Kharkov, Ukraine

Anytime you see a picture with bad quality, you'll know that we took it with our iPod :)  This is the central train station in Kiev, Ukraine.  We are experienced travelers and we are usually confident when we need to buy tickets, etc, but this was the first time we've ever felt "overwhelmed" because of the language.  Russian is impossible to read and understand if you never saw it before!  There is no way that you can "guess" what the words mean!  But fortunately, we had plenty of advice from our friends in Kharkov and we were able to buy tickets just fine!   

On the 5:30 pm express train to Kharkov.  The trip took six hours and we were pretty tired, because it was our fourth straight day of traveling.  The first day was the train from Jelenia Gora, Poland to Katwoice.  The second was the flight to Kiev.  The third day - we had to stay at a hotel in Kiev because Alexa got the flu and had to sleep it off.  This is our fourth day of travel, the express train!  It was nice and fast.

The Nelsons, who we are staying with!  This is an old picture from when we visited them in Dalls, Texas during our fundraising road trip.  We just didn't take a picture of us in their apartment in Kharkov, but we will do that and put it up in our next blog.  We all pretty much look exactly the same except that Alexa's hair is shorter and Caleb is a lot bigger!  The Nelsons are so sweet to let us stay in their guest bedroom!  We really enjoy our time here with them, and Olivia is fluent in ASL - and David is picking it up pretty quickly!  We'll include more pictures of us/them in our next blog!

Russian language.  It's just not something that you can read and remember.  You have to make an effort to try to recall the names and everything.  The fingerspelling for each of those letters are pretty complicated, too!  This is the hardest language that we've ever faced!  

Typical street in Kharkov.  Pretty much everyone drives crazy!  In some intersections there aren't any stop lights, so you will just have to drive fast and hard to make it to the other side!  Usually there's some kind of big truck coming the other way, with someone walking across the street, and there's a pothole, and all kinds of trouble!  

Policemen in Kharkov.  Their hats are really big and round.  Alex joked that you could land a helicopter on their hats!  

We visited the deaf center in Kharkov and found out that there would be a "concert" performed in Russian sign language.  We went to the concert and we enjoyed ourselves.  There were some pretty talented performers.  The performing arts is pretty popular in Ukraine and Russia.  Those little kids are break-dancing!  iPod picture :)

We visited a church that has a large number of deaf members - the services are interpreted.  Here, they are honoring the interpreters with flowers and gifts.  All the women in the front are interpreters.  

After church, the deaf went to another room to socialize.  It was a good chance for us to meet some of them.  We made plans to meet more of them later on.  The great thing about being deaf is that you can immediately meet people from another country and be able to communicate in a simple way, and we are usually open and warm with each other, because we share the same deaf experience.  

Another angle of the room.  

Us playing "Nerts" a card game at Brandon/Katie's apartment.  Brandon and Katie are on the left.  It's nice to be able to do this again, because we played a lot of card games or normal games when we were all in Lubbock, Texas for Sunset International Bible Institute!  Photo credit goes to Olivia (stole it off her facebook!)   

Caleb, the Nelsons' adorable baby!  We really enjoy playing with him and we see what kind of work it requires to be parents!  The Nelsons are great models for us!  They are very loving and devoted to Caleb!  He is a very blessed child.

Again, I did not take enough pictures of the missionaries.  Our next blog will explain more about them.  But this is a team meeting - they do it once a week on Tuesdays - where they get together to discuss about what they are doing and on what they can improve, etc.  In the back is Mike and Lucy, on the left corner is Rob and Denyce, on the front left is David/Olivia and Caleb, and on the right is Brandon.  His wife, Katie, is hidden (she was sitting on the left of me).  All of us are graduates of Sunset International Bible Institute and/or AIM (Adventures in Missions), a program at SIBI.  They have been in Kharkov for two years already and will be for the next four years.  Their main goal is to plant homegrown churches that meet in homes.  Most of them can speak Russian!  We really respect this group of missionaries because they have accepted the challenge of the great commission and they are willing to give up the comfort of USA and family to be here in Ukraine.  

Olivia teaching/playing with the children of the missionaries.  There are five in total, with one on the way.  

