Euro 2012

We are in Donetsk, Ukraine. We've been visiting with one of our friends, Joe, and he has truly shown us the sights of his city!

When we arrived in town on Tuesday, he was about to host a youth pizza party. I just love how everyone takes off their shoes before entering the house or apartment; it keeps folks from tracking dirt in. I especially love it when it is raining or slushy outside!! Does everyone here in Ukraine wear black shoes?

The purpose of the pizza party was to gather the folks who had been contacted during an evangelization in one of the university dorms nearby, to get to know them, and to see if they are interested in joining an English conversation class or a bible study. I was greatly impressed! There were a total of 17 students, which is quite a good turnout for something of this sort.

Even though the reason we come to visit our personnel is not to sightsee, sometimes we are able to get out in the city to see some of their most famous sights. Of course, we talk as we walk ...

Euro 2012 is being held in 4 cities in Poland and 4 cities in Ukraine during the month of June. It is a "football" championship (soccer, of course) between 16 national teams: Ukraine, Poland, Sweden, France, England, Spain, Italy, Republic of Ireland, Croatia, Denmark, Portugal, Germany, Greece, Netherlands, Czech Republic and Russia. Donetsk is one of the cities in (Lyviv, Kharkov, and Kiev are the other 3 cities in Ukraine) hosting the games and is busy dressing up the city to get it ready for all the tourists that will descend.

While we were out seeing the city, we stopped by the car wash to clean off 2-3 months of sludge and soot. Glenn and I can carry on conversations anywhere we are, but this is one of the most unusual, I believe!

Rinat Akhmetov is reportedly the richest man in Ukraine and 39th richest in the world, according to Forbes Magazine. He comes from Donetsk and has been very generous toward his home city. He built this stadium for the city's football (soccer) team, Shakhtar Donetsk, of which he is very proud. He is also supporting lots of orphanages in the country. We drove around part of the perimeter of his house ... which is huge. The yard is, that is. The property is so large that the house is built waaay back out of sight so no one knows how large the house is and the walls around it are about 15 feet tall!

Donetsk has a lot of mines around the city and there is a park in the center of town dedicated to iron works. The Metal Iron Park has many, many iron statues throughout.

Glenn and Joe, cool dudes.

There is a gazebo in the park made out of iron where people put padlocks with their names on the walls to signify their eternal love for one another. Love padlocks started appearing in the early 2000s across Europe but no one is certain of their origin. I've previously shown a picture of a bridge in Kiev with love locks on it. If you recall, Glenn and I saw a lady with a hacksaw trying to cut the lock off! Guess that one turned out badly, eh?

The first day we were in town it was too cold to be outside so Joe drove us around to sightsee from the car. It was too cold for us, but Ukrainians love to stroll in the freezing snow! We saw many, many parents pushing strollers through the parks and streets. They believe the children need the "fresh air".

Saw a grandmother making a snowman with her grandchildren. The snow was perfectly moist for building snowmen and snowballs! What a neat grandmother. I want to make snowmen with Jazmine in New Jersey and sandcastles with Alec in Senegal.

On Thursday, the temperature started rising, getting up to a balmy 32 degrees, so the snow started melting. There were a lot of city workers out clearing the snow and sweeping water off the sidewalks so that in case it refroze, it wouldn't become icy. Love the broom!

Making progress! Between the workers and the sun, the sidewalks will be clean and clear very soon.




Some pretty nasty icicles!

Another statue of Lenin. I think there is one in every city in Ukraine! Notice the 27 story building behind it?

They were even cleaning the windows on this hotel that is being built for the Euro 2012!

The use of balloons to decorate and attract attention like this is something I've not seen anywhere else before. We must have passed 4 or 5 other stores with colorful balloon decorations outside!

Another thing I was surprised to see were so many gorgeous fur coats!!! Remember last week I showed a picture of me trying on a white fur hat in Belarus? I decided not to get one because, well, why spend so much money on something that makes me look so dorky?!? Well, now I want a fur coat! In a way, I hope I look dorky in them too so that I won't keep wanting one. I don't know how the Ukrainian women can afford the fur coats. I can't afford them but they sure are pretty!

We had a great visit with Joe and the others over the past two weeks but it will be good to be home for two weeks! Home, sweet home!

If this is Tuesday, this must be Donetsk.

My days are all running together. In the past 12 days, we've gone from Minsk (capital of Belarus), to Kiev (the capital of Ukraine), to Kharkov (also in Ukraine) and now we're in Donetsk (yes, still in Ukraine) so I'm a little confused as to what today is! But I get ahead of myself.

