Lost in Translation

Erin works closely with a local church in Poltava. Naturally, we attend service there on Sundays. Salvation Church is conveniently located a short distance from her apartment and as worship begins at 2 pm it makes for a lovely, leisurely Sunday. I have met so many wonderful people there and it is always interesting to attend church in a different country.

However, as I don't read, write, sing, or speak Russian, I tend to miss a lot even with interpretation. Luckily the Russian church environment plays to my people watching nature. Other than Sunday corporate worship, I rarely use singing in my praise time. It just isn't my natural choice of communion. But it has been so amazing to watch people worship, especially Christians who connect with God via song.

This past Sunday, while observing, there was a time when the passion of the congregation was practically palpable and God pressed upon me the beauty of my Ukrainian brothers and sisters. How, one day, we will join together in singing and communing with God without our human barriers. Without the hindrance of language, culture, or location. We will love God together with the fullness of our hearts, communing as one body, one family...what a glorious day it will be.

Walking to, walking fro, hill by hill, on we go.

At first I was confused by all the trim figures I encountered here. Especially considering the continuous diet of sugary baked goods, heavy starch dishes, and jam by the spoonfuls. Then I learned about the national pastime of Ukraine: walking for hours. And this is not just walking to get somewhere, it is their social lifeblood.

If you want to hang out with Ukrainians, you walk together for several hours. Sunday night the youth group got together and walked to a town which is thirty minutes away by bus. Now, that kind of walking is not my cup of tea. But I have enjoyed the many experiences during various walks around town with my new friends.

Last week Ira and Tanya walked with us to some local hotspots. We went to a lookout over Poltava where couples hang locks as a good luck charm for their relationship. We also visited a couple city monuments and of course, the bowl of galushki.

On Saturday we visited the Orthodox monastery with Nastia. It was SO beautiful inside but pictures aren't allowed. However, downstairs there was an infant baptism and I took audio of the priest chanting/praying while the baby cried. Inside you have to cover yourself and scarves/skirts were graciously provided outside. I think we pulled of the look quite well.

This is only audio from the church, not video!

If anything was ever a sporcle, that would be it.

Erin and I were invited to tea this morning at Victoria's house. She made us tea, then fed us fruit and jam. Just jam. Apparently you don't put it on bread here, all you need is a spoon. So that was a suprise.

Victoria has a summer home and brought us watermelon and grapes along with a new fruit which we could not identify. Victoria said it is called an indian pomegranate, but I have yet to find it on any website. Therefore Erin and I decided to call it a sporcle-it is quite interesting. It does seem to be distantly related to a pomegranate. It has a thick, ridged outer skin and you consume the red fruity pods inside. I will let you know if we end up being brave enough to eat it, for now we are observing. Apparently it needs to ripen but I can't decide if it looks less appetizing while green or yellow.

Nyet! How do you say upside down in Russian?

So yesterday Erin took me to the local TB hospital to do weekly Bible stories and play with the kids. Who could say no? Such cute little faces...and I know you will be disappointed to learn I did not take a single picture, however I was a little preoccupied with the super cute kids! (We are probably going to return next week and I will do my best to snap some shots.)

*Random fact-orphanages cannot operate in the summer due to some governmental rule, therefore they are forced to find places to put the orphans during the summer, like camps, tb hospitals, etc. So during the summer around 15 healthy kids are sent here.

School is in session so there were no "healthy" kids with us, and we were down in numbers because some of the older ones were in class. Yet we still managed to have our hands full. I spent plenty of time with Artyome, trying to teach him which side of the stamps to ink, which is more difficult than you would think considering I only know "yes" and "no" in Russian.

However I was excellent during singing/dancing time because you do not have to speak Russian to be able to hop like bunnies, fly like birds, or chomp like crocodiles. Who knew? During this time we were interrupted by a live band next door (you can hear it below). So after we said goodbye to the children we went next door.

There we passed by the Mayor and Archbishop of Poltava on their way out. Apparently there was an art opening/celebration for a national poet, and the docent, once discovering we were Americans, made sure we received the FULL tour. Here is a video of some of the folk crafts with the music in the background-enjoy!

Of course we will be safe...Oh look-a bombshell!

Yesterday Erin's friends Nastia and Dasha took us to a new aerospace museum. However by aerospace we mean old plane graveyard, and by museum we mean tarmac on a field in the middle of nowhere. Literally. We had to walk for about 30 minutes past the bus stop and through an old military base to get there. As usual it was rather sketchy but super fun.

