Indian Pomegranate?

Yesterday, Kat and I spent the morning visiting with my friend, Victoria. She invited us over for tea and hang out time.

Kat, me, and Victoria

It was a really fun visit, and when we left, she gave each of us a present. She had to look up the translation for us because a) she didn't know the English and b) we had no idea what it was. The answer she came back with was "balsam apple" or "Indian pomegranate." Has anyone ever seen and/or heard of this creation?

Any ideas on this?

Ok, so you're not supposed to eat it like this. Eventually, according to legend, the outside is supposed to fall off and you're supposed to eat the pods inside.

Also, my friend, Mindy, commented that Kat and Victoria kind of look alike. Any opinions?

Later in the day, we met up with Ira and Tanya and did a speedy tour of Poltava. It was a neat day to wander around because it was a city-wide holiday celebrating Poltava's liberation from the Fascists. There were people everywhere, and it was a really beautiful day. We also were able to visit a museum for free! Kat has been here one week and has been to 3 museums, 2 of them were unplanned. Such an educational place, this Poltava.

We were walking down one of the streets that was teeming with people. We found these little guys hanging out on the side of the road. I'm guessing their names are Olya and Igor. Any name suggestions?

Ira and Tanya in front of Kotlyarevski's house/ museum

Kat in the galushki bowl. If you come visit, I'll take your picture there, too.

TB Hospital Revisited and the American reception at the Museum

Kat joined those of us on the weekly TB hospital team. We had an interesting turn of events; in the summer, there were probably 20 plus kids on any given day. Now that schools are back in session, the only kids that are left are the ones that aren't allowed to be in contact with other children in the schools. We had a grand total of 6 kids and most of them were very little children. We sang some songs, listened as Oksana told the story of Moses, and did stamping crafts. They were so cute with the stamps! Kat spent most of her time trying to convince little Artyome that he needed to put the ink on the side of the stamp with the picture...not the blank side.

Nastia spent her time cleaning off Alina's hands; she just could not resist getting the ink all over. Bless her.


Lastly, I would like to reiterate that Ukrainians, as a people, are very artsy and good with crafts. This includes middle school boys. They are so very good with their hands. I kind of envy them just a smidge.


After we left the TB hospital, we headed over to the museum next door. We hadn't planned to, but there was a festival going on. We decided to check it out. The museum is dedicated to Korolevki, who was a famous poet (I believe) from Poltava oblast. As we were walking in, the mayor was walking out. Cool. Then, Kat and I found ourselves being whisked around the compound, being shown this and that. I found out that it was because the docent found out we were American and wanted to give us a first-class tour so that we would be educated. There were all kinds of cool things: art work, photography, bead work, doll-making, basket-work, and there was even a man performing some traditional songs. It was really neat! Unfortunately, because of the whisking, I didn't get a lot of pictures. Here's what I have:

The main house.

Painting of the poet.

Bust of the poet.

Video of Mr. Performer. He said that he usually just sings at his house. I was impressed with him. Hope you enjoy!

MacGyver skills

Does anybody read this blog anymore? Just wondering.

This week, Kat and I morphed into MacGyvers. I have been having a huge problem with fruit flies in my apartment. The thing is, I clean on a regular basis. The trash goes out every other day (sometimes daily). I clean the counters with Lysol. I don't leave fruit laying around. My mom sent me some great fruit fly trap ideas. We tried one, and the next morning, not only did we find that the fruit flies hadn't fallen for it, they were mocking us by chillin' on top of the Lysol can. Seriously? It was a mystery and was about to kill me.

Kat did some investigating and discovered that many of those pesky little fiends were coming out of the drain. We decided the drains needed a good cleaning. Problem: I didn't know where to buy or want to attempt Drano without a Ukraine-living veteran for support and guidance. What if the pipes exploded? Or completely backed up? Ergo, I got online and researched. I found a "green" and chemical-free solution:

Ingredients
1. 1/2 cup of baking soda
2. 1 cup of vinegar
3. 1 gallon of boiling water

Kat realized immediately that these are the ingredients you use to make "volcanoes." The idea is very similar:
1. Funnel the baking soda into the drain.
2. Pour half of the vinegar into the pipe. The two ingredients begin reacting and bubbling, breaking down the build-up inside the pipes. Cover the top of the drain so that the volcano reaction stays inside the drain, working its magic.
3. After the bubbles slow down, pour the remainder of the vinegar down the drain and repeat the step above.
4. Wait for fifteen minutes, then pour the water down the drain. Ta-da!

Update: Our drains (kitchen and bathroom sinks- we're going to tackle the shower drain today, I think) are draining oh so much better. The Enemy has been forced to retreat somewhat, but we're still on a Fruit Fly Killing Campaign until the last one has disappeared! If you have any brilliant ideas, do tell.

Aerospace Museum

Saturday, Nastia and Dasha invited Kat and me to join them on an outing. Nastia had been wanting to visit the Poltava Aerospace Museum for a while, and Saturday turned out to be the big day. These are the directions for visiting the museum:
1. Take a bus to the edge(ish) of Poltava.
2. Begin walking away from the street/busier part of the city.
3. Continue walking.
4. Enter the old military base/compound and start walking through the base.

