week 5

Our initial settling in has gone fairly smoothely. We can manage the transport, shopping and work. So the essentials are covered. Our small apartment is manageable although at times the crowded space gets on your nerves. The luxury of 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms of an Australian quarters is off the agenda for a while. Instead we are learning to mangae our space as needed in the one person bathroom and one person kitchen. Ron now has a good excuse not to 'dry up' - can't put two people in the kitchen at the same time. Mornings are the worst as we both try and get ready for work and manage breakfast, prepare lunch etc. The flat is also very hot so there is an agreement when we are ready to leave - you cannot put your jumper or coat on too soon as you boil while the other finishes getting ready. So if you are ready too soon you just go outside to wait. The entry doors to the flats are also different. Each has a steel framed door with a lock and you step into a small vestibule , which is dark to open another steel framed door which has 2 locks to enter the flat. I usually let Ron go ahead and open the doors and I follow or I leave before him and meet him outside. It is very different to be once again working so closely. We now have no car, share an office, and live in a tiny house. Good thing we are good friends.

This week has been a week for continuing to understand our new roles. There is a lot of paperwork and process in ensuring the projects are funded and that there is good accountability to ensure that donor money is spent correctly. Ron has also been busy this week with 2 major assignements. This has been complicated by our close living arrangements as we have the one room which is lounge, office, diningroom and clothes drying room. This has given me the opportunity for a couple of excursions so he could have the house to himself and no excuses for not working. On Friday after work I ventured off to the large shopping complex - a train and bus ride. I just wandered around and picked up a few household things, arriving home after 9. My first big excursion on my own. On Saturday I went with some of the other officers to a holiday house in the country for the day. Ron stayed home for study - but I had a lovely day out of the city. We sat around, drank tea and ate food, took a walk through some bushland arriving home around 9 again. It was just nice to get out of the city - masses of people noise and dust left behind for the natural forest of country russia. As you drive through the bushland you are reminded of the many war movies - you expect Hogans Heroes or Robert Redford to jump out of the forest - its that sort of bushland. The leaves have almost all fallen - just a few autumn colours remain. It has been very beauiful to watch the leaves fall. Now everyine is waiting for the first snowfall.

I visited a 'dacha' on saturday - a russian holiday house. They wern't all like this one. Guess what this one looked like inside?










complete with spiders webs - but I did not see any redbacks!





The steps to be taken to get our permanet work permit go on. We have been through a range of medical tests. Chest Xray, blood urine and sputum checks as well as an interview to talk about our drug and alcohol experiences. We have so far passed them all and have our peices of paper that will soon give us a green card. This means we leave the country to get a new visa to come back and convert the visa into a working visa for 12 months. Its all very complicated and the rules constantly change. We were to go to London for our visa - but they do not process in less than 2 weeks so we will go to Moldova which should be a quicker turn around. We can also do some work while we are there.
So it is back to work tomorrow, more files to read and cross check, a few meetings with other workers this week. Our routine is becoming settled and we are comfortable with where we are and what we are doing.