November 25, 2013 This is week four of our mission to Donetsk Ukraine.
On Tuesday we got a call from Elder and Sister McLeod who are serving a church humanitarian mission for the entire country of Ukraine. They know Brother Wonderlich from Bob’s High Priests leadership. He asked them to look us up. They are visiting orphanages and homes where the church might be of service, collecting lists of items needed and evaluating those lists for possible shipments. It seems the new government passed a law saying that any shipment including containers has to list the final recipient by name. That means if there are 5,000 pairs of shoes there must be 5,000 names and each pair must go to the person listed. Any variance is illegal and could send someone to jail. That makes it nearly impossible to send many items where the recipient is decided on the receiving end including clothing, shoes, wheelchairs and so on. We went to Donetsk and ate Mexican food while we visited with them and the McFarlands. Through the conversation, we learned a great deal about the church’s role here and how our role fits.
Part of a couple’s duty is to inspect missionary apartments. We do it with each transfer. This is the first time for us. And sister Preece is down with her shoulder. We sent the inspection sheets for the elders to fill out. When reviewed, they all passed and got a candy bar each. Our apartment would have not passed. We lack a smoke detector / carbon monoxide alarm and two bottles of water. The detector is coming from the mission office and we bought the water at the store Monday (today) morning.
Sister Lochhead, the mission president’s wife, is concerned with the diet some of the elders choose. There is little left after the rent and utilities are paid and they are not experienced in healthy eating. When budget is tight, we usually buy some beans and some rice for complete protein. When we were uncertain of things like when we first arrived, that is what we bought. It seems sister Lochhead has had reports of elders buying just cookies and milk. Vegetables aren’t very expensive. For just over $10.00 (US) we can buy enough beets, milk, juice and carrots that they are hard for Bob to carry home on the bus. When Bob went shopping with the elders Monday morning, (this morning) they were talking about how heavy it gets with two 6 liter bottles of water. Their reply was that it just about the same as when you buy $50 US (400 in local currency) of fruits and vegetables, which is what one of them had done every week with a previous companion.
On Wednesday, Dr. and Sister Christensen, the area doctor, were in town inspecting medical facilities. He is responsible for the Baltic area and part of Eastern Europe. He made a house call and confirmed what we already knew about the injury to Alice’s shoulder. It will take time and we should not be too impatient. We may have to learn to take taxi instead of bus to get to places. We will see how that works. He said nothing is broken or torn, just stretched. That is the kind that takes the longest to feel good again, we understand.
On Thursday there was a district meeting at our place with the Assistants to the President in attendance. We ate baked chicken, potatoes and vegetables. Even with 10 people, the cost wasn’t enough to be too concerned about. Food here is not too expensive. Bob had to cook and serve. Alice was trying to rest. She came out before the lessons were taught.
Thursday evening was our weekly couples Skype meeting. We finally had all four of us in attendance. Each of the sisters agreed that this mission seems to be a lot of cooking and all from scratch. There are family home evenings on Monday, generally investigators and their fellowshipping members in the couple apartment, then district meetings weekly, also in the couple apartment. There are special events from time to time that need dishes prepared as well. There was a lot of talk about dishes that are nutritional and easier to cook. One that came up several times was Vareneky (I haven’t figured how to type Russian yet). These are dumplings that look like ravioli and have various fillings. Alice sent Bob to the store on Friday to get vegetables, Vareneky, milk, juice and an iron. So we had our first taste on Friday. Pretty good. We got the ones stuffed with potato, Bob couldn’t read the label, so he just got the one that that had the most shelf space.
On Sunday, Bob went to church. Alice stayed home. The meeting was all in Russian and Bob didn’t understand much of what was going on. The meeting flow is exactly what it is in any LDS meeting block anywhere in the world. When it was over, one of the elders who went with Bob, probably to make sure he didn’t get lost, had to stay for choir. They were looking for a bass. Bob sings bass, but doesn’t sing Russian. Well, guess what Bob’s Russian lessons for the week look like! He is practicing the hymn words to the notes he already knows – bass part.
