What? No internet?

I tell you…I finally get myself all ready to post each day, and our internet goes out! Last night, after HOURS of no internet, a notice appears on my screen that our account had been blocked. I needed to go to our account (I could go online ONLY to that site!), enter our account number and the first several digits of the last payment receipt. Well, Jim had already gone to bed and I wasn’t sure where the info was, so I hit the sack.

Early this morning, Jamie and Dasha came by for coffee. Jamie had an appointment at the American embassy and he didn’t want to take any chances of getting caught in rush-hour traffic on his way into the city. Being late is not a good way to start such an important visit. Jeanne and Kolya were also up early so that Kolya could get on his way to his hometown — a six-hour bus trip. Hopefully his international passport will be ready for him to pick up on Friday. We are still trying to get Jeanne and Kolya to America to meet his new family and their friends!

Of course, I checked my e-mail first thing. The notice reappeared on my computer and I asked Jim for the required information. I typed in the numbers, pressed resume, and within 30 minutes the internet was working again.

What is up with that? Couldn’t they have punched in the numbers as easily as I could? Why did they need for us to verify that we had paid? Oh, well. We were thankful that there was nothing more involved.

My Ukrainian lesson this afternoon was actually quite fun. Tatjana just asked me questions about what I have been doing, and whenever I desperately needed a new word she gave it to me. It was fun talking “around” things in Ukrainian…proving to myself that I can be understood, though with one simple word I could shorten many sentences. I think Tatjana enjoyed the lesson as well.

Part of the lesson is devoted to going over my prepared lesson for teaching English on Wednesday afternoons to the staff in the AIDS unit of the national children’s hospital. It is so very difficult teaching beginners! I am finding that I tend to teach them the same way that Tatjana has taught me. Anyway, she helped me with specific vocabulary for explaining grammar concepts in Ukrainian. What an adventure! Hopefully the students will get the drift! It’s a challenge to teach at this hospital because the students are all on duty and sometimes get called out in the middle of a lesson! I have taught now for three whole weeks — once a week. The first week I had 2 students. The second week I had 2 students but only one was from the week before. And the third week, I had 2 totally new students. Hard to build on prior knowledge…

Pray for me AND for the students.