Weather Report

The weather in Belarus nevers lasts for more than an hour. Upon waking up, sunshine will be streaming in your window. When you finish showering, rain is pouring down on your roof. After breakfast, you step outside and the clouds are breaking up. On the walk to work, a light, warm breeze is blowing. To walk hom for lunch you bundle up in a parka and brace yourself against the icy wind, and then for the walk back to work, you peel down to shorts and a tank top and shades.

Today, however, was an exception. For nearly twelve hours straight, it was overcast and cold. A very dreary day. But not inside the church! A dozen or so church members were working together to fix parts of the church. Due to various unfair circumstances and ridiculous reasons, the church was closed down this spring by the fire department, and cannot be opened until certain requirements are met. So, at least one day a week this summer I will be doing what I did today--construction. My main job was smoothing spackle onto the drywall seams, and then watching as one of the more experienced workers came along after and fixed all my mistakes, trying to do so without me noticing. It's somewhat mindless work, but will be a nice break from the mentally/emotionally/spiritually draining work of the rest of the week, which consists mainly of driving to houses in the Minsk area (which, by the way, is pronounced like MEENSK, not MINSK) to visit families where the children are starving or neglected or sick, and bring food or get them to a doctor or do whatever we can.