And... the highlight of this blog is our visit to the deaf school!  It was called an orphanage by an organization, but it's not an orphanage, but rather a boarding school, which is normal in the deaf world.  There are a few orphans in this group.  We will get more information on a second visit to this school.  The children were all great, and we had so much fun with them - teaching them ASL with them telling us what the Russian signs were.  We had Olivia and Brandon come to help us with interpreting!  Brandon would translate from Russian to English, and then Olivia would translate from English to ASL!  This was for our meeting with the principal, but when we were with the children, we could communicate with them pretty directly, because again, it's just easier for deaf people.  You can find Olivia on the front row.  The woman in the pink shirt between Alex and Alexa is one of the two deaf teachers at this school.  Photo Credit - Brandon Price

The guy in the red shirt on the far right is the other deaf teacher at this school.  The woman standing in white is an interpreter, and she is a CODA.    Photo Credit - Brandon Price

Pictures and more pictures!  We love visiting deaf schools and we really wanted to work at this one, but we were sad to find out that the school would close at the end of the week and all the children would go to different camps and home, and the orphans/abandoned children would go to to camps, and then foster homes.  We were really clear with this as it was difficult to communicate with the principals and time ran out, but we will come back and find more information.  Hopefully we'll be able to go to one of the camps.  Pray for us that this can happen!  PC - Brandon Price.  

If the video above doesn't work, you can click below:

Watch Video on YouTube

Brandon wrote a blog about our  visit to the deaf school, and you can check out his post and his blog at http://www.brandonandkatie.com/?p=2169!  

Goodbye Poland, Hello Ukraine

Hello everyone!  We flew into Ukraine today!  

We are finished with our three-week stay in Poland.  We did this in between Romania and Ukraine because this would be a great time for us to reflect on what we learned in Romania and be better mentally, physically, and spiritually prepared for a new country with a different language - Ukraine!  

We are also jumping into the farming world because we really believe that the concept of living in the country, raising crops and animals, and living peacefully with a good relationship with Jesus would be a really, really good thing for orphans - which often grow up in small, crowded homes.  But before we can start making ideas of how to start something like this, we really needed to do it ourselves, to get into the farming world, and see what living on a small farm is like.  (See previous blog's video)

We are really, really convinced that abandoned children should grow up in this kind of environment, because it will give a tremendous sense of self-confidence and independence.  Going into a small stable with a huge horse is a bit scary at first, but once you've done it a few times, you aren't afraid of horses anymore.  Same goes for putting a chain leash on a big billy goat.  Same goes with planting seeds and knowing that fruit will come forth if you take care of it.  Even pulling weeds, which we did often, is rewarding once you see the clean soil and only the fruitful plants intact.  It gave us self-confidence that we didn't have before, and how much more will it mean to children who might think that they are stupid or worthless - for them to experience interaction with animals and be a part of something meaningful?  

Thinking of ideas is the easy part.  

The hard part is: where are the deaf orphans?  Are we able to legally take them out of the foster care/orphanage system and place them into better homes/farms)?  If so, how difficult will this process be, and how long will it take?  How much will it cost to buy/rent land, build or renovate the place, feed/educate the children, and ensure that they will have a good future?  Is adoption an option, and how long is the process?  

Those all are the questions that we want to tackle as we approach Ukraine.  Those are also challenges that we are starting to understand in Romania.  

Let's get to the best part of the blog!  Enjoy the pictures of farming, and picture what it would be like if any child is able to experience this on a daily basis.  

Sorry for the poor image quality - taken with iPod touch and in low light - but this is Roma, the adorable 7 year old daughter of Mirek and Diewuke, our farm hosts!

Snowy day - on the first week of May!!!  We all were in shock when we woke up in the morning.  It lasted only one day!

Mirek, the "man" of the house.  He's a jack-of-all-trades, and loves to laugh.

The horses had to be put in the stables because of the snow.  Notice that the horse on the right is wet.  We went up to the hill, got the horses, and led them into the stables.  The horse on the left slid for a good while down the hill because of the snow!

Alexa - pure, 100% Canadian woman - of course she's lovin' the snow.

Munchin' on hay.  Notice the goat's eyes - the iris is not round, but rectangular in shape.  We didn't know this until we met em' goats.  

Hay fever!  

Life in the Stable.  Chickens' home on the right in the cage (there's a hole that leads out to the backyard), goats' arena in the front, and the horses' lair in the back.  

Baby goat!  The proper English term is a "kid" not a lamb.  Yet, Alex often called them lambs,  with Alexa correcting him.

Making pierogi (dough dumplings with meat or cabbage or potatoes stuffed in it)

This is Zita, the 13 year old daughter of the hosts.  She is the one who taught us how to make pierogi!  

