The two women on my team and myself rented out a little house, that I’m sure was from World War II complete with an old midewy smell, for only 70 grievna a week (about $8.75). It was beautiful.
Besides getting absolutely homemade food all week such as homemade bread with honey, borsht (soup), and yogurt that wasn’t from the store, we got to know some pretty amazing families. We specifically got to work with three young couples and their children. They were the most beautiful loving families that I’ve met on the race yet. They cared for each other so well and loved God even more. It’s funny how this made me want to go home more than ever… I miss my own family.
We did a bit of manual labor there which was nice. The first thing that we did was gather “bricks” at a rock query for a family to rebuild an old house, because they were being kicked out of their present one. The bricks were more like any rocks you could find that were bigger than your hand. The place was in the middle of nowhere on the hills of country Ukraine, and it was so beautiful. On the way back (we were in two separate old Russian cars), our drivers turned those old country roads into a racing ground… my car won.
We also climbed up a hill (I didn’t fall going up) to prepare an area for a kid’s camp (picking up trash and digging bathroom holes). We were able to see the beautiful countryside and take huge gulps of the fresh air that is so pure here. We were told that it was lunch time (bread, boiled potatoes, cucumbers, and canned fish), but as soon as we sat to eat, the rain fell. We gathered all that we had to make our way down the hill before the rain got worse. The problem is that I am consequently very bad at going down hills without falling, but muddy hills that are steep while I’m carrying things?… well… Jared stayed with me and made the quick decision to take the pot of boiled potatoes and the large knife that I was attempting to haul down the slippery trail.
…This was probably one of the most scary/hilarious things that I have done on the race… honestly. I fell twice, the rain got harder, yet I ended up carrying my mud caked flip-flops down the trail, shaking with slight fear and laughing at the ridiculousness of the whole thing all the way down. I made it finally and we built a fire to dry off.