The government has set up about ten old planes ranging from smaller one-pilot fighter planes to huge cargo planes. We had fun climbing, exploring, and pushing propellors. *Side note-in Ukraine it is customary for newly weds to drive to various landmarks with friends to take pictures after the ceremony. So I don't know why we were surprised when three cars pulled up, and began to take pictures and pop champagne bottles. I would have taken some up close wedding photos (to add to my portfolio ;), but I thought that was a little rude and too "sight seeing American" to pull off.

I had a great time with Nastia and Dasha, they are hilarious. This is Dasha, who is quite the photobug. Apparently in Ukraine taking pictures of yourself and friends is a national pastime, so I pretty much feel at home :)

Beets & potatoes...what else does one need in life?

The food is is very basic and I have really enjoyed what I have tried so far. The red soup Erin shows you is Borsch, a soup made primarily from beets. And it is quite tasty even to anti-beet conosouiers such as Erin.

On the road again (to Poltava)

So Erin and I took the early train to Poltava, where she is assigned. We got to sit across from each other but Erin was stuck next to a rather large and unfortunate man. Who, did not say anything to her until he felt the need to take of his jacket and place it on the hook next to her head. It (the jacket not the man) made several attempts to cuddle with her throughout the journey. I laughed. Erin did not.

If you can't hear on the video, this is the Dnieper river, which bisects Kiev and the citizens use for ice fishing in the winter.

After a few days of recovery from serious jet lag I went with Erin to English club and helped with an all boys English class. If you don't know Erin she got her degree in English and Education from Union and is living in Ukraine as an English teacher. Things are still slow for her right now because their school system is just getting back into the swing of things. Even so, the first school I went to with Erin, we were with the teacher for ten minutes before she began talking about how awful capitalism is. Welcome to the Soviet Uni...I mean Ukraine :)

The people are really lovely here and I like Poltava very much. Erin did have to coach me on using public transportation. You have to be very firm and pushy or you never get anywhere. The autobuses and marshrutkas (smaller buses) are often packed. My first time on I think I spooned with half of the city. I'm actually quite tight with the citizens now.

Dasvidanya!

Welcome to Ukraine

So after I arrived in Ukraine, jet-lagged and in desperate need of a shower, I encounter the one fear I had on this trip. Ukrainian customs. May I add here I smelled like I had just swam in a bottle of Vodka because EVERYONE on the plane except myself and the Jewish men had multiple drinks with their carrot stick raisin sandwiches. Praise our merciful God for Dramamine!

While I am sure customs is usually bad, I chose to arrive on September 15th. Who knew this is the same day 25,000 Jews were making their annual pilgrimage to Kiev in celebration of Rosh Hashanah. So Ukrainian customs + hundreds of Jewish men + no air-conditioning.

It actually went smoothly for a while, but they closed my line for ten or so minutes until the throng of people around me were ready to storm the gates.

They finally reopened our lines and we started to move again. I began to really worry when the woman in front of me had filled out her card wrong and was sent to the back of the line. Agh! However, Erin gave me very good advice in dealing with customs:

I handed him my passport, did not smile, and let him try to stare me down. He then asked a question (in Russian) to which I put on most "I'm a confused American" face a said "What?" He then grumbled, stamped my passport and sent me through. Yay!

After a little difficulty finding my bag, I walked into the main lobby. It would have been hard to find Erin in the sea of people, (it was packed!) however I quickly picked out the ONLY smiling face in the crowd. It was SO great to finally see Erin after so long and to know I didn't have to get on any other planes.

We had dinner in Kiev, but our fun was cut short as we had to get up at like 4:30 am to catch the train to Poltava. Also, Erin was so sweet and brought me a customary Ukrainian necklace as a welcome treat. They have large, red wooden beads, and I will see if I can get a stylin picture on here soon ;)

Much love...

Said Video

Of course I caused a ruckus in a foreign country...

Hey guys,

I am so glad you've come to check out my blog. I am just getting started so please be patient with my non-blogging skills.

In the meantime, to entertain you, I will tell you about my first few minutes in Amsterdam.

I flew in at 6:15 in the morning, and after dealing with cranky security (who can blame them) I went downstairs to the train. I got in the city around 6:50 when it was still pretty dark. As soon as you leave the train station you are greeted by THOUSANDS of bicycles. Everyone bikes in Amsterdam; youngin's, business men in suits, old ladies in ponchos, everyone.

So with my new camcorder I took a short video to show the sea of bikes. I finished the video, turned around and promptly knocked over a bike next to me. However, when you knock over one bike it begins a domino procession, so I stood there helplessly as bike after bike toppled.

Luckily, it was 6:50 and only two people saw the crazy, sleep-deprived, backpack toting American scrambling around to fix Bicycle Disaster 2009. So I spent my first ten minutes in the city picking up bikes.

Welcome to Europe Kat...this is going to be interesting.