Traveling is not complete without some kind of adventure. Although I have to say, I don’t necessarily go looking for it all the time, but it is fun once you’re in the midst of it!

The scene

While in Cahul, Moldova visiting Lance, we made a “short” trip to pick up his leader in Odessa, Ukraine. It was supposed to be short but the fog and ice slowed us down. We arrived to a sunny Odessa picked up Kyle, dropped off someone else and were on our way. Despite being pulled over by police our trip home was uneventful… except for one stop.

The GPS had led us to Odessa on one road, but for whatever reason, decided to take us back by a different road. It was a bad road, we thought about marking it in the GPS as the Never-Go-Down-This-Road road, but I think we forgot. It was like we had entered onto Mars without a landrover. Or maybe it was a remnant of a mine field littered with holes, potholes to be exact. I know roads can be bad in Ukraine, but this was hardly even a road. We kept thinking it would get better at every turn, but it never did. The fact that we saw less and less cars should have told us something but we were busy chatting until Lance finally said “we got to get off this road!”

We looked at the GPS and saw that we were basically traveling next to the road we took in the morning. There were no roads apparently connecting them. Lance just decided to take the first left that he came to, we had come to desperation out of concern for the car. So we took a left.

It was a slightly better road, a little more deserted, but was a degree better than the previous road from Mars. It led us into a little village where it seemed the road ended. Great. We looked around, asked some villagers who directed us a different way. This led us to the outskirts of a different village. We were traveling on what reminded me of a dike between two fields. We were just driving between some fields in the middle of no where. No. Where. This is where it got a little too adventurous.

We saw another road closer to the field that looked better so we thought we would just go down off this crazy dike road and continue to the road ahead… what? what’s wrong? Why aren’t we moving? Ack! It’s mud… no it’s worse, it’s clay!

Yep, we turned off a perfectly good road for a deceptively muddy road and got stuck. We tried for a good 20-30 min to get out, spraying the car with mud/clay all over. We were quite the sight. As I noted the fuel gauge bordering empty and the sun nearing the horizon I began to determine which house looked the friendliest and might allow some strangers to stay the night with them. Lance and Kyle decided to go ask a villager if someone had a tractor they could use to pull us out.

Lance trying to get the clay out of his wheel well.

Don’t be fooled by the road’s smooth appearance…

Praise the Lord they found one! The tractor was slipping all around as well but eventually managed to tow us out. The man who had towed us out was a pig farmer, with him was his brother, dad, neighbor, son, and neighbor kid. We were a spectacle. They enjoyed the spectacle so much they invited us over for homemade wine made with red and black pepper. Typical Ukrainians, always ready for guests and hospitality.

We muddled through the mud to their farm. As we rounded the corner, I saw them defuzzing a pig they had just roasted. The man brought out a pitcher of wine and one cup. His brother (or neighbor I kept getting confused) downed a glass in one gulp. He filled the glass again and gave it to Kyle. Kyle finished his glass, the man poured another glass and handed it to me. I weigh like half the weight of these guys and I had not eaten much that day, I cautiously took the glass and took tiny sips until I had finally finished the glass. I was proud of my accomplishment.

At this point, they brought out some  food. Since they were pig farmers they brought out pig skin, just a big ole flap of pig skin. It had been roasted, but was not crunchy or hard, just sort of a grey rubbery consistency. Luckily, it did not have much of a flavor ,just chewy, really chewy. Then there were some nice little meat patties, I like meat patties, can’t go wrong with those. Then there was this sort of triangular shaped jellyish-looking meat thing. Not sure what to call it. It was made with pork meat and ground up pig skin. It had a slimy jelly texture, reminded me of a JELLO jiggler with meat and pig skin. This also did not taste that bad, I just kept thinking “JELLO jiggler” and swallowed it.

I was offered another glass of wine which I took but drank even slower than before. I managed to finish it, but when they offered me another glass I had to decline, after accepting two glasses I was sure they would not be offended if I refuse the third glass. We chatted for a while longer about the farm, they gave us a tour, we talked about what we were doing here, and Christmas. They were happy to help and refused our monetary offering. We drove off in our clay covered car just as the sun was about to set. It was a fun adventure indeed but I will think twice before turning on seemingly smooth dirt roads!

Just thought I would post a few pictures of what winter looks like here. Pretty much I can sum it up in one word… BEAUTIFUL!

