Last week in Kiev!!!

Hello friends!

Goodness…I haven’t written in a while! The internet is a bit hard to come by here…but I have it right now, so no worries. Ukraine has been great. It is still hot from 9am til 10pm at night…but as I told you, we did have some freezing days of rain last week to balance that out.

We haven’t been particularly busy with ‘church’ work as of late…but that really depends of what ‘church’ work is. I spend a lot of my time with Allie and the kids following them to their various activities, playing with the kids and their friends in the yard, and, of course, swimming at the lake. Since the weather has become warm again, we’ve swum nearly everyday at the lake in the forest. The water is freezing and incredibly deep about two metres out, but it is a cool and refreshing change from the hot sun…which strange enough makes everyone here quite tan but doesn’t even burn Allie or I. My theory is that it is not as bright as the American or Australian sun and so it doesn’t affect our skin as much…if anyone knows the real reason why, please let me know.

Richard Betts came on the weekend to do a review with us and make sure everything was going well here (and to actually meet the people we’re staying with). So we took a nice tour of Kiev while he was here. Maria took us to the World War Two memorial, a market, and a couple Orthodox churches. Ukraine was celebrating its 3 day Independence weekend so the streets were lively and full of people. The Orthodox churches were quite interesting. We were lucky enough to enter them during a service of sorts. One priest shook some incense and bells around for a while, then another lit candles, then lots of beautiful singing rung through the chapel. (I’m pretty sure that was a CD though which sort of makes it feel a bit cheap…) but then a priest would chant sort of towards the alter and people standing around would reply something in Russian…then the singing was heard from the back (none of the people sang). Regardless, it was a beautiful experience. The whole chapel was painted on the inside too…pictures of Jesus and Saints and apostles and stories. It was wonderfully done…but some images were a bit disturbing. I realize the crusades and such are part of Christianity…and the Old Testament is full of conquests…but every third Saint seemed to have some sort of weapon in his/her hand. A spear, or a sword or something of the like. Seemed a bit hypocritical…it made me really reflect on Christianity…what it is and what is has been.

On the subject of church, while Richard was here we had a communion service under the tent. Three people from the Kiev congregation came. It was unfortunate that this was the first time we got to meet them…I don’t think I realized there was a Kiev congregation…weird…but it was nice to see them before we left. The service was similar to last time (though without the talent show…just the kids singing a bunch at the end instead).

Back to that subject (of the kids), we go to their voice lessons a couple times a week and amuse ourselves while they sing for two hours, or we go to their tae kwon do lesson, or swimming with them, or teach them new games or English words. Neighborhood kids don’t come as often as earlier on, but they still do and we play games with them til bedtime. Back to the earlier comment, I still see this as church work though. I’ve had people tell me that they were so bored during world service corps because they had no church things to do…but I don’t see how that could have been the case if they had a bunch of kids to play with all the time. It is still a form of ministering. We are loving these kids and teaching them new things, new ways to see the world, and giving them some more fun in their lives (hopefully). It will be different in Odessa (where we go on Friday) because Allie and I will be in our own apartment and not in the same house as the family, but I still imagine we will be interacting with the church families just as much and building relationships with these lovely people. Speaking of, I don’t think we could have done all this without Maria. She is the lifeline for us here. The kids can sort of speak English…the older the better…but Maria is fluent and so translates everything for us, and provides herself as a loving and friendly person who we have come to rely on. She will come to Odessa with us as we work there with her brother Volodiya (not sure on the spelling…), which we are very glad of.

I know this doesn’t fully summarize my experience again!...dang…but I’ll keep trying to write more often. They say we’ll have internet in our apartment so maybe keep checking more during the next week.

Oh! And we did talk to Maria about the trash thing and she said it was a no go because no one would probably show up…ahha. Oh well. So we must concede with instead going to places about once or twice a week into Kiev to watch the kids sing with a PA system while the parents pass out things about the church and their singing. It’s meant to build community like our idea and bring people to church. Not sure how successful the second part is yet…but folks stop to watch the kids sing…so that’s good.

Oh! Another thing…I have been asked a couple times to pick strawberries in the yard. Last time Allie did it with me and we collected probably over a hundred strawberries. It’s really fun. I like working in the garden and picking the rewards of the sweet red berries. They also have raspberries which we don’t collect but just go pick off when the need strikes…delicious.

Ukraine is hot and wonderful. Only a couple days left in Kiev. Only a couple days left with most of the family here (only Maria, Christy, and Sophie are coming with us to Odessa). So it will be sad to leave Kiev, but exciting to see a new place and meet new people.

Until next time…

Zoe