Kiev, Ukraine

June 26, 2011 HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GORDY!

Kiev, Ukraine

1:30 Kiev time

Arrive with the team. Say goodbye to Vern, Robin, Sanna, and Aiste. Slava and I maneuver our way slowly through customs. My suitcase arrives safe and sound. Slava negotiates a taxi for me and then I am on my own. It is rainy and cool.

Tense moment for me as the taxi speeds away from the airport but then the fun of fear and challenge take over. Looked up my Russian for “200” (the top price Slava told me to pay) and the words “too expensive.” Sure enough he tried to charge me 288. We went into the hotel lobby so he could get the clerk to help him. But I stood firm and paid him the 200 after a long battle. 200 would be equal to $25.00 US. My hotel room cost me 270 for a night or about $35.00 US. How quickly my 500 whatevers went. I choose the less expensive room in the unrenovated part of the hotel. It is clean, small bed no mattress cover (ick), a desk, a little TV, phone, funny shaped shower/tub but it is deep like Japan. Door jam looks like it has been broken into a few times …. However, I like the feeling of going cheap. It is a 3 star hotel according to the website.

The hotel boasts a fine Korean restaurant with a panoramic view of the city and wifi. I acquire a city map from the concierge and head to the restaurant. Oops. Rather expensive. I have fried rice with seafood and fried dumplings (gyoza) and a couple cups of what seems to be instant coffee. But the view is worth the high price. I can see golden domes across the Dniper River. Just think here I sit by the Dniper River. Big stuff for this Montana girl. As for the WiFi, I am destined to stay disconnected these days. No internet much since Thurs and this is already Sunday. I content myself with writing a letter to be mailed when the Lord opens the WiFi sky and lets me hear from you and visa versa.

Tomorrow, I hope to take a double-decker 2-hour bus tour of Kiev. Quinn and I did that in Dublin and loved it. It is a great overall way get to know the place.

Vern is eager to be “home” in Klaipeda. (Sanna overheard his comment and noted that it was pretty interesting that he felt “home” to be a little country half-way around the world from Montana.) No more roaming for him. He did indeed enjoy his trip and time in Kazakhstan. He was a tremendous help to all of us. Great person and well liked by the students. He shipped home the few souvenirs I bought. Cost us $80.00 US. The shipping office opened our box and took out each item and weighed it and then repacked the entire box in a new box. Vern reports that they found my purchase of a painted rock to be quite humorous and interesting to them. What can I say? It had a yurt on it! Shipped it to 1280 – heads up to the Ponds living there.

The English Summer School collaboration between Senior English Center of Shymkent, Kazakhstan and LCC was a huge success. Both parties agree that it will happen again. We had over 90 students. Next summer they hope to have it in the mountains at a camp with basketball, volleyball, and lake. So who wants to meet me there? We will need teachers as well as camp staff for fun activities. Ben, should I count you in??? [And after the camp, I promise to come home.] I feel good about my contributions to the 2-week program. My teaching, organization, and interactions were all blessed by the Lord. May His name be glorified. LCC has potentially 5 new students as a result of this outreach. Each one who comes to LCC will begin to learn what it means to be a Christian. Please keep them in your prayers. Many of the Senior regular students who attended the 2-weeks said that the courses set them free. They now have confidence to speak with a native speaker and at last can get their mouth to open and speak. Thus, Senior gained happier and more eager students of English. In addition, they offered a unique English language learning opportunity in all of Shymkent.

The trip from Shymkent to Kiev was long and exhausting. We left our apartment in Shymkent at 3:30 AM on Saturday. The train left about 4:30 and had an hour delay along the way. We sat forever in the middle of nowhere. But when we finally moved, we could see why. A cargo train had gone off the tracks. Workers and equipment were everywhere. We could see the torn up tracks and damaged cars. Our train moved past at a snails pace as we missed some wrecked cars by only inches. Huge cranes were holding the wrecked cars away from our track. Pretty sobering really. Thus we arrived after 9 PM in Almaty, went to the Bible Institue, walked to a grocery, and then back to finally have our dinner. Off to a sleepless night and then up at 4 AM to catch our flight, arrived at Kiev about 1 PM on Sunday. The team still had a 4-hour layover and then a 2-hour flight and then a 6-hour bus ride to Klaipeda. I consider myself lucky.

Tony and Ann (my new team from US) will arrive later this evening. I think we have a plan to meet tomorrow at breakfast. I will leave a note for them at the desk. I will go to bed early since I have a 3-hour time change to adjust to. Tony and Ann have been traveling for 2 weeks in Europe. We will tour Kief together before heading to Cherkassy for 3-week English program. Please pray for Kelly a team member who found out on Friday that her doctor will not allow her to come to Ukraine. Pray also for the team of 4 that we will be able to manage without her. Trusting God on this one.

Enough for now. Grew tired at the end of the English school. Temperatures were reaching into the 100’s and survival took all my strength and energy. It was all wonderful and ended so well. I hope to regain the umph to share that with you.

Love and miss you all,

Maxine