, yet seem useful or at least too good to throw away. These items are stored in Zaporozhye, in the MCC garage.

Last weekend I went to Zaporozhye to help clean the assorted items that were piled up there. Liz, Andre and I spent the afternoon on Friday and the morning on Saturday deciding what to keep, give away, and throw away. I found that the criteria for “useful” or “too good to throw away” differ greatly from person to person.

We found a lot of things such as sets of dishes, small appliances, and bedding that we were fairly certain future workers will be interested in using. We tried to clean, sort and package these in order that workers can avoid wading through boxes of junk to find something useful.

We also found random things that workers may want to use, but would probably be put to better use in an orphanage or children’s center in the area. These things were mainly mismatched mugs, bowl, and sheets that we already had plenty of. We didn’t want to insult the recipients’ dignity by giving them things that they would turn around and throw away. I found it the distinction very difficult. Which things would we bring to the partners (as sort of humanitarian aid) and which would we put in the dumpster?

Once we got started, we found that most things that we put in the dumpster were removed by dumpster scavengers by our next trip there. Some of the stuff that we thought was totally useless was being used. I even saw some of the things we threw away on Friday, being sold at the market Saturday.

Dave

Birthday Fireworks

We walk past Renat Ahkmetov’s home/hotel every time we walk to and from the bus stop. It feels like we are in a different world. According to Money magazine, at a net worth of 2.6 billion USD, he is the sixth richest man in Europe. He owns a lot of land, mines, factories, hotels, soccer teams, etc in the area.

Yesterday evening, as we were walking home we were forced to cross the road to avoid a huge amount of pipes, welded to aim upright and at slight angles. We noticed a lot of wires and technology around the pipes that we weren’t accustomed to. We assumed it was some sort of fireworks fusing set-up, but it was nothing like what we have been used to with our small family fireworks displays at home.

Later in the evening, we heard some loud bangs as we were sitting in the living room. We ran outside and saw about half the faculty and their families standing outside the building watching a very impressive fireworks show. I overheard the rector say, jokingly, to one of the professors, “that was half-a-year’s salary for someone at DCU.” Personally, I don’t think that all of the $2,000 annual salary of a professor would have put on half of the show.

I read (on the Internet) that Ahkmatov’s birthday was on Wednesday and I suppose this was part of the celebration. Not that there are a lot of people like him in the area, but still the chasm between those with and those without is quite wide here in Ukraine.

Dave

Greenhouse Progress

We are making progress with the greenhouse project. We have made a rough business plan and will receive the grant on Wednesday. It has been difficult to determine what type of vision DCU has for this project. We visited a couple of greenhouse operations around Donetsk, where the structures were for sale. They were all quite cheap, yet also very rusty and in need of repairs (as well as disassembly and transport). The question has always been should we buy one of these, as the project is an experiment and could fail, or should we use new materials and be forced to make more of a commitment? We have chosen the latter.

I don’t have any experience with greenhouses, but researching has been fun. It has been a real learning experience for me already, and I am sure that will continue as the construction begins. Fortunately a couple from Wyoming has been doing quite a bit of consulting and is coming to help with construction. They bought their tickets and will be here from October 11 through November 8. We hope to have most of the supplies on-site by then. That will probably prove to be a difficult task, as finding things is not always so easy here. It is nice to be moving forward.

Dave

Financial Situation

Financially, things at DCU aren’t going so well. The flow of money here is always up and down, and some people seem to be accustomed to talking about the “financial crisis” as if it’s an ordinary, everyday thing. But it’s still a heavy thing. Faculty and staff haven’t been paid salaries in three months. That’s not a completely unusual thing, either. But it really makes me think about the lives people are living and compare myself to them. In the U.S. if even two weeks went by with no paycheck from my employer I would definitely explore my options for another job. Concern for my financial security would dwarf all other factors, even if I enjoyed my job and strongly supported the institutions mission or work. And I don’t even have kids to support. Most of the staff and faculty here do. And yet they stay at DCU, having faith that their needs will be supplied through some way or another. Many of the staff members could easily find a job in the city that paid a more regular salary, but they stay here. And its true that throughout Ukraine ever since the fall of the Soviet Union, wages have been sparse and sporadic in many sectors, not just at DCU. But as the economy develops, salaries in other areas of employment become more regular, although that hasn’t been the case at DCU. Those who work at the university don’t receive a high salary in the first place, so few have reserves for when salaries stop. I honestly don’t know how people continue to put food on the table. Last week DCU gave each employee 10 cans of MCC meat and distributed clothing from the most recent humanitarian aid shipment, all of which was gratefully received. As families stretch cans of meat for as long as they can, I feel guilty as I tromp back to campus with my full bags of groceries and prepare meals as usual. Even though I’m not making much money working for MCC in Ukraine, I know that I’ll always have more than I need here. And I keep asking myself, if I had no salary for three months, would I stay at DCU? Everyone who works at DCU is an example to me, by simply choosing to continue working here at a place where they're doing God's work. They are living their faith by believing God will supply their needs, whether they receive a salary or not.

Laura

Picking Tomatoes

Today I picked some tomatoes. Around 260 or 270lbs had already been picked and canned by the cafeteria staff (while we were gone) so this was the first significant tomato harvest performed by me. This morning I picked about 40lbs of very nice tomatoes for canning purposes. I am pleased that the garden is producing good produce.

I was uncertain whether the cafeteria people would want the other 25lbs that I had picked. The tomatoes were covered with spots, sunburn, and bug holes. Laura and I have been cutting off the bad spots and eating them in salads for the last few weeks but we haven’t been able to keep up with the bad ones that the garden seems to want to produce. I couldn’t let them go to waste so I asked the cafeteria people if they would have a use for them.

When I brought them the second load, I was pleasantly surprised the first were already sorted, cleaned, sliced, and simmering in a large pot on the stovetop. They were preparing them for today’s lunch. I don’t know why I was thinking that they would be picky, but for some reason I had worried that they wouldn’t want them. It is so great to see them using the produce directly from the garden. And the ugly stuff at that.

