Wendesday November 7, 2007

This morning (as we do each day) we went to the orphanage to pick up Roman. While we were waiting, we went in the gym and observed a game of “sniper” – what we would call dodge ball.



"Sniper" (Dodge Ball)



"Sniper" (Dodge Ball)




"Sniper" (Dodge Ball)




Misha, Roman and ??? at Orphanage


This afternoon, our facilitator, Vladimir was in town. He took us downtown shopping to the department stores. We were looking for a simple wedding band for Cheryl. (Her diamond ring gets in the way of her work with her rubber gloves.) The rings were about the same price as in the US (say $100 - $125) so we decided to not pursue that purchase. Instead, we settled on an book for Cheryl, Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, complete with a glossary of terms written in Russian.

While driving with Vladimir, I asked him how much an apartment cost if I were to purchase one in Sumy. He said apartments like we are living in start at about $70K – $90K (400 – 500 square feet), in Kiev, they are more in the $120 - $150 range. A nice new Cadillac which costs $65K in US would cost about $90K in Ukraine. Go figure.

This evening, we went to the pizza parlor. While waiting in line, we noticed the missionaries up ahead. After we purchased our order, we went and sat next to Elder Oldroyd and Elder Anderson. We ate our dinner together with them and chatted a bit. We set up an appointment for them to come teach our children the first of the missionary lesson on Friday afternoon. Later that night, Cheryl and I were commenting on how we almost had to beg the elders to come over to our apartment. They were not too talkative at dinner. I would have thought that being in Ukraine – or anywhere in the world – Elders would have jumped all over a chance to talk to someone who had some primed investigators ready to teach.