Another Day

Today was a lovely spring day in Ukraine. Mark and I took a walk this morning and breathed in the scent of roses and peonies and acacia trees in bloom. The fragrances are heavenly! We also felt like we were back in New Mexico, because, believe it or not, they have Cottonwood trees here, and the cotton was flying everywhere, just like back home!

The teenagers at the TLC are enjoying the warm weather, too. Many of them are out of school now, so they go to the sea everyday to swim. They told us the water doesn't smell very good in the sea, because of the factories here in town. I'm sure there is a lot of pollution in the water. The housemoms said that when the kids swim in the sea some of them get sores on their skin. Yuck! But it doesn't seem to bother the kids! They love it!

Now that the weather is warmer, you can see many of the Ukrainian women in their spring garments. Or I should say, you can see more of the Ukrainian women than you would like to, in spite of their garments. There are many beautiful women here, and fashion is a big part of the focus for some of them. High heels are also worn by middle aged and young women much of the time, whether they are working or just walking to the store. It doesn't quite add up - wearing high heels on the cracked and broken sidewalks seems like a dangerous thing to do!

I read a joke recently from one of our books, that is reputedly something that is said in Ukraine. It goes like this: The definition of Heaven is a Ukrainian wife, an English house, an American bank account, and Chinese food. The definition of Hell is an American wife, a Chinese house, a Ukrainian bank account, and English food! I don't know about all this, but the joke is funny!

This afternoon we walked to the orphanage again ("Groundhog Day"!). The girls' group was upstairs. Tanya was there having an English lesson with Zhanna and Ella and Julia. It was fun to watch them interact and answer questions in English. After that they were only interested in watching movies and "chillin' out." I think all the kids are glad to be experiencing some down time after the busyness of last week and the end of school. Zhanna and Ella seem to be especially in need of that now.

We just relaxed with them all afternoon and watched a "Rynetky" concert video with Zhanna and Ella and the rest of the girls. We liked the group very much. They are a neat band with five pretty young women muscians. They have a huge following of preteen and teen girls in Russia and Ukraine, and probably other former Soviet countries. The music is lots of fun, and I'm glad we got to see the video, so we can talk about it more with the girls.

We also talked to the girls about what clothes they will be taking with them, and helped them find a suitcase to use from the storeroom that holds winter clothes, suitcases and other odd items like that. We told the girls not to worry about taking too many clothes. They'll only need the things they like the most right now and that fit well. We can buy more clothes when we get home, and we'll need to buy school uniforms, too. All the other clothes can be left at the orphanage for the other children. They were agreeable to that.

We left sweetly this evening, about 6:00 and told them we'd be back tomorrow (and the next day, and the next . . . for the rest of our lives!).

God is so good. God is so good. God is so good. He's so good to me!
He answers prayer. He answers prayer. He answers prayer. He's so good to me!
I love him so. I love him so. I love him so. He's so good to me!

Good-night! "Spakoinanoiche!"
Love,
Dawn and Mark