Dave

First Prayer Group

Dave and I have stepped beyond our comfort zone this fall and agreed to host a DCU prayer group in our apartment. At the beginning of the school year, every student signs up for a prayer group, led by a faculty or staff member. Everyone meets one evening a week for the whole school year to pray, have some sort of devotion or spiritual content, and socialize. Dave and I actually aren’t completely sticking our necks out by signing up for a group, because we’re co-leading the group with our friend and co-worker, John White, who speaks Russian quite well. That’s where we feel our leading skills are lacking a bit. So we’re providing our apartment, the snacks and the entertainment (Dave really wants to teach everyone Rook). John and students will provide the devotional part. So it might not seem too hard, but we were still a bit nervous when people began to arrive yesterday evening. We didn’t understand everything when students introduced themselves, learned a few things about Ukrainian etiquette (the concept of “help yourselves” seems to be somewhat foreign, especially to the male gender), and stumbled our way through descriptions of the friends and family pictured in our photo album. But we pulled it off and I hope they had fun. And hopefully our 10 students will come back next week.

Laura

Readjusting

Laura and I have been back in Donetsk for a little over a week now and we finally seem to be getting back into the routine again. Just like the first time we came here it has been a difficult adjustment for us, but it has been different this time around.

First of all, the sense of adventure that carried us through our first few months has worn off, making us a bit less excited about all of the things that aren’t quite as easy here as they are at home. It isn’t as easy to take the little things, such as long, smelly bus rides and sporadic periods of time with warm water, with a grain of salt. Those first few days back Laura and I found ourselves saying, “Oh yeah, now I remember” a lot. Looking at it another way, it should have been easier to come back because we already knew what we were coming back to, but this was not really the case. Knowing the situation and expectations, has, however, helped us to adjust a lot more quickly this time.

I think that MCC’s mandatory two-week orientation is a very necessary thing in preparing people to plug in to positions in a wide variety of cultural settings. At orientation we were forced to think about how things will be (or how we really have no idea how things will be). This time, we did not have any sort of a buffer between our time with family and our time here. While that didn’t have to be a problem, I found myself wishing I had prepared a bit for coming back. The problem was that I wanted to enjoy my time at home and sort of forget about how things are back here for a little bit. This caused me to neglect some of the tasks I had planned to complete while at home. I had wanted to set up meetings with several people at home who could’ve been very helpful resources for my project. They could have been very good sounding boards since they have a lot of experience with projects like mine. And I kick myself for not being more deliberate, but there is not a lot I can do about it now.

So now, we seem to be back into our routines. Laura is keeping busy preparing/teaching a couple of English classes and I am moving forward with the greenhouse and garden. We start attending language lessons again tomorrow and we will see how that goes. Life seems to be going on as normally as it can be for us here.

Dave

Back in Ukraine

The weddings are over and Dave and I are back in Ukraine after about three weeks in the U.S. Travel there and back went smoothly and now we’re unpacked, but still struggling with jetlag and trying to settle into a routine after a long, fun vacation time with family and friends. Because our friends and family on both sides gathered for each wedding, we had an opportunity to catch up with a lot of people. It was fun to be able to help with preparations for both weddings, and we both are so grateful that we could be there to celebrate with everyone else. Other highlights of the trip were speaking English and driving cars. We miss both already. Classes start at DCU tomorrow, although thankfully I have an extra two weeks to prepare for my theological reading class and a Saturday English course. I’ll need the time to prepare my classes, but also to re-adjust to life in Donetsk.

Laura

Learning to roast marshmallows

To the left is one of our Summer Intensive evening activities ... campfire and roasting marshmallows. In the picture, one of our American helpers is teaching the art of marshmallow roasting and smore-making - since marshmallows can't be found here in Ukraine, roasting them is quite a foreign idea. On Friday the last batch of students will graduate and we'll be done for the summer. On Saturday, I'll fly home for my sister's and Dave's brother's weddings. Dave left yesterday to catch a friend's wedding in Kansas this weekend. It's been a good Summer English Intensive session overall, but I am quite ready for a break and am counting the days (along with the rest of the staff who organized this summer's activities) until we're done. Dave and I will be in the States until August 24, then we'll head back to Ukraine to start the school year at DCU.

Laura

Apricots and other delicious fruit

We’re in the midst of summer in Ukraine and enjoying it – the sun, the mild temperatures, green trees and grass, but especially the fruit. I think I’ve mentioned before that all fruits and vegetables are very seasonal here – besides fruits imported from far away like oranges and bananas, all other summer fruit is generally only available (at a reasonable price) for a few weeks when it’s in season. As soon as I’ve gotten accustomed to seeing a certain type of fruit at the market, it’s gone and another has replaced it. So far this summer we’ve enjoyed a couple weeks each of strawberries and cherries, then raspberries, now apricots, and I think pears are coming soon. Although the fruit in season seems to disappear so quickly, the flavor of fruit ripened on the plant, picked and sold the next day is so much better than the brightly colored but tasteless raised-to-travel fruit found in American supermarkets. Here you just have to eat a lot and enjoy it while it’s around.

There are quite a few apricot trees on DCU’s campus, so the other day I asked Dave to pick some so I could make something apricot for our guests. Apparently the apricots suffered in a late frost this year, so only a few choice trees are producing, and they are frequently sought after. Dave took the advice of a friend and climbed up on the roof of the cafeteria, by means of a ladder he found leaning against the building, in order to reach the apricots on one of the few trees producing. He was promptly caught and scolded by the cafeteria manager who told him walking on the roof would make it leak. Since Dave spent so much energy and grief gathering the apricots, we decided that they tasted even better. However, yesterday another friend told Dave he had broken the roof because he was too big to be up there. Dave thought it was quite unlikely that he had single-handedly “broken” the cafeteria roof, especially since he was only up there once for a short time, so he plans to investigate today.

