Report #25, Nov 3

Report 25 for Monday Nov. 3 08

When we got up today we could not see the ground from our 4th floor flat
because of thick fog. I should have mentioned that there is still no heat in
any of the apartment blocks, the city has not turned on the heat. It comes
from a central heating plant and it strictly under the control of the city.
Thankfully we do have hot water. We don't know how this works as the water
is heated by the same central city plant, there must be two pipes.
Complicated ex-Russian technology!!!

We were going to visit a mentally challenged boys orphanage named Stari
Rosdil (?spelling). I had been there possibly 3 years ago and remembered it
was an old monastery. When we pulled on to the yard we found it all dug up
as they were putting in new heating pipes. Ruslan called me to see something
and I was shocked to see a sack of human bones as well as others lying on
the pile of dirt and laying in the trench. We talked with the director who
said they had no record of the area ever being a cemetery but as the
monastery had operated until 1685, it was anybodies guess whose bones they
were. Quite weird.!! We gave the director the laundry supplies, pampers for
the bedridden boys as well as a roll of rubber sheeting for the beds, two
soccer balls and a volley ball.

We went to the Vernasage outdoor market for Howard to shop for a couple of
gifts and headed home for a late lunch. 10 boxes had arrived from Canada and
so Flo and her niece Stacia began emptying them and sorting them while I
write this report and stay out of the way!

All for now, not too many more as we head home on Friday.
In Him.

Malcolm and Howard.