wings

There's 2 more special people taking flight very soon:

Karla (with the famous nepher!) leaves the 2nd for Argentina. Even though I haven't seen you for too long, K, I'm missing you all the way down there! Happy Trails and Best of Days! xo

And- well, my side-kick...Trude. So, I'm going to miss you- hurry back! And best of days to you, too! (that's her in her too cool hat in the middle)

random dangerous things

thirsty... for water

Trude hauling wood for the fire

that's it

the fire is in this stove...and there's the dish and tea water heating up...

slumming with Trude- Ala has T's space in the front room now, so her stuff and mine as well as both of us are in this room for now... it's not usually quite this bad

There's the T...see that glow on her face???

well she's taking some sort of heat treatment for being a sick-o
special mtg laundry. This was fun...I'm sure

not too often

Ok, I won't be doing this all the time but this thing just came through my RSS feeds on google reader; Trude and I laughed so hard we were wiping tears; Ala didn't laugh at all- but that might just be the difference between Amer/Western humor and Russian... anyway, I thought I'd die.
funny

and one my sis and shared recently... not funny but really wow

ok

So I'm going to have to do something about that pic from earlier tonight- the kids don't look so hot there. It was taken with someone's cell phone, so that's the 'why'. Maybe I can doctor it up? Esp maybe with Trude's help? She'll be with us briefly the end of the week. We'll see.

AND- the good news- B couldn't get the router and Julie forgot to send the stuff with V, so NO ONE (esp not me) will have to meet a 6.30 train. Yippee. G'night for real this time!

haha

One more thing! Congrats, Laura, on your little baby niece! Have to do it here since I'm still using my mobile setup and can't comment on your blog- also can't see the pic- have a slow connection tonight. BUT, I'm sure she's just the cutest sweetest little thing! Hugs!

Related to my nephew

In other words, I'm not done talking yet.

Tomorrow, Ala and I go back to our bach. Bus leaves at 7.30; V's train arrives at 6.30 (same one we were on this am)- he has a wireless router (I think- and Bill seems to think that even I might be able to set it up...that sounds like a terminal case of optimism to me) for us and some stuff from Julie that I forgot, so SOMEONE is going to have to meet that train- ouch.
If you know Julie, she and her boys are doing well. Saw them this weekend. Zhenya is getting big- chunky! When he was 3 yrs old, he followed me all over on clean up day and then looked up at me and solemnly said, "Ya tebe lyub(ah)loo"- translated: "I love you"- the stuff in parentheses is an untranslatable Ukrn lisp. Well, he doesn't do that anymore, but too bad for him, I have a good memory when it comes to that! Ha! Anyway, J finished her paper- for her degree (Masters? Doctorate? Don't know.) All she has to do now is translate it into English and publish it.
Am I done talking yet? Guess so... Man, this is tough... G'night! xo

lala

For lack of something better to call it.

Pic is of Uncle Bill with Julie and Sofika. Mom and Dad, if you're reading, that's the little kid (S) that fell out of her chair during mtg because she wiggled so much...the little ballerina. She's grown a bit...still wiggly, though! We had some time with them recently. Also, that's the area I was in just before specials.

So, we are done with the 'special' stuff. Ala and I came west last night on the train. We got off to a great start- 2 nice appearing women in our train compartment when we got there- BUT, they hadn't eaten supper yet...woe is me. We had the bottom bunks but they were spread out all over ours and their 2 upper bunks. They had a real spread- enough to feed a hungry army- which is typical Ukr'n hospitality. Only trouble was, we'd already 'suffered' from some rather amazing Canadian hospitality, it was 10 pm and we weren't in the mood for anymore hospitality. "No Thanks" we said "But eat up." A LONNNNNGGGGGGG time later, they were still going strong (no alcohol though- good news), chatting away. I was propped up against the wall nearly asleep, yawning (as pointedly as possible). Innocently, Ala says, "What time is it anyway?" and our 2 friendly chatters/sup-pers said, "Oh, did you want to go to bed?" We stumbled over each other saying, "YES!" They took their whole feast up to the top...but only after they'd methodically cleared off, then made up their own 2 beds up there... YAWNNNN...at least it was looking hopeful. I went to brush my teeth, wash my face- came back and Ala had made up both of our beds...I nearly cried for joy and could have hugged her- but she was already in bed. She told me tonight that it is very impolite to say "Yes, we do want to go to bed" in the above situation; these folks will suffer nearly anything in the name of 'good manners'- but then it seemed rather poor manners to me on the part of those 2 to carry on like that for so long. Especially considering that it was close to midnight and we all got in this am at 6.25- which means the conductor wakes you up at 5.30. Yawn some more. Well, neither of us was too worried about being polite after having politely suffered through their feast for an hour.

