Today was great. I did work duties in the morning making cement and building bathrooms in the new building. I've learned cement mixing by shovel… no machines, cement truck deliveries, or ready mix here! You start with water, add ten shoveled buckets of sifted sand (I had to sift sand also) one bag of cement powder, three buckets of gravel, and then a bag what looks live marbles, but are like lava beads. Hand mix on the ground flipping with a shovel and voila… cement! I also learned brick laying, concrete floor finishing and pipe laying.

I took a break to visit a neat couple who called the base this morning and asked to meet with me. They invited me because I had taught English the night before in a class their adult daughter had attended. They were moved by the fact we were leaving America to serve their country (I am hearing that a lot). They live two blocks from the base and Natalia and I walked there in three minutes. Guess what? They wanted to show me their house because their daughter told them about our possible need to rent. Four large upstairs bedrooms, the main one has a real stone (I mean boulders) fireplace. Downstairs is a large gathering room, a parlor room, a kitchen and a wash room. They said they would consider moving out and living with their mother next door and rent us the house. I told them we were still hoping to be in Kona, and would not know where for sure until early August.

Food has been good. We went to the market again and got pizza fixings, get this… Boboli type pizza bread made while you wait. I think this is what the Jews ate in the desert. Ketchup, Mayo, spices (to make sauce), cheese (not mozzarella, they don't have it in Ukraine), meat that looks like Polish sausage. Sounds like me making concrete today! This weekend we are ordering a delivered pizza to compare. Sasha makes pizza all the time, he says and he claims that I'll never like American pizza again… we'll see!

Did I mention I haven't seen Dr. Atkins in a long time… since June 11, to be exact. One thing about the food in Ukraine…good or bad, no chemicals, no preservatives.