BBQ with the Poddubnys

We first became acquainted with the Poddubny family when both parents were temple workers.  Igor is the CES director for the Ukraine and he and his wife, Svetlana, have four children--two girls (14 & 4) and two boys (10 & 8).  They are one of the less than 1% of all Ukrainian families who actually have a single family dwelling.  Igor continues to work at the temple but now Svetlana is restricted because they do have young children.  They also belong to the ward housed in the building next to the temple and their daughter is a regular attendee at the temple baptistry.  They had invited us to come to their home for a barbecue on a Monday afternoon.  Igor picked us up on his way home in the VW station wagon that is provided for his work traveling all over Ukraine and south into Romania and Bulgaria to train and supervise seminaries and institutes.  The family also has a small personal car.  They live in a village nearby.

Their home is traditional brick, two story with a half basement.   They live a simple life in a home that is only partially finished.  But as we found after the flood in Rexburg when we lived in our home as we were reconstructing, the condition of the space you live in isn’t as important as the people you live with.  Here in Ukraine people usually take years working on either the updating of their apartment or the construction of their home because they do them as they can pay for them instead of borrowing money.   Poddubnys feel very blessed to be out of the apartment building complex where they were, to have lots of living space, and a yard of their own.  It was a delight to walk through their home and garden. 
 

There is more of the garden to the right--the vegetable crops.  They were sprinkling the garden because the thundershowers had passed them by, until  a couple of hours later when we were inside for FHE!

Svetlana prepared and marinated chicken and onions ( in mayonnaise, soy sauce, tomato juice, salt and pepper).  They put the chicken and onions on flat skewers and Igor cooked them over wood coals.  

We had a lovely dinner seated underneath the grape lattice framework in their yard.  We presented a short family home evening lesson (at their request) on learning to love the scriptures and then they served ice cream for the FHE "treat".