We left Belarus Friday, a week and a half ago while it was freezing cold and snowing, landing in Kiev, Ukraine an hour later.

Kiev was under a siege of snow just as was Belarus. It has snowed off and on for the past week.

On Valentine's Day, I came out ahead of whoever the lady was who got this bouquet of balloons. I got a very beautiful silver and amber bracelet. I like balloons but I love jewelry. :-)

One of the families we met with in Kiev took us sightseeing to the museum on the Chernobyl nuclear power plant meltdown. It was rather interesting. Much of the radioactive cloud coverage landed in parts of Ukraine even though the worst of it went to Belarus.

While we were in Kiev and having member care visits, we stayed in one of our families' apartments while they are in the U.S.. We didn't have a car so most folks had to haul us around, but we were able to walk some in the neighborhood ... the sidewalks covered with snow!

We tried to order online a Domino's pizza (yes, the real thing!) but because we didn't have a local phone number, they couldn't call us back to verify our order ... so they canceled our order and we had to walk a mile in the snow to get a pizza.

And it was worth every bite!

Oh! I failed to mention that our first night in Kiev we went to a cafe in one of the malls with one of our couples and we ordered pizza. (I never get tired of it.) I have to admit, it was the first time I'd ever had a pizza with pickles on it, and to be honest, it was pretty good!

On Saturday morning, we flew to Kharkov to visit with two of our single ladies.

They wanted to eat at this restaurant in a mall where you order your food from a computer screen at your table. You place your order then the waitress brings the drinks and food you punched in.

You could choose between Russian or English, so naturally, we used the English menu which made it a whole lot easier on Glenn and me (and we didn't end up with pickles on our steaks!) However, there were a couple of mistakes, such as "Your order in cooking" as opposed to "Your order IS cooking".

We were able to join Linda and Amanda in a Beth Moore bible study at Linda's apartment. There were 12 ladies from Africa who are in Kharkov, studying at one of the universities, who came for the study. I was quite impressed with these young ladies, most of whom were studying to be doctors or pharmacists! Unfortunately, none of the ladies came from Ivory Coast (Cote d'Ivoire) which is where we lived from 1984-1993.

As I mentioned earlier, it snowed off and on all week and the snow was piled up on the sidewalks and on the sides of the roads. Every once in a while, we'd come across cars that evidently hadn't been used for a few days! I also found out that there are not nearly as many diesel cars in Ukraine as there are in Belarus. (Diesel cars don't run well in very cold temperatures because the diesel gas gets thick, like syrup.) In Belarus, the roads were empty of cars, but NOT IN UKRAINE! The roads were packed with cars, and the drivers are pretty impatient.

A lot of the apartment buildings have a lady that serves as the "receptionist" for the building. Some of her responsibilities would be to provide some security for the owners, keep the stairwells clean of trash and the entranceway mopped. Those who are physically able and industrious would also shovel the snow off the sidewalks around their building. (Yes, most apartments are owned, but a wealthier person might have inherited a second apartment that they rent out.)

If no one shoveled the sidewalks, we'd be walking on 2-4 inches of packed snow. Treacherous!

Even though temperatures were below zero most afternoons, Linda and Amanda drove us through Kharkov to see some of the major sites. This is a statue of Lenin. It was hard to get excited about sightseeing if it required getting out of the car!! I was really a wimp on this trip. Guess my blood is too thin for this kind of weather. I miss my thermal blanket in Budapest!

This is reported to be the third largest plaza or square in Europe. Hmm, it was big, but who figures out these kinds of statistics anyway?

On Sunday, we went to an International church that was predominantly attended by foreign students from various African countries and a few caucasians (us). I would say there were about 60 Africans and 8 caucasians. The worship style brought back fond memories of our days in Africa.

Monday, Amanda embroidered something for me on her new nifty Bernina sewing and embroidery machine. I am going to be decorating a Christmas stocking per grandchild with something from each year that was significant in the life of that particular child for that year. For 2011, I had Amanda embroider a stork carrying a baby in a blanket with the names Alec in the blue one and Jaz in the pink one, and their respective birth dates underneath. I will then attach these to their stocking. Something for each year, up until they graduate from high school so that will be 18 different decorations per stocking by time the child graduates and gets the stocking as a keepsake of their life. Thanks, Amanda, for helping me get it started!!