Laura

Sviatagorsk

Saturday we took our group of American visitors on an excursion to a local tourist attraction, Sviatagorsk. It is an Orthodox monastery built on the side of a cliff and nearby is a recreation area for swimming, picnicking and boating. On the site are catacombs where monks were buried several hundred years ago, but although our group left early in the morning, but didn’t arrive early enough to get a tour of the inside of the churches and catacombs in the monastery. But we still had fun hiking to the top of the hill, taking lots of pictures, picnicking and souvenir shopping. A friend from Donetsk helped lead the group, since I had never been there, so Dave and I had fun being tourists as well. There aren’t many tourist attractions in the Donetsk area, so Sviatagorsk was a nice change. The monastery and churches in the complex are still functioning, so women had to wear head scarves and skirts and men long pants when on the grounds to show respect for the holy site. On the way home we stopped at a roadside produce stand and people had fun buying apricots and honey to take back to Donetsk. I enjoyed the scenery on the drive to and from ... most of my travel outside of Donetsk has been by train or marshrutka (taxi van), neither of which offer a very clear view of the landscape. It was a long day but nice to take some time to see the local sites that we hadn’t seen yet. And on our way into Donetsk we stopped at McDonald's to make everyone who was tired of eating cabbage and kasha happy.

Laura

Summer English Intensive

I’ve been somewhat delinquent in my blogging during the past few weeks. Now that I have a few minutes – an update on what’s happening in my life. DCU’s Summer English Intensive program is in its second week and so far everything is going well. We have around 80 students, age 12 to 50-something. During the mornings our students have English grammar classes, and in the afternoon more active practice that includes sessions that focus on themes such as travel, food, manners, etc. as well as listening, reading, writing and conversation practice. Several evenings a week we have evening activities with games, skits and movies in English.

Right now we have around 20 Americans (and a few Australians) helping with the program. They come from all over the U.S., and are here for two weeks or the whole month. It’s been great to see all these people come together and work to make our program go smoothly. Its been tiring, too, since there always seems to be something to do from morning until late evening, be it answering helpers’ questions, planning a weekend excursion for our guests, or hunting down more toilet paper for our dorm residents. I’ve realized that for the month of July, I’ll be eating, sleeping and breathing English Intensive. But as long as things go well, I don’t mind too much.
Dave and I are also enjoying the company of visitors – our friends Dierdre and Ben Shetler from Phoenix are here for two weeks, teaching and helping with the English program. Some days it doesn’t seem like we see much of them, since we’re all running in different directions with different responsibilities, but we’re looking forward to a weekend of being tourists together and showing them a bit more of Donetsk and life in Ukraine.

Laura

France Retreat

Although our MCC France retreat already seems like a long time ago, we haven't yet done it justice on the blog. It was a great time of relaxing and meeting our fellow Europe MCCers. Gathered were about 25 MCCers from across Western and Eastern Europe, most of whom we hadn't met yet. We stayed at a monastery just outside Lyon, so enjoyed the peace and fresh air of the country, yet had access to the city through the bus system. Most of our time was spent meeting together and reporting on our work, but we made it into town several times to tour some points of interest and wander in the city. Another highlight of the trip was the cheese. After every lunch and dinner we were served several different kinds of cheese, as they do in France. (I think we should start such a custom in Ukraine). The rest of the food was good, too. Dave and I had fun eating in an outdoor cafe with one of our co-workers, and ordering by randomly choosing items on the menu. Neither of us speak any French, so we didn't really know what we were getting, but it ended up being delicious. We had fun being tourists and were happy to encounter friendly natives who forgave our ignorance of their language. It was a much-needed break for me, as English Intensive planning had been consuming my thoughts for weeks. We even found ourselves happy to hear Russian spoken on the plane on the way home - and realized that we have learned some language since we've been here.

Laura

Retreat Highlight

Last week, we were in France for the annual MCC Europe summer retreat. Since Laura is better at writing about serious things, she will write more about what we experienced there and I am going to write about my own highlight. I brought my two baseball gloves because I knew that Liz would be there and I never miss an opportunity to play. On the first evening there, I found out that there were 2 more people that were really interested in playing. One also said that he really misses playing in Bosnia. So we played as often as possible.

Personally I find that playing catch is the best relaxing, social experience. It requires so little focus and therefore allows for great conversation. And there is something about the snap of the glove when the ball hits the catch pocket that just can’t be described. I have tried to teach a lot of the kids here at DCU how to play, but they are a bit young and always try to basket catch. Due to the language barrier, it is also difficult to instruct them, but I haven’t given up. They are making progress, but there will never be quite the same level or type of conversation (about life or especially about American sports) with them. My goal is that someday it may almost sound intelligible. Anyway, that part of retreat was awesome.

Dave

Furniture

We are pleased to say that we have furniture. This is not to say that we didn’t have any before, but in the words of our coworker Liz, we were living an “ascetic lifestyle.” We now have a couch, two armchairs, a desk, and a few schkafs (movable closet/wardrobes). We hardly know what to do with ourselves. Our bedroom and living room definitely seemed to get smaller, but also more comfortable in the process.

It was quite an experience to move the stuff down from Andrew’s 5th floor apartment and then up to ours on the 4th floor. We fit all his stuff into 2 vanloads and when they were full Andrew rode in the little leg space of the desk. Some of it will go to Zaporozhye, but we decided to keep about half.

We experienced what I would suppose is an MCC tradition: scavenging through workers’ stuff when they leave. Oh what fun. Due to the fact that MCC worker’s terms are only 3 years, people are coming and going rather frequently. Now, to make a blanket generalization, workers are generally frugal and when we see something that we can get for free, we jump at the opportunity. The list of items that we scavenged is quite large, and our apartment feels much more like home.

Dave

Andrew

Last week marked another first for us. We said goodbye to Andrew, our nearest MCC coworker, as he finished up his three-year term. He was a social worker in a children’s home in Makeevka (the neighboring city) and is headed to Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena to study clinical psychology.

Needless to say, we are missing him. His Russian was unbelievable, yet he was never arrogant about it to us, his coworkers that could never seem to get more than a three-word sentence. Small or large, we learned something every time that we spent time with him. And it was easy to see that the kids (and workers) at the home had a great deal of respect for him and all that he did. He was very deliberate in his work and was able to make a definite impact at the Good Shepherd Children’s Home.

When we signed up for our three-year term, we thought: “Wow, that’s a long time.” But now that we are almost 8 months into it, and have heard Andrew talk about how quickly his time went, three years does not seem like such a long time. Like Andrew, we hope to make an impact as well as develop many quality relationships here. At the same time we are starting to realize that 3 years could almost be considered a short-term mission trip.

