“You can’t buy happiness, but you can buy tea and that’s kinda the same thing.”
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I have officially made it to Ukraine and lemme tell you. It’s a really beautiful place.
My day basically starts like this:
I wake up and realize there are 2 other girls in my room (hey Emma and Jenna Rose). I turn over on my bed and it’s almost like my mouth/throat doesn’t want to talk because who really does at 9 a.m.?
I then get up (sadly) and okay here’s the hard part. The stairs. Okay like you might be thinking of normal and spaced out stairs. No. Not at ALL. These stairs were legit made for 6 year olds. The steps are so close together and to add to that, they are openbacked, which means that when you make the wrong step, your life literally will tumble down (and Mad World plays in the background along with a black and white filter.) Also, wearing socks on these stairs are not very fun, because the steps are SLIPPERY. But anyways.
I finally get downstairs and realize that two of my teammates are awake (hey Colby and Alec). Great. Now they are just staring at my bedhead and probably wondering what happened to me. But it’s really just too early in the morning to care what they think of me, so I just walk on by to the bathroom where there lies one of the best things ever invented. A BODY MIRROR. Like hold the phone. I get so excited to see that I am a huge pile of mess, but at least I can see where I missed plucking my eyebrows. Thank the Lord for toilet paper though and a sink and soap. Leaving this bathroom every morning is pretty sad, because it’s just such a nice, spacious room.
I walk back out to where my teammates are sitting which is the kitchen. In here lies all of the finest things in life. Starting with tea. I kid you not, I have probably drank 20+ cups of tea in this room (an insanely bad amount of herbs). Then comes next is the cookies. THE COOKIES. Now, again, probably thinking like average American cookies. No. Like the best cookies in the world to where you start eating 1 and end up eating 30. The sugar. The crispiness. Mouth watering cookies. Along with cookies, is my time with the Lord so I mean it totally works out in the end, cause these cookies like lowkey encourage me to stay at the table with my pen and journal and Bible.
Moving on, once I fill up with not only food but the Lord, next is getting ready to teach English at a school right down the road. I just scurry on back up the steps (I say scurry, but like 30 seconds to go up a flight of stairs is too long in general). I like actually forget what i wore the day before and just like hope my outfit is clean/different than the last, but on the Race who really actually notices. Once I do all my calculations and figure that out, I scurry back on down the stairs along with 5 other people (my teammates) and we all are just kind of like crazy and all over the place during this time, trying to find our matching shoe to wear and throwing all of our coats on. Crazy times.
But once we reach the outdoors, it’s just so refreshing. Like imagine a nice crisp air with the most beautiful yellow trees. We walk for about 15 minutes to the school and during this time, I realize that I always like to be in the front of the pack. It’s so funny cause once i get going, my feet like actually don’t stop. I just hear random conversations of my teammates talking about the pretty yellow trees, how unorganized our ministry is and if we brushed our teeth or not, well that last part might just be me in my head. Also, the sidewalks here are really confusing because like they aren’t sidewalks, but they are? I dunno. It goes from mud to like a really nice tiled ground, but I’m just thankful a car hasn’t hit me yet.
Once we get to the school, we are awkwardly greeted by a bunch of Ukrainian kids all trying to say “Hello” but like attack you, because they say it so fast and eagerly. The school smells like an old museum like all musky, but that’s besides the point. I got situated in a class of 16 year old 11th graders that ask weird questions like “Isn’t America fat?” and “How many kids do you want?” It’s pretty fun though besides that. Teaching English to them is pretty hard, but also we have a class of 7 & 8 year olds that is even more interesting. We introduce ourselves and they always respond with “Nice to meet you!” so the conversation goes like this “Hi, My name is Camryn-” “-HI! My name _____”. But in the end it’s pretty cute and we do try to help them speak a little better.
Once that is all over with (phew), we head back out to go back to our ministry host house. Usually we just get back and hang out and chill until we eat lunch. This is the part of the day where like I don’t even know what I’m doing. Like I’ll go from reading my Bible to watching my teammate kill the 19th fly in our room. Fun times. Once lunch is ready I dread having to go back down the stairs again, however, I manage to do it. Lunch everyday is literally soup, bread and some kind of weird fruity drink. You think I would be kidding, but no they love their carbs here!
I have realized that through my days here up until this part of the day, there is so much the Lord has revealed to me! I love it. Lately he has been teaching me that getting deeper into his word is awesome stuff. I never noticed how cool God can be when I read through his word. I went through 1 Thessalonians and grasped the idea that we should show more love and just more of everything all the time. For example, if I love my teammates, I should love them even more than I actually do! Same with my host family here, because the idea of being stagnant does not sound at all interesting. I want my journey to continue with me stepping out of my comfort zones and literally giving 110% of me, so I can glorify the kingdom.
Till next time.
