Well…
House
Last time we wrote, the house had just been finalised. Since then, we have had a sewerage pit dug,
and water piped from the well into our house. We have also started the job of knocking out the inside walls, and old fireplaces/stove. See our plans for more detail.
We have nearly finished that now, and electrical & plumbing work comes next and also replacing the windows, the building of the new internal walls, and gib-rock all inside.This should make it mostly liveable – we attempted 10 days over the Christmas break of living there, but it was rather depressing! We aim to build an extension in summer which will include the kitchen. Also in the next couple of months we aim to spend some time on the outside, planting stuff, taking down a few 
trees & hopefully planting some lawn (maybe even a cricket pitch).
We do look forward to making it our home, and having people coming & going like we are used to. My 30th birthday party in September is a great incentive to have it all finished by then.
School
Hmmm….school! We both love our jobs and our classes, but the management of the school is creating a few headaches for us. We are not really sure of why – maybe it’s a cultural or personality clash, but it has made it stressful at times. We are trying to choose to be positive and not complain or gossip about stuff, but that is easier said than done at times. The school is run as a money-making business which is rather frustrating at times, but we just need to look at this year in the light of what we can learn & who we can become!
Music
The band Jon is in continues to get asked to play at different places, which is good. We had a trip to the top of the
Weather
We are still really waiting for this awfully cold winter to hit us! We have had a few snowfalls, about a week of temperatures hovering at about minus 15 & the river frozen in Rzhyshchiv, but apart from that it has been rather mild. All buildings are well heated, if not overheated, and you learn to dress warmly when you have to
step outside.
Other
We have a group of friends in Kiev that are over
here from time to time, so we have decided to make Mondays ‘dinner night’ at our place. We have about 10 people here each Monday, and every 2nd week we have a Bible study. This has been really good, we have been missing having people in our home, and being part of a community.
Another thing that Jon is enjoying at the moment is playing around with his new technology (Macbook & Protools – for those who care!) he has bought for recording purposes. He hopes to start getting good at this & start some recording of one of our good friends who has some original work & an amazing voice!
So that’s really all from us. Until next time…