The best of it? No way we were going to comfortably make the bus this am. So, crash in bed in an empty apt- rest all day. Well, I ran some errands and putzed around a store- just for mental therapy, you know. Did some laundry. We each have our own room...ahhhhh....life's great!

Tata!

Ps- Duane: Your old friend V Yushchenko does make the news...however he's completely overshadowed these days (again) by Miss Yulia T... She's making splashes again. That, for the uninformed, is our Prime Minister; the first one is our (mostly silent- or am I missing something?) President.

Vampires and more

Actually, this is more about the 'more' than the vampires.

BUT- you know that garlic is a good defense against vampires (you did,
didn't you? I mean, assuming they really EXIST- ever read Terry
Pratchett??? Ok, back to business)- well, garlic is ALSO a natural
antibiotic. I hadn't been here long when Loran S nearly knocked us all
out by recommending bread and butter with garlic cloves- you know,
slice like radishes and stack on the bread...and eat...as many as you
can handle- to defend yourself against active germs. Of course, it
also lowers your blood pressure, so that's where the knocking out
comes into play. (You thought I meant the smell...haha)

ANYWAY- down in Crimea, little Mrs Cutie Pie has chunks of raw garlic
all over the house to fend off germs.

So, on last night's famous news, there's the flu going around in L'viv
area...so kids are being sent to school with garlic cloves strung like
beads on strings...and they wear them around their necks. Really, it
was too funny for words- we all cracked up at the sight. Most kids had
1 or 2 cloves- but a few looked like they had the whole summer's
garlic harvest. I can only imagine what the classrooms smell like...

A look at some traditions

I've been wanting to write a bit about the funeral we were at just before rounds. It's not the 1st for me here, but the most memorable so far.

We learned of our friend's death (V) Weds am an hour after she died. By noon, I was miraculously packed and out the door- it was the day after New Year's, though, so very hard to get tickets on anything. Got a train, finally, and left that night. Bill and A met my train and we headed for the village. It was bitterly cold- which was a mercy in this sense: the week before in the muck and mud was a nightmare- but there was no mud left now, believe me! Sharon W met us out there. Fun'l was to be Fri, Jan 4.

Several neighbor ladies were helping M (V's dau) prepare food for the post-fun'l meal when we arrived, so we did, too. Chopped for salads, ground meat for 'cotlettes' (you could say meat balls, I guess), did beets for borsch, peeled potatoes and met more onions than I cared to be acquainted with. Noticed right away that all reflective surfaces were covered with cloth (this has something to do with making the spirit of the dead feel unwelcome to hang around- keep in mind that only V had cast her lot in with us).

The next am, back we went to the house and helped with the last of the food prep. Otherwise, no one seemed to know just what all to do, as far as traditions go- but they kept remembering things so would quick get it done- like suddenly they got a plate with bread on it and a salt cellar of salt and put them on a fresh linen dresser scarf by the body. There were also several pencil-thin candles burning there- but one of these tipped over and burned a hole in the linen; I don't think that was 'supposed' to happen. The body was in a coffin- the kind that's wide at the shoulders, narrow at the feet- and covered with white lace; she also had a typical colorful scarf on her head. (Neighbor ladies had washed and dressed her and then sat with her until the fun'l.)

After the service, we all went outside and the body was brought out and parked on footstools- someone had remembered that it should sit in the courtyard for 5 min, so there we stood with it. Funeral wreaths on tripod wire stands were distributed among the people there (I had one). All the wreaths had brand new cotton hankies tied on them- have no idea what for, but at the end of the whole thing, anyone carrying anything with a hankie or towel tied to it had to remove it and must keep it and 'think thoughts' of the dead when they use it...for reasons still unclear to me, I had 5 hankies/towels by the time it was all over.

So, 5 min are over- out we go to the road where there's a truck waiting. The body follows- and waits another requisite 5 min before being loaded into the back of the truck. There were 4 (I think) men carrying the coffin- they all had towels tied around their arms. Turns out the body came through the gate feet first (should have been head first) but what can you do? So, before loading it onto the truck, they got that detail figured out. The coffin lid was dutifully following the coffin around through all this. Someone discovered that the metal cross with her name and DOB/DOD on it was on the truck, too- so that got taken off and given to a man to carry- at this point, we find out that no one that is a blood relative (or her husband) can touch the wreaths, the cross or the coffin and lid. So, this man goes first with the cross, then the truck, then all the rest of us on foot- all the way to the cemetery. One lady had told me it was a LONG WAYS off- at least 40 min, maybe an hour. Seventeen min later, we were there... All things are relative.