Dave

Spring Rain

Last Thursday we were so happy to experience our first thunderstorm in Ukraine. Actually it was the first significant rainfall that we have experienced since getting the garden planted and therefore it was a real Godsend. We went to language lesson and it seemed like a typical sunny day, but while we were there it started to pour. Luckily Marina had an extra umbrella to aid us on our trip home.

Now I must admit that I was really excited. The pitter-patter of rain on the bus roof was a beautiful melody. I was in a different world and remained there as I exited the bus. The roads are far from well engineered so avoiding the traffic spray is a real task. I was successful as I sprinted across the road, but I had not thought through the process of stopping. I slipped and fell into a large area of mud and my backside was quite covered. Fortunately there was a large crowd of fifteen to twenty people there to witness the show. Welcome to reality.

It has rained every day since then and my excitement (as well as that of my garden) has not ceased. Fortunately I have started to look more closely where I am going.

Dave

Language

At our last language lesson, I got into an argument with Marina. While I must admit that it was not the first, I think it was the first heated one. We take tests that I find somewhat subjective because, based on context, it seems that more than one answer would work. Anyway, I don’t know why I found (find) that so frustrating, but I guess I didn’t (don’t) want to get the question wrong (I can be a bit stubborn at times).

For a bit of context, in Russian there are an unbelievable number of verbs of motion, and they are all used in different ways. You have to determine a countless number of things before you decide which to use: how are you going there, did you go there, are you going there, do you regularly go there, do you intend to go there, are you going and coming back, … and on and on.

I forced Marina to give me the speech that she has given me so many times I am able to repeat it myself. “There are two stages to learning Russian. First we have to let the language form our thoughts, then we can use the language to express our thoughts.” While I don’t understand the mentality behind why instead of directly translating “it is raining” it is appropriate to say the English equivalent of, “rain walks.” At this point in time I just have to accept that as the way it is. It is so hard to not translate everything word for word from English but maybe someday I will be able to use words the way I want to use them.

Dave

Ukrainian Picnic

On Wednesday everyone who works at the university (and their families) gathered for the annual end-of-the-year picnic. We met in the parking lot at 9 a.m. and headed to a grassy, partially wooded area near a lake about 10 minutes away. Earlier we had been told that this event was to last all day, and we were curious what we would do to occupy ourselves all day. But there turned out to be no shortage of activities. As soon as the caravan arrived, food was unpacked and the fire started. “Sheshlik” is pork marinated in mayonnaise, seasonings and onions, skewered and grilled over hot coals and is a staple of Ukrainian picnics. At our picnic, there was sheshlik in abundance. I think we had three rounds of over the course of the day. When we weren’t eating, people played volleyball, kicked around a soccer ball, swam and visited. Dave brought his baseball gloves and ball and was delighted to have children lining up to play catch with him. Baseball is not a common sport here, but after a few tips on how to catch with a glove, Dave and the kids played catch for all morning.

Before we went to the picnic we were somewhat skeptical about how much fun a mandatory all-day picnic would be. I have to admit that the negative attitudes of a few westerners who weren’t in favor of an all-day picnic had rubbed off on me, and I wasn’t completely convinced that the day would be enjoyable. Happily, I was proven wrong. It was refreshing to be part of a group of people who came with no other purpose than to spend time together all day. Everyone came together and left together, with no one leaving early to get some work done or making excuses for not devoting a whole day to having fun. The day went quickly and Dave and I agreed that we really like picnics Ukrainian-style.

Laura

Odessa Trip

This past weekend, Danic and I were fortunate enough to be able to visit Odessa. The purpose of our trip was to look at and learn about greenhouses there (and I was able to enjoy new scenery). It seems that almost everyone with a yard has a greenhouse there while there are less than a handful of greenhouses in the Donetsk area. Even though this is the case, we have done some climate comparisons and think it should work here. We hope to move forward with plans to build a greenhouse at DCU.

The planned first planting of our cucumbers or tomatos is next February and, while it seems like that is a long way off, if we don't start now it won't get done. Pictured are some cucumbers growing in one of Danic's uncles' greenhouses (we visited Danic's father's greenhouses and those of two of his uncles). This greenhouse is 30x10m and produces 50-120 kg of cucumbers daily (5-9 metric tons in a season).

It is an exciting project and we have much to learn, both from people here and from people in the West. We hope to use materials that are readily available here, but also incorporate information and technology that has been implemented in the West. Initially we hope to provide vegetables to the cafeteria here and eventually we would like to project to generate income. The three people we visited have been using the greenhouse as their families' sources of income for 20+ years. It was really neat to hear each of them talk about it as one is a pastor, one works for a mission and the third has been handicapped for the past 25 years.

We were advised that, while a wooden-framed greenhouse will last anywhere from 5-12 years, it is possible to find old (often unused) galvanized steel frames ("hoops") that will last indefinately. We have to be willing to search the mainly-deserted collective farms in the area. I find this possibility very exciting because (unlike much of the Soviet construction I have seen) the greenhouses we looked at with these frames look like they will actually last... and I may get to explore some collective farms, which I find fascinating.

Dave

Tiller

After looking around Donetsk and Dneiperpetrovsk, I had given up on finding a tiller here. I tilled up a small amount of land with a spade and I was planning on finding a tiller in North America or Europe and having it sent here for next year. I was very excited to when we stumbled across a company in Odessa that sells (rebuilt) Kubota and Yanmar tillers. Now I hope to make the trip again to buy it and pick it up later this summer.

