Tuesday, May 5, 2009

A House Divided.....for a day




May 4th - 6th

On Monday we hired a driver, and took the kids to the famous monastery. The place is over 1,000 years old and it is a sprawling complex. We walked around and around and even saw many mummys of famous priests. There were many people praying over them and touching & Kissing their caskets!!! The belief is that one of these, a dead doctor/priest in particular will still heal you if you do this. ????? We also discovered that all the women who visit there have to have their heads covered and they need to wear a skirt/dress. We had to buy scarves and rent skirts for T & Rebecca. We called ourselves "Babushkas" and had a good laugh. Next we went to a restaurant and had some pizza. It was closer to U.S. pizza, but not quite like Domino's. Then we got tickets and went to the Circus. We had front row seats. We saw all the usual acts & clowns, plus singers & dancers. After the intermission, we saw the tigers & lions. They were cooperating with the female liontamer, but they were not happy about it. Our only security was a net between the audience & the animals & a man with a firehose. I later realized how unsafe this whole thing really was.


Yesterday Rebecca spent the day with T in Odessa, and Bill took care of S in town.

R & T's adventure started at 2:00AM, when a driver & a translator picked them up and drove to Odessa. There is a relative living there that T wanted to say Goodbye to before she left for the U.S. So off we went for a 5 hour car ride. We spent most of the morning waiting and finally around 2:00pm T got to see the relative. Afterwards, we stopped for an early dinner and then headed back to Kiev. It was hard for T to do this today, and now she is having regrets and worries. Please pray for her and for us as we deal with monumental changes. As the plane ride gets closer, we get more happy and she gets more sad. (I wish she were more excited.)

Meanwhile, Bill & S had a play-day. They walked all over. They went to the playground near the president's admn. building (their regular daily hangout) and then they went to the U.S. Embassy to get info we'll need in the next few days. They also found a upscale bakery and bought some great bread -and brought it home. Then they heated up the leftover Borsht for their dinner (There is nothing like leftover Borsht! LOL) and finally S had an extra long bath (He likes to think he's in a swimming pool) I think cleaning up the bathroom was a challenge! Bill got him to sleep just before R & T got home. (Thanks Bill - Momma dodged a bullet!) We debriefed and all went to bed early. Everyone was exhausted.

Wednesday - we had a slow morning. Everyone was tired from the day before. We finally got out of the Apt. around noon and we went to a photo place for more passport photos (we needed bigger ones than the ones we already have) then we dropped off the photos at the U.S. Embassy, then off to McDonalds for Happy Meals & shakes. We came home and later we went on a boatride on the Knee-pro river. (That's how they pronounced it)

I think we are "Better Together" here in the capitol city. We need each other's strengths and shoulders as we navigate these unfamiliar waters. We did not get the finished passports today from the region - maybe tomorrow.

1 comment:

  1. Thanks for posting. Glad you're having some one-on-one time with the kids. We'll keep T in our prayers sa you get closer to your flights home.

    D.

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