Buildings on the military base.

5. Continue walking.
6. Turn left at the sign, and continue walking.

The sign. Turn left.

7. Walk, walk, walk until you reach the first of the camo-painted buildings, then turn right.

Camo-painted buildings

8. Continue walking until you are literally in the Middle-of-Nowhere and find an old tarmac.

The museum has nothing indoor and no plaques. You are free to wander around and check out the planes. So, that is exactly what we did.

First plane on the tarmac.

This reminded me of sweet ol' Huntsville.

Ukrainian seal/ crest. I think it's so cool looking.

Nastia and Dasha deciding whether or not to play with the propellers. Should they?

Well, of course! Maybe it will fly away.

Kat and I found a bunch of bombshells to play with. No worries. We're professionals.

Climbing. I wanted to ensure that the plane wasn't going to roll away. You're welcome, Poltava.

Dasha was helping me.

Ok, when looking at this, I saw a robot. Does anyone else see it?

I was trying to be cute and take a picture of our reflection. Original, I know.

We stopped by the camo building on the way back and turned it into monkey bars.

For Kat's perspective, check out her blog: http://kataroundeurope.blogspot.com/. She's a funny writer. I think you'll like her.

Kat is here!

Kat (http://kataroundeurope.blogspot.com/) made it all safe and sound to Ukraine! I was quite worried about her, while I was waiting for her to emerge from customs. It was inordinately chaotic and dangerous. I had given Kat a heads-up on how you need to be aggressive to get through immigration and customs. Good thing she's able to take care of herself. From what I can tell, about 4 international flights arrived at the same time. The most interesting aspect of the waiting process was watching all of the Jewish men and boys arrive. We recently discovered that there is an annual pilgrimage to Uman, Ukraine every year around Rosh Hashanah, in honor of a famous Rabbi. It was very interesting to watch: hundreds of men and boys came in, wearing prayer shawls, black felt hats or yarmulkes, and long sections of hair that flanked the sides of their faces. I was pretty well entertained, taking in the scene. Finally, Kat emerged, and we were able to escape the madhouse that is also known as Borispol International airport.

Pictures to come!

Links to information about this pilgrimage:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uman,_Ukraine
http://jta.org/news/article/2009/09/08/1007686/25000-jews-flocking-to-uman

Alabama Team Recap 3: Out and About

Here are some pictures of the group out and about. Enjoy!

Amiee, Mom, and me about 30 minutes after the team arrived in Poltava, circa 11:38 pm.

This past Sunday was baptism Sunday for my church. We were able to be there for 7 baptisms. It was so great!

After the baptisms, we had a regular church service, and the elders of the church prayed for and over the newly-baptized ones.

Sunday was also Mom's birthday. Oksana and Andrei brought her a flower. We love them.

Family (minus Daddy) shot.

We were finished at our school a smidge earlier than the other part of the team, so we took a walk in the park while waiting. This is a memorial to Ukrainian Cossack soldiers. And the blonde is Amiee.

Some of the relationship locks at an overlook of Poltava.

Team picture (minus me). Everybody had put in a hard day's work.
And now, photo session at the bowl of galushki:

The Hatleys.

The men. Please notice Adam...

Another family shot.

Amiee trying to lift me. Now, she's having trouble NOT because I'm heavy but because of the huge spoon.

Alabama Team Recap 2: English club

The second aspect to this week (in addition to being in the classes) was English club. We took the opportunity while in the classes to invite students to our evening festivities. We had English club on three different nights, with three different themes: games, art, and music. I only have a few pictures from art night and music night...I was emcee-ing each night and didn't get in on all of the camera action, unfortunately. We had games, activities, group discussions, live music from Amiee and Adam. It was really great. Vova shared at the end of each evening, and we were able to visit with a lot of students.

On art night, our first activity was "match stick" art. Each group was given 10 match sticks, a piece of cardstock, and some glue. They had to create a picture out of their matches. They were super creative and had a great time!

More art. Lovely friends.

Mrs. Joyce, Dawn, Katya, and Katya. They made a butterfly.

One example. Title: Girl Doing the Splits. Ha!

In honor of Huntsville, the Rocket City, one team made a rocket. Precious.

Me and Nastia- ensuring that no one was cheating. They sometimes do that...

Ok, there's a story behind this next project. I went to a conference about doing student outreach. One of the ideas was a group art project. The people leading the conference said that it didn't really work for them. I thought it would be super for Ukraine, though. So, I came up with an idea and pitched to Mom. She then took the idea and made it concrete. The plan: The students were going to be divided into groups, and each group would have a small part of the project to complete. We didn't tell them what the end result would be. They worked on the part assigned to them, following the pattern on their specific pieces of paper.

They worked very diligently on something they didn't understand.

Adam provided backgroung music. Some of them got distracted by his playing and took longer on their project.
Want to know what they made?

Ta-da! It's a map of Ukraine with all the oblasts (kind of like states) marked. Now, a photo shoot of all kinds of people posing with the map:

Vova

Bunch of boys examining.

Nastia and me.

Ira.

Me, Mom, and Amiee

Whole group!

New friends.

Old friends.