Yes, the big day is over, and we are here! Moving went well, and now our old house is empty, and our new house is full of boxes. It will take a few weeks to unload them all, but we are going to take it one step at a time.
Today we moved the piano, our last piece of furniture from the old house, and now all we have to do is go there and clean, and get some of the little things that were left behind. Our landlady will come sometime later in the week to walk throught the house and see if everything is OK. I have a feeling she will find some things that are normal wear and tear and will want us to pay for that. We lived in that house for 21 months, but some landlords here (including ours) expect to find the house in the same exact condition, or preferrably better, than when we first moved in. We did fix a couple of things, including installing a new toilet, and planting a lawn. I am a little nervous about this but I need to trust the Lord that He will give me strength.
I went to the local telephone company today -- I had had an appointment at 3 pm. I was the first one in line, but soon was joined by a small group of people. The chief manager was 20 minutes late. When I came in, he asked me what my question was, and I told him that we would like a phone line, since we really liked their internet service and would like to stay with them. He searched for something on the computer for several minutes, and then said that there was little consolation (?!). He told me then that he would think about it (?!) and I could come on Wednesday to the service window and get the answer there. Sigh. It did not sound very encouraging, but I had tried.
We still have the internet connection through our router that we left at our previous house till the landlady takes our keys, and even though we are about 300 yards away from it, we can get reception once in a while.
Today I also applied to get disconnected from the internet at the old location, and it will take them 20 days to do it. I hope we don't get billed for the next month!
This morning we went to get our pictures taken for the registration at the police. It was $15 (total) to get the pictures processed while we waited or $11 to get them the next morning. Since Jamie has a very busy morning tomorrow going to the Dept. of Religious Affairs and then to the police, we opted to spend $4 more. The photographer then asked how many pictures we wanted. I said,
-- Six.
-- Yes, our package comes with six copies.
-- I need six packages, please.
-- Seriously!
-- I am serious!
-- Where are the six people?
It took him just a second to realize that all the munchkins were getting their mugshots, too. He smiled and took us in.
Church yesterday was interesting. There was no electricity in the building, and we had to move from the theater-like room to the room upstairs where we usually have Sunday school. The theater-like room naturally did not have any windows to let any daylight in. It was cold and a little dark upstairs, but we managed.
Monday, February 9, 2009
Thursday, February 5, 2009
We Are Moving!
The big day is tomorrow. We are half-packed, but it was decided that to move earlier is better than later (we have till Feb. 15 at our rental house). Our new house is not quite finished, but most things are minor. The big item that will are waiting on is the countertop. But we should get it within 2-3 weeks. Other things to finish up are door moldings, some baseboards and a few transition pieces for the laminate floor.
We are excited.
We hope to be able to hook up to an internet connection soon. It is possible it will take us a while. So if we are gone MIA, you will know why. Currentlly we have internet through a local phone company. We do not have a phone line in our new house. I went downtowon to the phone company and submitted an application to have one installed. After 4 (!) weeks of looking into the issue, they told me they did not have sufficient technical possibilities. It's funny because virtually every house in this neighborhood has a land line, and the closest phone cable breaker is maybe 30 yards away. I made an appointment with the manager of the company and will go there on Monday. It's funny because the phone company is now advertising on TV about how wonderful it is to have a landline. They are doing this because a lot of people are using to cell-phones only.
More bits and pieces -- it is time for us to register with the police again, and Jamie took our documents and necessary papers this past Tuesday. They had to make it difficult again and ask for a lot more things than they usually do (our pictures, more letters of invitation...) It would not be too bad if it was the same package that we had to prepare each time. But here they don't have a list of things needed for registry, and each time we seem to be told to bring new and different things to register. The system is definitely designed so that they can have power to harass people, and also to be able to take bribes (Jamie has witnessed it before). Jamie will have to pick up a letter from the Department of Religious Affairs next week and then resubmit everything (our passports, notarized translations of our passports, regisration applications, a letter of invitation from our church, a document from our neighborhood official stating we have a place to live, and an additional Ukrainian health insurance, because they feel that the health insurance and the evacuation insurance that we have are not enough coverage here). Then they will take everything and will be 'processing' it anywhere between 7 and 21 days. You come back in a week, and you can see them on the corner of a desk in the back but you are told they are not ready. Of course, they had not touched them. We come back in a few days and you are told that they are ready minus the necessary stamp and the only guy who can stamp is away for 10 minutes. An hour later, you are called to the window and you finally receive your passport. There is really no 'processing' because they will not accept your documents in the first place unless everything is in order. Why not stamp it then? It's the old Soviet system of having control over people. It was not made for the people, but it was made to keep the people under fear and control.
We are excited.
We hope to be able to hook up to an internet connection soon. It is possible it will take us a while. So if we are gone MIA, you will know why. Currentlly we have internet through a local phone company. We do not have a phone line in our new house. I went downtowon to the phone company and submitted an application to have one installed. After 4 (!) weeks of looking into the issue, they told me they did not have sufficient technical possibilities. It's funny because virtually every house in this neighborhood has a land line, and the closest phone cable breaker is maybe 30 yards away. I made an appointment with the manager of the company and will go there on Monday. It's funny because the phone company is now advertising on TV about how wonderful it is to have a landline. They are doing this because a lot of people are using to cell-phones only.
More bits and pieces -- it is time for us to register with the police again, and Jamie took our documents and necessary papers this past Tuesday. They had to make it difficult again and ask for a lot more things than they usually do (our pictures, more letters of invitation...) It would not be too bad if it was the same package that we had to prepare each time. But here they don't have a list of things needed for registry, and each time we seem to be told to bring new and different things to register. The system is definitely designed so that they can have power to harass people, and also to be able to take bribes (Jamie has witnessed it before). Jamie will have to pick up a letter from the Department of Religious Affairs next week and then resubmit everything (our passports, notarized translations of our passports, regisration applications, a letter of invitation from our church, a document from our neighborhood official stating we have a place to live, and an additional Ukrainian health insurance, because they feel that the health insurance and the evacuation insurance that we have are not enough coverage here). Then they will take everything and will be 'processing' it anywhere between 7 and 21 days. You come back in a week, and you can see them on the corner of a desk in the back but you are told they are not ready. Of course, they had not touched them. We come back in a few days and you are told that they are ready minus the necessary stamp and the only guy who can stamp is away for 10 minutes. An hour later, you are called to the window and you finally receive your passport. There is really no 'processing' because they will not accept your documents in the first place unless everything is in order. Why not stamp it then? It's the old Soviet system of having control over people. It was not made for the people, but it was made to keep the people under fear and control.
Monday, February 2, 2009
Update on the Church Building Construction
A picture is better than a thousand words. Here are some shots from last Saturday.
It's hard to see in the pictures, but the ground floor has windows in and the door is in, too. Thus, the ground floor is closed in. There is work being done on the inside (pouring of the cement floor).As soon as the main floor is done and closed in with the front door, windows and the roof, our church might move its services to the new building. We are hoping for that to happen sometime this spring, possibly April. We anticipate that inside work will be taking place over summer months.
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