The finished product.  

The house is heated in the old-fashioned way - iron stove.  

Every day, Diewuke (woman on left), the "woman" of the house, makes fresh goat cheese, milked that morning.  Every day!

Snow melting the day after the snowstorm!  The horses were glad to get out of the small stables.  

Mirek hard at work with hired help building a beautiful mosaic style rock floor for the porch.  It took them three days.  They are always doing new projects daily.  Never a boring day.  

We were surprised to find that a neighbor of the farm house is deaf!  This is Daniel, who is deaf (hard-of-hearing) and Marta, her hearing sister.  We went to their place for dinner one night and we had a lot of fun!  We didn't get to see much more of them because we met them late in our three-week stay and we often worked all day, so did Daniel.  Daniel did not know much sign language - he can speak and lipread well, and he said he doesn't interact much with the deaf community.  He said that it is very hard for a deaf person to get a good job in Poland - there is discrimination.  

See any trace of snow?  It completely went away and became warm again.  This is the trail that we walked every day to "work" at the farm house.  We slept in another house around a mile away, because there isn't room for us at the farm house.  This route sure beats the I-495 route in Washington, D.C.!  

A neighbor.  Many chicken!  It puts me to shame to see so many people knowing how to farm and live off the land.  The only skills that we have learned is through college or on the computer - we realized we were really lacking in this particular area of life - being able to be self-sustainable.  People have done it for centuries, in Biblical times, but we are very blessed/spoiled in USA where we can just buy things at the supermarket.  

Finally, you see what the farm house looks like.  The family only lives downstairs - the upstairs and the right part of the house is a guesthouse, where people come and stay there.  It's called "agrotourism".  This is how the farm makes money.  It's a really very simple concept.  The cheese and the crops are used by the family or used to serve food to the guests.  

Part of our daily morning chores - tying up the male goats and taking them to where the grass grows.

Once we took them to the grass, we would tie them to a stake.  We would try to find where the grass grew well and if possible, shade.  

You're not getting loose today!  

Another chore is feeding the horses - who lived in a rented field across the river.   

Where the horses roam.  There are four miniature horses (Shelties) also.  They are ridden by the family for pleasure and also acts as income for the guests who want to pay for horseback rides.  We never did get to ride on those horses - just didn't have the time!  

Munch, munch, munch

The mother and kids grazing by the river.  

Beautiful.  Very peaceful.  

Yet another chore!  Cleaning out the stables after the goats are led to the fields.  We would try to pick up clean hay with the rake and try to separate it from the soiled hay.  The clean hay we would re-use, while the soiled hay goes to a big compost pile to turn into manure.   

Alexa pushing out the soiled hay through a wooden opening.  The stables were cleverly designed, raised above the compost pile, so the soiled hay would just fall down into the pile.  

Makin' cheese.  This is her basic job every morning - makin cheese!  We learned a little bit of how to do this, it's not a complicated process at all.  It's more waiting than making.  

The cat's favorite spot.  

A small project that we did was to create a teepee (tipi) for the children or children of guests.  It's not as easy as it might look.  It is created by willow branches, where you have to weave horizontal branches through vertical branches.  Our backs and hands were sore from so much pulling and pushing!  The vegetable/fruit garden is in the background.   

Get that stick in there!  

The shelties lived in the house where we slept a mile away, and sometimes they will have to be transported to the farm house.  We did this once, and it's a beautiful walk, and even more fun when you have a mini-horse by your side.  

Yawwwnnn

The neighbors plowing their field in the traditional way - with a horse.  No tractors here!  

On our last night, as we left the house to walk to the other house, Roma came out running to say goodbye to us.  

Scarecrow made out of plastic.  That's a first!  

Good night, nature told us.  

The house where we slept in.  It is also a guesthouse and a campground, but they have more room for us.  

The scenery on the train ride leaving Western Poland.  We were headed towards Katowice, where we would stay for a night and then catch a morning flight to Kiev.  

Railroad readin' - the Gospel of Mark!  Of course, we can't travel without peanuts.  

Many beautiful patches of yellow.  

Wizz Air - budget European airliner.  Was very cheap for us to use this instead of taking a train, and the flight took around three hours as opposed to what would have easily been a 15-20 hour train ride.  

Approaching Kiev.  

That's all for now!  Next blog post will be about our meeting the missions team at Kharkov and hopefully will have pictures of deaf schools/churches that we plan to visit!