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Monday 14 April 2014

Well maybe not

Maybe it's not time to go home yet. We arrived at the airport this morning to find our flight delayed by at least an hour due to the incoming flight from Istanbul being delayed by fog here in Odessa.

Having waited in a long queue we got to check in to be told we couldn't fly as our flight would not arrive in time for us to get our connecting flight to Birmingham. We were then rebooked on a flight tomorrow morning.

So here we are back in Transition House for another night. It is now warm and sunny and it looks like Peter is planning a 'welcome back' BBQ here this evening.

Sunday 13 April 2014

Time to go home

It's been a busy few days, Friday we finished some more work boxing in behind the door frames. We then had an afternoon trip to the church farm where they grow fruit and vegetables for the shelter.

On Saturday we went shopping in the morning then for a walk later on, finishing up in Odessa for a meal in the evening.

Today has been spent at Church with two services, lunch at the church and the afternoon spent playing with the children in the shelter.

We are now just completing our packing ready for an early start tomorrow, leaving here at about 7am to travel to the airport for our flight home via Istanbul.

Whilst we are looking forward to going home to see our families we are sad to leave our friends here, however we also look forward to our next trip.

Thursday 10 April 2014

Complete!




Well that's it, we are almost done, having completed the last door, this morning, all the rooms on this floor now have doors.
We are now tidying up and fitting some metalwork and plasterboard around the inside of the frames on some of the doors.
That's almost 6 weeks work and 20 frames built, fitted and doors hung.
We are now looking forward to a rest!


Wednesday 9 April 2014

Pizza, plums, cherries, apples and yet another bbq.


For those who are starting to think that all we have done is eat on this trip (admittedly it has felt like it at times), we have been working as well!

On Sunday morning we had the opportunity to visit Illinka Church, which is a sister church to Grace Baptist and is situated in a village about 26km away from Odessa.

The church which is smaller than Grace is very friendly and welcoming.

On Monday we completed fitting our last door frame and hung our last door. Since then we have been fitting the handles, locks and plates to the final six corridor doors, of which we have completed 4 leaving only 2 left to do tomorrow. Over the last couple of days we having been saying to each other ".. our last hinge..", "..our last frame...", it's a sign that our current work here is coming to an end.

On Tuesday we were invited to have lunch with Pastor Igor along with Peter. We went to an Italian restaurant that had been opened for only about 6 months. John and I thought we would opt for a light lunch and order a pizza with a side salad, we under estimated the size of the portions and had more than we anticipated. We were able to share our thoughts regarding work to be done at Transition House for the forthcoming May and September trips, John and I came away feeling very positive and very full!



After we had lunch on Tuesday, Alex and Peter had arranged for someone to plant 6 fruit trees at Transition House, 3 cherry, 2 apple and 1 plum. It was by way of John and I saying thank you to Peter and Lydia for their generous hospitality during our stay. We look forward to sampling the crop of fruit next year.



Wednesday afternoon we had another visit to the Black Sea Camp, not to work this time but to celebrate Vanya's (one of the boys living at Transition House) birthday. He is spending this week at the camp helping to prepare it for the summer, so we paid him a surprise visit and again were treated to one of Peter's bbq's.


Rob

Saturday 5 April 2014

Guess what - a week of doors!

This week has seen us continuing with the doors that arrived last Friday. These are larger, 90cm wide, and much heavier, as they are the main outer doors to the apartments.
Making the frames has been a little more difficult because now it is a complete box around the door, so our measurements have to be exact to get the correct clearance on each side of the door as well as top and bottom, also the hinges need to be fitted spot on otherwise the door will not fit.

We met with a few problems to begin with but have persevered, getting better and quicker each day and with each door, in fact by Friday we had fitted 4 complete frames and doors, built the last two frames and prepared the apertures in the walls ready to fit those frames and doors next week.

On Thursday we had a short working day so that we could shower, change and get  ready to go out to the Opera with Alex and his family.

The building is magnificent and first opened in 1810, it was destroyed by fire in 1873 but reconstructed and reopened in 1887






The most recent renovation was completed in 2007

On Saturday morning we went with some of the children from the shelter to the Odessa Catacombs, which are a network of tunnels, on three levels extending under the city, making up about 2500km in length.



We are now about to start our last week here in Odessa, so we will be trying to get all the work completed before we leave a week on Monday.
When we have hung the last two doors we need to complete the fitting of the locks and door plates then infill above the door frames with plasterboard. We hope to get this done before the end of the week giving us time to tidy up and leave the area ready for the team coming out in May to carry on with the work.