Back to school…
The first two weeks in Lugansk, Ukriane was back to school for us! Seriously, I literraly felt like I was back in school. To be honest, I hated the first two days of classes. It challenged me in more ways than I ever have been before. I was uncomfortable, very uncomfortable. The main teaching technique was via conversations on matieral that stimulates your mind. So, here I was first day of class all by myself in a classroom full of strangers. The topic for the day was Faith and Belief. I was put on the spot. Questions were asked and somehow I ended up talking about anything ranging from demons to healings. Oh yes, and this was in a classroom full of nonbelievers. I felt like I was in Philosophy class with Dr. Reed from college. Not my cup of tea!
Some of the students and teachers at NewTone
After a few days of going to different clases everyday, I fell in love with the people. I just could not get enough of them. One night JD and myself had some students over to our apartment to simply invest in them. Jane, one of the students, brought tons of food. It was one incredible night!
food and game night student style
love this game!
We also got to record some speaking parts for the new teaching material. Not only that but the main guy, Mike, took all of us out for Billards Russian style. I was horrible, but enjoyed eating all the food as always!!
gertting my recording on!
Billards night…our contact Forrest in glasses
hardest thing ever!
The night after Billards, we decided to invite all of the teachers over for a Mexican Fiesta night Ukrainian style. Boy oh boy did they love this! We hand made everything…i mean from beans to tortillas. It was such an awesome opportunity to tell the teachers thanks for all they had done for us.
some of the teachers
game time…
yum!
At the end of all this, I did realize that I'm pretty sure that the race has made me loose some of my english speaking skills. I found the teachers and students saying words and phrases that I had never heard before. It's actually quite funny. Welp, who would have thunk it?
Dennis, Jd, Me, and Olga
All in all, I had such a great time being stretched and developing relationships with some amazing people! It was quite hard to leave, but camp was well worth it!!