Notes:
Gorlovka, Ukraine is just a bit further north than Salt Lake City, about the same as northern Montana, Idaho, Washington, or Paris France. This week our sunrise was at 6:41 and sunset at 3:47 giving us 9:06 hours of sunlight. Salt Lake City had 9:48 hours, so not that much different. The strange thing is that we are on the extreme eastern edge of the time zone, Salt Lake City is on the extreme western edge, so our sunrise and sunset times are both noticeably earlier. If you are out after 4:00pm it is DARK.
Gorlovka is a city with no suburb. We live at the end of the bus line in a 9 floor dom (pronounced ‘dome’). There are doms all the way from here to the center of the city. From our 4th floor apartment, we can see several ponds and the winter wheat fields belonging to the neighboring farmer. There is a walking / running path that winds through the ponds. Ducks were on the waters when we got here but they are gone now. It looks like well-developed farm land. When the sun sets, it is directly outside our window. It is very beautiful; the elders like to take pictures from our balcon (like balcony). They get a great view of rural Ukraine.
From the couples meeting this week, it seems common in Ukraine that stair steps (both indoor and outdoor) are not even. Any height from 3” to 10” high with varying depths seems to be ok. Alice tripped over one of the 3” ones. When asked where anyone could find even stairs, the answer was at the Kiev Temple. The Ukrainian contractors couldn’t seem to figure out what the church wanted in temple stairways, since close enough is good enough here. We were told they finally had to get builders from Germany to make them all even.
This weekly report has grown larger than we wanted it to be. We got a request this week to include pictures, so Bob is figuring out how to e-mail pictures from his tablet. We use the tablet as our camera. But since we got the tablet just before we left home, there is still a lot to learn.
Make it a great week. We’ll write again next Monday.
Bob and Alice Preece
Donetsk, Ukraine misison
On Tuesday we got a call from Elder and Sister McLeod who are serving a church humanitarian mission for the entire country of Ukraine. They know Brother Wonderlich from Bob’s High Priests leadership. He asked them to look us up. They are visiting orphanages and homes where the church might be of service, collecting lists of items needed and evaluating those lists for possible shipments. It seems the new government passed a law saying that any shipment including containers has to list the final recipient by name. That means if there are 5,000 pairs of shoes there must be 5,000 names and each pair must go to the person listed. Any variance is illegal and could send someone to jail. That makes it nearly impossible to send many items where the recipient is decided on the receiving end including clothing, shoes, wheelchairs and so on. We went to Donetsk and ate Mexican food while we visited with them and the McFarlands. Through the conversation, we learned a great deal about the church’s role here and how our role fits.
Part of a couple’s duty is to inspect missionary apartments. We do it with each transfer. This is the first time for us. And sister Preece is down with her shoulder. We sent the inspection sheets for the elders to fill out. When reviewed, they all passed and got a candy bar each. Our apartment would have not passed. We lack a smoke detector / carbon monoxide alarm and two bottles of water. The detector is coming from the mission office and we bought the water at the store Monday (today) morning.
Sister Lochhead, the mission president’s wife, is concerned with the diet some of the elders choose. There is little left after the rent and utilities are paid and they are not experienced in healthy eating. When budget is tight, we usually buy some beans and some rice for complete protein. When we were uncertain of things like when we first arrived, that is what we bought. It seems sister Lochhead has had reports of elders buying just cookies and milk. Vegetables aren’t very expensive. For just over $10.00 (US) we can buy enough beets, milk, juice and carrots that they are hard for Bob to carry home on the bus. When Bob went shopping with the elders Monday morning, (this morning) they were talking about how heavy it gets with two 6 liter bottles of water. Their reply was that it just about the same as when you buy $50 US (400 in local currency) of fruits and vegetables, which is what one of them had done every week with a previous companion.
