HALONEN.CA

It had to happen sooner or later…

A few months ago, a piece of one of my teeth fell out. It didn’t hurt, so I decided to ignore it. Anyway, while we were in Kiev a couple of weeks ago, it started to ache one evening. The pain did go away eventually…

Then, this past Thursday, it started hurting again. With Costa’s help, we found a dentist who could check it out. I figured she was going to want to remove the tooth. Instead, she said she could fix it…

So, Thursday I spent 1 1/2 hours in a dentist chair while she did a root canal and put in a temporary filling, and then we went in search of an x-ray place to see if she “got it all”. The x-ray cost 75 cents… She did “get it all”.

On Friday, I was back at the dentist. She installed two titanium pins in the tooth (there wasn’t much of the original tooth left), and proceeded to “build” a new tooth. 2 1/2 hours later she was done.

Total cost? Just over $100… And the pain is gone! How much would this have cost in Canada?

A couple of weeks ago (April 16 to 18) Kerri and I had a “mini holiday” in Kiev. Eleanor stayed with our kids while we were away. It was the first time in almost two years that we have been out of Krivoy Rog together. It was a nice break, but at the same time it reminded us of how messed up things really are in this city. Visiting Kiev is like visiting another country. Yes, there is still a huge amount of poverty in Kiev, but it isn’t nearly as pervasive (at least visibly) as it is here.

It was nice to just “be a tourist” for a little while!

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Yesterday (Saturday) was another busy day here. We had a number of kids here from the orphanage for band practice/music lessons.

Dave Miller moved here a little over a month ago from Canada. He was working with the new musicians at our house yesterday afternoon.
A couple of kids also learned how to ride bicycles while they were here as well…

It was also Dima’s birthday, so we had a cake for him after lunch, and in the evening I took the older kids to the football (soccer) game.

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Yesterday, we helped deliver some food and mattresses to a home for handicapped adults just outside the city.

The mattresses and food were purchased by Canadian and American friends who were visiting here, conducting training seminars for childcare workers, and teaching at local churches.

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OK…

An update on the month of March (where did the month go?)…

Weekends with kids, a music competition, a new catering business, and more…

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