Morning winter snow outside our apartment. Beautiful to wake up to. 

Yes, we had to step outside to have our chests x-rayed. Please pay special attention to the strangely radioactive appearing spot at the bottom of the x-ray hut and the suspicious looking pile of ashes to its left...and where is our new Chief Secretary? 

Foreigners living in Russia must have health checks each six months. Today employees and staff loaded into three vans and travelled to a nearby clinic to give blood, have our skin checked, and our bones photographed. Notice our fashionable footwear... 

Brad and Cadet Vanya "share" some watermelon. 

Anita smiles on the upper left while her cadets play dominos and enhoy cheese dip brought back from Helsinki. 

Cadet Vicka samples some peanut butter (rarely found in Moscow) during a checkers match. 

Cadet Dima eats oranges and plays checkers. 

Here is just a small part of the 35 pound behemoth of a watermelon the cadets consumed while visiting the Caldwells for game night. 

Cadets from the Heralds of the Good News session visit the Caldwell apartment for games and a 35 pound watermelon! 

Kiev from eighteen floors high. A typical downtown street crammed with apartment buildings and office space. 

One of our classroom locations for the First Year Officer Review afforded us an overview of a nearby soccer stadium in Kiev. 

Beso and Irma Nibierdze enjoy a pot pie in Kiev while away from their home country of Georgia. 

Ukraine Divisional Commander Major Marie Willermark grins broadly, reflecting her enjoyment of her appointment away from her home in Sweden. Secretary/translator Irina embraces her leader and friend. 

Discussion transpires between officers, respectively as viewed, from Moldova, Ukraine, Romania, and Georgia. This gathering of officers in Kiev was a welcome break despite its educational nature. 

Officers who have completed their first year of service as Salvation Army officers gathered in Kiev, Ukraine, for classes, fellowship, and worship.