On Wednesday, Dr. and Sister Christensen, the area doctor, were in town inspecting medical facilities. He is responsible for the Baltic area and part of Eastern Europe. He made a house call and confirmed what we already knew about the injury to Alice’s shoulder. It will take time and we should not be too impatient. We may have to learn to take taxi instead of bus to get to places. We will see how that works. He said nothing is broken or torn, just stretched. That is the kind that takes the longest to feel good again, we understand.
On Thursday there was a district meeting at our place with the Assistants to the President in attendance. We ate baked chicken, potatoes and vegetables. Even with 10 people, the cost wasn’t enough to be too concerned about. Food here is not too expensive. Bob had to cook and serve. Alice was trying to rest. She came out before the lessons were taught.
Thursday evening was our weekly couples Skype meeting. We finally had all four of us in attendance. Each of the sisters agreed that this mission seems to be a lot of cooking and all from scratch. There are family home evenings on Monday, generally investigators and their fellowshipping members in the couple apartment, then district meetings weekly, also in the couple apartment. There are special events from time to time that need dishes prepared as well. There was a lot of talk about dishes that are nutritional and easier to cook. One that came up several times was Vareneky (I haven’t figured how to type Russian yet). These are dumplings that look like ravioli and have various fillings. Alice sent Bob to the store on Friday to get vegetables, Vareneky, milk, juice and an iron. So we had our first taste on Friday. Pretty good. We got the ones stuffed with potato, Bob couldn’t read the label, so he just got the one that that had the most shelf space.
On Sunday, Bob went to church. Alice stayed home. The meeting was all in Russian and Bob didn’t understand much of what was going on. The meeting flow is exactly what it is in any LDS meeting block anywhere in the world. When it was over, one of the elders who went with Bob, probably to make sure he didn’t get lost, had to stay for choir. They were looking for a bass. Bob sings bass, but doesn’t sing Russian. Well, guess what Bob’s Russian lessons for the week look like! He is practicing the hymn words to the notes he already knows – bass part.
Notes:
Gorlovka, Ukraine is just a bit further north than Salt Lake City, about the same as northern Montana, Idaho, Washington, or Paris France. This week our sunrise was at 6:41 and sunset at 3:47 giving us 9:06 hours of sunlight. Salt Lake City had 9:48 hours, so not that much different. The strange thing is that we are on the extreme eastern edge of the time zone, Salt Lake City is on the extreme western edge, so our sunrise and sunset times are both noticeably earlier. If you are out after 4:00pm it is DARK.
Gorlovka is a city with no suburb. We live at the end of the bus line in a 9 floor dom (pronounced ‘dome’). There are doms all the way from here to the center of the city. From our 4th floor apartment, we can see several ponds and the winter wheat fields belonging to the neighboring farmer. There is a walking / running path that winds through the ponds. Ducks were on the waters when we got here but they are gone now. It looks like well-developed farm land. When the sun sets, it is directly outside our window. It is very beautiful; the elders like to take pictures from our balcon (like balcony). They get a great view of rural Ukraine.
From the couples meeting this week, it seems common in Ukraine that stair steps (both indoor and outdoor) are not even. Any height from 3” to 10” high with varying depths seems to be ok. Alice tripped over one of the 3” ones. When asked where anyone could find even stairs, the answer was at the Kiev Temple. The Ukrainian contractors couldn’t seem to figure out what the church wanted in temple stairways, since close enough is good enough here. We were told they finally had to get builders from Germany to make them all even.
This weekly report has grown larger than we wanted it to be. We got a request this week to include pictures, so Bob is figuring out how to e-mail pictures from his tablet. We use the tablet as our camera. But since we got the tablet just before we left home, there is still a lot to learn.
Make it a great week. We’ll write again next Monday.
Bob and Alice Preece
Donetsk, Ukraine misison
