Sorry
about taking so long to post my first blogs but we’ve been moving at 1000mph
and haven’t had internet for the last few days. Well it’s started…we boarded a
flight from Newark to Paris
then off to Kiev, Ukraine for our first month of
ministry. While in flight from Newark
to Paris Alex Cole broke the bathroom sink and tried frantically to get it to
stop spewing water. After several unsuccessful attempts to drain the sink as it
was on the brink of overflowing onto the floor, he had to get the help of the
AIR FRANCE stewardess team. It was a two person effort but they finally got it
under control and our first act of international terrorism was diverted.
Upon
arrival in Kiev
it was very overwhelming for me personally. I didn’t speak the language and
there was SO much to do before the rest of the squad arrived the next day. We
stayed at a hostel in the middle of the city and it was awesome. We got to meet
many other people from across the world who were also staying at the hostel as
they travelled through Kiev.
Kiev is also a
veryyyy trendy city, everywhere you go the people are dressed to impress.
(Needless to say my backpack full of gear for the next year didn’t quite
provide the wardrobe necessary to fit in)
After
getting everything together we went to the airport to meet the rest of our O
squad family to begin this crazy adventure. It was so refreshing to see our
team walk through those doors at the airport, they bring so much life and I
couldn’t wait to be reunited since training camp. We also picked up our tickets
for the 13 hour train ride to our ministry site…yes 13 hours…but there will be
another blog in a few weeks about our 43 hour train ride back.
We had
to check out of the hostel at 12 and our train didn’t leave until 7 so it was
an interesting 7 hours spent at the Kiev
train station. We were all just hanging out outside the station when 8 police
and military men came up and started speaking to us in Russian. We had NO idea
what they were saying and it was pretty intimidating but through hand signals
we realized that they wanted us to move somewhere else. This incident along
with just trying to order food at a restaurant showed me what foreigners go
through in America.
It was so tough and even though we had the best of intentions you would have thought
we were crazy if you were Ukrainian. When I would see foreigners looking
confused or trying to say something that wasn’t getting comprehended in America I would
be the first to make a comment and laugh but now I know what it feels like.
It’s one of the first real perspective changers I’ve had on the trip thus far.
The
ride wasn’t as bad as you might think except for the fact that I woke up at 2
am FREEZING because we left the window open to our cabin and it got extremely
cold at some point in the night. Also I’m way too tall for a train cabin so my
feet were sticking out of the window as I slept so that probably contributed to
my demise.
Our
American ministry contact Bruce picked us up at the train station and we were
off to his house to meet his wonderful family (which will be covered in a later
blog!) and start our first real week of ministry in Eastern
Ukraine!
