DENTAL MISSION TO UKRAINE

by Suzan Johns and Nancy Stephens

September 14, 1997

From: "Mission Nazareth Hust"
To: vic@kubik.org

Dear Vic & Bev,

Update for Friday Sept. 12

We ate breakfast at Turbaza this morning--cabbage , 3 fried eggs, bread, pastries, tea. Then over to Mission Nazareth. We started to unpack supplies to see what all we had. Still have to find a couple of boxes. We are to meet with a dentist, Maria, on Monday and see her office. She has also invited us to dinner next week. She is also bringing a technician on Monday. She was trying to tell us in her broken English about the shortages and problems here. She'll tell us more when we have a translator.

Victor Pavliy has been in and out of the office all morning taking care of mission business. An elderly man who had tried to commit suicide came in and Victor and the person's dad were talking with him and trying to help. They took him back to his house to speak with his son. They have many problems at home. Victor said they do not have such problems in the Church here.

We finally went to lunch at 1:30 pm and were going to eat at Turbaza. When we got there Victor got called away again so we waited in our apartment until around 3 p.m. By then he decided to take us back down to the place we ate yesterday. Brenda came along to translate. I asked Victor how he envisioned the dental clinic working. He said there is a great need for dental care and would like to set up a clinic in the mission. A couple of dentists including Maria, will donate time. He said there are no dental x-ray machines in the whole oblast. The place where he wants to place the equipment is not yet remodeled and he said they do not have the money to do so. We'll have to work on that one. He then talked about the many problems here, but would like to see them begin to be able to make there own way, rather than depend on aid.

We then spoke about the crafts again and will go to see about them on Sunday. He feels badly that we have done so much to help and cannot do much in return. We told him the important thing is that the aid we send enables him to help others here. After lunch Victor drove us back to Turbaza.

AT 6:00 WE HAD HOT WATER!!!!!

So we both quickly got a shower and washed our hair.

It is the Sabbath now and we are catching up on our journals.

Saturday, September 13

Victor came at about 8:00 am and it turned out we were wlking to his house for breakfast (we thought he was bringing the car). Bev was right--they don't drive on the Sabbath. We had a bit of a communication problem when he dropped us off Friday night!! We walked to church and then back to his sister's for lunch. Then we took a nap at her house after lunch. We looked at photos and took some, including poloroids to give them. We had tea and cake. Then walked back to the 6:00 pm service.

Services were very interesting. The music was wonderful. Some of the songs were slow and soulful, others fast and lively. They kneel when they pray and they are saying their individuals prayers, some out loud others silently. They there is also congregational prayers. There were three sermons as well as some of women doing scripture readings. At the end of services anyone who has anything they want to do--sing, read a poem etc. they can do so. We were invited up to tell about our trip, so we told them briefly about the dental, and that we were happy to be there. Nelya translated.

When we were getting ready for church, I found out what meltdown is. My curling iron melted. I picked it up and the plastic oozed down. I checked everything and it seemed right, but who knows. Oh well, I'm getting to the point where I don't much care anyway.

My impression after today: We're dropping a drop of water into an empty bucket and it will quickly evaporate. There is so much need here and this is only one town in one country.

Nancy's impression: It's sad to see the people have so little and we have so much. and we take it for granted.

It's 9:30 now and there are lots of children in the lobby agoin. We started singing a couple of hymns and everything got very quiet in the lobby. Then the knocks on our door started again, so we dumped a bag of M&M's on a plate and took it out--they quickly disappeared. Went to bed around 10:30 pm.

Sunday morning September 14

Had breakfast, Victor picked us up, came to the mission--it's raining today, but the weather had been beautiful. We picked Brenda up, and he took us and elderly couples house where the woman crochets. They need to save for an eye operation. Nancy and I felt like we hit the jackpot. 'She does beautiful work and we have no doubt it will sell. We bought quite a number of pieces from her.

Till next time....

Love,
Sue & Nancy