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O're the river...
A2597
Fanboy
in Zocalo v2.0
Well, So long guys! I'm off on a mission trip to the Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan. Should be great fun, we were invited over by Nickolay Revtov, not entirely certain what all we'll be doing there, but I guess I'll find out soon enough. :)
Anyhoo, I'll be back in 3-4 weeks ya'll!
Anyhoo, I'll be back in 3-4 weeks ya'll!
Comments
well, two really...
#1: Staying at Churnobel Park...Yes, THAT Chernobel...
#2: Krygyzstan...75% Islamic, and I'm spreading the Gosple...hehehehe
Oh and enjoy yourself!
dead tired...
oh...and BANYA FUN!
June 18th....
Well, Officially the mission trip starts today at about 4pm...
Church was eventful. Normal begining, then the pastor had the Ukraine/Kyrgyzstan team get up on stage and let the congregation know what we were doing and prayed for us. We sat back down, and he asked everyone to fill out a little "faithfulness" rating scale thing...and while we were doing that, some guy got up on stage next to Smilie, and then "Here Comes the Bride" started playing. At first I thought it was a skit, but nope...actual 10 minute wedding in church today. Just out of the blue. LOL.
so, went back home after church, got my things...and back to chuch by 4.
We had a "Get to know your teammates" kind of thing. Team was a little smaller than I originally thought, only 13 people.
Sam, Jenny (She hates being called Jen for some reason), Mellissa, Dan, Wes, Rob, Andy, Tim, Brandon, Larry and Priscilla, Ronnie and myself.
after that, girls went with Christy to sleep at Andy's house, and the guys took the youth house at the church. Played an interesting game with the pool table for sevral hours. it ended when Dan mule kicked the celing fan/light and it fell out of the celing. LOL.
After that, we went to bed...at about 1:30am. :D
Well, "Official" Day 1.
Got up and left the church at 8am. Drove to Jacksonville airport, checked baggage, and took a twin prop plane to Miami. 3 hour layover there which was spent entirely on 2 rounds of Uno. One round took over 2 hours. LOL :D
From there, borded a 747 with British Airways and off to London. Had a good tailwin, so only a 9 hour flight. Not bad. Andy and I sat next to a 14 year of Brit named Tom. Cool kid. His dad was battling Cancer and they had come to the states from some treatments, and then spent a week in the Bahamas to top it off. We also spent about 30 minutes talking trash with him...literally. Thats probably the subject that varies the most from the US. We throw trash in a trash can, which goes to a trash can by the road, which goes in the garbage truck, which goes to the dump. But them?
You put trash in the rubbage bin, which goes to the wheelie bin, which is picked up by the rubbish man (No name for the truck), which goes to the pip, which goes to the skip. (Landfill) LOL
Oh, another cool thing, on the plane from Jacksonville I was sitting in front of a couple members from a team going on a mission trip to Kenya, and they were on the 747 with us. Pretty neat.
June 20th
Woke up to watch a sunrise from 30,000 feet. Currently a breezy -60* F outside with windspeeds around 540 mph. (Got to love how every seat has a GPS with full details. :D)
So, landed in London, said goodbye to Tom and his family, head to the next flight and wait for a few hours again. Decided to treat myself to a burger from London Airport McDonalds. DANG they were not kidding about Brits being unable to cook! Bread was rubbery and the beef pattie tasted nuked cooked...oh, and their Coke Cola is horrid. This has led to certain members of the team turning "London" into an adgetive. "That game is so London!" This continued for the remainder of the trip, and as far into the future as I can see...lol
Boarded the next plane to Kiev (Pronounced Keev, not Ki Ev)..got throught customs OK, but well...baggage claim wasn't so good. Somehow, Brishish Airways lost every one of our 20 something bags. YAY BRITISH AIRWAYS! So, Andy Adopted Brandon and myself. Apparently, having "families" of three people goes ALOT faster, so that is what we did. LOL
Anyhoo, Nickolay, two drivers, and Linda showed up to pick us up. Linda is a full time missionary there, and basically the person that will be with us the whole trip to make certain we don't get in too much trouble.
