Superstition Reigns

Today, we had a young friend of Angel’s come by the house.  She needed help with her English homework.  Angel and Pris spent about 20 minutes with her and gave her an English-Ukrainian dictionary to take home.  She told them the reason she stopped coming to church.  Her grandma died.  Huh?  Well, turns out her mother decided that her grandma died because poor little Sveta had been coming to church with us.  That’s a decent sized burden for a little 12 year-old to carry round!  Her mother has told her that she can go to the Orthodox church if she wants to go to church.  Mmmm… 

 

I’ve been visiting the mechanic quite a bit lately.  Last week, I took the rear stabilizer bar off because it broke (took the front one off a couple of years ago because it snapped in half).  It doesn’t seem to make any difference.  (And I’m not about to go rally car driving in a vw van!)  Anyway, a few days ago on the way back from the mechanics, I stopped to take this picture.  This is a dorm in which some of the poorest in our town live.  They share a kitchen and the “facilities” are out the back.  But how many satellite dishes can you count?  It amazes me.  Admittedly, it costs less than $150 to put one in, but a TV costs a few hundred.  The “essentials” of our times:  TV, Computer, Mobile Phone, and a Satellite dish?

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Rovno

Just before I talk about Rovno… isn’t this new look on this blog-site easy on the eyes.  Tim Miller is the one deserving of praise and my thanks for his generous gift of time, skill and effort in keeping this operating and getting it face-lifted.    Thanks Tim.

 

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Mission accomplished

 

 

We just got back to this apartment we are renting after a long day out.

The Ukrainian Government saw fit to give us visas again.  No surprises there.  What was a surprise is that it now costs Australians about $800 for a visa.  Incredible!  This visa is good for 45 days.  :)  During that time, I must apply for temporary residency.  If we can get all the docs ready in that time and the government is not opposed, then, after paying another whack of dosh, they should give me one year of temporary residency.  Pris, happy American that she is, had to pay just $190.  It’s still not enough incentive to make me desire US citizenship.  :)

 

 

 

We spent the rest of the day with Priscilla’s parents, who also needed to go to the consulate.  (Without any planning, we ended up individually planning to come to Krakow on the same day!)  We did a lot of walking around the city doing visa errands and then looking at beautiful Krakow, but we definitely enjoyed this special time together. 

 

We just called Cheryl, who is staying with our kids while we are away.  She informed us that Elle doesn’t have a temp anymore, but she did come out in a rash all over her body.  So we’d appreciate your prayers for her.  We don’t yet know if this is a complication to the strep-throat she has.  Thanks.

Visa travel

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Krakow, Poland, is once again our destination.  The laws have been changed and we’ve been informed that we need to leave the country and get new visas.  It should be a simple thing actually getting the visas.  The hard thing will be getting temporary residence once we get back to Ukraine.  We have 45 days in which to do it… and then the fines start.  Talking about fines, we are expecting to be fined upon leaving the country tomorrow for not getting registered here or leaving the country earlier.  The fact that we were told that we couldn’t get registered because we were religious workers when we came back last time from Poland doesn’t make any difference.  I shake my head at the typical-ness of it.  I’m hoping it won’t be more than $100 each… which will still hurt, but not as much as $500 would. 

We’ve been going through the wringer health-wise the last few weeks.  Marie has had a deep cough for weeks which antibiotics haven’t kicked yet.  Elle just came down with strep throat and last night had a temp of… very high.  Pris lost her voice last week and is only now beginning to get it back.  I’m glad we don’t have to take the kids with us to Poland!  Oh!  We leave Tuesday morning and get back Saturday if all goes to plan.

I just learned today that Gareth and Vita Worboys are in Ukraine!  They are old friends who decided to “just show up”.  I’m especially looking forward to seeing Gareth after about 10 years of them living in NZ.