**Disclaimer– this is pretty disjointed, because I wrote it while
falling asleep last night on board the train. Just a warning, it’s more
of a daily journal entry! AND I won’t be able to post pictures
for a while because we don’t have wi-fi, so I can’t use my laptop, this
is the host family’s computer. I can’t wait to post pictures!!
Woke up around 5:30 to beautiful, streaming sunlight at the hostel in
Kiev– I love all the hours of sunshine! Did some yoga on the balcony
in the perfect, Colorado-esque weather and read in a window-seat in the
hostel– this place is amazing. A couple girls and I went down to the
local grocery store to buy food for two teams for the day– thank
goodness for pictures on packages, giving us some idea of what we’re
buying!
We went back to the hostel and chatted with a great guy named
Lucas–he’s from Taiwan originally but owns an IT company in Denver
now–he was in Kiev as part of his two-week holiday. He went to Prague
first and now he’s headed to Greece for a cruise ofthe islands–just a
lovely summer holiday away from work, exploring some beautiful places in
the world and meeting a bunch of people! Praying for you, Lucas!
Before heading out, a group of us went to the cafe next door to “be
European”. I had some great street-vendor coffee, and we ended up having
a heartbreaking conversation about human trafficking. Lord, please give
us wisdom on how to combat that!
After checking out of the hostel at noon we hopped on the biggest,
steepest, fastest escalator EVER down tothe metro,where we were the
cause of a LOT of gawking. We look like giant turtles with our packs on.
We just hung out around the big beautiful train station for about 6
hours, playing cards and sleeping and people-watching (and at one point
had about 6 Ukrainian militia guys telling us off in a language we don’t
even slightly understand–just a tad intimidating!)
Confession: I used a squatty potty for the first time! Really
disgusting.Why spend all the money on the porcelain without just making a
toilet?? Do they really prefer the squatty potty method?? Hmm.
We FINALLY boarded the train, and it was a freaking blast! We all
just laughed and played games and talked–it really was one of the best
nights so far. Nathan and I endangered our lives and our cameras taking
pictures out the open window of the train– the pictures were totally
worth the risk though! I’ll post pictures as soon as I can!
WORST SMELL THUS FAR: the bathroom on board the train. Holy mother.
That was awful.
UPDATE: we are now at a missionary family’s house outside of
Lughanst, about 30 miles from the Russian border. This week we’re going
to start doing a teen softball camp in different towns around here,
teaching them softball, playing movies, and sharing the Lord with them!
Should be fun 🙂
