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.

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.

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!

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

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.

Week 5

Well we are now into week 5 of our visit and work continues on installing the internal doors on the second floor of Transition House. Last Friday the remaining 6 doors arrived, these have an all round frame with the bottom section being recessed into the floor, as you can imagine fitting these doors provides some new challenges.

Last Thursday morning we were able to take some of the older children from the shelter ten pin bowling along with a couple of the helpers. We played for 2 hours and the children had an enjoyable time.

Saturday, we again went to the Black Sea Camp, this time with more of the younger children, to continue with clearing fallen branches which had come down during the winter.

At the Sunday morning service we witnessed the ordination of three Deacons into Grace Baptist Church. We had also been invited to have lunch afterwards with the families of the three Deacons along with the pastors of the church. We felt privileged and honoured and it was again another moment on this trip that provided further insight into the lives of the people of the church, something we would not normally see on these trips to Odessa.

After Sundays lunch, we were taken down to the sea port of Odessa with Alex and his family. After a brief stroll along the harbour and watching a large ship come into dock, we sat and enjoyed a drink at one of the coffee shops along the sea port. While we sat, we could see in the distance a demonstration taking place at the top of a flight of steps leading to the town centre. Our second time on this trip where we have witnessed first hand the unrest that continues in the Ukraine.

Rob

Visit to Kyiv

Yesterday we went on a day trip to Kyiv, we set out early, before 5am on the 296 mile journey. Which took us through the heart of Ukraine, past acres of ploughed fields stretching for miles either side of the motorway.

We arrived at about 10.30am on the outskirts of the city and took the metro (underground) train to the Olympic Stadium, which is the home to FC Dynamo Kyiv.

We then walked towards the city centre past massive office blocks and smart shops.

We arrived in Maidan Square, the location of much of the violence and demonstrations a few weeks ago. It is all quiet at the moment but the barricades are still there, being manned by protesters.

Pedestrian access to and from the square is through a number of gaps in the barricade.

 Vehicle access is the same.

Many tents have pictures and flowers outside in memory of those who died during the violence a few weeks ago. 

However if you turn round from the barricades life still goes on, with businesses and cafes still operating.

We continued our sightseeing past museums and grand building with beautiful architecture.

 Later we again caught the Metro to the Dnieper River, which is very wide as it flows through Kyiv on it's way to the Black Sea.

On our way back we stopped off at a roadside transport cafe where they BBQ your kebabs over a wood fire while you wait.

Here we are about to tuck into our kebabs and salad.

We then went to a man on the roadside just outside the cafe who was serving tea & coffee using water boiled in a 'Samovar' which is a heated brass container with a central  metal pipe where wood is burnt to heat the water. It originates from Persia and is now used in Russia, many eastern European countries as well as Kashmir and the Middle East. As you travel along the road you see many of these set up on the side of the road for travellers to stop and obtain drinks.

We continued our journey back to Odesa arriving sometime after 8pm, we were all tired but it had been worth the long journey for the experience of visiting Kyiv and seeing more of Ukraine than we would normally see on a regular team visit.