I rarely know what day it is, let alone the date. Yesterday Masha invited us to a baptism being held by her church. After the baptism there would be a picnic and another team of Americans would be there. We took the bus and got off near the town center, we walked down to a large park and then made a left on the truck road. At first the path was clearly marked and paved, then it was clearly marked and dirt, then it became a narrow bike path littered with dead mice and frogs. After awhile we became convinced we had gone the wrong way and turned around. Masha called and because we couldn’t find her she came to find us. We walked toward a woman we thought was Masha only to realize it wasn’t and then turned round to see her coming from where we had just been. She hugged us all excited and screaming after a week apart, she told us the other American team had a twin of Sydney but with glasses. We followed her down the narrow path which eventually led to a grassy field and the river.
We arrived just in time to see the baptism, it was two young men, with an old man in a Speedo and orange fins swimming around for moral support. Then the blankets and food came out. So far Ukraine has impressed me with the best strawberries, pizza and pistachio ice cream I have tasted in the world. We ate sausages and bread and fruit and eggs, it was a hodgepodge of food and the most amazing comfortable hippie style get together. They played worship songs I knew but with Ukrainian lyrics, I just sung the English versions. The other Americans were mostly from Arkansas with some other states thrown in, and Sydney’s “twin” not only looked like her but is a girl she knows from back home.
I sat next to Lili on Dima, Natalya and Oxana’s blanket and she turned and said, “I was kind of sad that I wasn’t going to get to go to my church 4th of July picnic…” I hadn’t even realized it was 4th of July but there we were having the best picnic in the Ukraine with a church we barely knew who treated us the way every member of the body should treat others, like family.
My allergies got out of control right before we left but it was great and I am very thankful!!!
