Free to eat cheese

Well, Torben is on his way to Russia at the moment. He's speaking in a DTS in Rostov-on-Don. It's great because he loves teaching so much and it's a great opportunity for him to do what he loves. It's not so great because that means I'm on my own here. And I'm still pretty much stuck on the couch, so it's not so fun.

But on the upside, I'm planning a trip to the supermarket downstairs with the express purpose of buying cheese. And noone will be here to make faces and whine and tell me I have to chew gum or brush my teeth before he'll kiss me again (for an explanation see Torben's blog FAQ about cheese www.torbenriisjensen.blogspot.com)

Once Torben gets back on Saturday we have just a few days before we're off to Germany for a YWAM Europe conference. We were talking about it yesterday and it's going to be so cool!! Just to hear what's going on in the rest of Europe and meet some interesting people and get some good teaching, I'm really excited. My biggest concern is for the bus ride from here to there. If my back's not better, it's going to be pretty miserable. Please pray that God does some major healing in the next week and a half! I'm still doing my exercises and not lifting anything heavy, so hopefully it starts to kick in soon!

Okay, cheese, here I come!!!

Snow on the 1st of May and other fun stuff...

Up and down, up and down...the roller coaster of springtime Kyiv weather...Two weeks ago it was hailing and we had the heater on...two days ago, we went for a walk and I was nearly sweating from the heat...today I thought my fingers would freeze off as I waited outside in the snow for Torben. Well, at least I grew up in Ohio, so I'm pretty used to it...

As most of you have heard, the back problems I've had for several months came back with a vengeance a few weeks ago. I got an MRI and it showed that it's a pretty small problem that can be remedied by some specific exercises. The day after the MRI (an experience in and of itself), we went to a chiropractor on the other side of Kyiv.

Now, I was in a good bit of pain, so we arranged for one of the guys here on the base to drive us the 20 minutes across the city. At 6:30 that morning, he text messaged us to say that his wife had gone into labor so they needed the car. So, we took public transport - an overcrowded marshutka (minivan of sorts), the metro, and another marshutka - total of 1 1/2 hours to this place. This "place" meaning an somewhat abandoned looking neighborhood with trash all over the place and a rather angry looking German Shepherd leering at us. Seeing no signs for a clinic, we wandered for a while and wondered if we'd gotten the directions wrong. Finally, we saw a sign on the side of an old school building that had five or six men outside drinking in front of it. We followed the sign to an unmarked black door to the side of the building. Finally, we were there.
We had been warned that this chiropractor is often late. When we got there, he wasn't even there yet, so we waited...and waited...and waited...and waited... 3 and a half hours later, this guy finally arrives!!!

Yeah...good times...this time when we went back, I brought a book.