In Ukraine the sun does not go all the way down until after 9pm and it doesn’t get completely dark until about 11 . After the hot water shut off at about 11:30 while I was in the shower and I was forced to wash my hair and rinse with the low pressure freezing spicket water, I made my way to my very squeeky bed pad and fell asleep. A little after sunrise, 4am or so I was awoken by the sound of what I thought was a dinosaur but turned out to be a snorer who shall remain nameless. The next time I woke up it was 11:12 and I was still super sleepy. Once I finally managed to convince myself to get up Logan came and opened the window and said “it looks like its gonna rain”. I thought it just looked cloudy and probably wouldn’t but after a few people suggested rain jackets I decided to leave my laptop and take my jacket just in case. There was a mad rush to have a morning meeting before we had to meet Sasha, the Ukrainian YWAM contact, who was going to take us into the city to see the castle, and a few girls came out jacketless. We ran out the door and across the building blocks to the playground to meet Sasha and Jake,an american YWAMer from Ohio, as we stood there making introductions we began to feel light spritzes that seemed to come from every direction but up, then a slight drizzel started as we began to walk, we crossed the street and waited, bus 9 arrived and we all boarded and as the last girl took her seat the sky ripped open and the rain began to POUR over us, safe and dry on the bus.
The bus drove us to the city center where we deboarded to a wet street and dry sky. We walked past some statues when Sasha met his friend Marsha who is an english teacher at the university. She volunteered to take us to see the castle. We walked all along old town Lusk, past a beautiful Catholic church with catacombs but it was locked. When we got to the castle there was an admission of 10 grivna which is about $1.25 but we didn’t have enough money for that in our budget so we had to leave. Marcia took us to the nearby baptist church which was amazingly beautiful and always closed to the public andspoke to the grounds keeper, who let us in because we are believers. He gave us Ukranian pocket bibles and told us some of the church history. In the summer the church does river baptizims, once we left the church we made our way to the river and found house with sculptures built into all the walls and doors and gates and a hodge podge of materials and fixtures littered throughout the yard, as we walked about taking pictures a shirtless old man came out and started to speak to marcia. Nicholai, as we would later learn his name was, was the artist who had created all the sculptures we saw which were easily numbered in the hundreds. He told us about how his son, a rock musician, had died and was curious to learn about us. He had us all sign a book and write him something for his wife to translate, he told us he had been inspired and would be making a sculpture of us and he took a picture with us that both he an I now have a copy of. After leaving his place the wind picked up dramatically, we scurried back across the square, said good by to marcia and made it to the overhang of a large building just as the rain began. We got onto the bus and off at our stop which is the Tam Tam market, and were blessed to again step out to a wet street and dry sky. We hurried back to the apartment and I slowly trudged my way up the flights of stairs, Lili the key holder came with me so everyone who took the elevator had to wait at the locked door until we arrived, as we walked in and took seats in the livingroom the rain began to pour again and did not stop for several hours, God is good!