At the cemetery, they took the body off the truck and I think it was another 5 min wait at the gate before the cross, followed by the wreaths and then the body and then the people headed in. There was a mound of earth beside the open grave- they covered it with the red cloth that had been on the coffin stand at the house- and then put the coffin there. Don't just remember everything here- the coffin lid was nailed on- 4 nails, 1 in the middle of each side and end of the coffin. Some of the men in attendance lowered it into the ground on ropes. Everyone took handfuls of earth and tossed them onto the coffin and then the men took shovels and filled the hole while we waited. At this point, someone else went around with a bowl of cooked wheat mixed with honey and poppy-seed for people to take 1 bite of. When all was finished, we took the hankies off our wreaths and they were placed by the head of the grave. Then, back we walked.

After the body was removed to the street in front of the house, the gates were shut and a wooden pole laid across them. I heard an old granny explain it this way, "So that death will never again return to this house." This barrier was removed when we got back from the cemetery. Part of this tradition includes a basin of hot water and soap- everyone who was at the grave has to wash their hands before going back onto the family's property.

After that, it was all a big feast. We had a train to catch, so ate quickly and left. Traditions vary greatly from village to village so this was the first time I'd seen some of these things.

These are some recollections. Some of it was too personal for here; some I've no doubt forgotten already. And this was a unique service anyway, since the people in general there aren't very religious. We did what we could and they did all they could remember! And, this is LOONNNGGG... tata

Happy Trails

Back when I was 16 a little boy and his parents took me from Shoals to preps at McCordsville.

Later, all kinds of stuff happened and *presto* he's older, me too- and I'm in their field...my first 2 years...and he writes me letters (this is always astounding to me- when 'kids' write).

More time passed and stuff happened- and the little boy grew up all the way and started in the work.

Well, you guessed it, more time has passed and more stuff has happened- that young man joins us here in Eur the end of this week. Ok, so he'll be our neighbor over in Pol- but we're very close to that staff. I think I'm a very happy Auntie right now! Welcome, Ian! We look forward to seeing you!

Mind reader

This is the last post for tonight- I started doing these when we were 'watching the news' earlier- now it's bedtime; I'll be interested to see what order they post in.

L & V showed us an empty (this is sad)Spanish candy box after supper. Our Spanish visitor had been here and left it (although I very much doubt it was empty then). Sighhhhh... Right then, I got to realizing just how much I wanted/needed/yearned for something ANYTHING sweet-and there was not a single thing around. We'd had 2 apples apiece... Well, I love apples but sighhhhh.... You get the picture. I finally faded into my bedroom in quiet candy-less surrender. Sighhhh....

Everyone's in bed. Sharon A comes smiling into the room- I just found this in the bottom of my bag from last week/month/year/millenium...who cares??? CHOCOLATE!!! Wow! Smashed...again, who cares. She thinks it's a bit more than she can eat by herself. My my-shall I help? Well, I do little enough to help most of the time, so I pitch right in...and together, we bring order back to the bottom of her purse! Yay!!!

Now how did she know?

The News

I don't often have occasion to watch the news but we sat with our friend and her hubby tonight and did our best to keep up with the Ukie 7.00 evening news.

A popular teacher stole cattle and money from the village/town where he worked and has been arrested.

Flu season is upon us- L'viv Oblast is hardest hit so far (this is where our bache is- how exciting).

There's a hepatitis outbreak in another city in our field- being blamed on bad water, poor diet and poor handwashing habits... there was also something about water and stray dogs and cats and rats and basements of apartment buildings that I didn't get- well I do know that I hate rats and they tend to be in those big buildings- let's just kill them all.

The news was preceded by a clip of figure skaters- never ceases to amaze me. Really, I can't even put into words the beauty of it, so let's just say it's beautiful.

There was a bit about circuses and acrobats- how wonderful they are.

And there was a big thing on how popular football (that's soccer to North Americans) is- why? Well, they proceeded to figure out just how much various big time soccer players are earning- sometimes more than a million dollars/min (I assume this is per minute of time spent occupied with 'team business').

I had just decided that reading the news daily on the web is more to my liking- fast, and only if it catches my eye. Our friend, V, said quietly, "People just don't bother to think about where it's all leading to." Very nicely and simply put.

this and that

Just some pix from the past few days/weeks

Alla and I stayed with these 2 monkeys up north (and their parents, too, come to think of it):

The Big Brother, Bohdan (he'd just pulled his hat off- don't blame his folks for the look)

The Little Sis, Karina

Little Anastacia-a rose in the village

Solomiya- hide your stuff from her or she'll scatter it from one end of the house to the other... she is also her mother's #1 pillow-case artist... didn't know that it made such an ideal surface on which to write...

