Two days left

Friday we fly out to Istanbul. Our contact there emailed Tanya's friend that the airport is high and dry, regardless of the state of the rest of the city. Heavy rains and major floods. All we get are hot dry winds. I guess faced with a choice of being swept away and drowning as 23 people have been so far, I'll stay with the wind.

Finished my report today and resigned from the project. I hope I get paid, is all. The report will never reach the popularity of "The Little Mermaid" but it is certainly in the same genre. It felt like I was actively discouraged from sourcing and verifying data. There is enough PFS (Pulled from Sky) assumptions in prefeasibility studies at best of times but to encourage it?

A couple of days ago, Tanya and I set out to buy her birthday present - a brooch to complete her dress for May-B's wedding. She found two she liked for about the same price. $120. A gold bar with diamond chips and a filigree gold leaf with diamond chips. I liked the filigree leaf so she bought that. The jeweler has to write the purity of the gold on the receipt. When we got home, Tanya looked at the tag that came with the brooch and the purity of gold marked on the tag was less than that marked on the receipt.

Warpath. We went back to the jewelry shop and she got her money back. The woman who worked there had warned the jeweler that Tanya would be back when she saw the discrepancy in the two purity levels. We went to another shop and she found the exact same gold bar brooch that she liked for 40% less. Happiness.

Fruit of the Vine

The vines that shade our front entry way are loaded with grapes this year and the vine by the front gate too. We have already about finished the sweet black grapes from the one vine. The grapes on the other vines are almost ripe enough to eat. I suppose if I knew how I could make wine from them but eating is good. Whoever dreamed this dryland prairie boy would live someplace where grapes grow outside the front door?

Wisdom of all Ages

Our neighbour 's biggest problem is alcohol. Today he came to Tanya and said he wanted to quit drinking, could she give him some work. She could and she did and she gave his pay to Lucia who will go to the store with him when we are away and pay for food purchases so he cannot buy vodka. He was quite in agreement with that. Tanya also made up a small bag of food for him from our pantry.

Tanya has been bothered by a sore throat and cough these last couple of weeks. This morning she tried gargling with warm water, salt and honey. If you swallow it, surprise surprise, it has the same effect as warm water, salt and mustard. Tanya said (my best translation) "A fool can be taught to bow but he will bang his head".

Andrei, his Tanya and Masha went to Krivii Rih yesterday. They were having lunch in a restaurant and Masha was fooling around, not eating (as usual). Her father said "You cannot go to the park if you don't eat as you will have a tummy ache. You promised to be good. Why can't you be good?" Masha, serious as a judge, replied "I don't know why. I want to be good but I cannot". Anrei's friend must have laughed, as Masha turned on him, VERY serious, and said "It's NOT funny".

Saturday night

In five days we'll be in Istanbul and in six days and a few hours we'll be in Calgary.

This morning at 9:00 we went into ZV with a list of errands to run. First off pull USD from Tanya's account and trade it on the street for more cash than when she uses the bank machine. Banks are criminals with legal protection, it seems, to cheat people at every turn. Tanya's bank software was down for repairs. Next stop another bank to pay our utilities. It was closed. Next stop, stationary store to buy some left handed pens* for her niece in Siberia. It didn't open until 10:00 am.

Round and round and round. Went to another store for pens. Went to the Post office to mail them to Siberia. 50 hrivna($5.50) for the pens and 100 ($11.00) hrivna to mail them. Like Canada. Went to another bank top pay utilities. it was open. Went to a drugstore, and then another to get what we needed. Took meds to Roman who had a fever. Picked up two new tops for Tanya from seamstress. 100 hrivna plus material. How do people live?

Picked up Andrei and went home. Three hours for one hours worth of errands. Andrei, Tanya and Masha took the car to Krivii Rih this afternoon. When Andrei brought it back, at 9:00 pm we drove him home and stopped at Roman's. I got to Skype my kids on HIGHSPEED internet. I had forgotten what it was like to have hard wired real honest to God High Speed. Talked to three of four. Fourth was at work. Two were napping. At NOON.

It has been a slow day for news, hasn't it?

*There is a special shaped ballpoint pen here that works for right and left handed but left handed people find it easier to use. Never heard of such a thing and neither did most places we looked but there is such a thing. Who knew?

Getting My Ducks in a Row

First Day of School

Today was the First Day of School in Zhovti Vody and Masha's very first day of school. She woke up at 5:00 and again at 6:00 determined that it was time to get ready and go. She and her folks needed to be there by 8:30 and she was NOT going to be late. We got there by 8:45 for a 9:00 am start.

Masha's School - 4 blocks from home

The whole town was out in full force for traditional opening day ceremonies held at every school in town. Everyone is dressed in their Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes. The girls in black and white "uniforms" and the boys in suits and ties. These are everyday apparel in the schools here. All the kids bring flowers for the teachers and dignitaries. Tanya made two huge bouquets from her garden (almost wrote our garden) for Masha and she also had a store-bought rose.

Masha in her uniform with her new backpack

Maxim's friend Ivan goes to this school but Maxim goes to another

The ceremonies were held outside on the grass (Oh, yes, THESE schools have grass playgounds, not gravel and crusher dust) and the day was warm sunny and calm. The kids gather by class, in a half circle around the outside. Then the new Grade 1's march out to the middle for the speeches and such. Speeches not long, awards handed out to last year's top students, recitations by some little folk and then...

Open this one for a panoramic view of the children.

Off they march

Masha brings up the rear of her group

Masha and another classmate in lineup

The kids from the class that will graduate this year (Grade 10?) each went to a new Grade 1, gave them a school button and took their hand to walk with them into the school. It was a wonderful way to end the ceremonies and make the little kids feel welcome.

Wokin' the hog

Or the dog, depending on your culture and culinary tastes of course. Tanya and I found a new kitchen store today and invested in a wok. Plain iron, plain wooden handles, like I have seen lots of times in China. $12. Not a bad price.

It's cloudy in the west and looks like rain. Wind has been strong and cold for the past two days. Maybe it will rain. Tanya didn't water her flowers tonight, just in case.

We have a new neighbour living in the old house next door where Lucia's mother used to live. Actually he showed up while she was still very sick. Homeless, no job, no documents. Told folks his name and that he was from Krasnodar in Russia. Made arrangements with the owners and started digging up that jungle of a garden spot behind the house. A very hard worker, he had it worked black and planted in no time, then cleaned up the yard and fixed the fence up a bit. Until Lucia's mom died, he lived in a shed in the yard and cooked what little food he had on an open fire.

Sometimes he will borrow 10 hrivna from Tanya for food and he has always paid it back when next he found an odd job. Today as Tanya and I were heading into ZV, he was standing by the gate into our dog yard. He was raving that the dogs needed food and about the people that only he could see and hear and much more. Tanya calmed him down and sent him to his house, then called her friend Ira at the ambulance service.

Apparently no one wants to do anything with him of for him because he has no papers (Ira said and Andrei confirmed later). There are no Social Services anymore (no money), the police won't do anything; the hospitals neither. Because he has no documents there is no way to bill his expenses to the appropriate authority and anything that is done will be at the expense of the person who does it.

I will ask Tanya what we can do. It is sad to be alone in the world.