Just look how beautiful it is here! The skies are beautifully blue, the sun is shining, the temperature is moderate. Just perfect.
We had a major review in language school yesterday. It was good to spend three hours hammering away at the latest things we have learned. We have been working on verbs of motion. You think…how hard could that be?
Well…let me tell you. There are verbs for…
- walking
- running
- going by vehicle
- going by water
- going by air
- going by transport
- etc…
All of these have forms for
- starting the motion
- finishing the motion
- if the motion was round trip it has a different form
- all of these separate forms have past, present, future, imperfective, perfective
Just to give you a drop in the bucket of what verbs of motion mean in Russian. To say the least I have been taken aback by the complexity of this language. And to say that it’s complex is rather an understatement.
But trudge ahead we will! It is so important to us. We know God has called us to learn the language and to really press in to it for the first six months. So press we shall.
We always wanted trees when we lived in Moore. Now we have HUGE trees that surround our property. We love them! I love to listen to them sing their praises to God in the breeze. What beautiful music they make.
You can see that we have a large yard where the kids can play. We have a large area of concrete (allbeit not really smooth) for them to ride their riding tow and play when there is mud in the yard. We have a large lawn where they can play.
Speaking of the lawn… Last week, the grass was about mid calf high and needed to be cut. So we had two choices. Mow it with scissors or get a lawn mower. Let me first say that buying things here can be tricky. Especially if you don’t speak a lot of Russian. And what Russian we know has nothing to do with lawnmowers or words that relate to yard equipment. At all.
We went to our local home store (like an Ace Hardware probably) (we have stores like Lowe’s too, but they are farther away). So we got to Booty Boom (spelled for you like it sounds in Russian). And please…no off color comments. I know they are racing through your mind. So stop it. We chose the lawn mower we wanted. The easy thing would be to just grab one, put it on my cart and pay for it. But no. The mower on the shelf was THE mower we would buy. Along came a young guy to help us and my first question to him was “Do you speak English?” (in Russian of course) He smiled and said no, but that he would get someone who does. I thought…hey…this may not be so bad after all. Heh heh heh. Silly me. About 15 minutes later, another guy came over and said he spoke English. Umm hmm….and I speak Russian. Get the picture? So after he told us he speaks English, that was the last English I heard. We manage to communicate and ended up choosing a different mower that had a wider deck and more powerful engine and it’s a Briggs and Stratton engine — so a good choice I think.
I manage to ask for a container for gas. And asked about oil (which happens to be the same word as for butter and cooking oil — it’s all about context). I had to go pay for the oil first. So off we went. Then in a mad rush we ended up behind the store with the mower and he put the oil in (that I had paid for), added some gas and started it to show me that it works.
Then it was back inside to find the box. Sigh. Up a ladder he went. All the way to the top. Then proceeded to jump up to get higher. What??! Oh yeah, this isn’t Lowe’s…where they wear safety belts. Down came the box. Then we filled out the warranty card. Then we headed to the front to pay and for him to load it in our van.
He asked if I had a discount card. Not yet, I told him. He showed me a computer that I would save 250UAH with it. (You get a 7% discount with the card.) Then I managed to understand that if I gave him 120UAH, I could get a card. I understood it to mean that I was paying a fee to get a card of my own. Ha ha…I had forgotten I was in Ukraine, I guess. It turned out that I was giving HIM 120UAH and using HIS card. After I gave him the money and he pulled a card out of his pocket and handed it to me it donned on me what was happening. (So of course after we got in the parking lot, he wanted the card back — my suspension confirmed — ugh).
All of that to buy a lawn mower. Buying things in the grocery store can be just as stressful. Makes a person really miss Walmart to be sure!
But it’s our life and we are growing to love it even with it’s craziness.
I hope you will Bless the Name of the Lord today!