Dave

Graduation Day

The DCU school year is now officially complete – graduation was held yesterday and the festivities lasted into the night. The ceremony began at ten, and I donned my cap and gown and sat with the other professors on stage through the two-hour ceremony. I didn’t catch everything, but my ever-faithful colleague Yana was next to me, translating the important things. It was very hot, so I was grateful for the bottle of cold soda not-so-discreetly passed among students and professors on stage during the ceremony. The atmosphere was quite casual, with photographers frequently walking on stage and taking close-up shots of the graduates. I had prepared for a three-hour ceremony, according to reports of last year, so two hours was a refreshing surprise. At the end of the ceremony the graduates released doves on the steps of the administration building, and then spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying a couple special meals in the cafeteria (chocolate bars for dessert!) and hanging out with family. In the evening, everyone again converged in the chapel for the annual “graduation party,” which is a talent/awards show that involves anyone who wants to participate. One of the organizers began asking two months ago if Dave and I would prepare an act for the evening. Since we are the token American couple who lives and works on campus, we are frequently singled out in such ways. However, we didn’t come up with much. Although we probably didn’t think as hard as we should have, we figured we should give it at least a year as observers, and then know what to expect for next year. Meanwhile, we enjoyed everyone else’s talent.

This week campus has gotten progressively quieter every day, but our work continues. Saturday English classes end this week, and planning for Summer English Intensive in July will fill my days from now until then.

Laura

Weather Report

It is warm here. People have told us that it has been “unseasonably warm” but I wonder if that is simply because it is our first summer here and we don’t know any better. It has been mid to upper 90’s for more than the past week. It gets down to the 70’s at night (which is a pleasant change from Phoenix). Needless to say our windows are always open and our little oscillating fan is trying to move the air.

Something that I have found somewhat strange is that people here don’t seem to drink nearly as much water as we are used to. At lunch, people drink one small cup of tea or compote (juice-like beverage) and that is it. I rush home from the cafeteria and get out the water. When I have had people helping me, they have never seemed to want any water. If I were them, I would be dehydrated in an hour.

It has not rained since the 18th of April and things are really looking dry. We have read and heard that Donetsk does not get a lot of rain in the summer and the grass is always brown by mid August. Strangely that is already the case now, on June 1. However, with the “unseasonably” warm temperatures and a cold front on the way, it seems that we may actually get a thunderstorm. The garden will welcome any moisture that it gets. I have been watering a lot with a watering can and it would prefer slightly less use.

Dave

Petey

We have wanted a pet for a long time, and during a conversation with our Australian friends, we learned about budgerigars (small parrots commonly referred to as "budgies"). They are native to Australia, but seem to be quite popular as pets here. This sort of pet is friendly but won't take up too much room in our apartment, so we began to learn as much as we could about budgies. We searched all winter and finally decided to purchase one at the market.

We were afraid that the saleslady would tell us very important information (which we wouldn’t understand) or try to take advantage of the foreigners. This morning I went to the market with our neighbor, Nikolai. He is fluent in English because he was in Canada for a year through MCC’s International Visitor Exchange Program. He has been very helpful throughout our six months here and was again today.

We were able to find Petey, the newest member of our household. He is a month-old, yellow and green bird. We bought a male because they are traditionally friendlier and speak more. The average one has around a 20-word vocabulary, but some develop vocabularies in the thousands. Now we just have to figure out what language to teach him.

Dave

Learning Tour

Last week we hosted our first foreign guests of our term in Ukraine – a group of 10 MCC thrift shop employees and volunteers who came to Ukraine on a MCC Learning Tour. They spent 10 days in Ukraine and a little more than one full day in Donetsk. It was great to see a couple people we knew and meet many we didn’t. We also appreciated the goody bag brought from S.D., containing rare treasures -- from peanut butter to sunscreen (thanks Barb!). We had a good time showing the group around the evening they arrived, then joined them the next day for a morning trip to Makeevka, then back to DCU for discussions with DCU’s rector (president) and others. On Wednesday evening, Dave and I were responsible for organizing a “cultural event” of some sort in Donetsk, but the philharmonic, the opera and the theater had no events scheduled, nor was Donetsk’s popular soccer team, Shaktyor, playing that night. So we chose a very Ukrainian pastime … leisurely wandering through the streets of downtown. Our evening concluded with a stop for ice cream at an outdoor café. The next morning everyone crammed into our apartment for a quick breakfast and then headed for their next destination. We’ll remember the group for a long time, as our first visitors in Ukraine.

Laura

Marina Says

As we have been attempting to develop our skills in the Russian language, we have come across a few interesting dissimilarities to our native tongue. Marina, our language teacher, has offered her reasoning why certain things (that we are accustomed to saying) are inappropriate to say in the Russian language. Here are two of the things I have found most interesting.

The Russian language uses a lot of passive voice, especially when dealing with emotions. For instance, instead of saying: “I am sad.” Russian speakers say: “[It] is sad to me (the ‘it’ is oftentimes an open reference).” I know that that sounds like a small difference, but it takes the control away from the subject. Marina believes that the culture has affected the linguistics (or vice-versa) and people truly are not in control of their emotions. It is interesting to think about the implications of us not being in control of our feelings.

The other instance that I have found very interesting is that Russian speakers don’t say: “I have a pencil.” Instead, they say: “A pencil exists with me.” It is a bit more passive as well. Marina believes that (again the culture influenced the linguistics) it stems from a mindset that you can’t really have anything… another interesting thought to ponder.

Well, I could go into more detail, but I noticed how long my last blog was. I don’t want to establish a trend and scare away those of you with short attention spans.

-Dave

Train Trip

We went to Kiev for a weekend getaway. Monday was Victory in Europe day so we had a little time off to travel back. The trip marked a lot of firsts for us. We had never been to the city that all North Americans here seem to love. We hadn’t done any traveling before (except to Zaporozhye, which doesn’t really count). We had never been on the train before. I will write a little about the train experience.

We arrived at the Donetsk train station around 6 p.m., an hour before the scheduled departure. We have found that most Ukrainian trains that travel any extended distance travel at night. We were able to board the train 30 minutes before departure. We spent the next 13 hours in our compartment in “kupay,” which is the middle class. It has 2 sets of bunk beds in a small compartment. With 5 minutes until departure, we were still alone and, I must admit that I was a little torn about the situation. I thought that it would be fun to have some Ukrainian companions to talk to, yet I did not want to have to think so hard to comprehend every sentence I heard and tried to speak. Two men in their 50’s showed up just in time and, as it turns out, it may have been better alone (although a few days later it seems like it may have been a little fun).