We had two vans to drive back.and Nickolays car. I rode with Nickolay...about a half hour drive from the airport to the EE center (hereinafter refered to as the EE Palace)
Nickolay lived about 3 houses down from it. But they had four rooms set up for us, one for Larry and Priscilla, one for the girls, and two for all the guys. with real beds too! REALLY nice place, and they are making a large addition too.
they had dinner waiting for us, and then wen't to bed a 5pm local time.
June 21
OK, now we get working...
I woke up at 5:30am, actually started the day at 6:30. They had breakfast ready for us at 8, cereal of sorts, with cheese, meat and crackers on the side...little different. But good. Right after eating we had a meeting with Nickolay to find out what we were to be doing.
Today and tomorrow we work at a chidrens camp here in Kiev, one half day to look around Kiev, then a night train south to Kyrson for the EE Clinic.
So, we got ready to go, packed into the Vans, and headed out to the camp.
First culture shock, DRIVING. Lanes are mearly suggestions, to be ignored. perfectly fine to drive down the middle of the road, or sideswalks, anywhere your car fits, you can drive. Driving into oncoming traffic? AOK. Only rule that is generally followed is the rare traffic signal....
Parking? Anywhere you deem to plave your car. Curb, sidewalk, road, doesn't matter.
Anyhoo, pull off the main road to a dirt road and are stopped by two policemen...look more like fully geared SWAT members than regular police, but they let us through...windy road through woods, away from the city. Pass another checkpoint. Over a narrow bridge and some good hills...past some little brick tunnles that go right through those hills...and then we stop at one of the tunnels.
So, walk through the tunnel into an open field, where we set up the camp for the kids, who arrived about 30 minutes later...about 20 of them, all ages. Thankfully we had one translator, and a few of the kids spoke some english, which was good. Had alot of fun there, Brandon presented the gosple at the end of the day...then by about 4:30.
Our van broke down RIGHT next to a cop. was funny. Got it going, and it broke down about a mile down the road. Got stuck at a park there for about an hour. Then the other van picked us up and we went to a pizzaria where we talked to some Ukrainians for about an hour. INCREDIBLY intelligent people...like Ukraines finest minds. Nuclear physicist kind of minds...really neat. THe pizza was weird though. After that, back to the EE Palace for bed.
Oh, and most of our bags arrived. Not Wes's, Brandons, or Ronnies though...oh well...
and that is where I am at thus far...still sleeping for the most part, and catching up with things here...more tomorrow...maybe the rest of the trip.
(And no offence to the Brits here, all in good humor! Love ya guys...but your coke is horrible. LOL )
[B]Parking? Anywhere you deem to plave your car. Curb, sidewalk, road, doesn't matter.[/B][/QUOTE]
Hehe, I remember that from St. Petersburg. Its exactly the same there. But what surprised me was that when we got out into the rural areas, it was much better. In (little) Novgorod, people were very much better at parking in the right places, driving where youre supposed to etc..
Jake
I figure..."COOL! I can drive like I do in NFS:MW or GTA!!!"
because really, that IS how they drive. :D
Mountains in Kyrgyzstan, did a stereogram of that one... :D
[url]http://www.b5-blender.com/temp/sterioscopic2.jpg[/url]
"hot lake" in Krygyzstan, surrounded by snow capped mountains, but warm enough to swim
[url]http://www.b5-blender.com/temp/FH000021.jpg[/url]
taken during the "day" taht I was awake for 42 hours...dunno if this is sunrise, or sunset...didn't care.
[url]http://www.b5-blender.com/temp/FH000020.jpg[/url]
Poor Jenny...she refused help carrying it though. LOL
[url]http://www.b5-blender.com/temp/FH000015.jpg[/url]
One of my EE trainees. Nice girl.
[url]http://www.b5-blender.com/temp/FH000009.jpg[/url]
one of the translators in Kherson:
[url]http://www.b5-blender.com/temp/FH000011.jpg[/url]
Kherson, where we had the EE clinic
[url]http://www.b5-blender.com/temp/FH000013.jpg[/url]
Outside Kiev, where we had the childrens camp
[url]http://www.b5-blender.com/temp/FH000012.jpg[/url]
Our translator for the childrens camp:
[url]http://www.b5-blender.com/temp/FH000017.jpg[/url]
just a few pics for now...just getting them sorted out. :D