Bike Ride

Over the weekend I helped lead a bike ride for five boys (ages 12-16) from Good Shepherd. We also led devotional times with them with the theme of “Becoming the Person God Wants You to Be.” It was a great way to get to know a few of the kids on a more one-on-one level as well as have an excuse to talk of some deeper things we don’t usually get into in a game of basketball.

We rode 50 miles each of the first two days, arriving at the Sea of Azov where we could relax a bit. We set up tents on the beach and lived on the beach and in the sea. It was a great time, even if some of us weren’t as deliberate as others and got some serious sun burn.

It was a humbling experience, with me and another N. American heading up the rear for the majority of the ride. They had planned to make the trip back in one day (Saturday) but moved it back to Sunday because of lack of time at the beach. I had already planned a work-related trip so the two of us who were always in the back felt we had a good excuse to take a bus back instead of dragging the rest of the group down on the day they wanted to do 100 miles. They arrived at Good Shepherd at 10 Sunday night. I was saddened that circumstances “didn’t allow” me to make the trip with them, but I was glad to already be sound asleep at that time (I didn’t end up making my trip, I left Monday afternoon). I’m quite the leader!

Dave

Summer food

Summer is here and with it brings warm temperatures and thus a strong aversion to using the oven or stove. In the winter, I love baking granola or cooking a slow stew, not only because I like spending time cooking in the kitchen but it’s also a great way to warm up the apartment. These days we have all the warmth we need in our apartment, and “cooking” becomes the attempt to assemble meals using the stove as little as possible. I now truly see the value of a “summer kitchen” - that cooking area situated far enough from the rest of the living quarters that it doesn’t pollute them with its heat in summer.

One particular Ukrainian recipe is perfect for such weather – in the last two weeks we’ve made two big batches. It’s Okroshka, a cold soup of cucumbers, dill and ham with a milky base. It’s very refreshing and very Ukrainian – fresh dill is essential for this dish.

Okroshka

2 hard-boiled eggs
1 t. sugar
1 t. Dijon mustard
4 c. water
2 c. buttermilk or plain yogurt
1 ½ c. cucumbers, finely diced
½ c. green onions, chopped
1 bunch fresh dill, chopped
1-2 c. ham or hot dogs, chopped
2 t. salt

May also add a couple boiled, diced potatoes and/or radishes. I’m not such a big radish fan, and boiling potatoes means using the stove, so I leave them both out.

Remove egg yolks and mash well with sugar and mustard. Gradually add water and buttermilk/yogurt and blend. Dice the whites and add them as well as the rest of the ingredients. Chill until serving. Serves 4.

This recipe has been adjusted a bit for “American” ingredients – here we use a yogurt-like beverage called “ryazhanka” for the milk base. I’m not sure what the direct translation is, it might actually be buttermilk. Plain yogurt should also work fine, but you might need to add more water if you use thick yogurt. A different variation of this soup is made with “kvass,” another refreshing summer treat – essentially a beverage made from fermented black bread. In summer it's sold by the cup from big tanks on street corners. It has virtually no alcohol in it, which means it’s Baptist-approved. Karen had difficulty describing it when we bought some for our guests to sample – it looks like iced tea, but is a little tangy and a little sweet, and smells a bit like beer. Although it’s a refreshing summertime beverage, I prefer my Okroshka with a milk base.

Laura

Jazz Concert

Last week we took our guests to a jazz concert in Donetsk. I'm not a jazz conneseur, but it seemed to be a pretty good concert. The hall was as full as I have seen it and was an interesting mix of older and younger people. The band was rumored to be "well-known throughout Europe" and reminded me of the North American band Phish (which I don't consider jazz, but still enjoy). Supposedly the lead singer has roots in Donetsk, and the guitarist in Ukraine, but the others in the band were from Western Europe.

Toward the end of the show, a special guest performer was announced. His name was Valery Kolecnikov, and the person who introduced him excitedly said he had played with some famous jazz muscians, including Dizzy Gilespy. I am not sure how this could be, with Kolecnikov being an older gentleman from the Soviet Union and jazz being forbidden listening, let alone playing. But that's not to say that it wasn't possible and maybe it was a more recent occurrance.

I have heard that jazz was and is very popular here in Ukraine. It was an "underground" thing in Soviet times and seems to have kept its popularity over the last several decades. I don't think I fully realized this until the concert. I counted six approximately 70-year-old men, some in groups and others alone, whose faces were visible from my seat. For the majority of the concert their expressions were distant and complacent; as men of their age here seemingly always are on the the street. But when Kolecnikov took the stage, they leaned forward in their seats so far that their elbows were resting on the seats in front of them. And when he
started bouncing all around the scales with his trumpet, their faces lit up and their heads may have even started bobbing. There was so much expression on these six men's faces. It was amazing and I found myself watching them instead of the concert, thinking about what they may have gone through in their lifetimes to be able to listen to such music. Seeing how much joy it brought them was worth far more than the $4 ticket price.

Visitors, Part 2

We just said goodbye to another set of visitors – my siblings Karen and Tom, and Karen’s friend, Jessica David. They opted to spend all their time in Donetsk, since there wasn’t a lot to spare, so we did a lot of just “hanging out.” Summer arrived with a bang and we’ve been enjoying (enduring) temps in the 90s for a couple of weeks now. So we sat near the fan and tried not to make too much heat.

We haven’t traveled much with the last two groups of visitors and we’re finding that even though sightseeing is always fun, we’ve been having just as much fun just spending time together not doing much at all, since we’ve missed doing that in the past three years.

Laura