Back in Zhitomir

Today Lena went to her hometown Zhitomir, about two hours west of Kyiv. We decided finally to change her last name to Lovingood so her mother and she have been working on that for a few weeks now. Post-Soviet bureaucracy is a labyrinth. It requires skill to negotiate, knowing when to offer a gift and when not, knowing when "yes" is really "no" and when "no" might possibly be "yes." She received her internal passport and miraculously was able to submit documents for her international passport. Controversy broke out about how to spell Lovingood in Ukrainian and we thought hope was lost. Lena called me on her mobile, I scanned and emailed my passport to her, and somehow she and her cleverl mother were able to persuade the mendicants to spell it the way it was supposed to be spelled. We also got a new wedding certificate.

In other news, our small group tonight had a work night at the UEC: instead of regular deal we decided to put faith into action and shoveled snow, cleaned walls, washed dishes, and helped in the library. Amidst our flurry of activity, were two very slow workers hired to install hydraulic arms on four doors at the Center. After about 6 hours and several smoke breaks, they finally decided to go home and maybe will finish the job tomorrow. I got rather upset with them late in the evening and began ranting in English. They didn't know what I was saying but they did soon start to do what we wanted them to do. Most of the arms had been installed so that they would not close the doors, the very thing we were wanting them to do. Wonder what joys await us tomorrow? We are going to another couch store. Need I say more.