Solomiya's big sis, Marina. Ask their mom, Were any of your other kids like S? Yes, M was...she's growing up nicely now, though. A sweet girl. They have 2 bro's, too, but no pix.

Christine and me with Alyosha- he's the best! His folks are both deaf- we had several nights with them... he's a first-class signer- very cute

Christine and I were with this little doll's family for a few days; Rachel came, too. R and Dima

Daddy's work gave little D this for Xmas- we adults enjoyed it... it was stuffed full to the top with chocolates!
Here he is... he might be my almost grandson- not sure...he sure is close to my heart! (If you ever heard of 'Mr and Mrs Cutie Pie', he's theirs)
Rachel wanted a shot of the hairdo's...

On the Black Sea- cold but still nice to be there! Lots of Swans and other sea-birds

Monkeys

Couldn't resist- if you don't like it, Gina, let me know!

http://www.google.com/gwt/n?u=http%3A%2F%2Fbloemkersauce.blogspot.com

Comments

Killing time in a cafe in Izmail. Just read my emails (not Many- I don't write so who's writing to me?) and got caught up on my web stuff- read it all on Google Reader, which is pretty handy. But, with all the cool things this cool little iPAQ does, it cannot comment on blogs, which is one of the fun parts of blogging. So I can't tell Duane & Linda that I think they should name their soon to arrive puppy Tamsin-my doggie's name-She was full of vim & vigor and loved to talk to me on the phone after I left her at Dad and Mom's. Nor can I tell Martha that her list of 100 things made me laugh (so did Linda's for that matter). I can't tell Rochelle how cool her new jean skirt is; or ooh and ah over Chloe's rolls; and did you see the rocks Nolan mangad to get in that furnace pipe? And those Ransom's are looking good! Nice Aunty K has time with the family before heading South. And! Lindsay's turning 21 in 21 days! I guess I was 21 once but I don't even remember it! And that the pic of JennaMae in that darling red hat & dress is still one of the all-time best. There's been more... You'll just have to wait... Ha ha.
And- No, I sure didn't remember that all you Indy guys had Sackett names at one time. I do remember hearing lots of L'Amour quotes. And Hot-N-Now trips... Yikes. And cars with names- Buford, Clyde and my Peace-Mobile.
Better pack- up to catch this bus. Take Care! Xo

aaarrggghhhhh

Google is advertising on MY blog?! What?! Who did that? Problem is, I can't see the whole thing on my iPAQ so I had no idea...then, I read the comments, which are delivered to my inbox. We shall have to go see...

And- My little Sis has a blog now... Can you find her? You do miss hearing me rattle on about the kidders, right? (yes, you do.) Well, she's doing it there on her blog and I'm loving it!

So- we have the deaf mtg tonight- Christine & I have had lots of time with our deaf friends this week, so my signing has gotten better again.. But still leaves heaps to be desired...And for further enjoyment, all in Russian these days.

Trying to get some pix of the kidders we've been with. The little guy here is 5, blonde, lively and adorable! Both parents deaf but his heariiig is 100%! His signing is really something to see! No communication problems at all.

And, did all this with text recognition and my stylus. I'm impressed with this little iPAQ.

still kicking

quick note (since you're surely dying to know)

Yup, I'm still here. We're on special mtg rounds now- have been for almost a week. The prelude to the rounds ended up being the funeral for our friend. Bill, Andriy, Sharon W and I flew over there Wed pm; funeral was Fri am. Sometime I'll have to tell you about that.

We were up in the north for the weekend and then came down Odessa way. Had some time back in the village and are now in the south... and having good good days.

A very unspecial thing that happened- completely crash-oled my iPAQ. Managed to reinstall the important stuff but no more keyboard for now- so no blogging either (as if I had the time anyway). So, that's the big fat deal.

Hope all's well...we promise to have all kinds of exciting things to say later...blah blah blah  Take care! xo

Dear Karissa

Going through my inbox, clearing things out...and found this from my pal and co, Trude


And that brought this to mind:

Summer of 1999; Gwen A and I were staying with Kevin and Beth over north of Green Bay.

I cruise through the kitchen where 'daughter of the home' (that means Karissa) and her friend were making chocolate chip cookies. They must have been, what? 12 then? not too sure (someone can tell me if you know)
Cookies on the pan were few and rather large...huge, in fact.
How're the cookies? I say.
Fine. But they're sort of funny.
Why?
Well, if we make as many as it says, they're going to be huge...
I look at the chip pkg where the recipe was- it said: Makes 4-1/2 dozen... which I suddenly realized had been interpreted as: Makes 4-6 cookies

I don't remember the end... I just remember that I thought they were pretty smart to come up with the 1/2 dozen thing being 6...