August 8, 2012

The “Dog Days of Summer” will be over before you know it. And just what are the “dog days of summer”?

Everyone knows that the “dog days of summer” are the hottest and muggiest part of the season. Webster defines them as “the period between early July and early September when the hot sultry weather of summer usually occurs in the northern hemisphere; a period of stagnation or inactivity.” It’s when you really don’t feel like doing much because of the heat so you just kick back and enjoy the rest of the summer. Well, it has indeed been that here in Kyiv. As a kid I loved the dog days of summer. The last few weeks before school started were a treasured part of my memories. Night games like “kick the can” and “no bears are out tonight” were on the agenda when it cooled down in the evening. No school bells ringing for me again this year but what is amazing is that ten of our fourteen grandchildren are starting school or pre-school in three weeks. So live it up because the “dog days of summer” are almost over.

 

It is amazing what you see when you leave at 5:20 AM and head to the metro. It is a different world out there. I saw the funniest thing this morning. It has been really hot here with no rain. A big ten-ton truck with a water tank pulled in front of me on the sidewalk (no big deal as cars do that all time) but then this truck turned into the park next to our apartment and drove down about ten stairs to get to the flower bed to water the flowers.  As he was driving by he was spraying the flowers and shrubs with a hose that was hooked up to the water tank. Now I know why all the stairs into the park are so broken up. I hope you can picture how funny this was because I was so mesmerized by this event that I didn’t get my camera out to photo document it. It was hysterical.  (Gary thinks I am easily entertained – it is true.)  

Stairs in the park

The next bit of entertainment occurred when I was on the metro. This is my idea of a great way to make money – going from wagon to wagon on the metro playing a saxophone and accordion entertaining the people on their way to work. You can see from the picture that once again I was the only person that was really entertained by this event. I even took a video after putting 10 rph in  their cup. ($1.50)

Entertainment on the metro

Moving on to the bus. Today it was a little more of an adventure than I was hoping for. The best advice that my landlady, Tania, gave me was to never get on a bus if you don’t know where it’s going.  Today that translated in to “never get on a bus if you don’t know what number it is.” All of the routes are numbered and the two routes that go to the temple are #56 and #777.  There are also three kinds of buses. Mini-Marshrutkas (13 seats but usually after the first four stops there are forty people on the bus), the Marshrutkas (about 30 seats – carry up to 100 people – in the summer we call this the massage plus a sauna for the price of the ticket) and the larger city bus (two buses long and usually pretty comfortable). We generally try to wait for a city bus if we think there might be one coming along. This was the day I had to be at the temple at 7:00 but only a marshrutka was at the bus stop. The marshrutkas have a tendancy to sit at the bus stop for about ten minutes or 15 minutes waiting to fill up. After I had sat there for about five minutes a big city bus came around the corner. I decided to bolt and get on the city bus. One problem. I didn’t look at the number.  (#35). We got halfway to the temple and the city bus took  a right turn off the freeway and away from the temple. Yikes! I ran up the aisle and asked the driver to stop, which they never usually do unless they are at a bus stop. Luckily he could see the panic in my eyes and let me out. Thus I had to walk back to the highway and head to the next bus stop. Poor choice of shoes today and no bus stop in sight. Then to make matters worse I was walking along and the marshrutka that I had abandoned at the first bus stop passed me by. Rats!!!  I walked about a mile and a half to the next bus stop, waited for bus #56 and barely made it to the temple on time. I learned this lesson the really hard way as the temperature was about 85 and 100% humidity. I really can’t whine about my little inconvenience when I know how much hotter it is on a bus. I only had to walk a few extra miles in the heat; I didn’t spend 56 hours in a hot bus. Once again humbled by the saints from Russia. 

Marshrutka vs.

City bus!

On the final walk to the temple I have to update you all on the coffee lady that sells instant coffee on the side of the highway. (See Blog May 23).  I don’t know if I mentioned that when I first started greeting her  she was meaner than second skimmings – well after the last five months of my cheery "hellos" she has started being nice. You really can change people with kindness. We even enjoyed  an ice cream together one day. You just can’t ever give up being nice to people. 

  

It was fun having the Armenians at the Temple this week; talk about a group of people that have their lives focused on the gospel. They are amazing and make us feel like an unappreciative privileged class. The sacrifices we make in this life are so insignificant compared to their sacrifices. There were 19 people that received first time endowments, hundreds of family names done and extra baptismal sessions were added so they could finish all 1500 ancestral names that they had researched and brought. One brother said he had a strong impression that one name had been left out of the sealing work. A few minutes later a temple worker confirmed that fact. He testified that in addition to the Holy Spirit prompting you, the spirits of the people whose work is being done can also speak to your mind in the temple. He knew this to be true from experience.

  

On the way home I always have the pleasure of walking through the fruit and vegetable market. We have more fresh fruits and vegetables here than you can imagine and very inexpensive. (We still have raspberries which are about $l.00 for a pint, potatoes are about ten pounds for fifty cents, large red, green, orange, yellow or white peppers are about 25 cents each). I love walking through the stands buying food for dinner. One of the reasons I really love this market is that it reminds me of  one of my favorite books “So Big” by Edna Ferber. I always take care to buy from the people that take pride in arranging their products in attractive ways.  

My favorite corn and peach girl

Straight from their garden

The fruit and vegetable market

So, you are probably now asking, "Is this just a daily adventure or are Gary and Karlene really doing something worthwhile?" We love it here and are keeping really busy with all of our little projects. We are learning more than we are teaching. We are realizing our blessings more than you can ever imagine. We are trying to bless people’s lives that have materially far less than we have but so much more than we have but instead they bless our lives with their untold examples of sacrifice and humility. We are making lifelong friends with people that we may never see again after the next fourteen months but who we’ll never forget. It is an experience of a lifetime.

 

Quote for this blog comes from President Uchtdorf’s “Forget Me Not” talk which given in October 2011.

 

“While understanding the what and the how of the gospel is necessary, the eternal fire and majesty of the gospel springs from the why. When we understand  why our Heavenly Father has given us this pattern for living, when we remember why we committed to making it a foundational part of our lives, the gospel ceases to become a burden and, instead, becomes a joy and a delight.  It becomes precious and sweet.”