I’m sorry.
I haven’t been a good blogger this past month.
It’s not because I haven’t had anything to blog about, rather we have been doing so many things it gets overwhelming when I think about what to write about.
Ukraine has been so much better than I expected honestly. I tried to not come into this past month with many expectations, but I think ideas of Eastern Europe as a “cold, drab and dark place” were floating subconsciously through my mind. But the Kiev I experienced blew those thoughts out of the water.
This past month we were fortunate to work with CCX, which is a Christian Campus Ministry that mainly strives to do outreach through English Clubs and various social events. We were able to come alongside them, double their numbers and make as many friends as we could. Our main mission was speaking at the English Clubs, as well as classes at four different universities, about our trip thus far and any other questions they may have had. We were able to meet so many people and many of them became dear friends. The people in Kiev are just such amazing people. There is an analogy that was introduced to us when we first arrived, which is that American people often tend to be like a Peach, soft on the outside, easy to become friends with, but then harder to get deep with, like the tough pit in a peach; whereas Ukrainian people tend to be more like a watermelon, they are typically harder to get to know at first, but once you break through the hard exterior, the inside (the friendship) isn’t superficial, but deep and purposeful. I found this to be true with so many of the people that I met. After gaining trust with the students, I found some of them to be more vulnerable and open to talk about their lives than I ever expected.
We also had the blessing of being able to experience a ton culturally. There is so much history in Kiev and it was such a privilege to be able to tour it all. Almost every weekend we were led to see various parts of the city by university students. One of my favorite moments was getting to see “Swan Lake” for $2.50 at the Kiev National Opera House. It was so beautiful it actually made me cry.
All in all, it was an amazing month filled with wonderful people.
Here is a video that my teammate, Rachel Rittman, made highlighting a lot of the cultural things we were able to see with the students, enjoy!