Both were track and field coaches, in Donetsk for a competition. One coach specialized in hammer and the other in javelin. As you can probably guess from their profession, both looked like the stereotypical Russians that dominated American movies of the cold war era (at least the small part that I am familiar with): broad men, over six feet tall with short cropped hair and little to no neck. They got to know each other 30 years ago, when they were athletes in the sports they dedicated their lives to coaching. They must be quite distinguished coaches as one (hammer coach) was in Athens with one of his athletes last summer. It would have been interesting to talk to him more about that, but they were not in a very coherent state of mind.

They had been celebrating the holiday weekend quite heavily. In the past 6 months, I have found the Russian language very difficult to understand, but it is much easier to understand sober Russian than slurred Russian. One coach had been working in Iran for the past year and, in his stupor, was constantly shifting to that language (Farsi). It was quite an experience. These two men seemed like different people (possibly a bit sheepish) in the morning.

We spent our 1.5 days in Kiev mentally preparing for who our companions would be on the train to Donetsk. Our tickets were in the lowest class and everyone that we talked to informed us that that would be a “necessary, cultural experience” for us. We were a bit concerned, but thoroughly enjoyed our time in Kiev.

“Plotzcar” is a bit different from “kupay” in that there are no real compartments. Even though there are bunks, the car is open so they are able to squeeze 50% more bunks per car. Although we had several more neighbors, the ones directly across from us were far more pleasant (and sober) than we expected. Although the one really wanted to talk and especially wanted us to answer the question: “How is life in America?” both allowed us to sit quietly and read our magazines. It was another long trip back and we are still recovering from our night traveling. We look forward to more, hopefully less eventful trips.

-Dave

Easter

Ukrainians celebrated Easter yesterday, again in accordance with the old Orthodox calendar. At church everyone greeted us by saying "Christ is risen" and we were to reply by saying "Indeed He has risen" or something like that. We were clueless at first, but eventually caught on after about the 100th time. Dave and I enjoyed a few Ukrainian traditions, such as eating Ukrainian "paska" (Easter bread) which is a sweet bread with raisins baked in a can (so it's tall) and topped with frosting and colored sprinkles. I also had fun with the make-your-own Ukrainian eggs kit. Pictured above are my "Ukrainian" eggs, which are ordinary eggs with a plastic colored covering. A good alternative to dying eggs.

Laura

A Trip Home

Last week we purchased the plane tickets for our home visit this summer. The process caused some headaches, but overall it was a good experience. We ended up purchasing tickets to Chicago, then flying to Omaha the following day on another airline (to save a significant amount of money). We think that staying overnight that first night may help recover from the jet lag, if the excitement of being home does not keep us awake.

We have only been here for 5.5 months, but it seems like forever since we last saw our families. We are really looking forward to seeing them again. It will be 3 months before we go, but we think that the trip will seem more and more exciting as it approaches. We will try to continue to focus on the present, but thinking about the trip is quite enjoyable.

We will have a whirlwind 3+ weeks. Summer English Intensive will just be wrapping up here at the time of one of my close friend’s wedding. Therefore, I will be making the trip three days before Laura. We are very excited that we will be able to attend both Laura’s sister's and my brother’s weddings in the three weeks that follow. It is quite possible that we had an unhealthy amount of influence in the scheduling of most of these people’s “big days,” but we are very grateful for how it turned out. We hope no one will hold any life-long grudges against us.

Dave

Garden Photo

Dave has almost finished tilling this section of land and has planted onions, carrots, and beets.

Spring and Salad

Dave and I have enjoyed watching spring come to Ukraine and appreciate the new growth, green leaves and grass beginning to appear everywhere. Gray streets and shabby apartment buildings look so much better when they have bright red tulips or a blossoming apple tree growing nearby. Another plus of spring is the availability of fresh vegetables and fruit at affordable prices. The availability of produce here depends much more on the season than it does in the U.S. Although you can buy green peppers and tomatoes during the winter, they’re usually 2-3 times more expensive than they are in season. But now that it’s spring, cucumbers, lettuce and tomatoes are beginning to appear alongside the winter staples of cabbage, carrots and potatoes. And after a long winter, salads with cucumbers are very exciting. The salad recipe below is a good combination of winter and spring vegetables and we’ve been eating it in large quantities recently. It’s a typical Ukrainian “spring” salad.

Ukrainian Spring Salad

½ head of cabbage, shredded
1 carrot, grated
2 med. cucumbers, finely diced
1 green onion, chopped
½ bunch fresh dill, chopped (equivalent of ¼ - 1/3 cup) – must use fresh dill for best flavor.
¼ c. vegetable oil
1 t. salt
1 T. white vinegar

Combine vegetables in large bowl, and mix oil, salt and vinegar in a smaller bowl. Add dressing to vegetables and serve. Serves 6? (or Laura and Dave for two days).

Laura

Donetsk Retreat

We hosted an informal gathering of fellow MCCers this weekend in Donetsk. After gathering in Zaporozhye for the official MCC retreat in February, we thought those based in Zaporozhye should have a "get-away" weekend, so we decided to have a "Donetsk Retreat." The weather was cloudy most of the weekend, but that didn't deter us from enjoying a cookout Saturday evening on the DCU grounds. (above photo) The rest of the time was spent relaxing, and we enjoyed dinner at a pretty authentic Mexican restaurant yesterday evening. Pictured in photo, clockwise from left: Doug, Amy, Katie, Andrew, Laura, Liz.

Clockwise from left: Liz, Dave, Doug, Katie and Amy

Russian Engineering

In recent evenings, I have been working through Solzhenitsyn’s novel entitled The First Circle. Even though I have regularly found myself falling asleep reading, I have found the book to be fantastic. It is about a group of intellectual prisoners that were put into “special camps” during Stalin’s time. I have not finished, but thus far it documents their struggles to build a voice scrambler (or copy an American model) and their worries (or lack thereof) about being gotten rid of. It is quite interesting to read Solzhenitsyn’s interpretation of what transpired.

