Train Kept A Rollin'

     Saturday the 18th is a travel and planning day for us (me and Rebecca the intern). We traveled to Oleksandriya for a VBS/English camp for children. It's run by a young local church. I should clarify that. It's not a church in the traditional sense. They haven't become "official" yet. Mostly, its a small group of Christians who meet together on Sunday to worship together. A true Matthew 18:20 church.

     In the space of twenty minutes, we passed scenery that reminded me of western Pennsylvania, Virginia, Delaware and Florida. Unfortunately, I didn't have the window seat and therefore didn't get any good pictures of the scenery. I don't often get to travel outside of Kiev and every opportunity is a treat. The territory of Ukraine is highly varied. From pine forests to farm fields, lakes and rivers to vast plains. Living in the city, it's easy to forget how green things can be.

     The train made the trip from Kiev to Oleksandriya in just under four hours. We left the train station at 7:15 and arrived at about 10:52AM. Of course that meant getting up early. I don't really consider 5:30AM to be obscene-o'clock, but it's close. I had been expecting an old, Soviet-era train with bench seats, loud noises and strange smells But I was pleasantly surprised. This train was built by Hyundai in 2012. Ukraine hosted the Euro Soccer Championships in 2012. As part of the build-up to the championship, the city modernized much of it's transit system with signage in English as well as new metro and inter-city trains. Many of the improvements still stand today. The upside of that is that our train ride today was cool, quiet, comfortable and fast. Other than a slight language-barrier issue, I would say the trip was great. The only thing I didn't get to do was sleep. I'll probably crash later and get a lot of sleep tonight.
     After arrival, the local pastor-in-training, Sasha Buchkov, met us at the station. He's our main point of contact this week. He is a seminary student in Kiev during the school year but also leads the small church plant in Oleksandriya.

     We took a taxi to my hotel room to drop my bags. It's a nice little room. Although the sun coming through the curtains and the pink bed spread made me think I'd been given the honeymoon suite. The bed is a little small for two but plenty for me. For some strange reason, the remote control for the air conditioner is down at the front desk. I have to go and ask for it if I want to cool things off in here. For now, I'll do without it. The nights are still cool enough to be comfortable.

     From there, we walked to the church office. It's located just off of the main street that runs through Oleksandriya. The stop off at the office was mainly to allow Sasha's wife enough time to finish making lunch. Speaking of which, lunch was a very traditional affair. Borsch, potatoes, cutlets, salad (not the leafy kind) and fruit. I enjoyed it. At lunch, we met one more person from the team for this coming week. Anya is a teacher from Kharkiv. She teaches English to little kids and should be a valuable member of the team.
     About mid afternoon, after lunch, I finally got a chance to sit down to relax by myself. And in the quiet hours, some thoughts began to creep into my head. Will I be able to do this? Have I over-sold my capabilities/skills/knowledge? Am I really up for this challenge? And at this moment, with just over a day to go before the first lesson, I'm still not sure. I know, come Monday morning, none of those questions will matter. I'll have to stand up in front of those kids and present what I've prepared. "Run what ya brung," basically.
     Summer is here now. I woke up to heat and higher-than-normal humidity. All week, it's forecast to be in the high 80's and low 90's. I'm not a fan of summer so I'm not looking forward to the heat. But the old phrase comes back into play again. "Always be flexible." I'll probably be saying that phrase a lot this week. Before coming here, I didn't know anyone in Oleksandriya. I do have a plan for the week as far as lessons go. But like everything, that must be flexible also.
     Compounding the problems is that I didn't sleep nearly enough last night, none on the train and I had no nap this afternoon. So the weariness combined with the heat makes for one very tired brain (and Brian). The good news is that I will have a chance to sleep a lot tonight. Rest tomorrow will likely be plentiful as well. As long as there are no last minute problems that crop up it should be a good day.
     After getting some rest (sadly no nap), I walked back to the office to have a meeting with most of the team. We discussed the plan for the coming week. Lessons, games, fun. It's all there. We still have some things to discuss as far as lesson details. We'll do that tomorrow. After the meeting, some of us went to a local pizzeria for dinner (supper as I called it). Now I'm back at my hotel room writing this.
     OK, I need to get back to relaxing. I'm vegging out to some old 24 Hours of Le Mans films. It's currently being run and Ford has returned with an all new GT car. They're hoping for a repeat performance of their 1-2-3 podium win in 1966. I didn't realize it when I got dressed today but I also managed to put on my Porsche 917 t-shirt. It was a big performer in 1970 and '71.
     Not sure how much rest I'll get though. The neighbors are having a good (loud) evening. Fireworks and shouting.For now, I leave you with some pictures I took around town.