Hi everyone!
We had a good Tuesday. Got to see some parts of the city that we had not seen before. Evgenia’s son-in-law met us at the hotel and took Vera, Kipp, and me around for a few hours yesterday. It was great! We basically got to see Mariupol from every side...and even got to go just outside the city to see what the surrounding countryside looks like. On Monday and Tuesday, the mornings were partly cloudy and warmer, but by the early afternoon a fog rolled in off the sea and when you mix that in with the pollution from the steel mills it makes the visibility really poor. We can’t figure out if there is more fog or smoke in the cloud...but it certainly is different. When the fog comes in, what had been partly cloudy and warm weather turns into a very damp cold.
Dining out here is quite an adventure. In fact, impatient Americans beware: dining out here is not fast. Evidently, it is intended to be an experience! After our tour of the city yesterday we had a couple hours to kill before going to evening Bible study. We’re glad we had two hours to kill not and not just one. We decided to eat in the hotel restaurant. We have found it to be a good place to eat, plus it features English menus that make ordering very easy. That is, when the waiter/waitress gets around to taking your order. And...you think getting a server’s attention in the US can be tough...imagine it here when they can’t understand you and hardly acknowledge your presence. What would be a 60 minute visit at a restaurant in the US is easily double that here. After our study last night, we went back to the hotel restaurant to get some ice cream. We timed how long it took to get our order.....69 minutes! Unbelievable. But...where else were we going to go and what else were we going to do at that hour of day? We’re also finding that the price of food here is about double that of four years ago. Inflation is happening at a rapid rate and our translator tells us that wages are not keeping up. She says the greatest expense in her family budget is food. We can see why.
Have a great Wednesday.