Long week ahead, or short?

With less than a week to go before we leave for Kiev, the next 6 days already seem to be too little time for all that is coming up. It's going to be long on work and short on time. It's times like these that taking a fresh look at life from the perspective of eternity is important. It doesn't make the obligations go away, but it does change the effect of their impact on us. Having said that, I will return to the task of chipping away at the list of "must-do's".

Back--But Not for Long

From the last posting, I see the month of April flew by without my getting back in touch. We were gone most of the first half of the month, and of course, there's a backlog of work waiting when we come back.

The first part of our time on the mainland was at the embassy in Lisbon, where the annual Iberian conference for consular agents was held. Then we had a week off, waiting until the following Saturday for Blanchard's wedding. Blanchard and Rosa are both from Angola, and much about the ceremony, and most about the reception reflected their African culture. I would take more time to write about it, but we have just gotten home from services, after being away for 13 hours. Sundays are like that. I don't have much energy left at the end of a long day. And there's no respite on Monday, either. Not only is the morning taken up with work at the consulate, but the afternoon is taken up with meetings at the prison.

I said we're back, but not for long. Next week (Friday, the 13th) we fly to Kiev to spend two weeks in Ukraine. There are a lot of details left to work out about where we'll be going during that time, but I know we won't be bored. I'm trying to encourage Abbie to decipher the Cyrillic alphabet before we go. When I was in Ukraine two years ago, there were practically no signs at all in English or in Latin characters. Not very user-friendly for tourists. This time, when we got our visas in Lisbon, the lady at the Ukrainian embassy also gave us a couple of brochures and maps. I get the impression that they are making an attempt to attract more tourism.

Abbie hasn't studied Russian/Ukrainian, but she's heard enough she can pick out some things. This afternoon at the Russian service, I asked her a long question in Russian and she understood what I said. Later, in answer to a question by one of the Ukrainians whether she understood what was being talked about, she replied in Russian... "tchoot-tchoot" (a little bit).

If I don't get a posting up in the next few days, it will be because we're getting ready to travel. Stay tuned.