{"id":1145,"date":"2017-03-13T06:05:06","date_gmt":"2017-03-13T13:05:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/momsblog.morgeneggweb.com\/?p=1145"},"modified":"2017-03-13T06:05:06","modified_gmt":"2017-03-13T13:05:06","slug":"international-womens-day-ukrainian-style","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/momsblog.morgeneggs.com\/?p=1145","title":{"rendered":"International Women’s Day – Ukrainian Style"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here in Ukraine International Women’s Day is a really big deal. \u00a0Men take the day off work. \u00a0Most federal offices and post offices are closed, banks are closed, and schools are closed. \u00a0Early in the day (Wednesday this year) it was almost eerie how quiet it was as we walked to work. \u00a0Almost no cars on the road at 8am and almost no people either. \u00a0Later it was a different thing. \u00a0Looking out my window there were large groups of people walking around – families as well as just large groups. \u00a0Sister Clendening said some were “protest” groups – but they are quiet and just carry a few signs – not at all like in the United States. \u00a0Over all it is a day to celebrate. \u00a0You see flowers everywhere and balloons and people going out to celebrate. \u00a0Of course, Ukrainians love to celebrate so any excuse is a good one but this is almost as big as New Year’s is. \u00a0We even had fireworks at night. \u00a0Many restaurants had free or reduced prices for women and the clubs mostly had get in free for women as well. \u00a0It was really incredible to see how they celebrate women here.<\/p>\n

Then on Saturday our branch had a celebration for Women as well. \u00a0Elder Morgenegg was asked to come early and if he wanted to bring something to share. \u00a0He made his famous Maple Walnut Rolls and they were a big hit. \u00a0The other men also brought or made goodies. \u00a0We had a wonderful program first and then the treats which included: a cup with a fruit pudding in it, a cake with a delicious fruit topping that soaked into it, another cake with a crunchy topping and these delightful little puff pastries with apples inside. \u00a0The had a red drink which I thought was cherry juice (a big deal here and we love it) – it was not and I am not sure what it was but one of the missionaries said it was red rose leaf tea. \u00a0I didn’t dislike it but I did not love it enough to have seconds. \u00a0The men were so proud of themselves and they should be.<\/p>\n

At the beginning they had several things that they did. \u00a0The counselor in the Branch Presidency was in charge but he had a returned missionary young man conduct the meeting. We sang appropriate hymns: \u00a0“Love at Home” at the beginning and “Families can be Together Forever” at the end.<\/p>\n

The Counselor, Brother Kazachikov, first gave a tribute to women and to his wife. \u00a0We didn’t have translation for all of it but what we got was so sweet. \u00a0His wife is a beautiful woman with such a beautiful smile – her face is always a smile in fact and although she doesn’t speak any English (nor does he) they are very friendly and welcoming. \u00a0Then the missionaries assigned to our branch sang a song. Here is a picture of them – it is not very good because I took it on my missionary phone and it doesn’t take high quality photos.<\/p>\n

\"Our

Our Missionaries love their Russian hats. The one in the police hat is Ukrainian and loves to be different. The one on the left side is from Belarius. The others, including the one you can’t see well who is playing a guitar, are all American.<\/p><\/div>\n

Then they had a very funny skit with two brothers from the branch. \u00a0One dressed up in his Sunday best coming home from work, the other dressed in one of his wife’s dresses, tights, shoes and a scarf who is playing the wife. \u00a0The wife gives her husband a welcoming hug and a gift. \u00a0He opens the gift and then throws it aside and sits down and starts eating the meal she has prepared. \u00a0She immediately sits and backs away from the table with her arms folded. \u00a0We couldn’t understand the words but we got the message. \u00a0He obviously did it wrong. \u00a0They argue – he puts on the tie she gave him – she tightens it as much as possible until he is almost blue – he tries to apologize – she puts on her coat and starts to leave – he works hard at apologizing and finally wins her back – they hug and go off arm in arm. \u00a0We were all laughing so hard. \u00a0What good actors – and on Sunday they are both so serious – he often teaches Gospel Doctrine. \u00a0Very funny.<\/p>\n

Then a cute young boy and girl who obviously are trained dancers danced for us. Here is a picture I took after.<\/p>\n

\"These

These two dancers are brother and sister and I understand they have won many contests in ball room dancing.<\/p><\/div>\n

Then there was a game. \u00a0The young man who was conducting invited a young man up and put him at the chalk board and turned the chalkboard around. \u00a0Then he invited up some others and gave them each a balloon. \u00a0He gave some instructions and then gave them each a marker and turned the board around to reveal an alien the young man had drawn. \u00a0Then he invited up our young missionary with the police hat to choose the best drawing. \u00a0They were all hamming it up and it was very funny. \u00a0Then we heard lots of popped balloons as the children got the balloons after.<\/p>\n

Then they showed a video they had secretly made with all the brethren in the branch individually giving a part of the special message to the women. \u00a0It was taken on a green screen and then they added lots of assorted flower backgrounds. \u00a0Elder Morgenegg doesn’t know what he said but he was a part of it all as well. \u00a0It was so nice.<\/p>\n

Then the men all got us and sang a song that they really hammed up. \u00a0It was so funny to see these serious men so silly. \u00a0The counselor was the funniest. \u00a0He is always so nice but so serious and he really go into the singing. \u00a0Here are some pictures taken of various parts of the singing. \u00a0The man in the center who is using his arms the most in a suit is the counselor. \u00a0His wife was not able to be there but it was videoed and shown in Relief Society the next day.<\/p>\n

\"Beginning

Beginning to sing their song to women.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"The

The missionaries were all on one side but they all sang as well.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Towards

Towards the end they really got into singing. The man in the back with his arm up is the other counselor.<\/p><\/div>\n

I understand other branches also had celebrations but I doubt any topped ours.<\/p>\n

This is such a great branch to be a part of.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here in Ukraine International Women’s Day is a really big deal. \u00a0Men take the day off work. \u00a0Most federal offices and post offices are closed, banks are closed, and schools are closed. \u00a0Early in the day (Wednesday this year) it was almost eerie how quiet it was as we walked to work. \u00a0Almost no cars […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventures-intro","category-our-mission"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/momsblog.morgeneggs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/momsblog.morgeneggs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/momsblog.morgeneggs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/momsblog.morgeneggs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/momsblog.morgeneggs.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1145"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/momsblog.morgeneggs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1145\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1152,"href":"https:\/\/momsblog.morgeneggs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1145\/revisions\/1152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/momsblog.morgeneggs.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/momsblog.morgeneggs.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/momsblog.morgeneggs.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}