Well, we are now in Donetsk and will be here until Friday, which is our daughter's birthday. We're having a great time visiting with each of our families in Ukraine but need to get home on Friday in time to call her and wish her a happy birthday!

Blizzard in Belarus

Glenn and I are in Belarus visiting one of our families for a few days, and then we head to Ukraine to visit a few more. Glenn visited Belarus for the first time in 2005 on a mission trip with our home church in Marietta and that was the first step that led us to where we are now!

We stayed the first two nights in the Tourist Hotel. By law, we had to stay the first night in the country in a hotel so that we could be legally registered with the government.

We were on the 15th floor and this is the view out the window. There were 4-6 inches of snow on the ground but the government does an excellent job of clearing snow off the streets and sidewalks, including this plaza.

Notice the steam plant in the background? Most of the buildings, especially the large government buildings and the apartment buildings are heated by steam so there are steam plants throughout the city pouring who-knows-what into the air.

Notice the large building in the foreground? That is the Belarus Mall. Rather than having many different stores, it is a large department store with a grocery store as it's anchor.

It's freezing cold here! The temperature is -22 degrees celsius, which is -7.5 degree fahrenheit. I have never experienced temperatures as low as these, but the good news is that I am finally getting some use out of all those thermal long johns I bought 5+ years ago!

Recognize this mall from a former photo? I thought you might like to see how Belarus is spelled with cyrillic letters. Most Belarusians are bilingual, speaking both Belarusian and Russian.

One afternoon, Dawn, Phillip, Glenn and I zipped over to the Belarus Mall to look for a big furry hat for me, something I've wanted for a long time. Fortunately, they were having a 50% off sale! Unfortunately, I look too goofy in hats to spend the $90 (or 745,854 rubles, and that's the half off price!) for a hat I'd probably never wear.

On Sunday afternoon, we went with Phillip and Dawn to one of the "younger" churches to worship. The service started at 2:00 pm because they meet in the same building as another church.

As a side note, in 2005 when Glenn and I thought we were headed to Belarus as missionaries, we began taking Russian language classes in Atlanta, meeting on Wednesday evenings for 2 hours. I don't remember a lot from those lessons, but I was able to recognize and read the word seminary

above! It's the word that starts with c-e-m. Thanks, pastor Ken!

Glenn and I were able to schedule this trip to Belarus in conjunction with our pastor Ken's mission trip to Belarus and so we were blessed to be able to see him! The pastor of the church is Dima, on the left. Ken is to the right of him, and then there's Glenn and me, and Seth, Dawn, Anna and Phillip. What an awesome picture! As George said on Seinfeld, our two worlds collided! Our pastor from America standing next to one of our families here in Belarus!

Ken preached the message and then after church, we went out for a small dinner and a cup of coffee. It was really good to see him and we appreciate what he brings to the people of Belarus. He comes twice a year to train and encourage the local pastors, complementing the work that Dawn and Phillip do the rest of the year.

While we were in town we had time to do a little sightseeing. This is a memorial honoring the Jews who were lined up, naked, and dropped down into a pit in the Jewish ghetto by the Nazi's during WWII.

The red awnings are on the windows of one of the 5 or 6 McDonald's in Minsk. Why eat at McDonald's when there are so many other good Belarusian places to eat???

I believe this is the Parliament building.

There was a HUGE outdoor ice skating rink that was free and open to the public. Really cool. No, I mean it was really COLD!

The National Library is located on the outskirts of town. It is the pride and joy of Belarus, and is supposed to be the largest library in Europe. It is really a research library, rather than a community library where the average family goes to check out books for pleasure reading.

We took a drive (rather, a wrong turn) and ended up out in the country but we didn't mind at all because the scenery was gorgeous; tiny sparkling diamonds scattered across the fields reflecting the sun's rays. Along the road for a mile or so were these wooden crosses encircling a forest. During the Stalin era, political dissidents were gathered and taken out to the forest and killed.

Dawn and Phillip received another visa allowing them to stay in the country for another year while we were there and each year when this happens, they celebrate by going out to dinner at TGI Fridays. We celebrated with them, enjoying a nice American meal before ...

going to the Minsk airport and flying to Ukraine, which is where we are NOW.

We are in Kiev, the capital city, until this Saturday morning, at which point we will head upcountry to Kharkov and then on to Donetsk, returning home on the 24th, just in time for a birthday call to our daughter, Kari.

Pictures coming next week of Ukraine. Until then, hope you have a great week!