Program, Hope Center and general goings on

I promised that I would be giving more updates and in honor of daylight savings time, I have decided to go back in time (update-wise). Actually blogger was giving me problems on my last post so I only got the later photos uploaded before it gave up the ghost. Here is what should have been the first 4 photos on that post. I forgot to mention that in the interests of conservation, the Hope Center will henceforth be known as the HopeCenter....like SportsCenter. I like the way it looks.

This is Jim. Jim is one of the coolest guys I know and a fantastic asset to the Hope Center. He was the original American here and has returned (sadly, without his wife Sheri who is in TX helping care for her mother) to teach drafting and woodworking as well as anything else that needs doing. I am trying to learn as much as possible from him before he heads home in May. Having lived in our apartment last year, he is well acquainted with how to do quick fixes around here.

Not to be outdone, Campbell took Jim's lead and did a little repair work on the kitchen chairs. Like Jim's, his beater is also cordless and though it lacks some of the basic components necessary for his task, you can see that he is making the zhhhhhhhh noise as though it does.

We visited the village of Bagrava about 20 minutes west of us to hand out some bags of fruit to some of the poorer children at the school. We normally bring hot food for our feeding programs but we are already doing this at a number of locations and aren't in a position to increase the program yet.

I also didn't mention that Saturday was Women's day in Ukraine, sort of a mixture of Valentine's day and Mother's day. It is a national holiday and widely celebrated. Since I skipped Valentines day this year - saying that since it's not celebrated here, I shouldn't act like a foreigner - so I was obligated to redeem myself on this holiday. I got Sarry a rose that was big enough to use as a walking stick which had thorns like medieval battle axes. Unfortunately their flower-growers don't seem to see the value in actually keeping the flower intact and after 35 minutes it had fallen almost completely apart. This is the last photo of it alive. It actually looks a lot like one of the pictures from our wedding except that one has Sarah staring blissfully out the window instead.