Ukraine
Report for Nov 12.
Saturday
We
decided to have a good cleanup of the apartment today and so started by
sweeping and vacuuming the floors. I then cleaned up the leaves of my balcony
and washed the windows. Wade cleaned out the fridge and the kitchen. Vladimir
opened another box from Canada and sorted out children’s items from others. We
were very glad to get a lot of school items to give away, like pens and pencils
a scissors for art projects and coloured pencils and crayons. When any of you see
these items on sale at Walmart etc. They are very useful.
I
then went for a haircut, and unlike my usual preference, a young lady did a
fantastic job. Absolutely different to any haircut I have ever had, for
$4.00Cdn.
We
then spent time getting ready for Sunday. In the evening we invited the men who
are going to do the renovation to the apartment that had the fire. We spent a
long time sorting out what we could do and what would be acceptable and least
expensive. It is going to be expensive for any old Ukrainian lady to fix and so
we want to do what we can for Anna. I’m sure it will cost about $3,000.00 to
finish the job. God is able to provide, we know, but we would like to get the
apartment liveable even though not finished. Anna and her daughter Maria are very
appreciative for what we are doing.
It
started to rain in the afternoon and by evening it was snowing.
By
Sunday morning there was approximately 5-6” of wet snow. The trees were loaded
and gorgeous. What about going to Lviv? Both I and Wade thought we should stay
back and have a bible reading, but Vladimir was sure it would be ok, as the
trucks and buses would clear the roads. The first thing we saw were 3 trolley
buses stuck one behind the other while
trying to get around a corner. Well we got over halfway to Lviv and into the
hills, passing one semi after another either in the ditch or unable to get up
the hills. We came on one long hill and the line of traffic was stopped all
together. There were two vans at the top of the hill, blocking anyone getting
passed. A dozen or so people got out of cars and buses to walk up and help dig
and push them out. We sat there one and a half hours and were then told by a “walker”
that it was blocked the other side of the hill by a bus across the road. As we
had missed the meeting in Lviv by now, we turned around and came back to Ivano.
A wasted morning except for the hymns we sang and the scripture Wade read while
waiting.
We
came home to feast on a Chocolate cake that Luba brought us as a gift from her
newly married daughter Marika. Then the vanload went home and will come for meeting at 6pm. We all had a nap.
(Couldn’t miss that on a Sunday afternoon??)
Monday.
Decided
we should get a shovel to clear our parking spot. I guess everyone else had
decided the same thing too. We did see some very poor ones but not after
walking through the outdoor market did we see what we wanted.
We
then went to the Halfway House for young children whose homes are not a good
place for them to be. They used to have only older children but now have one 3
years old and up to 18
.
We
tried to get into a store after that to look at printers. As we were sloshing
across the parking lot a load of wet snow came off the roof of the store and
crashed through the roof of the entrance awning. Some people were just going in
but only got covered in snow, it could have been worse. On the way back to the
van, I slipped and grabbed a man’s arm, I think he thought I was going to rob
him!! Thankfully I didn’t go down and he didn’t hit me.
We
had no meeting on Monday so came home to relax and prepare for meeting
tomorrow. The bad roads have affected some of our plans for visiting schools as
most schools are closed and the roads are terrible.
All
for now, tried to paste pictures but not smart enough, I guess. Please keep
praying for us, our time is passing quickly.
Malcolm
and Wade.
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