Today at language lesson, we were talking to Marina (our teacher) about the book and her impressions. She talked about how difficult it has been for Russian society to maintain itself when many of the elite intellectuals were exiled and killed during Stalin’s time. She feels that music and literature have suffered the most and she hopes it is turning around. She has been trying to enlighten us as we (I) have been in the dark on most cultural issues. She has a very interesting, and seemingly informed point of view.

Being the son of an excavator/farmer, I am a bit more interested in machinery than in music and literature (I apologize in advance if the following paragraphs bore those of you who don’t have similar interests). Today I was astonished to see a Caterpillar excavator on tracks. It was the first modern piece of machinery that I have seen. I have seen countless excavators on rubber tires that seem to be circa 1970. Most of the backhoes look like 1970 International tractors retro-fitted with a blade and clankity old backhoe. And I have been told that they are new.

I have talked to several people and I am starting to put it together that Russian engineering was really done a disservice by Stalin’s special camps and purges (from an American point-of-view, a lack of competition probably hurt a lot as well). For example, I have been frantically searching for a rotary tiller and have come to the hypothesis that such an item does not exist here. Everything is done by hand because “labor is cheap.” It is a new point of view for me as my dad was very successful in convincing me that efficiency is everything. As I work to convince people at DCU that efficiency is a good thing, I am sure that my equilibrium may tilt in the other direction… I spent an hour and a half making a shovel handle today and another hour fixing another handle yesterday. Tools here also leave something to be desired, but I will leave that topic for later (possibly it will be even more boring).

-Dave

Clean Clothes

Saturday morning, a staff member and I removed several small trees and their root balls using the DCU tractor. I was showed how to drive the tractor and I must admit that it is strange. I may write more about that later, when I have figured out the purpose of some of the things I was instructed to do when I was starting the machine. Anyway, I found myself quite dirty by the noon hour.

That was when I was scheduled to go chainsaw shopping in the city. David Hoehner (a fellow North American) had agreed to take me and translate. He has been here for a few years and knows the language and culture far better than I do. I asked him if I should change clothes before we went. He said that after doing yard work, a few times he has run to a store and forgotten to change out of his dirty clothes, many people gave him strange looks. He also said that when plumbers and other workers have worked on his apartment, they come to work in nice clothes, change clothes in the bathroom, work on their task, and change back into their nice clothes before going back into the street.

DCU is located near a brewery and I have noticed that many people who are walking there are carrying gym bags. I always wondered what was in them and now I know. I guess if I want to fit in, I am going to have to start carrying a spare set of clothes in a gym bag.

-Dave

Planting Tulips

Spring seems to be here (finally) in Donetsk, and we are very happy about it. So is Yana, a fellow English teacher. She loves to garden and plant flowers, and has big plans for improving the looks of DCU's campus, now that she has a few people (Dave and I) who share her enthusiasm for being outside and are willing to help. Our first planting project took place Friday afternoon, a not very springy and rather cold day. We had cleared it with the powers that be to plant tulip bulbs in front of the administration building, and, on the advice of some friends, Yana was determined to do it that day. The ground proved to be quite cold, but thawed, so we proceeded. Although the location we chose will be a great place for many people to see all our beautiful tulips, it was also a great place to be scrutinized by everyone. The administration building is where all classes are held and all offices are housed, so we had a building full of onlookers, and just about as much advice. Yana warned us ahead of time that everyone would stop and tell us how to plant our tulips, but probably no one would volunteer to help, and her prediction came true. But the funny part was that as people came up to us and told us this and that, Yana, who usually translates whatever is being said, instead talked to us in English about how she knew it would be this way. Thus, all the helpful suggestions, not understood by us and ignored by Yana, went unheeded. It was truly a cultural learning experience. And we ended up having a good time, just the three of us. Now hopefully our tulips will grow!

-Laura

Garden Tillers

The rector is in the US for a few weeks for a DCU fundraising tour. Before he left, he gave me the thumbs-up to purchase a garden tiller for the campus. It had seemed as though I had been chasing my tail for the last several months, so this was a huge step forward for me. Our initial plan was to try and find an industrial-quality, rear-tine tiller. I had seen a lot of front-tine tillers (even some with Honda engines) in my wanderings in Ukrainian tool stores, but never one that seemed very heavy-duty. When Berny Wiens (Canadian ag. Consultant) was here last weekend, he told us how a tiller that would mount on the back of the campus’ 25-horsepower tractor would be a much better fit for the project this year as well as for potential expansions. So we have shifted our search to that.

As I mentioned above, I had never seen a rear-tine tiller here and I thought I was simply not looking in the right places. Yesterday we set out searching for a tractor-mounted tiller and I realized such tools might not be sold here. In North America, such accessories can’t be purchased on every corner, but they are by no means difficult to find. Google “tractor rotary tiller” and you’ll get over 16,000 matches. We searched the “agriculture base” in the area and everyone seemed to think that no such thing existed. They seemed to think that a plow and field cultivator would serve our purposes. Let me just mention here that, like the machinery they were selling, these places were probably reminiscent of the rural mid-west in the 1950’s (even though I wouldn’t really know from personal experience).

The maintenance worker who was driving me around and helping me talk to the salespeople seemed to want to settle for buying a $300, home-made, 2-bottom plow that our tractor was supposedly able to pull. I was starting to agree with him. It was quite frustrating and I went to talk to Danic (Russian for Daniel) about the dilemma. He is the director of public relations here and has an agriculture background (he is also very helpful). Even though he had never heard of or seen a tractor-mounted rotary tiller, it really interested him and he typed the Russian translation in Google Ukraine (I did not know such a site existed). We found little, but he seems determined to find one in more agricultural central or western Ukraine. I hope that we will find success quickly, because planting time is rapidly approaching.

-Dave

Weekend with Berny

Last Sunday night Berny Wiens, an agriculture consultant from Canada, came to visit us here at DCU and give advice about our potential agriculture projects. In the two weeks leading up to the meeting, I was quite nervous that he was going to come, be here for fifteen minutes, see it all, and wonder why he had made the four-hour trip from Zaporozhye.

He was scheduled to do his consulting Monday morning and leave by 2 in the afternoon and I was quite surprised that we still had things to talk about and that we will have to continue our conversation by email. Berny has a large, commercial-type garden at home and he was able to analyze the planned locations and crops. We talked about what would be a good plan for the first as well as the locations that would allow the easiest expansion.

