Gary & Karl's Big Adventure: May 23, 2012

Phil and our new grandson, Henry

Owen, Hal and Jacque's brother, Blake

Most Exciting News This week. We are the proud grandparents of another beautiful little Dance Boy. Henry (Hal) Chandler Dance was born on May 17^th at 1:13 PM, 7 lbs. 3 oz. and 20.5 inches. He is adorable and looks just like Philip did when he was a baby. It is pretty hard to be on a mission when this kind of event occurs but we know that Jacque and Hal are both being blessed because of it. Just wish we could be there to hold him. Don’t babies just smell so good, and cuddle so good and it just reminds you of heaven.

Friends from home!! This last week our Russian Teacher that is from Ukraine and lives in Pocatello came to Ukraine to spend a few months with her family and stopped in to see us. It was so fun to see someone from Pocatello and she also brought treats from my sister (peanut brittle) and from my mother (a little Mother’s Day book). We had a fun visit. We learned that when she lived in Ukraine she was a dancer before she joined the church and went on a mission. Then she met her husband and while he has been attending ISU they have been living in Pocatello. We went with them on the metro to the train depot and they are now in Zaporizhzhya with her parents. She will be coming back through in June to meet a friend from Finland and spend a few days at the temple before she returns to Idaho.

Today we met Elder Duffin and Elder Perkins for dinner. Elder Duffin is from Aberdeen and was in the singles Branch when Randy was the Branch President. All of the missionaries here are terrific and we are proud that Elder Duffin is such a great representative of Idaho. They are enjoying Kyiv as much as we are. Elder Perkins is from Bountiful and both of these missionaries are amazing. Elder Perkins has only been here 5 months and is pretty proficient in Russian. We’re hoping he gets to stay in Kyiv awhile longer.

Gary and I completed our training for the branch we have been assigned in Lutsk. Lutsk is a little town (250,000 people) in Northwest Ukraine by the Polish border. Gary was able to travel there this last week and he said it is a beautiful city and the people he met that are in the branch are great. It is a nine hour train ride or a 5 hour cab ride away from Kyiv. There are 35 people in the Lutsk Branch. We will go up there one or two weekends a month. The countryside is beautiful - a lot of farming villages. It will be such a great experience but we need to get moving on our language skills as using a translator is not very fun.

A few very interesting entrepreneurial things people have come up with in Kyiv. I’ll try to include pictures because they are so creative.

· Collecting and selling plastic shopping bags. Even though there is no recycling program here people are charged every time you need to have a shopping bag at any store. So you carry your own with you. Well, just in case you forget, you can buy one right out in front of the store for equivalent to ten cents instead of forty cents. (I will help her out by giving her my huge collection – most of the ones she sells probably come out of the dumpsters.)

· Selling underwear piled nicely on the sidewalk. Nothing fancy, just the necessities

· Having a bathroom scale to weigh people. Light and easy to carry around but seems to generate a lot of interest

· Selling little jars of shelled nuts. One lady that does this is about ninety years old and sits on a little one foot high fence that is a metal bar about ½ inch in diameter all day while she does counted cross-stitch on cute little girl blouses. I really want to learn more about her.

· Want your picture taken with two turtle doves?? Here is the place to get it done.

· Want to buy a whole dried chicken? They are right there on the sidewalk for your perusal - unwrapped of course. Along with chicken liver and gizzards in a little baggie.

Just in case of a sudden storm and caught without an umbrella, how about a shower cap to wear home.

· Sitting by the side of the freeway selling coffee – instant coffee, made with water from a large thermos jug that is sitting on top of a crate.

· Of course you saw Mr. StarDucks last blog and…….

· And one of the most popular jobs is the butcher. People will drive up onto the sidewalk in front of the meat market, open their trunk and take out whole dead cow, legs and all. He carries it into the market and throws it into the cooler. Gets out the skinned beef, lays it on the table and with a huge meat cleaver starts chopping. Then he passes the meat off to the sales girls who place it on stainless steel tables and the people come in by the droves and start picking through what they want to buy. (None of it is wrapped, of course). One little lady sits on the window ledge cutting the meat off of the fat from the scraps making stew meat. There is no hiding what you are getting here.

Uprising at the Market. Today on the way to the office I wanted to take pictures of all of these people for you but there was real trouble brewing. Apparently about a month ago someone new bought the market (bazaar) and has tried to get rid of the old sellers so he could move in his friends. They have held them off a couple of times (former blog) but now it looks like it is over. The meat market and most of the vendors were gone – police were there- We just really feel sorry for all of these people that have their regular customers and now have to find somewhere else to set up shop. We’ll be anxious to see what is going on tomorrow.

Never forget how blessed you are to live in America. Never take your everyday blessings for granted. (2 Nephi 1:7 and Ether 2:9) Be willing to stand up for the things you believe in. Set goals and work toward them every day. And most important ……praise God from whom all blessings flow.
Love Gary and Karlene