Hello, hello!
It’s hard to believe we’re going into day 6. Part of me feels like time’s been flying and part of feels like it’s going to be a very long 11 months. As we’re getting more familiar with the culture, our surroundings, the food, the bus, the language and how things work around here, it’s getting a bit easier each day.
Some interesting things I’ve observed about Ukraine:
One thing that is very different from what I’m used to (especially as an avid and dedicated smile-and-waver whether I’m driving or running through my subdivision, walking around a grocery store or wherever else I may be), is that no one (not even the little kids) smile, wave, say hello or excuse me when they rush by. It seems very down-to-business around here. One of the guys we’ll be working with through the month explained it like this : They’re like watermelon. The outer shell is hard to get through, but once you do, they’re very sweet. 🙂 My team and I are really looking forward to building those relationships while we’re here.
Also, the buses are insane. You have about 3 seconds to jump on/off or else you will lose a leg or an arm as he shuts the door and takes off. I barely made it one time and got jammed between the door and the railing along the stairs. It was hilarious yet oh so painful at the same time haha When your stop is coming up, you have to get to the front of the bus to tell him how many people you’re paying for, pay him and tell him your stop…all in Russian might I add. We’re getting better at this, but it’s still a bit of a challenge.
Another interesting tidbit is that you have to pay to use the toilets in most places. The cost is about 25 cents. Oh, and be sure to check that there’s toilet paper in the stall before going in. Some of restrooms have the toilet paper available at the door on the way in, so if you miss that boat, you’re out of luck in the stall. And besides having to pay for the bathroom, some of them are what we call “squatty’s”-basically, you squat over a hole in the floor. Here I thought we wouldn’t have to be concerned with squatty’s until Africa! At the train station in Kiev, I was triple surprised by these unknown facts- 1) we had to pay to use it, 2) the stalls included only squatty’s, 3) we were supposed to grab the toilet paper befooore we went in to our stall. Luckily, I grabbed the extra napkins leftover from our crepe lunch, so I was golden. Here’s a picture of the squatty’s in the bathroom by the Black Sea (hopefully this will load..if not, I’m working on getting a Flickr account to upload all of them).
Now that you have an idea of some funny things we’ve been experiencing, we can get into my team’s ministry work while we’re here. We are working with Living Hope Church which was established almost 2 years ago. The church is in a pretty run down factory in the middle of town. We will with the activities at English Class, Bible Study and church, evangelize and invite people to the church services during the week. We’re going to paint some of the church rooms, and we’re working on getting together with a local orphanage to serve however we can. They use the English Class as a means of connecting with those that would not otherwise come to church. We had the privilege of attending and participating in English class this past Tuesday which was pretty fun. We met some great people that I’m very excited to see again in a few days. I’m really looking forward to having the opportunity to be running some of the activities this Saturday with two others from my team.
One of my teammates, Nathan Boaldin, got very ill on Friday from drinking the water on the train Thursday night…little did we know that was a bad idea! Luckily, I couldn’t figure out how to turn the water on, so I was all set haha It’s funny how God watches over me and helps me out so often. Most of the time, I have no idea why things happen or don’t happen but it ALWAYS works out in some random, yet perfect way. Some examples… 1) not being able to turn the water on in the train = no sickness, 2) accidently ordering 9 months worth of malaria medication that I didn’t know what to do with = switching countries on the route and needing all of the medication afterall, 2) grabbing the napkins from lunch for some future use = squatty savior. I know these aren’t huge things, but they have definitely made a huge difference in my day to day life which to me is more impactful than one or two huge things. Anywho, back to Nathan! He was really shakey, nauseas, faint and tired which of course can make it very difficult to do anything. Last night we prayed heavily that God would heal him so that he could be fully present and do that work God sent us here for. This morning he woke up feeling awesome! It was amazing to see how God heals when we have faith and ask Him for it.
We went to the meat market yesterday. That got interrupted though because the police came to where we were staying. No worries, we’re safe! I figured we’d have a run in with the cops, but not this soon haha I’ll write about that experience next time 🙂
I’m going to create a Flickr account with all my pictures soon!!
Love you and miss you all!!!