Through the park

A frosty church

A view of the city

Christmas tree in the city center weathering a blizzard

People say “you’ll get tired of the snow.” Wet icy blankets they are, I love the snow and I have not grown tired of it! Bring it on! I want to wade through it, dive into it, throw it around and have some to spare. We only get it 4 months out of the year here so what’s to complain about? 🙂

Icicle
Pointy, shiny, pointy
Hanging precariously
Death

There is no water in the city. It’s normal.

Twice a year Ternopil turns the water off in the city to clean the pipes. The water is off for, at most, three days. It’s really not that bad.I’m actually glad they do it. Here is a picture of why:

Yum, iron!

Yeah, that’s sediment left in my bathtub. I usually fill my bathtub with water before they turn the water off to use for flushing the toilet. This is a picture of what was remaining after I drained it.

The city usually gives 8-5 hours notice, so you have a little time to run home and take your shower, do any laundry, buy drinking water, and fill up every pot in the house with tap water. The rough part though is that everyone in your apartment building is doing the same thing and if you live on the top floor, the water pressure is almost non-existent.

The water doesn’t have a whole lot of bacteria or anything, but there is a ton of minerals, like WAY more than the normal amount. It’s mostly iron and calcium, or it could be rust… You won’t die from drinking the water, but your tummy might not be happy if you drink a lot. I still use it for cooking and cleaning and brushing my teeth. The water is better here than in some places. I know in Moscow the water can be off for 4 weeks so I’m happy with a few days!

September 1, the Day of Knowledge, also known as First Bell.

Ukraine has a unique holiday of celebrating the first day of school on September first. Every year school starts on the same day through out the country. It does not matter if it’s Saturday or Sunday, school begins on the first!

Waiting for school to start

Students all dress up in their uniforms, girls have their hair done and boys are spiffed up. There are a couple of traditional items students will always have. Girls of all ages often have a white hair ribbon or bow called a buntiki. Basically, the bigger the better. The graduating girls often wear traditional clothes or their uniforms with a white apron over it.

All dolled up for school

All kids bring gifts to their teacher, this can be flowers or some small knick-knack. They meet their teacher, find their seats, parents and teachers can talk… all that good schooly kind of stuff. There is usually a band, some speeches, a priest comes and blesses the school and sprinkles everyone with holy water and the smallest/youngest student gets to ring the first bell signifying the beginning of the school year.

Blessing the school

It's raining holy water!

First bell!!

The Day of Knowledge began during the Soviet rule in 1984. It was meant to commemorate the honor of going to school to receive knowledge. The tradition has carried on after Soviet rule has gone. Many former Soviet Union countries still continue this tradition.

This was the first year I actually got to experience it in a small form. I didn’t really plan on attending any first bell celebrations, but as I was on my way to visit a friend I heard band music wafting over the trees. I thought I would go and check it out. I just joined the mob figuring they would never know I was there for the cultural experience and not to congratulate some relative. I took pictures like everyone else, but I aimed my camera at different people every time and took pictures of all sorts of things. It was fun to join in the celebration, I certainly wish it was like this when I went to school!

The building is coming together! It is super exciting to see the building finally coming into existence. It has been a long time since the thought was first birthed and now it is being born!

That's one big hole!

My YWAM base was started in 1994. It has gone through many changes since that time, people coming and going, foci changing and most notably from not having a building to having one. Now we are going through another major change, we are expanding! This essentially means we are growing!

Mysterious paths...

Growth is exciting, where there is change there is growth and where there is growth, there are almost always growing pains. The growing pains in our case comes in the form of being flexible. We have lost our kitchen and office space. The laundry room was converted into the kitchen and the lobby and living have become the offices. The kids room was turned into the laundry room while washers were moved into the girls and boys bathrooms. Things have all been moved around and changed, I’m still trying to find out where the mops went to… Everyone is having to adjust.

The paths become walls...

And we fill the rooms with dirt...?

Watching the the construction has been interesting. I was expecting to take pictures of them pouring cement for the foundation, but instead they brought these huge cement blocks and a ton of bricks. Bricks are cheaper than wood here so everything is made with bricks. When the basement was being built and the walls were coming up, I watched fascinated, as they filled the “rooms” next to the existing building with dirt. The new building will be attached to the existing one by the way. I thought “what in the world are they doing? Maybe it’s just a holding place for the dirt?” Nope, it’s a building code here meant to protect existing buildings from structural damage if the foundation settles on one building but not the other. (I hope that made sense, it’s my interpretation from a more knowledgeable source.)

Brick by brick...

We have also had some excitement. Last week a pipe broke, and we had to turn all the water off in the building since it was pouring into our new basement! The men on staff dug a trench, replaced the damaged pipe with a sturdier one, and filled in the hole. We are anticipating more such adventures…