Happy Birthday!

Happy birthday today to Linnea and to her cousin, Stephen! Twenty-six and twenty years ago two great people were welcomed into the world. Enjoy the day and have a great celebration!

There has not been much new here in the past week. Lots and lots of heavy rain, followed by cooler days and nights. There has been a lot of flooding in the Ukraine, and the Nistru river that is the border between our village and the Ukraine has flooded in some areas, but our house is far up the hill, and I am very safe here. I did get a call on Monday from the PC Safety guy, just checking to make sure that I was okay here. It was reassuring to know how closely situations like this are monitored by Peace Corps, but really there was little risk for me and this village. Last night I did see a television news report, and the flooding in the Ukraine is quite serious, with a lot of crop damage, so concerns were not unfounded. The price for food in this area of the world has increased noticeably, although there are not reported shortages yet, and this will not help things over the coming winter.

Other than watching the rain, not much else is new. People here walk down near the river to watch the water, just like they do when there is flooding at home. Must be a human trait not determined by geography! Construction is moving along, but slowly. Many of the workers have returned to their homes to work their fields for a few weeks. Just a few weeks ago there were about 15 people working there, and now there are about 5 working everyday. I've been staying as busy as I can, and go into Stefan Voda for the afternoon if I get too bored with village life. Last week I went there both Thursday and Friday afternoon! Same old, same old...Happy birthday to my favorite daughter and her cousin!