A week in the life of Андре И Ларіса

August 26-September 2

Now that we have introduced you to our family, I would like to show you where we are living…

Our house - the second level window on the left is the room we are staying in for right now.

This is the building right next to the house. We will be living in the second floor apartment when it is renovated.

The vineyard in our back yard.

View from our back porch. Awesome!

The summer kitchen. All meals are cooked out here during the warm months. We are almost out of these months and it is only September! Uh oh!

The property also has a giant garden where we get most of our vegetables, a green house, a pool, an old house and lots of storage space.

During the past week we have done a lot.  We visited Ruslan’s mom’s house again and had a wonderful meal there.  On the way there, we stopped by a house that had an amazing vineyard with all different kinds of grapes that we got to try.  On Saturday we had a baptism day in our pool where 7 people got baptized.  Sunday we went to church and then came back here for a birthday celebration – it was Roma’s (Ruslan’s brother) 28th birthday.

This is a picture of Ruslan's mom's village from high atop the hill. Beautiful - one of our favorite stops!

The playground near Ruslan's mom's house. The equipment is the same that Ruslan used to play on when he was little. It is rusty, old and dangerous looking, but the kids are so happy to play on it!

Raegan, Isabella and I making flower halos on the step of Ruslan's grandma's house.

BEAUTIFUL!

Archie with mama in her kitchen fixing an amazing meal!

One of the baptisms...Our friend Dima.

Tea and cake time after the baptisms.

Everyone that came to the baptisms from church. Fun Day!

We grilled out yummy meat for Roma's birthday celebration. (Ruslan on left and Roma on right)

On Monday, we took a trip to Vinnysta and it was such an interesting day, I thought I would share an excerpt of my journal with you so that you can get the whole picture…

“A day in the life of Андре и Ларіса (Andy and Lori)”

9:00 am – Load up the car to head towards Vinnysta.  The van held Ruslan, Archie, Isabella, the neighbor, Larissa and her daughter and son, Andy and I.  We were taking Larissa and her family to Vinnysta for a follow-up for her son’s surgery (he has CP).  He is has to stay in the hospital for a week.

9:00-10:30 – Driving to Vinnytsa we made 2 stops.  One to pick up 3 hitch hikers and one to get a drink.  Picking up hitch hikers is very normal here and they paid for our gas to get to the city, paying 25 Grevna a piece.

10:30 – arrive in Vinnysta and drop off all of our passengers.  Archie, Isabella and I went by foot to get Isabella fitted for shoes and Andy and Ruslan went to unload a washer and then load another one (Ruslan often makes trips and deliveries for other people – we never really know what is going on, we just help out where we can)

11:30 – meet back up with Andy and Ruslan with a small loaf of bread each to snack on.  We head to a mall – this is the point of the day where Andy and I stop asking questions and just go with the flow.

Betweeen 11:30 and 4:00 we made 3 stops at various malls and 1 stop at a crazy looking warehouse…but like I said, we don’t really know what is going on!

4:10 – we arrive at a bank for Andy and I to exchange some traveler’s checks into Grevna and Dollars…”Sorry” the lady says, “we quit exchanging checks at 4:00.”  Of course you do, we thought!  Of course you do.  She then directs us to another bank that handles check cashing until 6:00 – GREAT!

4:20-5:15 – Again, I lost time – we stopped at an ATM and I am not sure what else.

5:15 – we arrive at the other bank.  Archie tells the lady we need to cash checks and her first question is, “Do we have time to do that?”  45 minutes until they close and she is not sure if they are going to have time?  Of course you have time, I think, What?  I soon figured out why she asked that question.  I had signed half of the checks and Andy had signed the other half, so we decided to cash mine first.  They took about 20 minutes studying and reviewing my checks and comparing the signature to my passport.  Well, the problem was, I signed my passport about 7 years ago when I had just become a Fleming and I wrote every letter of it.  Now, 7 years later, my “Fleming” has become a “Flg” – big problem here!  50 minutes later, after tons of paperwork and copies of paperwork done, and lots of Ukrainian exchanged, we left with my checks in hand and only half of Andy’s checks exchanged into Grevna.  They refused to exchange my checks because of my signature!  Uh oh!  The old Soviet way of doing things is extremely frustrating.  So, not having a bank in our village that will deal with traveler’s checks, we will have to make this trip again!

Oh – but wait, the day is not over!

6:30-8:00 – eat at McDonalds – YUM!!

8:15-11:15 – Shopping at Metro (my favorite place – like an American Sam’s club)

11:15-12:45 – drive back to our Village

12:45 – pull up to another crazy looking warehouse to unload whatever we got to deliver…some kind of pipes.

1:20 am – arrive home and go directly to bed…

Did you get all that?  CRAZY LIVING!!!  Here are some shots from the day…

He didn't want to waste any sauce, so he dipped his fries in the sauce on his beard! Hilarious. But, you really don't want to waste the sauce because you have to pay extra for it.

Ukrainians say, "Ya lublue McDonalds!"

We went a little crazy at Metro (it is a store like Sam's or Costco). This is our receipt! Hahaha!

Tuesday was spent getting ready for “First Bell” on Wednesday.  September 1 is the first day of school and there is a huge celebration here.  So preparations were made and then Tuesday night we went to a leadership meeting at church, and then got to do something really great.  There is a family of 7 that attend the church we go to including 5 children under the age of 10.  For this family to be able to have hot water, they had to fill their wood heater with wood, light it and then wait for the water to warm up.  In the winter time, they could barely even hold their hand under the water if it was not heated because it was so cold.  So, on Tuesday, we were able to bless them with an electric water heater.  Ruslan was able to get it along with a washing machine and a sewing machine and we delivered it to them as a surprise.  What a feeling it was to see their faces and know that this would change their lives!

Vitalic and Andy with the water heater. Look at his happy face!

Vitalic and 4 of his 5 children. His other child is 2 months old.

Wednesday – First Bell.  This celebration included singing, poems, welcoming from teachers and staff of the school, the giving of bread for a good year to come and, finally, the ringing of the first bell by senior and a 1st grader.  This day is a holiday for everyone as the first day of school.  Technically, though, the 2nd of September is the day most kids start classes.

The kids ready to go to their first day of school. The kids that are not dressed up are still in kindergarten which will not be open until next week because the chicken pox are going around.

The Ukrainian Flag marched up and down the row of students starting school as the national anthem was sung.

A senior and a first time student at this school ringing the first bell to signify school starting again for this year.

Where's Andy...can you find him?

Raegan and I outside of the school. Raegan is from Tennessee and has come to live here for a year between high school and college. It is great having another English speaker to talk to!

The fam on the front steps of the school.

I will leave you with a picture that is typical of our “down time” here at the house.  Hope you all are well!  We love you and miss you all.

Dya Dya Andy being attacked my the kids...they love him!

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