Day 21

We were unable to pull up the website last night to post, but here it is for those who want to read it over their coffee....

Hi-di-ho neighbors and family…. You guessed it. Kelley’s taking a night off from the Blog. Actually, she said that since I haven’t typed anything of significance (her opinion) the last couple of days I needed to grace everyone with some of my satire.
First, to all of my hunting family and friends. Scott – if your family won’t eat venison, mine will. We’ll hit the woods when I get home. And you still owe me the story about the quail. I guess it can wait until next Sunday.
Howell – I went by the “hunting” store today. Kelley and I had to go outside to turn around, it was so small. Although, they did have about five or six nice Rizzini over/unders – but the price was appropriate. So no bargain deals in Ukraine. Drats…. Maybe if I save enough money by eating ham and cheese sandwiches the rest of the time I am here, Kelley will feel kind enough to let me get an O/U when I get home. Why? Because I have slots open in my gun safe. Can one ever have enough firearms????
For those of you that are taken back by this little pro-NRA frenzy, the rest is for you. And yes, I’m still holding out on the kitty coat – but there are ongoing negotiations and Kofi Annan is thinking about coming to Donetsk to mediate for Kelley and me. If not Kofi, then I hear it may be Hillary. This really isn’t looking good for me, and I am hoping to see if anyone can find Newt Gingrich’s phone number. Or maybe William Bennett?? Somebody please help me!!
Okay… Today started off pretty good. Rashid picked us up and he described the upcoming weekend, since Sunday is a national holiday here for professional taxi drivers. I didn’t know Hallmark was so well entrenched over here too, but apparently it is a pretty big day. He had plans for a barbecue with a lot of his friends and family.
Irina did not allow us to go outside, so we played in the Music Room this morning. We had the young lady and her mother in the room with us. The really cool thing is that the young lady must have noticed Kelley’s cross necklace, because she asked if we were Christians. We said we were, and then she asked if we were Baptists to which we answered we were Methodists. And that’s about as far as our Ukrainian and her English (of which she spoke none) got us. But I thought it was very refreshing and… really, just awesome that in Donetsk, Ukraine the Holy Spirit can bring believers together and reveal His love. Our God truly is an Awesome God!! I just wish that our Ukrainian, or even my Russian, was better and that we could have communicated more.
Well, after our time with Chas we headed to Lenin Square to walk around. We were on a mission to head to the “hunting store”, but we allowed ourselves a lot of wandering to get there. We have about four hours each day between Rashid dropping us off and picking us up again at our apartment, so there is definitely no rush. We walked into a couple of stores prior to finding the gun store. Every time we find a bookstore we go in to see if they have children’s Bibles. Most of the time we can find one, maybe two, and we purchase them to give to the orphanage as a gift. I think we are up to five now, but hopefully we will find some more.
After some strolling we made it to the gun store. They had one rack of jackets with some old Soviet style camouflage – I guess Mossy Oak hasn’t hit here yet – and about 30 firearms in all. They also had a small display case with some knives, scopes, dog repellant(?), and a few other items. Apparently, dogs are a real problem when you are out hunting around here….
Well, as I stated earlier I had to forego the over/under as much as it pained me to leave. I was soon back to myself though, as we sat down at the “Chateau” restaurant for some lunch and a beer. Yes, this is the same restaurant that we found last week and we really like their food. And their prices are good too, considering we can both have a meal and a beer and still walk out under $20 including the tip.
Well a full belly and a good beer…. We made it back to the apartment with about two hours before Rashid would pick us up. I succumbed to a nap, while Kelley was reading. It was very hard and I tried to resist the temptation, but I failed. For those that are truly concerned for me, don’t worry… I was okay after about an hour.
Then we headed back to see Chas for our afternoon visit. We brought along a toy helicopter (gee, I wonder why?) that we found in the bazaar yesterday. He was very excited to see the new toy, so we put it together and started flying it around the little area they have to play in. That didn’t last too long, as Kelley – be careful or I’ll kick your butt – used her brute strength to break the helicopter. Thankfully, there was a little saucer-like toy that came with it too and we were able to fly that around the rest of the time. It was a little cool out, but that didn’t stop Chas from having some good ‘ole ~3 year old fun. At least we didn’t let him get too muddy tonight. That is the only downside to them allowing us to play outside – not letting little boys just run around and get dirty. I can see already that we’ll be clearing the shelves of Tide once we get home, but that’s okay. I understand that they don’t want to do laundry a lot, but sometimes they just need to let boys be boys. Of course, I have one “almost teen” and two little girls – with a third not far behind – back home in Carolina that enjoy getting dirty too, so don’t think that I am biased. I say Mossy Oak for everyone!!!!
We wrapped up our visit… Actually, that’s not accurate. While we were playing with Chas, a couple ladies brought out about six or seven children to “play” outside. For those that have seen the pictures of the play yard, you will remember the little round “cupolas” that the children can go in and sit. Well…. That’s where these ladies put their children, while they we’re complaining about someone. The international language of yelling and hand gestures gave it away – maybe trouble with their men…. Gents, you know what I’m talking about. I know, all I wanted to do was grab a beer and turn on NASCAR.
Anyway…. One of the ladies came over right at 5:00pm to take Chas. She didn’t take him inside, but back over with the rest of the kids. Oh well, I guess he had too much fun and needed to get back with the rest of the others. Thankfully, this will all be over for him by this time next week.
Then as we were traveling back to the apartment, Rashid informed us that he would not pick us up tomorrow morning. We were puzzled and he explained that his aunt had died today and that he needed to make preparations for her funeral. So that set a somber mood for the drive home.
A little reading, ham and cheese, a game of gin rummy, and here we are. Wrapping up a note for the blog before going to bed.
We hope that everyone is doing well back home. We love and miss you all, and can not wait to get back on U.S. soil. This has been fun for Kelley and I in a lot of respects, and I know that we will look back and reflect hoping that we had done more; but we’re ready to come back home to everyone.
That’s it from Donetsk. God bless you all and stay tuned for the next update from Ukraine….
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