I had hoped to plant around an acre this year, and Berny was on board with that. After showing my plan to Laura, we decided to downsize to a little over a half acre (around 25,000 square feet) with room for expansion if the spring weather and student workers lend themselves. I guess she wants me to keep my sanity or something. I just hope that some of my plants actually survive the summer.

-Dave

Weekend away

It seems strange to check my e-mail this morning and find an inbox full of Easter greetings – for Easter as well as Christmas, Ukrainians observe the old Orthodox calendar and this year won’t be celebrating Easter until May 1. So there were few celebrations this weekend, even among the expatriate community. An Australian friend said one advantage of celebrating Easter later is that your friends back home can buy Easter stuff on sale and send it to you in time for your celebrations. I’m sure the weather will be nicer for celebrations and Easter egg hunts later anyway. I did end up making “Paska,” Russian Easter bread, which has been a tradition in our family for years before we came to Ukraine. I’ll have to compare my recipe with others … paska is a must for any Ukrainian Easter celebration.

This weekend was actually Dave and my weekend “away.” Living here on campus is quite handy for getting to class quickly and running back home when we forget something, but like any campus, it feels like a bubble - insulated from the workings of the outside world. We were tired of the bubble feeling and wanted to take a trip of some sort, but because of other responsibilities and schedule conflicts, we couldn’t leave town for long enough to make it worth our time. So we were happy when some sympathetic American friends (who have lived at DCU in the past and can relate) invited us over on Saturday and overnight. We ate calzones, watched movies, met “Carrots” (their bunny), went to church with them Sunday and came back home, refreshed from our mini-trip. On the way home we stopped by the local arena to check the event schedule and were surprised to find a basketball game in progress (soccer is usually the norm). We walked in, sat down and enjoyed the game (no tickets, no programs, hardly anyone there). Turkey played a team from Moscow – the players looked like teenagers … maybe junior national games? Basketball is not too popular here, hence the empty stadium, but we enjoyed ourselves and might go back later today to watch more of the tournament.

Laura

New English Class

Next week my DCU English class comes to an end and my Saturday English classes begin. This semester has been fun so far, but a challenge. My DCU Upper-Intermediate students have a good grasp of written English – they can read and understand theological texts, and really the point of the class is to continue building their reading skills so they can read English theological materials for their other classes. What has surprised me is that not matter how complex their reading assignments are, when it comes time to talk they struggle to put together even simple sentences. So I’ve tried to incorporate conversation practice into my classes, even though it’s not specifically part of the curriculum.

My class this semester was energetic, talkative (in Russian) and easily bored - a bigger challenge than my first group of students who sat quietly and did whatever I told them to. This semester I had to get creative to teach my students, which was good for me. Teaching is new for me and it’s good for me to be forced to make class more interesting. They learn better and we all have more fun when I teach with more variety.

I’m now preparing for a Pre-Intermediate group on Saturday mornings. These students come from the community, and as a rule are quite motivated to learn the language. (Last module Dave had a student who did pages of extra homework every week, just to learn the material better.) I’m looking forward to a group that is excited to learn English and also looking for a class in which conversation is a must!

Laura

Klahs

I had my tenth and final Saturday English class last weekend. They took their final for the first hour and then watched "October Sky" while I graded their tests. I baked brownies and served them with tea for a sort of celebration. While some of them were apprehensive about eating something that I had prepared (totally unjustified), I had the same feeling about grading their exams. Throughout the module, the majority of the class was quite motivated while some of the students did not take the class as seriously as I would have liked. To my surprise, there was a pretty good "bell curve." I would even venture to say that the students demonstrated having learned something. What a pleasant result for forfeiting my Saturday mornings to teach.

"October Sky" is your typical, feel-good American movie and I was a bit nervous that the students wouldn't like it. I have read a few Russian novels and heard about many Russian movies. I have come to the conclusion that most don't have a happy ending. I went to class wondering if they would appreciate the movie, or would even understand what was going on (we left the English subtitles on for their benefit). They seemed to understand and some of them even got a little teary at the end. Two of the students even said that the movie was "klahs" (which I think is the Russian equivalent of "cool").

-Dave

Coaching Basketball

Last Friday, I finally got over to Good Shepherd Center to coach a little basketball. The center is an orphanage in Makeevka, where our fellow MCC worker, Andrew Geddert, works. Andrew has been trying to get me to do it for several weeks now, but I have always felt like I had too much to do and I didn't want to make the trip. We usually allow around 1.5 hours for the trip even though it is probably less than 10 miles. Andrew was persistent and I finally (reluctantly) agreed to go.

For the first 1.5 hours, we taught a lay-ups and ball handling to a group of 8 boys, ranging from 12-15 years of age. For the last 1.5 hours we did the same thing for a group of 6 girls from the same age range. Even though the skill level was not quite what I was used to coaching in Arizona, it was still really fun and I hope they learned something. It reminded me how much I love interacting with youth and coaching basketball.

I traveled home and was inspired to hunt down the campus tv and vcr to watch a videotape of the team I coached in AZ. Those of you who know me well know that this is a part of my life that has been very important to me the last 2+ years. Needless to say, it is something that I have really missed this last winter. During the season, I emailed the head coach regularly to check up on the team and he was kind enough to reply and even send me a tape of one of the games. I received it over 3 weeks ago, but put off watching it. I was scared that it would give me an unnecessarily strong dose of homesickness.

Homesickness is something that Laura and I have been dealing with a lot recently. It happens at expected times (watching a video of my basketball team) and unexpected times (seeing a Taco Bell ad during the Super Bowl). And we respond in different ways at different times. Sometimes I want to talk the ears off of anyone who will listen, while other times I just want to sit quietly and space out. I rarely get to the point where I want to catch a bus to the airport and fly home, but it is still rather difficult.

People said that the "honeymoon" would wear off after a few months and maybe it has. However, negative as this posting may sound, we're enjoying ourselves and we think we are listening to our call to serve others. We are finding countless ways to be entertained (and to entertain)... when you don't know the language there is no end to the adventures or the laughs.

-Dave